Posted on 01/12/2015 3:16:28 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
The latest research on little auks, sometimes called "penguins of the north," reveals a surprising response to a rapidly warming Arctic: The birds make up for food lost to the effects of climate change by catching prey that were stunned by the cold water running off melting glaciers—another effect of climate change.
The study, published Monday in the journal Global Change Biology, is the first to examine the feeding habits of little auks as Arctic ice is lost. Scientists watched the birds in Franz-Josef Land, off the northern coast of Russia, during an expedition supported by the National Geographic Society.
Since 2005, the auks' water has become essentially ice-free in summer, reducing the numbers of tiny animals known as zooplankton, a key food source for the auks. Zooplankton normally congregated around sea ice, but now the birds have shifted to eating zooplankton that are stunned—and thus easier to catch—by cold water running off glaciers melting on land.
Little auk chicks have been growing just as quickly as they did before 2005, but the adults' body mass has dropped an average of 4 percent since the early 1990s. That might not sound like much, but "we don't know what the weight loss is that would really harm them," says Enric Sala, a co-author of the study.
The scientists estimate that all continental glaciers will disappear from Franz-Josef Land within about 180 years, although meltwater could decrease significantly before that. As that happens, it's unclear if the birds will be able to find enough food.
"Ultimately, there is only one thing we can do for little auks, polar bears, and everything else that is affected," says Sala. "That's to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
More propaganda. You can bet this has been part of survival pattern for these critters since their existence began. As they have been through countless warming and cooling cycles of the ice.
Woo Hoo!
New record!
Three mentions of the bald-faced lie of global warming IN ONE SENTENCE!
Maybe Sala and the rest of the 'green house gassers' should stop the constant tourism to see these birds and mess up that habitat........
They just make this $#@& up as they go.
“rapidly warming Arctic”
Uh....There isn’t one!
The Arctic is NOT “rapidly warming”!
Uh....There isn’t one!
The Arctic is NOT “rapidly warming”!
Meanwhile....Glaciers form on Ben Nevis in Scotland, the Bedouin Arabs had to invent a name for snow....and a drone submarine mapped extra thick ice under Antarctica.
...and did I mention the Sun's magnetic field is in decline so less sunspots are formed.
National Geographic has a credibility rating of 5%
The last ice age was ten to 15000 years ago. I’m sure the penguins and polar bears have been around much longer than that. They know what to do.
I see the global warming kooks gave themselves some leeway by saying the glaciers around Franz-Josef Land could possibly melt in 180 years. Wait a minute. Didn’t that well renowned global warming specialist Dr. Algore, Ph.D (Progressive Head Dunce) tell us the entire Arctic region would be ice free now?
> “rapidly warming Arctic”
Uh....There isn’t one!
The Arctic is NOT “rapidly warming”!
If it is, it’s probably causedbyall the friction generated by those “gay” penguins...
As I have always been told There are NO PENGUINS in the artic, there are Polar bears.
And vise versa for the Antarctic
According to the Encyclopedia there is are some species of this bird in Baja California. I think they could survive a little warmth if there were any.
I think Dr. Algore prophesied that all of the arctic ice would be gone by 2000 or 2010 unless everyone bought a chitload of his carbon offsets.
I can remember when I had some respect for National Geographic.
What’s in it for them to co-op a lie? Could it be they get gov’t grant money?
When phat algore accepted the newbull piece prize in 2007 he said there would be no more ice on the north pole by 2013.
See!! We were warned. Global Warming is so bad that polar bears at the South Pole and penguins at the North Pole have BOTH been driven to extinction. And you deniers still claim that Global Warming isn’t real. Just look at the science. /s
I had a subscription to Natgeo for over 50 years somewhere about 10 years
ago it became nothing but Global warming, loss of this or that species, and
Something like the first unaided parapalegic trip to the South Pole I stopped my subscription. Stuck in an airport about 5 years ago bought one out of boredom nothing had changed. Natgeo has some good stuff on Tv\cable\internet but the magazine will die from the PC s###.
Surprised they aren’t chomping down on all those starving polar bears .... a crowd of attack penguins could easily take down and devour a polar bear weakened by starvation and a lack of ice in his drinks.
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