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Hood Canal acidifying - 0 views

  • Unusually high acid readings were measured in the deep waters of southern Hood Canal, according to Richard Feeley, director of the Ocean Acidification Program at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Increased acidity appears to be caused by increased carbon dioxide working its way from the atmosphere into the ocean, as well as the decomposition of organic matter in local waters. “Our calculations suggest that ocean acidification can account for a significant part of the pH decrease in this region,” said Feeley, whose laboratory is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  • A research team found that ocean acidification caused by climate change accounts for 24 to 49 percent of the increased acidity in Hood Canal relative to pre-industrial times. The remainder of the pH shift occurs as a result of decomposition of organic material. Ocean effects provide the greatest contribution — 49 percent of the change — in winter when the rate of decomposition slows.
  • Increasing ocean acidity has been linked to the deaths of free-swimming oyster larvae at oyster hatcheries on the Oregon Coast, Newton said, and something similar may be happening at hatcheries on Hood Canal. Bill Dewey of Taylor Shellfish Farms, which operates an oyster hatchery on Dabob Bay, said oyster larvae production dropped by 60 percent in 2008 and 80 percent last year. It is too early to know how things will turn out this year, he said.
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  • Some early evidence suggests that more acidic water in Hood Canal is brought to the surface during storms, Dewey said. Unlike the ocean hatcheries, where acidity is linked directly to oyster mortality, there may be other factors at play in Hood Canal. “We have some very good scientists working on this,” he said. Oyster hatcheries may be able to adjust their intake water or add chemicals to help the larvae survive, Dewey said, but oysters in the wild are another story. Hood Canal has always been known for its abundant natural production, but that could be changing. Worse, numerous other shelled organisms — including zooplankton at the base of the food web and the many filter feeders that clean the waters — may be affected by the increasing acidity.
Hunter Cutting

Sea cucumber population explosion off coast of Ireland - 0 views

  • long-term monitoring has shown that animal communities living at great depth on the seafloor can change radically over remarkably short periods, and that these events are ultimately driven by climate. Such faunal changes are exemplified by the 'Amperima Event' – the sudden mass occurrence of the sea cucumber (holothurian) Amperima rosea recorded on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) situated off the southwest coast of Ireland in the northeast Atlantic. Communities of animals living on the seabed there at depths of nearly 5000 metres have been monitored from 1989 to the present day. A major change occurred in the PAP community between 1996 and 1999 involving a number of animal groups, including sea anemones, segmented worms, sea spiders, sea squirts, brittle stars, and sea cucumbers, all of which increased in abundance. However, the population explosion in the sea cucumber Amperima rosea (hereafter Amperima) was particularly striking – thus the 'Amperima Event'. Before 1996 the sea cucumber was found in only ones or twos. They were very rare. But by 1999, the sea cucumber reached such high densities that if you were able to walk on the deep seafloor, you would have difficulty in avoiding squashing them flat. Dr David Billet and his colleagues showed that the increase abundance and dominance of Amperima occurred over a very wide area, greater than the size of the UK. Changes are also apparent in the abundance of other animals living in the seabed, including the single-celled creatures inhabiting the sediments. The whole deep-sea world had been turned on its head. "What this strongly suggested," says Dr Billett, "is that the 'Amperima Event' did not simply reflect localised, chance changes in the abundances of one or two species. Instead, changes in the whole deep-sea animal community were driven by environmental factors."
  • "Whether it is the quality or the quality of the organic matter, or both, that matter," says Dr Billett, "it appears that changes in the density of animals such as Amperima are related to phytoplankton productivity in the overlying surface waters, which is affected by climate change."
Hunter Cutting

Algal Blooms, Phosphorus leaching into Lake Champlain - 0 views

  • evidence of increasing precipitation caused by climate change when approving the TMDL, even though stormwater run-off has been identified as a significant source of phosphorous in the lake.
  • The trend is toward more rain and the rain is falling faster, Moore said. The changes are “raising questions about how we’re defining stormwater systems,” Moore said.
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