Researchers at British Antarctic Survey (bass) monitor the seals in the sub-antarcic area since the 1970s, focusing in particular on three different seals on the Signy island: Weddell seals, Antarctic fur and Elefant Sudic seals.
Using satellite records since 1982, the team of researchers compared the annual changes in the concentration of marine ice with the counting of the seals performed since 1977, transmits
With data collected over a period of five decades, covering a long-term and temporary cooling period between 1998 and 2014, they managed to get a comprehensive image of how the seal populations react to the changes of ice conditions, which the short-term studies could not have done.
The results of the study are worrying
The study, published in the Global Change Biology scientific journal, found that Weddell (Leptonychotes Weddellii) seals, which depend on stable marine ice to rest, reproduce and feed, decreased by 54% from 1977. Similarly, fur offspring from Antarctica Dry, but they are affected by the changes in the trophic chain, they decreased by 47%, according to The Guardian.
The conclusions contradict the previous assumptions that the population in South Orkney would have stabilized.
Southern elephant (Mirounga Leonine) seals, despite the similar tendencies of the population, did not present “any significant long -term decline”.
The study serves to underline the “vital importance of long -term ecological monitoring”, as well as the interconnection between the three species of seals and the conditions of the marine ice. Michael Dunn, the main author of the study, said: “For the first time, we not only predict how the wildlife could react to the reduction of the sea ice and to the environmental changes, but we had the rare opportunity to confirm this, using solid data. In the long term. The image that is outlined is deeply worrying.”
In the light of BAS conclusions, the researchers have expressed their concern about how the climatic changes affect the trophic chain in Antarctica, on which all three species depend.
