Strategies needed to minimise multiple threats to Antarctic wildlife

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-12-23 06:00

New Zealand; International

Photo by Dylan Shaw on Unsplash

Worst-case scenario modelling suggests that nearly all of Antarctica's native land-based creatures will decline by 2100 under existing conservation efforts, with Emperor penguins most at risk. The researchers behind the modelling propose 10 updated threat management strategies, which would cost $36 million NZD. While influencing global policy to limit climate change is the most beneficial strategy, minimising the impact from human activities and improving planning and management of new infrastructure projects are cost-effective ways to minimise threats to Antarctic biodiversity.

Journal/
conference: PLOS Biology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Queensland, Constantia Consulting, NZ

Funder: This project was supported by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), who provided support for the meeting, and by the Australian Antarctic Science Program (projects 4296, 4297 and Integrated Digital East Antarctica - IDEA). J.L. was supported by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment – Equity Trustees Charitable Foundation, an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, and a Research Fellowship from The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. P.C., K.H. and E.B. are supported by NERC core funding to the British Antarctic Survey ‘Biodiversity, Evolution and Adaptation’ Team (P.C., E.B.) and Environment Office (K.H.). E.B. was also supported by a NERC-CONICYT grant NE/P003079/1 and Carlsberg Foundation grant CF18-0267. A.W. is a Senior Research Associate of the FRS-FNRS and supported by the CDR J.0152.18 and BelSPO project BR/165/A1/MICROBIAN. S.J. was supported by NSF OPP 1840058 and 1744794. A. Q. was funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigacio´n (Ministry of Science and Innovation) through the grant CTM2016-79741-R. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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