Penguins Environmental Impacts

Words: 3657
Pages: 15
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Arvid Somaroo
English 7H/ EWP 190
Mr. Marx
January 8, 2014
What are the Impacts of Global Warming on Antarctic Populations? Global warming is a detrimental factor in the downfall of many species around the world, but the penguins are greatly impacted which makes them a great indicator for the impacts of global warming. This is because they are not affected by anthropogenic activities. Anthropogenic activities are actions and implications set forth by mankind upon the environment such as: oil spills, deforestations, building roads across green areas. Penguins are not impacted by such activities because of the climate in which they live in is unsuitable for expansion. Also, there are not many resources out in the Antarctic regions. This phenomenon …show more content…
Out of the seventeen species, only five live where there is an extreme amount of ice; the other twelve species live on the tips of southern continents. One example of a penguin species that lives in a warm climate area are the Galapagos penguins. The Galapagos penguins are suffering immensely from global warming due to the catastrophic event known as “El Nino”: “El Niño's reverse the upwelling and bring warm surface water from the central pacific back to the shore. During strong El Niño's –that is, when surface water temperatures reach 25oC (77oF) –the penguins do not breed” (“Penguins that Shun”). El Nino’s have occurred multiple times after this one, but before this time the penguins were unaffected by such. This El Nino was the most devastating to the penguins. El Nino’s are storms at intervals that vary from 2 to 10 year sea-surface temperatures and rainfall are unusually high and the trade winds are unusually weak over the tropical Pacific Ocean (Philander). The Galapagos penguins suffered immensely due to the El Nino of 1983-84 because there was a great surge of warm water for an elongated time period, which did not allow the penguins to breed properly (“Penguins that Shun”). Because of that the penguins still haven’t improved the status of their population, which is why the Galapagos penguins are on the endangered animals list. According to Dr. Wayne Trivelpiece, the steep decline in the penguin populations is not caused by anthropogenic activities, but it is caused by a larger ecological problem. The rapid increase in temperature from the 1970’s to the present is very destructive towards the habitats of many species, even our own. Since the 70’s the Antarctic Peninsula has had a 6oC rise around the time of winter, and also during the summer (Bryner). This increase alone has caused sea ice to melt quickly and change the water
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