Scientists have found clear evidence that climate change is affecting marine mammals in U.S. waters, although few studies show direct impacts on population size or survival rates. Many of these effects were expected, but some sudden and unexpected changes have also occurred. Climate change often has stronger impacts when combined with natural ecological relationships, like predator–prey interactions, or with human […]
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
Authors: Briana Abrahms, Kasim Rafiq, Neil R. Jordan, and J. W. McNuttJournal: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesDOI:10.1073/pnas.2121667119 Understanding the degree to which animals are shifting their phenology to track optimal conditions as the climate changes is essential to predicting ecological responses to global change…
Authors: Jerod A Merkle, Briana Abrahms, Jonathan B Armstrong, Hall Sawyer, Daniel P Costa, Anna D ChalfounJournal: Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentDOI: 10.1002/fee.2456 Site fidelity, or the behavior of returning to previously visited locations, has been observed across taxa and ecosystems…
The world’s largest breeding colony of Magellanic penguins is seeing unprecedented deaths among young birds. A scientist who has spent 30 years studying the penguins says that climate change is to blame — triggering, among other things, more heat waves and wetter storms that kill fledglings. Source: Changing Climate In Argentina Is Killing Penguin Chicks : NPR
Full Title: Climate change increases reproductive failure in Magellanic penguins Scientists studied nearly 3,500 Magellanic penguin chicks over 27 years to see how weather affected their survival. Starvation was the most common cause of death overall, but in two years heavy rain killed nearly half of all chicks. Predation and starvation happened every year, while storms caused deaths in about
