The study, which is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says high sea surface temperatures cut the amount of available marine prey in the area where the penguins spend the winters, affecting the survival rate of adult penguins.
The adult king penguin population declined 9% for every 0.26 degrees Celsius of sea surface warming, the report said.
Current global warming scenarios predict an average increase of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade for the next 20 years.
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