Satellite images show how penguins’ diets are changing in response to Antarctic climate change
An Adélie penguin swims through the ocean. Casey Youngflesh , CC BY The color of penguin poop, as seen from space, is offering a new window into how the ecology and the environment of Antarctica are changing over time. Adélie penguins are one of the most abundant predators in the Southern Ocean. Th…
Résumé
Penguin poop from space
Scientists are using satellite images to study the color of Adélie penguin guano (penguin poop) in Antarctica to understand how these birds’ diets are changing due to climate change.
Adélie penguins are abundant predators in the Southern Ocean that nest on rocky outcrops around Antarctica.
Their colonies can have hundreds of thousands of birds, producing so much guano that it can be detected from space using NASA’s Landsat satellites.
The color of the guano reveals what the penguins are eating because krill, a small shrimplike crustacean, has a pink exoskeleton that penguins do not fully digest, turning their guano pink.
Fish, on the other hand, do not contribute to this pink color.
By analyzing thousands of satellite images dating back to the 1980s, researchers can track changes in penguin diets over time and space.
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