psychoCMYK t1_itxmwoa wrote
Reply to comment by IcyWorth8961 in Emperor penguins are now a threatened species due to climate change, U.S. officials say by BlazingSaint
I think that's why they say "at risk of". Penguins adapted, but a lack of ice kills and we're not on our way to having more of it
... your own link mentions that emperor penguins are likely to lose their habitat in the near future..
>Warming ocean waters are melting the sea ice where Emperor penguins live and breed.
>The researchers said that most of the newly found colonies are in locations that could disappear as a result of climate change.
>"Birds in these sites are therefore probably the 'canaries in the coalmine' – we need to watch these sites carefully as climate change will affect this region," said Philip Trathan, head of conservation biology at BAS.
>Last year another survey from BAS discovered that the second largest Emperor penguin colony on Earth had suffered a "catastrophic" breeding failure as their habitat dwindles.
>The Halley Bay colony in the Weddell Sea due south of Cape Hope, normally sees up to 25,000 penguin pairs mate each year.
>But in 2016, when abnormally warm and stormy weather broke up the sea-ice on which the penguins normally raise their young, almost all the chicks died. This pattern was repeated in 2017 and 2018.
Just because some nearby colonies grew doesn't mean the entire Halley Bay colony relocated..
IcyWorth8961 t1_itxn8mv wrote
Lack of ice? It's actually growing in Antarctica, where the penguins live.
https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/changing-antarctica/antarctic-sea-ice/
psychoCMYK t1_itxs2p8 wrote
According to the EPA, both monthly maximums and minimums have been exceeded in the past 15 years. They don't expect the Antarctic yearly average ice coverage to remain unaffected forever
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-antarctic-sea-ice
>Compared with the noticeable decrease in Arctic sea ice extent (see the Arctic Sea Ice indicator), the increase in Antarctic sea ice is small. Many factors appear to be influencing Antarctic sea ice extent, including changes in wind patterns and fresh water entering the ocean from melting ice sheets.6 For instance, a 2016 study showed that changes to atmospheric circulation patterns in the Antarctic region are responsible for recent increases in sea ice extent.7 Without better ice thickness and ice volume estimates, it is difficult to characterize how the total amount of Antarctic sea ice is responding to climate change.8
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