Biosentients - Science Biology… etc

The ecology of penguins makes these iconic swimming and diving seabirds of the Southern Hemisphere uncommonly susceptible to environmental changes. Pronounced warming in the Antarctic, as well as commercial fishing, mining, and oil and gas development at lower latitudes, has led to declines in a number of species, as per P. Dee Boersma, of the University of Washington in Seattle. In the July/August 2008 issue of BioScience, Boersma provides a first-person account based on 30 years of studying the birds. Counts of the penguin populations at the 43 remaining breeding "hotspots," even once every five years, could provide valuable insights into the variability of the ocean ecosystem and the populations' viability, Boersma writes. Yet counts are carried out only rarely, if at all........