Emperor penguin at serious risk of extinction because of climate change

The emperor penguin is at severe threat of extinction within the next 30 to 40 years because of local weather change, based on analysis by the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA).

The emperor, the world's largest penguin and considered one of solely two penguin species endemic to Antarctica, offers beginning during the Antarctic winter and requires strong sea ice from April through to December to nest fledgling chicks.

If the ocean freezes later or melts prematurely, the emperor family can't full its reproductive cycle.

"If the water reaches the newborn penguins, which are not ready to swim and don't have waterproof plumage, they die of the chilly and drown," said biologist Marcela Libertelli, who has studied 15,000 penguins throughout two colonies in Antarctica at the IAA.

This has happened on the Halley Bay colony within the Weddell Sea, the second-largest Emperor penguin colony, the place for 3 years all of the chicks died.

Every August, in the course of the southern hemisphere winter, Dr Libertelli and other scientists at Argentina's Marambio Base in Antarctica travel 65 km each day by bike in temperatures as little as -40 degrees Celsius to achieve the closest Emperor penguin colony.

Once there, they count, weigh, and measure the chicks, collect geographical coordinates, and take blood samples. Additionally they conduct aerial evaluation.

The scientists' findings level to a grim future for the species if climate change is just not mitigated.

"[Climate] projections recommend that the colonies which are located between latitudes 60 and 70 levels [south] will disappear in the subsequent few decades; that's, in the subsequent 30, 40 years," Dr Libertelli stated.

The emperor's distinctive options embrace the longest reproductive cycle amongst penguins.

After a chick is born, one parent continues carrying it between its legs for warmth until it develops its ultimate plumage.

"The disappearance of any species is a tragedy for the planet. Whether small or giant, plant or animal — it would not matter. It's a loss for biodiversity," Dr Libertelli said.

The emperor penguin's disappearance may have a dramatic affect all through Antarctica, an excessive atmosphere the place food chains have fewer members and fewer links, Dr Libertelli said.

In early April, the World Meteorological Organization warned of "increasingly extreme temperatures coupled with unusual rainfall and ice melting in Antarctica" — a "worrying trend", said Dr Libertelli, with Antarctic ice sheets depleting since at least 1999.

The rise of tourism and fishing in Antarctica have also put the emperor's future in danger by affecting krill, one of many most important sources of food for penguins and other species.

"Tourist boats typically have various damaging results on Antarctica, as do the fisheries," Dr Libertelli said.

"It is important that there's higher management and that we take into consideration the long run."

Reuters