NOAA - "Unprecedented Changes" Power Rapid Decline In CA Pacific Ocean Bioproductivity

[hatrack]

It's no secret that climate change has been affecting our oceans, with things like warming surface temperatures and rising acidity affecting various species across the world. Now a new report has revealed that the West Coast of North America may be feeling changes so intense that it is altering the overall productivity of local waters, leading to a reduction in marine species spanning from seabirds to salmon. "We are seeing unprecedented changes in the environment," Toby Garfield, Director of the Environmental Research Division at the NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center, said when presenting these results to the Pacific Fishery Management Council this week.

He added that climate and ecological indicators are "pointing toward lower primary productivity" off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington in particular. Primarily, the report centers around the state of the California Current - the large network of Pacific Ocean currents that move southward along the West Coast to break away into deeper water just off southern Baja California.

The report details how "record-high sea surface temperatures combined with shifts in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, North Pacific Gyre Oscillation and weaker upwelling of deep, cold waters indicate declining productivity in the California Current."

Additionally, multiple field surveys have revealed that important energy-rich organisms called copepods - a primary base for the general food chain - have seen significant decline in the past few years. They are being bullied out by an alternate copepod population more adapted for warmer water - plankton that, unfortunately, serve as a poorer source of nourishment.

EDIT

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/13494/20150317/warming-west-coast-waters-losing-productivity-noaa.htm

[lapfog_1]

1. tipping point. n/t