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Trouble For Emperor Penguins | Earth Wise

September 18, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species. The loss of sea ice in Antarctica last year has led to unprecedented breeding failure in some emperor penguin colonies.

In a study published by the British Antarctic Survey, researchers found that no chicks survived from four of the five known emperor penguin colonies in the central and eastern Bellinhausen Sea. Satellite images showed the loss of sea ice at breeding sites, well before chicks would have developed waterproof feathers.

Emperor penguins are dependent on stable sea ice that is firmly attached to the shore from April through the end of the year. Arctic sea ice reached an all-time low in December 2022 with the most extreme loss seen in the central and eastern Bellinghausen Sea where there was a 100% loss of sea ice late the year.

This year, the sea ice extent in Antarctica is still far below all previous records for this time of year. As of August, when oceans normally are freezing up, there were still areas that were ice-free.

Emperor penguin populations have not had to contend with large-scale hunting, habitat loss, overfishing, or other human-caused problems in the modern era, but climate change may be their undoing. They have previously responded to incidents of sea ice loss by moving to more stable sites in the following year. But this strategy will not be successful if the sea ice habitat is affected across entire regions of Antarctica.

Scientists are predicting that 90% of emperor penguin colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of the century, assuming current global warming trends continue.

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Loss of sea ice causes catastrophic breeding failure for emperor penguins

Photo, posted October 7, 2017, courtesy of Christopher Michel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The March Of The Penguins Toward Extinction

November 28, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the warming climate may render emperor penguins extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, finds that emperor penguins will likely experience an 86% decline by 2100 if the global climate continues to warm at the current rate. At that point, it would be very unlikely for them to recover, according to the study’s lead author.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and recently published in the journal Global Change Biology.

The fate of emperor penguins is largely tied to the fate of sea ice. The penguins use sea ice as a place for breeding, feeding, and molting. They look for very specific conditions of sea ice – it must be locked in to the Antarctic shoreline but also close enough to open seawater to give them access to food. The study predicts that this sea ice will gradually disappear, depriving the birds of their habitat, food sources, and ability to raise their young.

The researchers combined two existing computer models to study three different climate change scenarios. If the average global temperature increases by only 1.5 degrees Celsius, the study found that only 5% of sea ice would be lost by 2100, resulting in a 19% drop in penguin colonies. If the planet warms by 2 degrees Celsius, the sea ice loss nearly triples and more than a third of penguin colonies disappear. The ‘business as usual’ scenario where the planet continues to warm at the current rate will ensure a near complete loss of emperor penguin colonies by 2100.

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Unless warming is slowed, emperor penguins will be marching towards extinction

Photo, posted January 15, 2011, courtesy of Eli Duke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bad News For Penguins

June 21, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The second-largest breeding colony of emperor penguins in Antarctica, located in the Waddell Sea, has experienced “catastrophic breeding failure” for the past three years. Nearly all of the colony’s chicks have failed to survive due to the breakup of sea ice, according to a new study published in the journal Antarctic Science.

The colony was once home to 14,000 to 25,000 breeding pairs, which represents as much as 9% of the global emperor penguin population. Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins, reaching up to 4 feet in height and weighing between 50 and 100 pounds. They are the only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter and their lengthy treks to breeding colonies have been the subject of numerous films and television shows.

Sea ice at Halley Bay in Antarctica had been stable and reliable for nearly 60 years but stormy weather in 2016 driven by El Nino conditions, strong winds, and record low ice extent caused the ice on which penguin chicks gather to break up. This happened again in 2017 and 2018. By last year, just a few hundred adult pairs were present at the breeding site and almost no chicks survived the ice breakup.

Researchers say that they have never seen a breeding failure on a scale like this in 60 years of studying the colonies. On a more positive note, while the population of the Halley Bay site has collapsed, the Dawson-Lambton breeding area – located about 34 miles away – has actually seen significant growth over the past four years. While this is encouraging, the growth at Dawson-Lambton does not fully compensate for the losses at Halley Bay, which was once considered relatively safe from the impacts of climate change.

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Emperor Penguin Colony Experiences “Catastrophic Breeding Failure”

Photo, posted February 22, 2011, courtesy of Krishna via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.