The Halley Bay emperor colony fails and does not recover
The fast ice under one of the largest and apparently most stable emperor penguin colonies breaks out before the chicks can fledge, and does so again in following seasons. Numbers at the nearby Dawson-Lambton colony rise over the same period. The episode establishes two things at once: that a colony can be destroyed by a single ice season, and that emperors will relocate rather than simply die - which makes the species' prospects a question about where suitable fast ice will still exist, not only about how much.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Halley Bay Emperor Penguin Colony · site · Eastern Weddell Sea, Antarctica · not located
- Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) · species · Antarctic coast - circumpolar · not located
- Sea Ice · natural phenomenon · Both polar oceans · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Emperors on thin ice: three years of breeding failure at Halley Bay
Satellite imagery shows near-total breeding failure at the Halley Bay emperor penguin colony in successive seasons from 2016, following early break-out of the fast ice, with a concurrent increase in numbers at the nearby Dawson-Lambton colony consistent with relocation rather than mortality alone. V55 VERIFICATION BASIS: not opened during production; no research channel was available. Chick-loss counts and the exact sequence of seasons are not quoted anywhere in this pack for that reason.
Antarctic Science (Cambridge University Press); Fretwell and Trathan · 2019 · Partly verified
Antarctic Science, vol. 31, issue 3 (2019); doi:10.1017/S0954102019000099
Recorded on Halley Bay Emperor Penguin Colony
- The continuous satellite sea-ice record begins
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice
- The Arctic summer minimum drops far below anything previously observed
- The lowest Arctic sea-ice extent in the satellite record
- The Halley Bay emperor colony fails and does not recover
- The emperor penguin is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Antarctic sea ice reaches a record low, a year after the previous one · 2023-02
- The emperor penguin is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act · 2022-10-25
- The lowest Arctic sea-ice extent in the satellite record · 2012-09
- The Arctic summer minimum drops far below anything previously observed · 2007-09
- A long-term decline in krill density is linked to winter sea ice · 2004
- The continuous satellite sea-ice record begins · 1979