Antarctic Penguin Populations Track Warming - Northern Colony Disappearance Rate Accelerating

[hatrack]

MCMURDO STATION, Antarctica (Reuters) - The first Adelie penguin chicks of the season -- black fluffballs small enough to hold in the hand -- started hatching this month, and the simple fact that there are more of them in the south and fewer of them further north is a sign of global warming, scientists say.

Smaller than the more majestic Emperor penguins, the Adelies have some 193 colonies that have a total population of 2.5 million breeding pairs, said researcher David Ainley in a telephone interview from his camp at the penguin rookery at Cape Royds in Antarctica.

"We're looking for dramatic right-hand turns (in the penguin population), which are happening now," Ainley said. "The rate of Adelie penguin colony disappearance is accelerating as the sea ice disappears."

As the northern sea ice vanishes and penguin populations decrease, southern penguin colonies flourish as the sea ice loosens, making it easier for them to dive and fish, he said.

EDIT

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-12-16T150059Z_01_B807786_RTRUKOC_0_US-ANTARCTICA-PENGUINS.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-scienceNews-2

[MADem]

1. Well, so much for their frigging happy feet, I guess..... NT

[jpak]

2. Late winter snowfall has also adversely affected Adelie colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula

Warming temperatures have increased snowfall in late winter and spring on the Peninsula.

As a result, the Adelies are making their nests (out of pebbles) on the snowpack instead of bare rock/soil. (note: they do not readily change their nest sites from year-to-year - it's a behavioral thing).

The nests subsequently melt down through the snow and the developing eggs die of exposure to the cold.

On some the the rookery islands, there are acres of failed and abandoned nesting colonies because of this...