Loss of Antarctic sea ice could impact seabird food supply

Albatrosses and petrels may be forced to fly further to feed

- Helen Pilcher

ANTARCTICA'S RAPIDLY SHRINKING SEA ICE could negatively impact seabirds breeding hundreds of miles away, according to a new study published in the journal Progress in Oceanography.

Most of the world’s albatrosses and their close relatives, petrels, breed on islands in the Southern Ocean, whose waters surround Antarctica. The study, by Durham University and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), found that these birds fly vast distances to parts of the ocean affected by sea ice – known as the ‘Antarctic seasonal sea-ice zone’ – where they are thought to feed.