Latest news with #WeddellSea
CTV News
2 hours ago
- Science
- CTV News
Emperor penguins show dramatic decline in one region of Antarctica, satellite photos show
This undated photo provided by the British Antarctic Survey in January 2024 shows adult emperor penguins with a chick near Halley Research Station in Antarctica. (British Antarctic Survey via AP) WASHINGTON — The population of emperor penguins in one part of Antarctica appears to be declining faster than previously thought, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery released Tuesday. The estimated population of 16 penguin colonies — visible in satellite photos taken between 2009 and 2024 – had declined 22 per cent during that period mainly because of climate change that's shrinking the amount of available sea ice. It's unclear whether this drop is seen across the continent, scientists said. 'Sea ice is very important for the penguins because they breed on sea ice and forage on sea ice,' said Peter Fretwell with British Antarctic Survey, who helped analyze the data. Scientists previously estimated that the total emperor penguin population declined about 10 per cent across all of Antarctica over the past decade and a half. The latest survey included a region covering the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea. 'It's absolutely alarming that the numbers are so much worse than predicted,' said Daniel Zitterbart, a penguin researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who was not involved in the study. There are uncertainties in the latest estimate. The analysis relies on a calculation of how densely the penguins are clustered in each area where they're detected in a single satellite photo taken each year. The colonies studied represent about 30 per cent of the total emperor penguin population, which lives only in Antarctica. The loss of stable sea ice may be affecting the penguins in ways beyond shrinking their breeding grounds. 'More predators like leopard seals and orcas may be able to come in closer to the colonies if sea ice breaks up earlier in the year,' said Fretwell. Warming ocean temperatures and changing rainfall patterns may also impact the survival of penguin chicks, he added. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Christina Larson, The Associated Press
Khaleej Times
4 hours ago
- Science
- Khaleej Times
Emperor penguin populations declining faster than expected
Emperor penguin populations in Antarctica have shrunk by almost a quarter as global warming transforms their icy habitat, according to new research on Tuesday that warned the losses were far worse than previously imagined. Scientists monitoring the world's largest penguin species used satellites to assess sixteen colonies in the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea, representing nearly a third of the global emperor penguin population. What they found was "probably about 50-percent worse" than even the most pessimistic estimate of current populations using computer modelling, said Peter Fretwell, who tracks wildlife from space at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Researchers know that climate change is driving the losses but the speed of the declines is a particular cause for alarm. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications: Earth & Environment, found that numbers declined 22 percent in the 15 years to 2024 for the colonies monitored. This compares with an earlier estimate of a 9.5-percent reduction across Antarctica as a whole between 2009 and 2018. Warming is thinning and destabilising the ice under the penguins' feet in their breeding grounds. In recent years some colonies have lost all their chicks because the ice has given way beneath them, plunging hatchlings into the sea before they were old enough to cope with the freezing ocean. Fretwell said the new research suggests penguin numbers have been declining since the monitoring began in 2009. That is even before global warming was having a major impact on the sea ice, which forms over open water adjacent to land in the region. But he said the culprit is still likely to be climate change, with warming driving other challenges for the penguins, such as higher rainfall or increasing encroachment from predators. "Emperor penguins are probably the most clear-cut example of where climate change is really showing its effect," Fretwell told AFP. "There's no fishing. There's no habitat destruction. There's no pollution which is causing their populations to decline. "It's just the temperatures in the ice on which they breed and live, and that's really climate change." - 'Worrying result" - Emperor penguins, aka Aptenodytes forsteri, number about a quarter of a million breeding pairs, all in Antarctica, according to a 2020 study. A baby emperor penguin emerges from an egg kept warm in winter by a male, while the female in a breeding pair embarks on a two-month fishing expedition. When she returns to the colony, she feeds the hatchling by regurgitating and then both parents take turns to forage. To survive on their own, chicks must develop waterproof feathers, a process that typically starts in mid-December. The new research uses high resolution satellite imagery during the months of October and November, before the region is plunged into winter darkness. Fretwell said future research could use other types of satellite monitoring, like radar or thermal imaging, to capture populations in the darker months, as well as expand to the other colonies. "We really do need to look at the rest of the population to see if this worrying result transfers around the continent," he said, adding however that the colonies studied were considered representative. He said there is hope that the penguins may go further south to colder regions in the future but added that it is not clear "how long they're going to last out there". Computer models have projected that the species will be near extinction by the end of the century if humans do not slash their planet-heating emissions. The latest study suggests the picture could be even worse. "We may have to rethink those models now with this new data," said Fretwell. But he stressed there was still time to reduce the threat to the penguins. "We've got this really depressing picture of climate change and falling populations even faster than we thought but it's not too late," he said. "We're probably going to lose a lot of emperor penguins along the way but if people do change, and if we do reduce or turn around our climate emissions, then then we will save the emperor penguin."
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- Science
- News.com.au
Emperor penguin populations declining faster than expected
Emperor penguin populations in Antarctica have shrunk by almost a quarter as global warming transforms their icy habitat, according to new research on Tuesday that warned the losses were far worse than previously imagined. Scientists monitoring the world's largest penguin species used satellites to assess sixteen colonies in the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea, representing nearly a third of the global emperor penguin population. What they found was "probably about 50-percent worse" than even the most pessimistic estimate of current populations using computer modelling, said Peter Fretwell, who tracks wildlife from space at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Researchers know that climate change is driving the losses but the speed of the declines is a particular cause for alarm. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications: Earth & Environment, found that numbers declined 22 percent in the 15 years to 2024 for the colonies monitored. This compares with an earlier estimate of a 9.5-percent reduction across Antarctica as a whole between 2009 and 2018. Warming is thinning and destabilising the ice under the penguins' feet in their breeding grounds. In recent years some colonies have lost all their chicks because the ice has given way beneath them, plunging hatchlings into the sea before they were old enough to cope with the freezing ocean. Fretwell said the new research suggests penguin numbers have been declining since the monitoring began in 2009. That is even before global warming was having a major impact on the sea ice, which forms over open water adjacent to land in the region. But he said the culprit is still likely to be climate change, with warming driving other challenges for the penguins, such as higher rainfall or increasing encroachment from predators. "Emperor penguins are probably the most clear-cut example of where climate change is really showing its effect," said Fretwell. "There's no fishing. There's no habitat destruction. There's no pollution which is causing their populations to decline. "It's just the temperatures in the ice on which they breed and live, and that's really climate change." - 'Worrying result" - Emperor penguins, aka Aptenodytes forsteri, number about a quarter of a million breeding pairs, all in Antarctica, according to a 2020 study. A baby emperor penguin emerges from an egg kept warm in winter by a male, while the female in a breeding pair embarks on a two-month fishing expedition. When she returns to the colony, she feeds the hatchling by regurgitating. To survive on their own, chicks must develop waterproof feathers, a process that typically starts in mid-December. Fretwell said there is hope that the penguins may go further south in the future but added that it is not clear "how long they're going to last out there". Computer models have projected that the species will be near extinction by the end of the century if humans do not slash their planet-heating emissions. The latest study suggests the picture could be even worse. "We may have to rethink those models now with this new data," said Fretwell. "We really do need to look at the rest of the population to see if this worrying result transfers around the continent," he added. But he stressed there was still time to reduce the threat to the penguins. "We've got this really depressing picture of climate change and falling populations even faster than we thought but it's not too late," he said. We're probably going to lose a lot of emperor penguins along the way but if people do change, and if we do reduce or turn around our climate emissions, then then we will save the emperor penguin."
Associated Press
6 hours ago
- Science
- Associated Press
Emperor penguins show dramatic decline in one region of Antarctica, satellite photos show
WASHINGTON (AP) — The population of emperor penguins in one part of Antarctica appears to be declining faster than previously thought, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery released Tuesday. The estimated population of 16 penguin colonies — visible in satellite photos taken between 2009 and 2024 – had declined 22% during that period mainly because of climate change that's shrinking the amount of available sea ice. It's unclear whether this drop is seen across the continent, scientists said. 'Sea ice is very important for the penguins because they breed on sea ice and forage on sea ice,' said Peter Fretwell with British Antarctic Survey, who helped analyze the data. Scientists previously estimated that the total emperor penguin population declined about 10% across all of Antarctica over the past decade and a half. The latest survey included a region covering the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea. 'It's absolutely alarming that the numbers are so much worse than predicted,' said Daniel Zitterbart, a penguin researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who was not involved in the study. There are uncertainties in the latest estimate. The analysis relies on a calculation of how densely the penguins are clustered in each area where they're detected in a single satellite photo taken each year. The colonies studied represent about 30% of the total emperor penguin population, which lives only in Antarctica. The loss of stable sea ice may be affecting the penguins in ways beyond shrinking their breeding grounds. 'More predators like leopard seals and orcas may be able to come in closer to the colonies if sea ice breaks up earlier in the year,' said Fretwell. Warming ocean temperatures and changing rainfall patterns may also impact the survival of penguin chicks, he added. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Details in satellite photos spark 'worrying' prediction about colony of thousands
Distant images snapped by satellites have revealed emperor penguin numbers have fallen lower than even the most pessimistic estimates. Over 15 years, numbers appear to have fallen by 22 per cent across the Antarctic Peninsula, Weddell Sea and Bellingshausen Sea. The staggering new population estimate was published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications: Earth & Environment by researchers from the British Antarctic Survey. The survey covers 30 per cent of the continent's emperor penguins, so now the team is broadening its focus to examine whether the results are reflective of the situation across the entire continent. Dr Peter Fretwell, an expert in studying wildlife from space, said there can be 'quite a bit of uncertainty' in his line of work. 'This new count isn't necessarily symbolic of the rest of the continent. But if it is, that's worrying because the decline is worse than the worst-case projections we have for emperors this century,' he said. Counting emperor penguins is dangerous on land, so scientists instead estimate numbers by examining large huddles of birds captured in high-resolution satellite images. It's believed there are around 500,000 to 600,000 emperor penguins in the wild, compared to an estimated 8.2 billion people. 🚨 Reason tourists will no longer be able to visit popular holiday islands Globally, the consensus is that emperor penguins declined by 9.5 per cent across Antarctica between 2009 and 2018. This put them on track to be close to extinction in 75 years if the climate continues to warm at current rates, although one study has suggested it could be much sooner. The new data looks at numbers between 2009 to 2024. Melting sea ice, directly caused by the burning of fossil fuels like gas, coal and oil, is believed to be the primary cause of their demise. Emperor penguins need icy platforms at the edge of the ocean to be stable for at least eight months of the year. 🏭 Australia green-lights its biggest fossil fuel project 🛳️ Cruise ships almost kill 'world's oldest animals' 📸 Photos reveal details of 'secret' koala colony discovered in impenetrable forest The problem was highlighted in 2022, when a satellite captured the horror moment thousands of baby emperor penguins died after sea ice collapsed beneath them. The dramatic decline in numbers has led researchers to believe that climate change is contributing to other issues that are challenging the species like changing storm, snow and rainfall patterns. The study's co-author Dr Phil Trathan has warned the only way to ensure there is more than a 'few' emperor penguins by 2100 is to stabilise greenhouse emissions. "The fact that we're moving to a position faster than the computer models project means there must be other factors we need to understand in addition to loss of breeding habitat,' he said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
