2023-06-24 08:24:06
Threatened: The Atlantic petrel is the smallest Antarctic seabird. Image: Simon Thorn
The rising temperatures are also affecting the birds in Antarctica. A long-term study by the University of Gießen shows how dramatic the consequences of climate change are for petrels.
Using the example of the American petrel, researchers have shown how badly some species in the Antarctic are suffering from climate change. One long-term study led by the University of Giessen showed that the population in two of the bird colonies studied had declined by more than 90 percent over the past four decades.
The scientists from Germany and Poland observed the petrels off King George Island from 1978 to 2020. This island is one of the South Shetland Islands off Antarctica, which are particularly hard hit by warming. Winter temperatures there have risen by more than six degrees on average, and the sea’s ice cover is declining sharply. Because the humidity is rising, it snows more often now, and the snow clogs the entrances to the swallows’ nests.
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According to the researchers, in some years the birds were only able to breed late, or they were locked in the nests. The petrels often found too little food because their main food, Antarctic krill, was suffering from the retreating sea ice. It is to be expected that these developments will intensify and the population will continue to shrink.
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