Antarctic Ice Loss is Hurting the Survival of Emperor Penguin Chicks, Study Reveals

The loss of ice in one region of Antarctica last year likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies, researchers reported Thursday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] 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 imagery to look at breeding colonies in a region near Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea. The images showed no ice was left there in December during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, as had occurred in 2021. Researchers said it is likely that 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 usually fledge, in late December or January, scientists say. “If the sea ice breaks up under them, the 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 Nature Communications Earth & Environment. Overall, the ice around Antarctica reached near record low levels 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 colored guano, or poop stains, left on white...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change embargoed study healthscienceclimate wire Source Type: news