Impact of Climate Change, Antarctic Penguin Population Declines

A penguin walking alone in the middle of the Antarctic ice field. Responding to climate change, in Brussels, Belgium, a group of young people built a penguin statue. When the temperature is hot, the statue melts. New scientific findings in Antarctica take the world by surprise. Apparently, the colonies of some penguin on the southernmost island on earth were down by 75 percent. In fact, the penguin colony is claimed to be one of the most powerful.

Scientists on the Greenpeace expedition aboard the Esperanza are examining several colonies on Elephant Island, one of the important habitats for various types of penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula. They found that the total population recorded reached 52,786 couples. When compared to the results of a 1971 survey of 122,550 couples, the island’s population has fallen by 60 percent.

One of the most declining is the chinstrap colony. The population of the penguin group with helmet-like hair fell by 77 percent. Warming seawater makes krill, an animal that is the main food source of Antarctic marine animals, increasingly rare. A few days ago, the temperature in Antarctica just scored the highest figure in history, namely 18.3 degrees Celsius.

Even so, the chinstrap is known as a pretty tough penguin. According to the Ocean Wide Expedition website, penguins of this type can swim up to 80 kilometers from shore in search of food. They are not as fragile as other penguins. categorizes Chinstrap as the least worrying type of penguin. Meanwhile, thousands of youths took action in Brussels, Belgium, last week to commemorate Ocean Week. In the very front row, there are penguin statues made of ice.

The Impact Of Climate Change In Antarctica

– The temperature of the Antarctic Sea has risen a way of 1 degree Celsius since 1955.

– Land area of   25 thousand square kilometers has been lost since the 1950s.

– The sea level reaches 3 millimeters per year falling since the 1990s.

– The population of krill, a marine biota that feeds fish in Antarctica, continues to decline.