Back to Search
Start Over
A reversal of fortunes: climate change ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in Antarctic Peninsula penguins
- Source :
- Scientific Reports
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2014.
-
Abstract
- Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity. Antarctic ecosystems are no exception. Investigating past species responses to climatic events can distinguish natural from anthropogenic impacts. Climate change produces ‘winners’, species that benefit from these events and ‘losers’, species that decline or become extinct. Using molecular techniques, we assess the demographic history and population structure of Pygoscelis penguins in the Scotia Arc related to climate warming after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). All three pygoscelid penguins responded positively to post-LGM warming by expanding from glacial refugia, with those breeding at higher latitudes expanding most. Northern (Pygoscelis papua papua) and Southern (Pygoscelis papua ellsworthii) gentoo sub-species likely diverged during the LGM. Comparing historical responses with the literature on current trends, we see Southern gentoo penguins are responding to current warming as they did during post-LGM warming, expanding their range southwards. Conversely, Adélie and chinstrap penguins are experiencing a ‘reversal of fortunes’ as they are now declining in the Antarctic Peninsula, the opposite of their response to post-LGM warming. This suggests current climate warming has decoupled historic population responses in the Antarctic Peninsula, favoring generalist gentoo penguins as climate change ‘winners’, while Adélie and chinstrap penguins have become climate change ‘losers’.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Acclimatization
Climate Change
Population
Antarctic Regions
Climate change
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Article
03 medical and health sciences
Animals
14. Life underwater
Glacial period
education
030304 developmental biology
0303 health sciences
education.field_of_study
Multidisciplinary
biology
Ecology
Global warming
Last Glacial Maximum
15. Life on land
biology.organism_classification
Biological Evolution
Spheniscidae
Pygoscelis
Geography
13. Climate action
Genetic Fitness
Pygoscelis papua
Global biodiversity
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Volume :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....6888b5ecb610a593b2d9957f5cc4179d