The loss of ice in one region of Antarctica last year likely left no emperor penguin chicks alive in four colonies, researchers reported Thursday.
Emperor penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks on the ice that forms around the continent each Antarctic winter and melts in the summer months.
Researchers used satellite images to spot breeding colonies in a region near Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea. The image shows no ice left there in December during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, as was the case in 2021.
Researchers say it’s possible no chicks survived in four of the five breeding colonies they examined. Penguin chicks don’t develop their adult waterproof feathers until close to the time they normally fledge, in late December or January, scientists say.
Researchers say it’s possible no chicks survived in four of the five breeding colonies they examined. VWPics via AP Images
“If the sea ice breaks up underneath, young chicks will drown or freeze to death,” said Peter Fretwell, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey and co-author of the study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Overall, the ice around Antarctica reached near-record lows last year. The researchers say that climate change will make such losses more frequent in the future.
Fretwell’s team has also completed a preliminary analysis of known nesting sites — visible in satellite photos because of the colored guano, or excrement, left on the white ice — across Antarctica, the only continent where emperor penguins live. There are about 300,000 breeding pairs left of the world’s largest penguin.
There are about 300,000 breeding pairs left of the world’s largest penguins.VWPics via AP Images
Of the 62 known penguin colonies, about 30% were harmed by low sea levels last year – and 13 may have failed completely, Fretwell said.
“That this could happen does not surprise me, but I am surprised that it has happened. I think it’s going to be a long way down,” said Daniel Zitterbart, a researcher who studies Antarctica for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, but was not involved in the new paper.
If penguins don’t successfully breed in one location, they may look for another site next year, he said. While it’s possible for the population to recover from a year or two of poor breeding, he worries about the future.
If penguins do not successfully breed in one location, they may find another site the following year.VWPics via AP Images
“If you look further down the line, how many suitable places will be left?” he asked.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
