Climate has influenced the distribution patterns of Adélie penguins across Antarctica for millions of years.
The geologic record shows that as glaciers expanded and covered Adélie breeding habitats with ice, penguin colonies were abandoned. When the glaciers melted during warming periods, this warming positively affected the Adélie penguins, allowing them to return to their rocky breeding grounds.
But now, University of Delaware scientists and colleagues report that this beneficial warming may have reached its tipping point.