New research has shown that the numbers of sections in the Antarctic continent are declining a significant decline with the melting of marine ice around it, which confirms the serious impact of the phenomenon of global warming on the region and its ecosystem.
A study, published in the scientific magazine “Global Cheng Biological”, found that the numbers of “Battle Wideel” – which depends on stable marine ice for comfort, reproduction and nutrition – decreased by 54% since 1977.
The numbers of the “Antarctic Fur” that multiply on land decreased, but it is affected by the transformations of the food chain by 47%, according to the study.
These results contradict the previous assumptions that the number of sections, especially in the southern Orange Islands, has settled despite the fact that the “southern sea elephant chaos” did not show “any significant decrease in the long term.”
Researchers from the British Survey of the Southern Pole have been monitoring the numbers of seals in the Antarctic sub -continent since the 1970s, and in particular they viewed 3 different types of seals in the Antarctic Population region on the island of Segeni: “Satellite Widel”, “Southern Antarctic Fur”, and “Southern Elephant Summit”.
Using satellite records dating back to 1982, the research team compared the annual changes in the concentration of marine ice with the number of seals that have been made since 1977.
Thanks to 5 decades of data covering a period of long -term warming and temporary cooling between 1998 and 2014, they managed to draw a comprehensive picture of how the number of seals interact with changing ice conditions, something that short -term studies will not be able to achieve.
“For the first time, we are not satisfied with predicting how the wildlife is responding to the shrinkage of marine ice and environmental transformations, but rather had a rare opportunity to confirm this, using reliable and long -term data. The image we have reached is great anxiety.”
In light of the results of the British Geological Survey, the researchers also raised concerns about how the climate collapse affects the food network on the Antarctica, on which the three types of sections depend.
In 2023, the sea ice patch on the Antarctic continent recorded a record level of melting, even before the end of the southern summer, according to the American National Center for Ice and Snow Data, leaving the Antarctica vulnerable to waves and hot winds that indirectly threaten the ice cover.
In February of that year, the volume of marine ice around the Antarctica decreased to 1.91 million square kilometers, which is the lowest recorded level since the start of satellite measurements in 1978 before the relative recovery came back later.