The US Fish and Wildlife Service has designated the Emperor Penguin as a Threat to Protect and Preserve Prey for the Winter Solitons
With global warming melting the sea ice the penguins depend on for their survival, the US Fish and Wildlife Service now categorizes the species as threatened. The federal agency lists jeopardized species regardless of their country of origin.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service director said that the listing reflects the growing extinction crisis and highlights efforts to conserve species.
“Climate change is having a profound impact on species around the world and addressing it is a priority for the (Biden) Administration. The listing of the emperor penguin serves as an alarm bell but also a call to action,” Williams said.
According to a US Fish and Wildlife Service report, there are between 270,000 and 280,000 breeding colonies of emperor penguins along the coastline of Antarctica. The population of birds will be stable, but research suggests that the population of the emperor penguin will decrease by 26% to 47% by midcentury or 132,500 breeding pairs.
The Emperor penguins are the largest of the 18 penguin species. They can weigh up to 40 tons and have a standing height of 1.1 meters. A female emperor lays a single egg per breeding season and passes it to her male partner to suck it up and make food for a couple of months.
The Antarctica Ecosystem: Monitoring and identifying Antarctica’s climate change impact on polar bears and other marine protected areas with a micro-chipped penguin
When a female bird is back, she splits parenting duties with her partner until their chick leaves the colony about 150 days after birth. The chick is able to look after itself and leave for the open water. The chick needs to get rid of its down before it can grow waterproof feathers that can be submerged when the ice breaks.
The Endangered Species Act is “the world’s strongest environmental law focused on preventing extinction and facilitating recovery of imperiled species,” according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The polar bear was the first species listed as threatened due to climate change. Since then, many of the world’s polar bear populations have stabilized, but they remain vulnerable as the climate crisis continues.
By tracking and studying penguin behavior, researchers can observe how the animals adapt as their environment shifts due to the climate crisis. The team can determine where the penguins go when they dive off the sea ice into the ocean with the assistance of a micro-chipped penguin. It is possible to determine the size of the marine protected areas.
The Paris Agreement was meant to reduce planet-warming emissions and stave off a dire rise in global temperature.
Antarctica’s geographic isolation has long protected the continent from the worsening impacts of the climate crisis and other environmental disasters that plague the rest of the world, such as wildfires, flooding, and drought. Scientists have already observed significant changes in its northern counterpart, the Arctic, which is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet.
Climate change is starting to impact theAntarctica. Recent data, for example, suggests Antarctica’s sea ice is dropping more rapidly now than decades prior.
Human presence and activity are also increasing in the region. The study shows that scientific expeditions are getting bigger, while tourist numbers have increased eight-fold since the 1990s.
The impact of climate change on Antarctica: strategies for reducing human activity, transport and infrastructure, biodiversity and regulating non-native species
A separate study from earlier this year showed that increasing human presence in the region is causing more snow melt. Black carbon can be found in places where people spend a lot of time. Even the tiniest amount of this pollutant can have a significant impact on melting.
But the study lays out several measures that are actually cost-effective, with an estimated cost of $1.92 billion over the next 83 years, or around $23 million per year – a fraction of the global economy.
These strategies include minimizing and managing human activity, transport and new infrastructure, as well as protecting native species while also controlling non-native species and diseases that enter the region.
“The benefits of doing something about climate change is good for human health, livelihood and also the economy,” Lee said. “The incentive is there, but it’s just finding that initial investment, and it just depends on priorities.”
Cassandra Brooks, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has done extensive research on marine animals in Antarctica, said that the study is “timely and important” to draw attention to how critically threatened Antarctic biodiversity is.
The latest research comes days after negotiators at the UN biodiversity summit in Montreal reached a landmark agreement to better protect the planet’s vital ecosystems, including a pledge to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030.