Long-term climate trends and short-term extreme events can affect animals in different ways, but scientists do not always know how these effects work together. This study used a “press–pulse” framework to separate the impacts of ongoing climate change from sudden extreme events on Magellanic penguins. Researchers analyzed 38 years of data from 53,959 penguins and found that long-term changes and extreme events affect different stages of the penguins’ lives. Sometimes these climate effects made outcomes worse, and other times the climate effects partially canceled each other out. Overall, the combined effects still led to predictions that penguin populations could disappear under future climate scenarios, showing the need to study all types of climate impacts together.
Authors: T. J. Clark-Wolf, P. Dee Boersma, Ginger A. Rebstock, and Briana Abrahms
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209821120
