Penguins join climate change investigation
King penguins: Climate change investigators?
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Wednesday, 04, Apr 2007 08:42
Scientists are taking the unorthodox step of using king penguins to help determine the true extent of climate change.
The University of Birmingham says that mapping the behaviour of the Antarctic birds to better understand global warming is the reverse of the standard practice of measuring the effects of climate change upon fish patterns or avian migration.
"If penguins are travelling further or diving deeper for food, that tells us something about the availability of particular fish in regions of the Antarctic," explains Dr Lewis Halsey.
"We may be able to assess the pressure exerted by king penguins on this ecosystem, and look at the effects of both climate change and over-fishing in this region of the world."
The scientists arrived at their findings by discovering the energy requirements of the penguins; measuring their heart rate and energy expenditure by using treadmills and long water channels.
After determining the relationship between the two variables, the researchers were able to ascertain the energy expanded by the birds from their recorded heart rate after implanting heart rate loggers in penguins taking to the sea to fish.
"Researchers were then able to find out if there was a correlation between the energetic costs of foraging at sea and the levels of fish available to the penguins, ie did penguins have to work harder when food was scarce."
Dr Lewis Halsey and his team, who will present their results today at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology in Glasgow, say that king penguins are the ideal animal to use in such experiments as they cover vast tracts of the southern oceans during fishing trips and return to shore to breed and moult - granting scientists easy access to them.