Antarctica Could Lose Most of Its Penguins to Climate Change

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Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) have survived in Antarctica for nearly 45,000 years, adapting to glacial expansions and sea ice fluctuations driven by millennia of climatic changes. The penguins remained resilient through these changes, but new research from theUniversity of Delaware suggests that unique 21st-century climates may pose an existential threat to many of the colonies on the Antarctic continent.

Published Wednesday in Scientific Reports, the study, led by oceanographer Megan Cimino, found that up to 60 percent of the current Adélie penguin habitat in Antarctica could be unfit to host colonies by the end of the century.

The Adélie penguin is one of two true Antarctic penguins—the other being the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)—and it inhabits the full extent of the continent. The penguins nest on land during the austral (southern) summer, and migrate during the winter to the edge of the sea ice, where they are able to feed at sea.

read more http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ca-climate-change-population-decline-refugia/