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September 12,
2023 বাংলা
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ENVIRONMENT
Thousands of penguins die in To p S t o r i e s
TBS Report
25 August, 2023, 01:35 am
Last modified: 25 August, 2023, 01:53 am
Antarctic ice breakup due to How is life when
inflation
outpaces wage
global warming growth

A proposal has been made to lift emperors into the more urgent "Vulnerable" ADB sees strides
category because of the danger posed by climate warming to their way of life in utilising
funds,
R E L AT E D N E W S challenges too
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to fight deforestation at summit India crush
Pakistan by their
No quick fix to reverse Antarctic biggest margin,
sea ice loss as warming 228 runs, in rain-
intensifies: ScientistsUkraine hit Asia Cup ODI
wheat exports, Russia faces own
shipping challenge

Three-quarters of children in
South Asia face extreme heat:
UN

UN chief warns Earth in 'era of

global boiling'

Photo: Collected
Wildfires bring death and
destruction to sun-scorched
Mediterranean
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About 10,000 emperor penguins were killed in late 2022 as the sea- US to continue
ice underneath the chicks melted and broke apart, due to global support for
Bangladesh's
warming, before they could develop the waterproof feathers climate efforts
needed to swim in the Antarctic ocean.
Investment
Last year, the incident took place in the west of the continent, which needed in
Bangladesh's
was recorded by satellites, in an area fronting on to the Bellingshausen increasingly
Sea. vulnerable
forests
Over 90% of emperor penguin colonies are predicted to become extinct
Canals of Dhaka
by the end of the century, with the continent's seasonal sea-ice
North will be
withering away due to global warming, reports the BBC. opened for water
routes: Mayor

Moulvibazar
police enforce 20
km/h speed limit
at Lawachara
National Park to
protect wildlife

11-foot Burmese
python
recovered at
Chittagong
University

  
Dhaka's air 4th
most polluted in
The complete demise of those four colonies is described in a paper the world this
published on Thursday (24 August) in the journal Communications Earth morning
& Environment.
 After completing that research, lead author Peter Fretwell of the British
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Antarctic Survey (BAS) said he examined satellite images of the
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remainder of the continent's 66 known emperor penguin colonies.
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In 19 of them — nearly 30% — most if not all of the chicks are believed to
have drowned or frozen to death when the ice that once supported them
melted into the sea, he said.

"Emperors depend on sea-ice for their breeding cycle; it's the stable
platform they use to bring up their young. But if that ice is not as
extensive as it should be or breaks up faster, these birds are in trouble,"
he added.

"There is hope: we can cut our carbon emissions that are causing the
warming. But if we don't we will drive these iconic, beautiful birds to the
verge of extinction."

The scientists tracked five colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea sector - at

Rothschild Island, Verdi Inlet, Smyley Island, Bryan Peninsula and
Pfrogner Point.

Using the EU's Sentinel-2 satellites, they were able to observe the
penguins' activity from the excrement, or guano, they left on the white
sea-ice. This brown staining is visible even from space.

Adult birds jump out onto the sea-ice around March as the Southern
Hemisphere winter approaches. They court, copulate, lay eggs, brood
those eggs, and then feed their nestlings through the following months
until it's time for the young to make their own way in the world.

This normally occurs around December/January time, when the new

birds head out into the ocean.

But the research team watched as sea-ice under emperor rookeries

fragmented in November, before thousands of chicks had had time to
fledge the slick feathers needed for swimming.

Four of the colonies suffered total breeding failure as a result. Only the
most northerly site, at Rothschild Island, had some success.

Antarctic summer sea-ice has been on a sharp downturn since 2016, with
the total area of frozen water around the continent diminishing to new
record lows.

The two absolute lowest years have occurred in the past two summer
seasons, in 2021/22 and in 2022/23, when the Bellingshausen was almost
completely devoid of ice cover.

What is more, the slowness of floes to form in recent months means the
colonies will probably not be producing chicks for at least another year.

Winter maximum sea-ice extent, normally reached in September, will

track far below where it would normally be.

In the Arctic, the sea-ice has been in a decades-long, steady decline. The
Antarctic in contrast seemed more robust. Up until 2016, it was becoming
slightly more extensive year on year.

Studies in the Arctic have suggested that if we could reverse climate

warming somehow, the sea-ice in the polar north would recover.
Whether that might also apply in the Antarctic, we don't know. But
there's every reason to think that if it got cold enough, the sea-ice would
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