Jan 21, 2026
3 min read
Oxford University researcher Ignacio Juarez identified the fastest development in its reproductive calendar.This increases competition between species and may be a response to the effects of global warming.
This Spanish 'penguinologist' discovered a record change in penguins.This is a warning of what is to come
Oxford University researcher Ignacio Juarez has discovered the fastest progression recorded in his reproductive calendar.This could increase competition between species and be a response to the effects of global warming.
If you are a key part of an ecosystem, the timing of your reproduction is more important than it seems.Humans do not have to explain (too much), but Antarctic penguins are under the microscope.Gracefully, photogenic and able to swim up to 60 kilometers per hour, these fascinating animals play a vital role in Antarctic food chains.Now they think of their calendar: some species are two weeks before its nesting season, and all the signs are that it is in response to climate change.
There are six species that live in Antarctica: emperor, king, macaroni, Adelia, chinstrap and gentoo.A study led by the Penguin Watch research project tracked these three species for 10 years and discovered a record change in their reproductive timing.Ignacio Juárez Martínez (Avila, 1989), a PhD in climate change and penguins from Oxford University/Oxford Brookes, is the leader of today's research.
Spanish researchers who have been in Antarctica six times (11 months in total) have warned about the decline of the Antarctic ecosystem and the diversity of penguins on the entire planet.We talked about Penguin Awareness Day.
Question.People often read research on penguins.Why are these animals thermometers for studying climate change?
ANSWER.People who read your newspaper may find it a little strange: Going to Antarctica to study penguins, won't there be birds to study in Spain?What is happening is that Antarctica is the fastest warming area in the world (after the Arctic Atlantic), at 0.06 ºC per year;it has already left behind the Paris Agreement.We study penguins to understand the consequences of accelerated climate change on an ecosystem.If we do nothing, it will come to us
Q.What changes have you identified in their breeding dates?
A. We studied phenology, which is scientifically called the penguin calendar.Usually one day they come to a group, one lays an egg, another hatches a chick... Well, it all progresses, it progresses every year, some 13, 15 days in ten years.This may not seem like a lot to people, but it is actually a lot.A long study of this kind was done in Oxford for 75 years to look at the phenology of chickadees [birds], and in 75 years they saw a movement of 15 days.We saw it in 10 years.This is a record, the fastest movement ever seen in any vertebrate.
Q. For many years we have seen the spring flowers come early because of the heat, or the leaves fall on the trees early in the year.This somehow happened to the penguins?
A. Yes, but not all species respond to temperature changes and not all species react the same way.There are species that are reacting in the opposite way because climate change leaves them without food and delays reproduction until they have enough food.But in penguins, there is a correlation between reproductive changes and temperature changes.They are extending their breeding season at an insane rate.And this change occurs not only with increasing temperature, but also with other environmental variables.Adaptations unique to each species and adaptations needed to survive in Antarctica are also related.
H.For example:
A. Ice and ocean productivity.In the case of Adélie penguins, they are experts in hunting small crustaceans, which form the base of the food chain in Antarctica.The less ice there is due to rising temperatures, the more open their hunting area is and they then move forward the season.Added to this is a layer of sediment which accumulates on the glaciers.When the ice melts, the dust from these elements fertilizes the sea and becomes rich in nutrients.
Question.What technology did you use to track all these changes?
A. We used a very simple but very effective technology: photo-hanging cameras. They are special cameras that can withstand the Antarctic winter and take a photo of the colony and a temperature record every hour.We placed 77 cameras in the areas where these penguins are distributed.With these images, we could see what they do in winter and summer.
Fight for food and space
"The penguin colony is like a small town, there's always something going on there," Juarez said. By using these cameras to monitor them, researchers can reveal more unknown data about their behavior: Although Papuan lizards don't migrate, they return to their habitats in winter. "Antarctic penguins have been studied for more than 100 years, but the technology we have now doesn't get the job done yet," Juarez said.
These behaviors are difficult to monitor. Tom Hart, founder of Penguin Watch and senior co-author of the study, added that the idea behind this entire camera trap monitoring network is to establish a system that monitors populations and their behavioral responses to threats. Among the threats posed by these changes is the potential increase in competition between species for food and nesting sites. Yes, penguins have their own habitat crisis.
Q. You noticed that the three kinds that you learn have synchronized reproductive timing.ken this cause scotting 'competition' problems?
A. That's a word we don't use in science because it would show a little intent.You imagine the chin straps saying, "Damn you!" as they wave their fins skyward.But it accelerates problems of competition for resources between species.On the one hand, you have gentiles who can eat fish and krill, while chinstraps and adelias only eat krill.If one year there is a shortage of krill and due to phenological changes all three species breed at the same time, they need chicken feed at the same time.its population.Competition would be much fiercer and could displace other species.
that is. Do they increase their population compared to the others and that everyone has to reproduce at the same time, will there be battles for space as well?
A. Yes, it is not just competition for food resources.Nests are limited and you have gentos which are a resident species;the other two are migrants.Because the breeding colonies are free from the winter ice, they are already the first to put their donkeys in the nests.So far, all these problems have been avoided because they reproduce in a more "stir-fry" way;the bigger the match, the bigger the competition.
Q. Why should we be concerned about these changes in the penguin reproductive ecosystem?
A. Because the reproduction of penguins must be very harmonious with the ecosystem. He wants to feed his chickens;The more food around, the more likely you are to get it.But if they move their calendars too quickly, are they really in tune with their environment?Will they adapt and ride the wave, or will the wave drag them along?
Climate change thermometer
This video, recorded by a scientist, looks at a typical day in a mixed colony of Adelia and Gentoo penguins on Petermann Island.There is incubation (the penguins are on eggs) and you can observe behavior such as mating (they bring stones to the couple in the nest).There used to be thousands of Adelie and a handful of Gentoo penguins, but today the tables have turned.
Penguins are a fundamental link in the food chain of the Antarctic ecosystem, and one of the reasons is something that may sound vulgar: they are "spectacular shit machines," exclaims Juarez.They hunt for krill at depth, but then release their nutrients again when they defecate on the coast.These nutrients are used by the algae, which will later become food for the krill.
Everything in the environment is interconnected, and if these seabirds fail, the entire global ecosystem can collapse.That's why Penguin Watch researchers are trying to use them to understand how climate change leads to changes in species composition.
Are these types of mutations "bad"?
A: We have to ask ourselves whether current climate change means we are losing species richness, and if so, whether we will be able to cope with future climate change. As for penguins, two species are now on the decline: the Adélie penguin and the chinstrap penguin. As they grow and create new habitats, Papuan lizards are going through the worst times of changing temperatures, overfishing and food shortages.
If we lose chinstraps and other powerful changes come in 100 years, we will have only two types of response.If we only have two species, the probability that none of them will adapt to future changes is very high.And if we run out of penguins in the ecosystem, we run out of all the species that depend on them: seals, killer whales, sea birds and the whole process of recycling nutrients.
"Protecting penguins protects what keeps us and our ecosystems healthy"
Q: There are many conditions, but it's just a chain reaction that can happen.If so, is it part of evolutionary theory that there are "winners and losers", does this always happen?
A. Not at that level.Morro Bailey was one of the largest chinstrap communities on the Antarctic Peninsula;I had 100,000 masks.Since the heat wave started in recent years, we have lost more than 50%, which is very annoying.We don't know exactly what's going on, but there are some things that started with rapid climate change.Penguins in Antarctica have existed for hundreds of thousands of years.The rate of extinction is not unusual.
If you are a fundamental part of the ecosystem, the timing of your reproduction is more important than it seems.Humans don't need to explain (too much), but Antarctic penguins are under the microscope.Elegant, photogenic and capable of swimming up to 60 kilometers per hour, these fascinating animals play an important role in the Antarctic food chain.Now they are thinking about the calendar: some species have advanced their breeding season by two weeks, which all shows that they are responding to climate change.
