Rapid global warming due to humans' use of fossil fuels has contributed to a number of harmful environmental effects on the planet, including extreme weather, record-breaking ocean temperatures, and a rapid decline in sea ice.
Sea ice is the habitat of several animal species, including polar bears, arctic fox, caribou, and emperor penguin , which live and breed entirely on the frozen sea ice of Antarctica.
Thousands of emperor penguin chicks from four colonies in Antarctica are believed to have died due to record levels of sea ice causing “catastrophic reproductive failure,” according to a new study .
“Abrupt reductions in sea ice extent can have profound effects on ecosystems and species that depend on sea ice to reproduce, molt or feed… Almost all emperor penguin colonies depend on stable, firm sea ice, which they use to rep Special Data roduce and molt, at the same time that they use the marginal ice zone as feeding habitat,” the study says.
The study, “Record low Antarctic sea ice in 2022 led to catastrophic failure of emperor penguin reproduction,” was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment .
In the study, researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said there was a high probability that none of the emperor penguin chicks from four out of five of the known colonies in the eastern and central parts of the Bellingshausen Sea had survived, they reported. the press.
Scientists looked at satellite images showing the loss of sea ice at emperor penguin breeding sites long before the chicks had time to develop their waterproof feathers.
“They still retain their soft plumage. If the ice breaks before they can safely enter the water, the plumage is flooded and the chicks basically die from exposure,” said Dr. Barbara Wienecke , a research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division who has made many visits to the emperor penguin, penguin colonies, as reported by The Guardian. "It's horrendous and I find it extraordinarily distressing to think that this is happening."
For penguins in their large colonies to breed, sea ice must be stable and firmly attached to the coast from April to January, according to the news release. Penguins lay their eggs during the Antarctic winter, from May to June, and the eggs hatch after 65 days. The chicks fledge during the summer, from December to January.
Antarctic sea ice extent in early December 2022 equaled the previous record low from 2021. The eastern and central Bellingshausen Sea experienced the most extreme loss, 100 percent, in November 2022.
“We have never seen emperor penguins not reproduce, on this scale, in a single season. The loss of sea ice in this region during the Antarctic summer made it very unlikely that the displaced chicks would survive,” said the study's lead author, Dr. Peter Fretwell of BAS, in the press release. "We know that emperor penguins are very vulnerable in a warming climate, and current scientific evidence suggests that extreme sea ice loss events like this will become more frequent and widespread."
Antarctica has experienced its four lowest years of sea ice extent in its 45-year satellite record since 2016. The two lowest years were 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023. Thirty percent of the 62 penguin colonies identified Antarctic emperors were affected by the loss of sea ice from 2018 to 2022.
In the past, emperor penguins responded to the loss of their sea ice habitat by moving to more stable locations the following year. However, according to scientists, this does not work when the entire region is affected; There's just nowhere they can go.
The emperor penguin has never had to face threats such as large-scale hunting, overfishing or even habitat loss caused by humans. The only major threat considered to affect its population in the long term is climate change .
Recent predictions of emperor penguin demographic trends based on forecasts of sea ice loss have shown that if current rates of warming continue, more than 90 percent of their colonies will be nearly extinct by the end of the century.
"Only by changing our behavior and the amounts of fossil fuels we use can we reverse the trajectory of these emperor penguins and many other species," Fretwell said, as reported by The Guardian.