Research by Petaluma-based non-profit, Point Blue Conservation Science, shows how Adélie penguins within the Ross Sea, Antarctica use sea ice in their annual migrations. The paper, “Going with the floe: Sea‐ice movement affects distance and destination during Adélie penguin winter movements,” is published in the journal Ecology.
Many other species are known to use wind or ocean currents to help them save energy as they travel but, until now, relatively little has been known about if and how Adélies might use the movement of sea ice to support their travels.
Understanding this interaction can provide new ecological and conservation insights, especially as long-term monitoring has revealed record low levels of sea-ice extent and concentration in Antarctica and within the Ross Sea over the last 10 years.
Point Blue has studied Adélie penguins on Ross Island, Antarctica since 1996. Recent advances in the miniaturization of electronic tags allowed researchers to track the winter movements of 87 individuals across 146 trips spanning three years
Point Blue’s Dennis Jongsomjit, lead author of the study noted, “Combining these new tracking tags with remotely sensed satellite data of sea-ice movement meant that we were able to investigate in greater detail than we’ve ever done before if and how Adélie penguins interacted with sea ice.”
2024-01-13 10:00:04
Link from phys.org rnrn