Scientists researching climate change in Antarctica are studying penguins in an effort to better understand the area's environmental health. The scientists are measuring the growth and development of the penguin population on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. "We are counting penguin nests to understand how many penguins are in a colony, producing young every year, and whether that number is going up or down with the environmental conditions, " said Alex Borowitz. He is an ecology researcher at New York's Stony Brook University.
The work is not easy for climate researchers in the icy, faraway reaches of Antarctica. But penguins are easier to follow than some other kinds of animals because they nest on land. Their black bodies and waste droppings can also be identified against the area's white background.
Michael Wethington, another researcher from Stony Brook, told Reuters the penguin population can represent overall climate conditions and the health of the area's whole ecosystem. The researchers say counts of individual penguins can be combined with data from satellite images to get a more complete picture of how the animals are progressing.
Gentoo penguins-with bright orange beaks and white markings on their heads - prefer open water without broken pieces of ice floating around. So when temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula began rising during the latter half of the 20th century, Gentoo populations moved south. Gentoo penguins don't like sea ice. They mostly forage (觅食) over the continental shelf and don't go far out to sea. As sea ice has decreased along the western side of the peninsula, Gentoos seem to have gotten used to the changed conditions. But those same conditions have been worse for the Adelie penguin species. This is because the Adelies depend on sea ice for feeding and reproduction.
"When we find Adelie penguins, we typically know that sea ice is nearby, " Stony Brook's Wethington said. He added that whenever researchers see sea ice decreasing or disappearing, they also see Adelie penguin populations plunge. Even though Adelie penguins are increasing in number overall, some populations have fallen by more than 65 percent, researchers say.
