Antarctic Warming Causes Drastic Changes in Fragile Ecosystems
20.02.2007 - Other
The warming most global climate models predict will do more harm than simply raise the sea levels that most observers fear. It will make drastic changes in fragile ecosystems throughout the world, especially in the Antarctic warns the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.
A decrease in sea ice along the coast could have diminished the abundance of krill forming the base of the Antarctic food chain. This loss of krill will thus reduce resources available for higher mammals and birds.
Data gained through the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site near the American Palmer Station confirms that the ecosystem's response to warming in the region includes changes in both the krill's abundance and availability.
Researchers are seeing the movement of penguin populations southward down the peninsula as sea ice lessens along its margins. Gentoo and chinstrap penguins are shifting south into areas now populated by adelie penguins, and the adelies are being forced further south, all because of the change in sea ice.
All global climate models predict a warming in the Antarctic and a decrease in sea ice along its coasts. Those two events will have great impacts on both the glacial dynamics of the continent and on the fragile marine and terrestrial ecosystems that have been thriving there.
