Scientists discover new penguin colonies from space

Date:
August 4, 2020
Source:
British Antarctic Survey
Summary:
A new study using satellite mapping technology reveals there are
nearly 20% more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than was
previously thought. The results provide an important benchmark for
monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population
of this iconic bird.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study using satellite mapping technology reveals there are nearly
20% more emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica than was previously
thought. The results provide an important benchmark for monitoring the
impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird.


========================================================================== Reporting this week in the journal Remote Sensing in Ecology and
Conservation, the authors describe how they used images from the
European Commission's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite mission to locate
the birds. They found 11 new colonies, three of which were previously identified but never confirmed. That takes the global census to 61
colonies around the continent.

Emperor penguins need sea ice to breed and are located in areas that are
very difficult to study because they are remote and often inaccessible
with temperatures as low as ?50DEGC (?58 degrees Fahrenheit). For the
last 10 years, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists have been
looking for new colonies by searching for their guano stains on the ice.

Lead author Dr Peter Fretwell, a geographer at BAS says: "This is an
exciting discovery. The new satellite images of Antarctica's coastline
have enabled us to find these new colonies. And whilst this is good news,
the colonies are small and so only take the overall population count
up by 5-10% to just over half a million penguins or around 265,500 --
278,500 breeding pairs." Emperor penguins are known to be vulnerable
to loss of sea ice, their favoured breeding habitat. With current
projections of climate change, this habitat is likely to decline. Most
of the newly found colonies are situated at the margins of the emperors' breeding range. Therefore, these locations are likely to be lost as the
climate warms.

Dr Phil Trathan, Head of Conservation Biology at BAS, has been studying penguins for the last three decades. He says: "Whilst it's good news that
we've found these new colonies, the breeding sites are all in locations
where recent model projections suggest emperors will decline. Birds
in these sites are therefore probably the 'canaries in the coalmine'
-- we need to watch these sites carefully as climate change will affect
this region." The study found a number of colonies located far offshore, situated on sea ice that has formed around icebergs that had grounded in shallow water. These colonies, up to 180 km offshore, are a surprising
new finding in the behaviour of this increasingly well-known species.

The research was funded by UKRI-NERC as part of the Wildlife from Space project.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by British_Antarctic_Survey. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Peter T. Fretwell, Philip N. Trathan. Discovery of new colonies by
Sentinel2 reveals good and bad news for emperor penguins. Remote
Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 2020; DOI: 10.1002/rse2.176 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200804200809.htm

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