How Does Climate Change Affect Penguins

Climate change has affected us in many ways, but it was even more influential on organisms and their community. The Earth is gradually heating and we are left to deal with the consequences. Homes are being destroyed, organisms are dying, and resources are running low. Since 1880, Our Earth’s temperature had increased by about 0.8 degrees Celsius. Climate change is affecting the Earth and scientists say that one more degree will greatly affect people from all over the world. There are many consequences of climate change and each one has a great impact on all of us, but organisms’ homes are being destroyed and thousands of species are dying out. These organisms are imperative to our world and how it functions.

One of the reason why the Macaroni penguin is on this is is the abiotic and the biotic factors of the ecosystem that the Macaroni penguin lives in. Some of the abiotic factors are that the oil spills over the past years have affected the water that the penguins swim in and it is killing them and the food. Another abiotic factor that has be affecting the penguins is climate change. The climate change has affected the animal by warming of the water temperature and air temperature. This is the thing that as change the most to make the penguin on the endangered list. All of these other factors we here before this and global warming is affecting this animal in a bad way like many other arctic animals.

Antarctica is one of the most rapid warming areas on the Earth, climate change on Antarctica is crucial to the world and the continent itself. Although climate change on Antarctica isn't widespread as it a wide place, only a small amount of impact is taking place. Some areas in Antarctica are experiencing decreases within the sea ice whereas other areas have an increase in sea ice. Both changes are causing negative impacts on wildlife. (Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, 2014) Climate change has been a continuing scientific curiosity. Climate change is raising many concerns on not only the environmental and regulatory concerns but also within the economy, health, security, safety, and food production. (UNEP, 2009)

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) in the Antarctic are fascinating flightless birds that are able to withstand incredibly harsh environments, where wind chills can reach to -76°F. Even though these penguins are able to survive the freezing temperatures, their breeding success and mortality rates are based primarily on the sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea ice extent (SIE) throughout the seasons. Sea ice concentration is a variable for climate scientists and nautical navigators to find the area of sea ice compared to the total at a given point in the ocean, whereas sea ice extent refers to a region as “ice-covered” or “not ice-covered.” During the late 1970s, there was an elongated atypical warm period with reduced

So, what is climate change? Well, climate is defined as the average weather for a region, such as, temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind and seasons. Climates shape ecosystems, and the life in these ecosystems that depends on them. So climate change is when the climate we have come to expect is no longer that climate. The climates around the world are quickly changing and it is creating harmful effects for many things around the world (What Is Climate Change?). See, often times people get global warming and climate change confused, but they are not the same and cannot be used interchangeably. When we talk about global warming, it only means the Earth’s increasing surface temperature. On the other hand, climate change refers to the warming and things like melting glaciers, hurricanes, drought, forest fires, coral bleaching, etc.. In other words, global warming is only one part of the more dire issue of human induced climate change (What's the difference).

Emperor Penguins are found in Antarctica, and have to have a high tolerance of the cold and hot whether to be able to survive the whether conditions of the Antarctic.

Global warming also has an impact on the African penguins such as the adults have to travel further and expend more energy in order to find adequate food for themselves and their chicks which means more die from starvation.

retain heat and can be seen to be used in the example of Emperor penguins in the icy Antarctic.

How do the animals adapt to the changes throughout their lifetime? Animals may go through a different change in their lifestyle due to global warming. These species have to adapt to the type of weather their habitat is experiencing. Though global warming is a factor in the wildlife’s migration to other sites where the weather is more cooperative, the animals will however experience food shortage. They will have no prey for them to catch depending on what area of the world they are. These animals may find it difficult for them to survive due to global warming drying up several wetlands; breeding and raising young animals is also difficult for the wildlife animals. Animals in the wildlife have to adapt to the se changes within their lifespan by migrating to different areas of the world or figure out things they can manipulate in their living space in order to survive the harsh time they will be passing or not.

There are many ways in which increased levels of greenhouse gasses can affect marine life adapted to colder and warmer water, and many ways marine life can adapt to the effects of climate change whether that be beneficial in the case of phytoplankton or detrimental in the case of Adelie penguins loosing numbers in the south pole.

The West Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming areas on Earth, with only some areas of the Arctic Circle experiencing faster rising temperatures. However, since Antarctica is a big place, climate change is not having a uniform impact, with some areas experiencing increases in sea ice extent. Yet in others, sea ice is decreasing, with measurable impacts on wildlife. ASOC believes that understanding climate change impacts on Antarctica is a matter of critical importance for the world and for the continent

"We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words” (Anna Sewell). There is undeniable evidence that animals are being affected by climate change. Even though the effects are difficult to measure, there are many different ways animals are being affected. With the loss of predator and prey species it affects the life cycles in the food chain. The earth’s climate change causes habitats such as snow, ice, or forest areas to alter, resulting in loss of habitat and food accessibility as well as causing extinction.

Climate change is a problem in the world today. Climate change is destroying Antarctica, endangering hundreds of millions of lives, and can be effectively reduced by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

However, since Antarctica is a big place, climate change is not having a uniform impact, with some areas experiencing increases in sea ice extent. Yet in others, sea ice is decreasing, with measurable impacts on wildlife. Local Antarctic effects of climate change are only part of the problem. Antarctica comprises two geologically distinct regions, East Antarctica and West Antarctica, separated by the great Trans-Antarctic Mountains but joined together by the all-encompassing ice sheet. The presence of the high ice sheet and the polar location make Antarctica a powerful heat sink that strongly affects the climate of the whole Earth. Furthermore, the annual sea ice cover around the continent, which seasonally reaches an area greater than that of the continent itself, modulates exchanges of heat, moisture, and gases between the atmosphere and ocean and, through salt rejection when it freezes, forces the formation of cold oceanic bottom waters that spread out under the world’s oceans. Alterations to this system will affect climate all over the planet.

These massive changes in climate over millions of years brought about new species and ended others. As we are living in a cold period in the history of the earth’s climate, small temperature changes are attributed to increased levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The important question is: how will these changes, man-made or otherwise, impact existing species? One easily observed example is Emperor penguins, residents of the shores and ice shelves of Antarctica. With increasing temperature of the ocean, the sea ice where they live melts, eliminating nesting areas, the sea levels rise, reducing shore habitat, and food supply becomes limited. The penguins’ main diet consists of krill, fish, and squid. Antarctic krill populations, their