Dynamics of landfast sea ice of Atka Bay, Antarctica

Emperor penguins breed solely on the landfast sea ice of the Antarctic. Due to climate change the sea ice undergoes major changes in some regions of Antarctica. To assess a possible endangerment of an emperor penguin colony in Atka Bay (East Antarctica) the changes of the local extent of sea ice have been analyzed in this study for the period of the last 15 years by help of satellite images. No evidence was found, that this penguin colony is threatened by changing dynamics of the landfast sea ice in a short term.