2008Feb12: “A new report by French scientists in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences finds that king penguins could be wiped out over the coming decades due to global warming. Led by Yvon Le Maho, a physiologist at French National Center for Scientific Research, the team of researchers followed 456 adult birds with radio transponders implanted beneath their skin. Over an eight-year period, the researchers correlated survival rate to changes in sea surface temperatures, and found that in warm years, penguin chicks were less likely to survive the lean months of winter, because there wasn’t sufficient fish to feed them. (Warmer temperatures seem to lower fish populations in the Southern Ocean, off Antarctica.) Adult survival rates dropped as well in warmer years. Ultimately, the scientists report that a 0.47 degree F increase in the temperature of the Southern Ocean — considerably below current forecasts for the next several decades — would reduce penguin numbers by 9%, enough to touch off a population collapse,” – excerpt from “Is it Getting Too Warm for Penguins?”, an article written by Bryan Walsh that appeared in Time (Time, 2008).
Reference: Time. 2008. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1712518,00.html
Image Description: King Penguins parents changing the egg guard at South Georgia Island. Photo by Mila Zinkova in 1999Jan. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:King_penguins_and_egg.JPG Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license versions 2.5.
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This post is tagged 2000s Climate Change Events, 21st Century and Climate Change, Antarctica and Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change Effects, Climate Change Research, Ecosystem Changes, Europe and Climate Change, Extinctions, France and Climate Change, Oceans, Temperatures, Warming Oceans, Warming Temperatures
