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| Authored by: Wol on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 07:00 PM EDT |
Old News!
The North Sea seabird population has been seriously affected by the partial
disappearance of the sand-eel (on which many birds depend).
It likes cold water. The North Sea is noticeably warmer (even if not by much).
Fewer sand-eels means fewer puffins, gannets, and a whole variety of other
predators.
(Those predators include a lot of fish that we eat, probably including Tux's
favourite, herring.)
:-(
Cheers,
Wol[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 07:50 PM EDT |
The water temperature change there is just a regular El-Nino/La-Nina event.
Nothing to do with climate change. The marine life in that area depends on the
regular upwelling of mineral rich cold water off the coast. Fish populations
boom. The birds eat the fish. When the oscillation switches phase and the cold
upwelling stops, fish populations abruptly migrate/decline which can cause
starvation in the bird populations that depend on them. Such mysterious mass
dieoffs of seabirds are not uncommon. They can also be caused by disease.
The Argos buoy network that precisely moniters ocean temperatures has not
detected anything unusual going on with ocean temperatures recently. There has
been no significant ocean warming in the 21st century since the buoy system
became operational.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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