"This research is a collaboration between BAS, University of Minnesota/NSF, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Australian Antarctic Division."" It nullifies a 2009 alarmist conclusion based on land studies and computer modeling.
4/13/12, "Twice as Many Emperor Penguins as Thought in Antarctica, First-Ever Penguin Count from Space Shows," Science Daily
"A new study using satellite mapping technology reveals there are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought. The results provide an important benchmark for monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird, which breeds in remote areas that are very difficult to study because they often are inaccessible with temperatures as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit.
Recently reporting in the journal PLoS ONE, an international team of scientists describe how they used Very High Resolution satellite images to estimate the number of penguins at each colony around the coastline of Antarctica.
Using a technique known as pan-sharpening to increase the resolution of the satellite imagery, the science teams were able to differentiate between birds, ice, shadow and penguin poo or guano. They then used ground counts and aerial photography to calibrate the analysis.
Lead author and geographer Peter Fretwell at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), which is funded by the U.K.'s Natural Environment Research Council, explains, "We are delighted to be able to locate and identify such a large number of emperor penguins. We counted 595,000 birds, which is almost double the previous estimates of 270,000-350,000 birds. This is the first comprehensive census of a species taken from space."
On the ice, emperor penguins with their black and white plumage stand out against the snow and colonies are clearly visible on satellite imagery. This allowed the team to analyze 44 emperor penguin colonies around the coast of Antarctica, and seven previously unknown colonies.
"The methods we used are an enormous step forward in Antarctic ecology because we can conduct research safely and efficiently with little environmental impact, and determine estimates of an entire penguin population, said co-author Michelle LaRue from the University of Minnesota and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
"The implications of this study are far-reaching: we now have a cost-effective way to apply our methods to other poorly-understood species in the Antarctic, to strengthen on-going field research, and to provide accurate information for international conservation efforts."
NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program through which it coordinates all U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent and aboard ships in the Southern Ocean as well as related logistics support.
Co-author and BAS biologist Phil Trathan noted, "Current research suggests that emperor penguin colonies will be seriously affected by climate change. An accurate continent-wide census that can be easily repeated on a regular basis will help us monitor more accurately the impacts of future change on this iconic species."
Scientists are concerned that*in some regions of Antarctica, earlier spring warming is leading to loss of sea ice habitat for emperor penguins, making their northerly colonies more vulnerable to further climate change.
Trathan continued, "Whilst current research leads us to expect important declines in the number of emperor penguins over the next century, the effects of warming around Antarctica are regional and uneven. In the future, we anticipate that the more southerly colonies should remain, making these important sites for further research and protection."
This research is a collaboration between BAS, University of Minnesota/NSF, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Australian Antarctic Division."
====================
Ed. note: *Stated as a 'concern' not a fact. Antarctic Ice is NOT decreasing and even increasing per multiple citations below including AGU, NSIDC:
1. Feb. 21, 2012, "A new, high-resolution surface mass balance map of Antarctica (1979–2010) based on regional atmospheric climate modeling," J. T. M. Lenaerts,1 M. R. van den Broeke,1 W. J. van de Berg,1 E. van Meijgaard,2 and P. Kuipers Munneke1, American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Research Letters
Received 17 January 2012; accepted 21 January 2012; published 21 February 2012.
page 4. "3.4. Trend
[15] We found no significant trend in the 1979–2010 ice
sheet integrated SMB components, which confirms the
results from Monaghan et al. [2006]....
Conclusion
No significant trend in the ice sheet-integrated SMB is found
over the period 1979–2010, and only (insignificant) trends
exist regionally. Snowfall is characterized by strong interannual
(s = 114 Gt y 1) and intra-annual variability (s =
30 Gt mo 1). Snowdrift sublimation is the main ablation
process and shows little interannual variability (s = 9 Gt y 1).
[17]
Acknowledgments. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their
valuable comments. This work was supported by funding from the ice2sea
programme from the European Union 7th Framework Programme, grant
226375. Ice2sea contribution 061.
[18] The Editor thanks David Bromwich and an anonymous reviewer"...
-----------
Antarctic ice news is covered in article in which the Arctic is mentioned in the headline but not the Antarctic, so it may have been missed by some:
2. 12/5/11, NSIDC: "In recent years, the sea ice cover that surrounds the Antarctic continent
- has been higher than average,
12/5/11, "Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis" NSIDC
Title: "December 5, 2011, Winter in the Arctic: Ice and storms"
Scroll down near bottom for 6th subhead:
"Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis generally focuses on sea ice conditions in the Arctic, since these conditions are closely tied to climate and weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
- A seasonal cover of sea ice
- also surrounds the continent of Antarctica.
Since reaching its seasonal maximum in September, Antarctic sea ice has been near average in recent months. In November, Antarctic extent was 16.15 million square kilometers (6.24 million square miles), 87,000 square kilometers (33,600 square miles) less than the 1979 to 2000 average. In recent years, the sea ice cover that surrounds the Antarctic continent
- has been higher than average,
Antarctic sea ice varies much more from year to year than Arctic sea ice, but overall, ice extent around Antarctica has been growing slightly over the past 30 years. The ice cover around Antarctica also varies widely by region, with some regions, for example the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas, showing strong declines over the past three decades, while other regions such as the Ross Sea have seen significant increases. For more information on Antarctic sea ice, see All About Sea Ice: Antarctic vs. Arctic. Antarctic sea ice data are available from the Sea Ice Index."
------------------
3. 12/21/10, "Sea Ice News #32 – Southern Comfort," WUWT
"There’s a lot of news from NSIDC"
"Per the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent Anomaly
- for November was a record high for their data set:...
Source: ftp://sidads.colorado.edu//DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/Nov/S_11_plot.png
November’s record high Antarctic Sea Ice Area of 16.90 Million Sq Km, exceeded the prior record of 16.76 Million Sq Km (Set in November 2005), by 140,000 Square Kilometers. See here:
ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135/Nov/S_11_area.txt"
Like other recent Antarctic Ice record highs, the news is not trumpeted by the media.
-----------------------------
4. 4/9/11, "German Researcher says Antarctic Ice Intact," suite101.com, Hubert Vaz
"Working on a year-long research project in a polar station in the Antarctica, Franzisca Nehring, feels global warming hasn't really affected the ice."
------------------------------------------
5. 4/13/12, "Emperor penguins counted from space," BBC, Jonathan Amos
"The extent of sea ice in the Antarctic has been relatively stable in recent years..." (7th parag. from end).
(While admitting climate models were wrong about penguins, the BBC mentions several times in the article the hope that warming still "could" take place and that "if" it did things could get bad for penguins. For example, at end of article: "If Antarctica warms so that predators and competitors can move in, then their ecological niche no longer exists; and that spells bad news for the emperor penguin."
------------------------------
Global warming profiteers used penguins to make billions:
"Global Warming Threatens Penguins"
Special Time Magazine Report for 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit:
-------------------------------
On the backs of penguins who were not dying, this article also called for an increase in power and authority of the UN. A steady stream of articles like this serve as an excuse to transfer billions of taxpayer dollars to climate profiteers et al.:
'Per WWF,' global warming killing off penguins. "The Emperor is thought to be the most vulnerable of all Antarctic species to climate change."
No comments:
Post a Comment