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Emperor penguin at serious danger of extinction because of local weather change


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Emperor penguin at serious threat of extinction due to climate change
2022-05-08 18:54:19
#Emperor #penguin #threat #extinction #due #climate #change

The emperor penguin is at severe threat of extinction in the next 30 to 40 years because of climate change, in accordance with research by the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA).

Key points:Penguin chicks succumb to freezing or drowning when uncovered to the ocean before they grow their waterproof plumageIf nothing changes, many colonies will disappear within the subsequent 30 to 40 yearsTourist and fishing exercise also harms the penguins, disrupting the meals cycle

The emperor, the world's largest penguin and certainly one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica, provides beginning throughout the Antarctic winter and requires stable sea ice from April by to December to nest fledgling chicks.

If the ocean freezes later or melts prematurely, the emperor household can't full its reproductive cycle.

"If the water reaches the new child penguins, which are not ready to swim and should not have waterproof plumage, they die of the cold and drown," stated biologist Marcela Libertelli, who has studied 15,000 penguins across two colonies in Antarctica at the IAA.

This has happened on the Halley Bay colony in the Weddell Sea, the second-largest Emperor penguin colony, the place for three years all the chicks died.

Each August, in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter, Dr Libertelli and other scientists at Argentina's Marambio Base in Antarctica travel 65 km every day by bike in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius to reach the closest Emperor penguin colony.

Once there, they depend, weigh, and measure the chicks, collect geographical coordinates, and take blood samples. In addition they conduct aerial evaluation.

Each August, researchers from Argentina's Antarctic Institute travel to Halley Bay to review the colony's chicks.(British Antarctic Survey: Peter Fretwell)

The scientists' findings point to a grim future for the species if climate change isn't mitigated.

"[Climate] projections recommend that the colonies that are positioned between latitudes 60 and 70 degrees [south] will disappear within the next few decades; that is, within the subsequent 30, 40 years," Dr Libertelli mentioned.

The emperor's unique options embrace the longest reproductive cycle among penguins.

After a chick is born, one mother or father continues carrying it between its legs for heat till it develops its final plumage.

"The disappearance of any species is a tragedy for the planet. Whether or not small or giant, plant or animal — it doesn't matter. It's a loss for biodiversity," Dr Libertelli said.

The emperor penguin's disappearance might have a dramatic impact all through Antarctica, an excessive setting where food chains have fewer members and fewer hyperlinks, Dr Libertelli mentioned.

In early April, the World Meteorological Organization warned of "increasingly excessive temperatures coupled with unusual rainfall and ice melting in Antarctica" — a "worrying trend", mentioned Dr Libertelli, with Antarctic ice sheets depleting since at the least 1999.

The rise of tourism and fishing in Antarctica have additionally put the emperor's future in danger by affecting krill, one of many foremost sources of food for penguins and other species.

"Vacationer boats often have varied adverse effects on Antarctica, as do the fisheries," Dr Libertelli said.

"It is vital that there is better control and that we think about the long run."

Reuters


Quelle: www.abc.internet.au

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