Freak storms stopped tens of thousands of birds breeding in Antarctica

Extreme storms successful Antarctica prevented tens of thousands of seabirds reproducing past year, and if clime alteration causes akin events successful the future, it could accelerate a diminution successful numbers.

Sébastien Descamps astatine the Norwegian Polar Institute and his colleagues show 3 seabird taxon successful Queen Maud Land, which makes up one-fifth of Antarctica.

The birds – the Antarctic petrel, the snowfall petrel and the southbound polar skua – breed erstwhile a twelvemonth successful the Antarctic summer, laying eggs astatine the extremity of November and the commencement of December. The petrels laic a azygous egg, but the skuas thin to laic two, with hatchlings acceptable to alert betwixt February and March.

But peculiarly convulsive storms betwixt December 2021 and January 2022 meant the 3 taxon fundamentally didn’t breed successful this portion of Antarctica that summer. “Colonies much than 500 kilometres isolated were impacted,” says Descamps. “The storms simply prevented immoderate reproduction astatine each – with the objection of a fewer snowfall petrels that were apt breeding successful cavities sheltered from the storms.”

Tens of thousands of nests are usually recovered successful this country of the continent, says Descamps, whose squad estimates seabird populations by counting the fig of nests successful 200 tiny plots and extrapolating the results to the wider area.

The snowstorms astir apt enactment the birds off, due to the fact that beardown winds marque it harder to support the assemblage lukewarm and to incubate eggs, says Descamps.

“At immoderate point, long-lived taxon similar seabirds similar to wantonness their ovum and summation their accidental of endurance by going backmost to sea, wherever they tin provender and summation energy,” helium says.

“These long-lived seabirds person galore chances to breed successfully passim their lifespan and it’s imaginable that the semipermanent impacts of this peculiar event, though startling to witness, whitethorn beryllium muted,” says Heather Lynch astatine Stony Brook University successful New York. “It volition instrumentality galore years, and further monitoring, to cognize for sure,” she says.

Descamps echoes this, but says the Antarctic petrel has been declining successful Queen Maud Land for 20 years and if storms similar this go much predominant oregon severe, it could accelerate the population’s reduction. “Unfortunately, this is what clime models predict,” helium says.

Thankfully, the fig of birds breeding successful these colonies appears to person returned to mean during the existent Antarctic summer, helium says.

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