Goodbye Penguins? Antarctica Could Lose Its Adélie Penguins Due To Climate Change

Adélie penguins (Psygoscelis adeliae) are incredibly resilient birds, having survived the harsh Antarctica conditions for nearly 45,000 years. But a new research suggests that the present changing climate--much of it is human-induced--may wipe out many of their colonies in the icy continent.

The study from researchers from the University of Delaware discovered that up to 60 percent of the Adélie penguin population could be killed off by 2099 due to habitat loss. This is caused by warmer water temperatures and loss of sea ice, said lead author Megan Cimino, as per USA Today.

Aside from the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), the Adélie penguin is a true Antarctic penguin, living in all parts of the continent, National Geographic noted. While they need the warm periods to return to their rocky breeding grounds, the warming that Antarctica has been experiencing has now reached its tipping point.

The study revealed that the longer warm periods may be shrinking their habitat, leading to their population decline.

Two impacts of climate change

With the combination of data from field surveys and images from a high-resolution satellite, the researchers were able to recreate 30 years of colony data from 1981 to 2010. This helped them look at population trends for different colony sites for a 30-year period.

National Geographic notes that Antarctic researchers believe climate change can affect penguins in two ways.

One, the warming seas can reduce the availability of their food, as fish populations also have gone down due to warmer waters.

The other possible impact of climate change is the reduction of the quality of their nesting sites due to precipitation changes in the icy continents.

"Rain and puddles are bad because [penguin] eggs [laid on the ground] can't survive when they're lying in a pool for water," said Cimino.

And it is not only the Adélie penguins that are in trouble. A 2009 study also revealed that emperor penguins could also face extinction by 2100 due to the melting of sea ice.

Hope for the penguins?

However, there is some hope in the research for our "Happy Feet" heroes. The study discovered so-called "climate refugias," which are locations where the animals could survive periods of bad climate.

For Adélie penguins, they can find refuge in the Ross Sea and Amundsen Sea, two bodies of water in the Southern Ocean. These safe places could force the Adélie penguin colonies to migrate south.

Thirty countries have research stations in Antarctica and seven nations have territorial claims in the continent, making management a difficult thing to deal with. But Cimino believes that conservation should be prioritized to protect the Adelie penguins from extinction.

The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.