A record loss of ice in Antarctica last year likely killed thousands of emperor penguin chicks. A team of researchers reported today that the thaw has affected at least four colonies of these birds. They said it Unprecedented “catastrophic failure of reproduction”consequence of global warming.
Scientists have used satellite imagery to study these breeding colonies in a region near the Sea. Bellingshausen, in Antarctica. The images show that in November 2022, all the ice in the analyzed area melted, which did not happen, for example, in 2021.
According to records spanning 14 years, some emperor penguins incubate their eggs and nurse their chicks in the ice that forms here every Antarctic winter. Chicks don’t develop waterproof feathers until around the time they normally fledge, which usually happens in late December or January, they explain in a study published Thursday in the journal. Natural communications Earth and environment.
If the ice where these colonies were, melted, the chicks would not have a chance to survive. “If the sea ice breaks underneath them, the chicks will either drown or freeze to death,” Peter Fretwell, a British Antarctic Survey researcher and co-author of the study, told AP. According to Fretwell, about 7,000 chicks died.
The atypical level of snowmelt affects not only the study area. Antarctica has reached its lowest sea ice extent since records began in February this year: reached a minimum of 1789 square kilometers.. And this winter, it rebounded at the lowest rate reported, lacking the equivalent of the entire territory of Argentina.
Endangered emperor penguin
Climate change will make these losses ever more frequent. The research team also analyzed all known nesting sites for emperor penguins in Antarctica, the only place on the planet where the species lives.
There are about 300,000 breeding pairs of these penguins, which are also the largest in the world. The study estimates that 30% of the 62 existing colonies may have been hit by record levels of melt last year. It is likely that 13 of them completely failed.as happened with the four colonies studied.
A large colony in the Weddell Sea, which at the time was the second largest colony of emperor penguins in the world, faced a similar emergency a few years ago. However, scientists believe that the adults of this group probably moved to another colony less than 100 kilometers away. But this is not an option for the four colonies located near the Bellingshausen Sea.
The team of Fretwell, a British Antarctic Survey researcher, explains that the region, lost almost all of its 1500 km ice sheets. “That’s why this regional setback is so severe… because they can’t just go to the nearest colony,” the scientist said. The keeper.
The outlook is bleak. The study warns that if current rates of warming continue, more than 90% of the imperial colonies will be on the verge of extinction by the end of this century.
Source: Hiper Textual
