[ti:Scientists Use Penguins to Study Antarctic Climate Change]
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[00:00.04]Scientists researching climate change in Antarctica
[00:05.76]are studying penguins in an effort
[00:09.20]to better understand the area's environmental health.
[00:15.28]The scientists are measuring the growth and development
[00:20.48]of the penguin population on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula.
[00:28.36]Reuters news agency recently reported on studies in the area
[00:34.76]carried out by two American researchers.
[00:39.28]"We are counting penguin nests to understand
[00:44.28]how many penguins are in a colony, producing young every year,
[00:50.28]and whether that number is going up or down
[00:54.84]with the environmental conditions," said Alex Borowicz.
[01:00.80]He is an ecology researcher at New York's Stony Brook University.
[01:08.00]The work is not easy for climate researchers
[01:12.96]in the icy, faraway reaches of Antarctica.
[01:18.00]But penguins are easier to follow than some other kinds of animals
[01:24.76]because they nest on land.
[01:28.08]Their black bodies and waste droppings
[01:32.44]can also be identified against the area's white background.
[01:38.60]Michael Wethington, another researcher from Stony Brook,
[01:44.52]told Reuters the penguin population
[01:48.20]can represent overall climate conditions
[01:51.84]and the health of the area's whole ecosystem.
[01:56.84]The researchers say counts of individual penguins
[02:02.32]can be combined with data from satellite images
[02:07.00]to get a more complete picture
[02:10.16]of how the animals are progressing.
[02:13.64]Gentoo penguins – with bright orange beaks
[02:18.36]and white markings on their heads – prefer open water
[02:23.28]without broken pieces of ice floating around.
[02:28.12]So when temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula
[02:33.12]began rising during the latter half of the 20th century,
[02:38.52]gentoo populations moved south.
[02:42.72]Some scientists called the movement
[02:46.76]the "gentoofication" of Antarctica.
[02:50.96]David Ainley is a biologist
[02:54.80]with the ecological advisory company H.T. Harvey & Associates.
[03:01.32]He has been studying penguins for more than 50 years.
[03:07.60]"Gentoo penguins don't like sea ice," Ainley told Reuters.
[03:14.56]"They mostly forage over the continental shelf
[03:18.80]and don't go far out to sea."
[03:22.20]As sea ice has decreased along the western side of the peninsula,
[03:28.48]gentoos seem to have gotten used to the changed conditions.
[03:34.72]But those same conditions have been worse
[03:38.28]for the Adelies penguin species.
[03:41.68]This is because the Adelies
[03:44.84]depend on sea ice for feeding and reproduction.
[03:50.20]"When we find Adelie penguins,
[03:53.32]we typically know that sea ice is nearby,"
[03:57.48]Stony Brook's Wethington said.
[04:00.52]He added that whenever researchers
[04:04.36]see sea ice decreasing or disappearing,
[04:09.00]they also see Adelie penguin populations drop sharply.
[04:15.00]Even though Adelie penguins are increasing in number overall,
[04:21.52]some populations have fallen by more than 65 percent, researchers say.
[04:29.92]On their January trip to the area, the Stony Brook scientists
[04:35.60]found that Adelie colonies around the still-icy Weddell Sea
[04:42.40]had remained solid during the past ten years.
[04:46.92]"This peninsula is maybe a safe space
[04:51.88]as we see climate change progressing
[04:55.08]and overall warming throughout the globe," Wethington said.
[05:00.84]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM