Kamal Ghorui
A new study has found that king penguins are breeding earlier as global temperatures rise, and the shift is helping improve their breeding success.Researchers studying about 19,000 king penguins on a sub-Antarctic island chain found that the birds are now starting their breeding cycle 19 days earlier than they did in 2000. According to the study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, the earlier breeding has increased the success rate by around 40%.Scientists study such timing in nature through a field known as phenology, which examines seasonal biological events such as breeding, migration and flowering. Climate change has disrupted these patterns in many species. Often, plants and animals that depend on each other respond to warming temperatures at different speeds, creating mismatches in timing.In birds, these timing mismatches are becoming common. Casey Youngflesh, a biological sciences professor at Clemson University who was not involved in the study, said many bird species, particularly in North America, are not adjusting quickly enough to the changing seasonal patterns, according to Asssociated Press.“It’s quite striking,” said study co-author Celine Le Bohec, a seabird ecologist at the French science agency CNRS. “Having a species like the king penguin adapt so well to seasonal shifts and timing changes is unprecedented.”Unlike some other penguin species, king penguins have a long breeding window that runs from late October to March. Scientists say this flexibility allows them to adjust the timing of reproduction as environmental conditions change.Lead author Gael Bardon from the Scientific Centre of Monaco said the birds are also able to adapt their feeding behaviour.“They can adjust really well their foraging behavior,” Bardon said. “We know that some birds are going directly to the south, to the polar front. Some are going to the north. Some are staying around the colony and so they can adjust their behavior and that’s what makes king penguins cope really well with such changes for the moment.”Michelle LaRue, a professor of Antarctic marine science at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand who was not involved in the research, said this dietary flexibility could help the species adapt.“The king penguin may have a bit of flexibility as a trick up its sleeve, and may be in a good position to adapt as their environment changes,” she said.However, researchers caution that the advantage may only be temporary as environmental changes continue.“So that’s why for the moment the species is able to cope with this change, but till when? This, we don’t know, because it’s going very, very fast,” Le Bohec said.
