Climate Changes Ensures Penguin Boom On Southern Island Will Be Temporary

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"For seals and seabirds wanting ground on a prestige island such as Australia's Heard, life is good. Space is even increasing, and some species with it. The downside may be that this is courtesy of rapid climate change.

Australian scientists recently back from an expedition to the sub-Antarctic island found the melting of glaciers unabated. Where ice cliffs once ran to the sea, there are now beaches and lagoons as the ice retreats up hillsides. More rocky ground is being exposed - normally a boon to breeding penguins and resting seals. Vegetation also has room to spread, and a new plant has been recorded.

But the scientists are concerned that instead of expanding to fill the extra space, local wildlife populations may be limited by food availability. Global warming could mean less productive waters around them.

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But the global average surface temperature increased over the 20th century by about 0.6 degrees, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On Heard, Australian scientists have measured a 1.3-degree hike in just 50 years. One of the glaciers, Brown, has retreated a massive 1.2 kilometres since it was first measured in 1947. "It's quite a dramatic change," Dr Thost says. "It's a complex system, but the overriding factor in the retreat is that 1.3 degree rise." In the less harsh climate, botanists found a daisy species new to the island, and predict that a winner will be an invasive buzzy burr, Acaena magellanica, which is already swamping the delicate cushion plants slightly further north on nearby Kerguelen Island."

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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/07/1083911398647.html