Loss of ice in a region of Antarctica last year likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies, researchers reported Thursday.
Emperor penguins incubate their eggs and raise their chicks in the ice that forms around the continent each Antarctic winter and melts in the summer months.
The researchers used satellite imagery to observe breeding colonies in a region near the Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica. The images showed that in December during the southern hemisphere summer there was no ice left there, as had been the case in 2021.
The researchers said no chicks likely survived in four of the five breeding colonies they examined. Penguin chicks don’t develop their waterproof adult feathers until around the time they usually fledge, in late December or January, scientists say.
The researchers said no chicks likely survived in four of the five breeding colonies they examined. VWPics via AP Images
“If the sea ice breaks up under them, the chicks will drown or freeze to death,” said Peter Fretwell, a British Antarctic Survey researcher and co-author of the study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Overall, the ice around Antarctica reached near-record low levels last year. The researchers say that climate change will make these losses more frequent in the future.
Fretwell’s team has also completed a preliminary analysis of known nesting sites (visible on satellite photos due to colored guano or dung patches left on white ice) across Antarctica, the only continent where emperor penguins live. . There are around 300,000 breeding pairs of the world’s largest penguins left.
There are around 300,000 breeding pairs of the world’s largest penguins left. VWPics via AP Images
Of the 62 known penguin colonies, around 30% were harmed by low sea ice levels last year, with 13 likely failing entirely, Fretwell said.
“That this can happen does not surprise me, but it does surprise me that it has already happened. I thought it would be later,” said Daniel Zitterbart, a researcher who studies Antarctica for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute but was not involved in the new paper.
If the penguins fail to breed in one location, they may look elsewhere next year, he said. While the population may recover from a year or two of poor breeding, it worries about the future.
If penguins fail to breed in one location, they may look elsewhere next year. VWPics via AP Images
“If you look ahead, how many suitable places will be left?” she asked.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn