Climate presses and pulses mediate the decline of a migratory predator

What is it about?

Using a multidecadal dataset on Magellanic penguins, we show that both long-term changes and extreme events impact population persistence in interacting and opposing ways by differentially affecting different life stages, ultimately leading to predicted population extirpation.

Featured Image

Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash

Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Anthropogenic climate change has caused gradual, long-term changes in climate conditions, along with more frequent extreme climate events. Yet it is unclear how the ecological effects of long-term changes and extreme events interact, and what that means for our ability to mitigate climate threats to animal populations. Such findings highlight the complexity of predicting population responses to climate change and demonstrate that accounting for the interactive effects of long-term climate changes and extreme events is essential to accurately predict outcomes for animal populations under increasing climate change.