Eating a krill-only diet has made one variety of Antarctic penguin especially susceptible to the impacts of climate change.
Eating a krill-only diet has made one variety of Antarctic penguin especially susceptible to the impacts of climate change, according to new research involving the University of Saskatchewan (USask) which sheds new light on why some penguins are winners and others losers in their rapidly changing ecosystem.
Human activities in Antarctica since the 1930s led to massive shifts in the population of krill—a shrimp-like crustacean that is a key food source for penguins, seals, and whales. The result has been that one species—gentoo penguins—thrive, while the population of chinstrap penguins dwindles, according to research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Human activities, like hunting and global warming, are not only affecting species we routinely harvest—like krill. Gentoo penguins adapted by eating what was most available. Chinstrap penguins, picky eaters who continued to eat krill, didn’t do as well, ” said USask’s William Patterson, part of the research team co-led by Louisiana State University’s Michael Polito and Kelton McMahon from University of Rhode Island, and also involving researchers at University of Oxford and University of California, Santa Cruz.
The authors predict that the Antarctic Peninsula Region will remain a hotspot for climate change and human impacts during the next century, and believe their research will be beneficial in predicting which species are likely to fare poorly and which will withstand—or even benefit from—future changes.
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Image via University of Saskatchewan.
