Why king penguins?
Being able to predict the impact of climate change on biodiversity is vital, but the effects on marine productivity in the Southern Ocean are still poorly understood. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine the impact of climate on marine food chains. One of the advantages of pelagic birds is that they are predators, and thus at the top of the food chain, and as a result, their population dynamics reflect the change in marine resources. As penguins obviously do not fly, great numbers of them can be identified and localized on their usual routes. Additionally, it is only king penguins that commute regularly all throughout the year between the colony and the ocean, where they find food for themselves and their chicks. During the summer, the penguins forage at a distance between 300 and 600 km from their colony, the distance being directly correlated with the warming of the Ocean: the warmer the surface water, the fewer fish prey close to Crozet and the further the penguins must go. In
