“Emperor Penguin Adapting to Climate Change,” Study Says

Image reveals the undeniable relationship that exists for Penguins between Ocean and Ice.

Over 60 million years ago the Emperor Penguin lost flight capacity and developed new capacities in its evolution road to adapt to the environment. Today new studies assure that the "flexible" specie is re-adapting to climate change.

Press echoed on June 25^th an EFE reported which assures that Penguins are adapting to climate change. The conclusions are the findings of a new satellite image study which evaluated colony behavior. The stud of the US University of Minnesota disagrees with the standing theory that Emperor Penguins do not relocate to new sties when their location is inaccessible.

The study of the College of Science and Engineering of the University –lead by Michelle LaRue revealed their findings in June 20^th and gained a place or ECOGRAPHY –journal publishing research publication.

The University says that penguins “may be behaving in ways that allow them to adapt to their changing environment better than we expected”.

Researchers have long thought that emperor penguins were philopatric, which means they would return to the same location to nest each year. The new research study used satellite images to show that penguins may not be faithful to previous nesting locations.
A total of six instances were registered in just three years establishing cases of colonies of Penguins which did not return to the same location to breed.

“Research showing that colonies seem to appear and disappear throughout the years challenges behaviors we thought we understood about emperor penguins,” said LaRue.

“If we assume that these birds come back to the same locations every year, without fail, these new colonies that we see on satellite images wouldn’t make any sense. These birds didn’t just appear out of thin air—they had to have come from somewhere else. This suggests that emperor penguins move among colonies. That means we need to revisit how we interpret population changes and the causes of those changes,” the study assures.

The study took to evaluating the Pointe Geologie March of Penguins Colony, decline of populations, survival rates, warming temperatures, thinning of ice, environment alteration, and other issues through High-Resolution Satellite imagery.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC still assures that the influence of climate change is impacting the specie. “Many factors can influence the population success…and different colonies,” IPCC says adding that climate change conditions could impact other processes such as specific conditions required for successful egg-hatching, ice-ocean relationship distances and others.

IPCC does recognizes the need for new studies and acknowledges that colonies may host larger number of populations than originally thought of and be capable of adapting to changes experienced in the main habitats of reproduction.

One thing is certain while Emperor Penguins may be adapting or not to climate change the specie and the colonies require ocean environments as well as firm ice zones for their vital life cycles. Without ice environments and specific ocean-ice distance relationships the cycle for the breeding of new generations could be affected no matter where Penguins “relocate”. For them it is not an issue of “Location-Location-Location” but rather an “Ocean-Ice-Location” relationship. Just as polar bears are known to have drowned in search for the thinning ice off the horizon, Penguins require stable ice formations reason perhaps why they are forced to relocated.

Ocean Life News in Brief

Ocean Level Increase Dropping Oceans Floor: International Press reported on December 5 on the findings of new research which assures that due to ocean level increase the ocean floor is sinking. The study published online in Geophysical Research Levels used mathematical equations to accurately measure the Ocean's floor impact driven by the increased of water volume weight. Using data from 1993 to 2014 researchers found that ocean level increase is causing the Ocean floor to drop globally by the milimeters. Ocean Dead Zones Up By Four: On January 8 New York Daily reported that Ocean Dead Zones have quadrupled.Researchers warned in a new study that oxygen-starved ocean dead zones, where animals and plants are struggling to survive, have increased fourfold and it may not be reversible. The new study was published in the Journal Science. The increase of Dead Zones was linked to climate change. La Niña´s Polar Wave Hitting Hard the US -Freezing Oceans: International Press reported on the Polar Wave hitting hard the US. The event is linked by experts to the influence of La Niña. “For the past couple of weeks, parts of North America have been chilling down to record temperatures, with massive snowfall and icy cold conditions putting life at a standstill for many,” media reported. The US East Coast has been particularly badly hit with the likes of Boston down to Philadelphia reaching bone-chilling lows of near 0°F , with icy winds making it feel closer to around -10°F to -20°F. Officially 18 were dead and 100 million affected. Government of Bali Declares a Garbage Emergency: On January 5 Ocean Conservancy reported on a New Waste Management Emergency in Bali. Massive amounts of ocean debri are affecting the island. The situation has reached its peak as the Government of Bali declared a “Garbage Emergency”. Clean up works have began. “Ivory Coast Village Swallowed by Ocean Increase,” Aljazeera Reports: On January 8 Al Jazeera reported that ocean increase levels are affecting infrastructure in the Ivory Coast. “Rising tides and more frequent, devastating storms are slowly destroying what is left of Lahou-Kpanda, the offshoot of what was once a major colonial town near the mouth of the Bandama River, the longest river in Ivory Coast,” Al Jazeera reported. Arctic Ocean Radioactive Levels on the Rise: IFL Science reported on January 3 on the findings of new report which assures that radioactive levels in the Arctic Ocean are on the rise. “Concentrations of radioactive radium-228 in the Arctic Ocean increased between 2007 and 2015,” the report reads. While levels have not yet reached a mark of concern the trend is worries experts. Lauren Kipp of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution addressed the issue. New World Wide Ocean Turtle Study Says 90% of Plastic Pollution Cases Result in Death: Earth Sky Org reported on January 7 that hundreds of marine turtles die every year after getting tangled in trash in oceans and on beaches. A research published in the journal Endangered Species Research took on a World-Wide Survey covering the major oceans where turtles live. They discovered that 91 % of the entangled turtles were found dead. They also suffered serious wounds from entanglement, leading to maiming, amputation or choking. Double Whirlpools Discovered for First Time: December 4 Press reported that Double Eddies have been registered for the first time in History. Tangled up Double Eddies can travel great distances affecting ecology significantly. Eddies are a natural part of the ocean environment but double whirlpools had only been theorized by mathematicians.