Zooplankton, Herring and Puffers - the new climate refugees

[jai mitchell]

Pity the poor puffin and razorbills. . .



Something Is Seriously Wrong on the East Coast—and It's Killing All the Baby Puffins

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/04/gulf-maine-puffin-climate-change

But Kress soon noticed that something was wrong. Puffins dine primarily on hake and herring, two teardrop-shaped fish that have always been abundant in the Gulf of Maine. But Petey's parents brought him mostly butterfish, which are shaped more like saucers. Kress watched Petey repeatedly pick up butterfish and try to swallow them.

Hake and herring, meanwhile, got the hell out of Dodge, heading for cooler waters. In all, at least 14 Gulf of Maine fish species have been shifting northward or deeper in search of relief.

In recent history, the average ocean surface temperature of the Gulf of Maine has hovered around 44 degrees Fahrenheit. 2013 was the second-warmest year in the Gulf in three decades, with an average surface temperature of 46.6 degrees. But it was nowhere near the freakish spike to 47.5 degrees in 2012

For 40 years, Stephen Kress has traveled to the same Maine islands each spring, has watched the same puffin couples return year after year to raise their chicks. Now he doesn't know what to think. "I've seen colonies go up and down, and I know one year doesn't make a pattern, but you can't help but wonder. We've worked decades to build those populations up, and in 2013 we lost a third. That's pretty dramatic."

http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/

Current regional Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=293.53,43.69,3000

[Niall Dollard]

Trying to find a thread already open on the plight of puffins - so I will resurrect this thread.

Since this thread was opened the plight of the puffin has got very bad in some parts.  :

NY times report from Iceland

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/29/climate/puffins-dwindling-iceland.html?smid=tw-share

Silent sea cliffs on the Shetland Isles.

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/03/shetland-seabirds-climate-change-catastrophe-terns-kittiwakes-puffins?__twitter_impression=true

Many are pointing the finger at SST rise. But I wonder has it changed a whole lot in the past 50 years ? What about the cold blob in the Atlantic the one part of the globe that has warmed the least.

Or is it really just overfishing - extracting everything from the sea ?

[Reginald]

Plankton may not survive global warming with "devastating effects"

Analysing the way ancient plankton responded to climate change 21,000 years ago, scientists at the University of Bristol have warned that this "lifeblood of the oceans" simply cannot keep up with pace of current temperature rises.

Oceanographic Magazine, By Rob Hutchins

https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/plankton-may-not-survive-global-warming-with-devastating-effects/

The future of the global marine ecosystem is on a knife-edge, scientists studying the impact of rising temperatures on plankton – the “lifeblood of the oceans” – have warned, after new findings suggest we could be feeling the “devastating effects” of global warming with the next 70 years.

Research led by the University of Bristol and published last week in Nature has compared, for the first time, how tiny ocean organisms called plankton responded when the world last warmed significantly in ancient history with what they predict will happen under similar conditions by the end of our century.

Finding that the plankton were simply unable to keep pace with the current speed of temperature rises, scientists have expressed concern over what impact this will have upon the “huge swathes” of marine life that depend on them as a food source.

“The results are alarming as even with the more conservative climate projections of a 2°C increase, it’s clear plankton cannot adjust quickly enough to match the much faster rate of warming which we’re experiencing now and looks set to continue,” said the paper’s lead author, Dr Rui Ying, who led the project as part of his PhD in marine ecology at the University of Bristol.

“Plankton are the lifeblood of the oceans, supporting the marine food web and carbon storage. If their existence is endangered, it will present an unprecedented threat that will disrupt the whole marine ecosystem with devastating, wide-reaching consequences for marine life and also human food supplies.”

Nature article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08029-0