Human CO2 Emissions to Drive Key Ocean Bacteria Haywire, Generate Dead Zones, Wreck Nitrogen Web

Posted on September 2, 2015 by GarryRogers

Yet another danger from CO2 emissions, one that could become irreversible.

Trichodesmium. It’s the bacteria that’s solely responsible for the fixation of nearly 50 percent of nitrogen in the world’s oceans. A very important role for this microscopic critter. For without nitrogen fixation — or the process by which environmental nitrogen is converted to forms usable by organisms — most of life on Earth would not exist.

Now, a new study produced by USC and the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has found that human carbon emissions are set to drive this essential organism haywire. Forcing evolutionary changes in which the bacteria is unable to regulate its growth. Thus generating population explosions and die-offs that will be very disruptive to the fragile web of life in the world’s oceans.

(A Trichodesmium bloom off New Caledonia. Image source: Earth Observatory.)

Trichodesmium — A Mostly Helpful Bacteria Essential to Ocean Life

Trichodesmium is a form of cyanobacteria. It…

View original post 1,173 more words

Climate Change Facts for My Children and Their Families

Posted on August 29, 2015 by GarryRogers

Facts About Climate Change You Need to Know

Alex On The Beach

Climate change and its effects are peeking at us from the sky, the land, and the sea. Few of us have noticed these first small effects, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real, or that they will not grow. I just ran across three reports by a specialist in threat analysis that you must read. These well-documented reports describe an effect of climate change that hasn’t made the news yet. It will begin making the news as people realize that it could be the great destroyer of life on Earth.

The comments following these posts are helpful. Be sure to read the comments for at least one of them.

Shades of a Canfield Ocean — Hydrogen Sulfide in Oregon’s Purple Waves?

Posted on August 28, 2015 by GarryRogers

Here we are at 1-degree C above normal, calling for a 2-degree limit, and already we get hints of horrors that might come. These purple waves should be treated as an early warning and cause for intensive investigation.

robertscribbler

Are we already starting to awaken some of the horrors of the ancient hothouse ocean? Are dangerous, sea and land life killing, strains of primordial hydrogen sulfide producing bacteria starting to show up in the increasingly warm and oxygen-starved waters of the US West Coast? This week’s disturbing new reports of odd-smelling, purple-colored waves appearing along the Oregon coastline are a sign that it may be starting to happen.

(Purple waves wash over the Oregon beach of Neskowin on August 15. A form of hydrogen sulfide consuming bacteria is known to color water purple. Is this an indicator that the deadly gas is present in Oregon’s waters? Image source: Jeanine Sbisa and Beach Connection.)

A Dangerous Beauty

Oregon beachgoers and ocean researchers alike are flummoxed. There’s something strange in the water. Something that’s coloring the waves of Oregon’s beaches purple even as the off-shore waters are painted…

View original post 830 more words

Mass Whale Death in Northeastern Pacific — Hot Blob’s Record Algae Bloom to Blame?

Posted on August 25, 2015 by GarryRogers

“Something lurking in the Northeastern Pacific is killing off the graceful giants of the world’s oceans. For since May of 2015 30 large whales have been discovered dead — their bloated and decaying bodies washed up on Alaskan shores. It’s an unusual mortality event featuring a death rate of nearly 400 percent above the average. So far, scientists don’t yet have a culprit. But there is a prime suspect and it’s one that’s linked to climate change.”

(Photo: Bears consume the carcass of a beached finback whale on the Alaskan coastline. Image source: NOAA.)

“This month the US government declared an ‘unusual mortality event’ after it was confirmed that 30 large whales including 11 finback whales, 14 humpback whales, one gray whale and four other whales so bad off it that spotters where unable to identify the bodies by type were found dead. For large whales, whose numbers tend to be low due to size, low birth rates, and dietary requirements, that’s a very rapid mortality rate. As a comparison, all of 2014 only featured four large whale deaths in the Gulf of Alaska.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: robertscribbler.com

Ocean acidification shakes the foundation of cold-water coral reefs

Posted on August 21, 2015 by GarryRogers

“The longest-ever simulation of future ocean conditions, undertaken by researchers at Heriot-Watt, shows that the skeletons of deep-sea corals change shape and become 20-30% weaker, putting oases of deep-sea biodiversity at risk.

“Because the ocean absorbs much of the extra carbon dioxide produced by human activities, the chemistry of seawater is changing, a process known as ocean acidification. The researchers, who published their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, have simulated this process in the laboratory: while corals appear to feed and grow well, this hides fundamental changes in the structure of their skeletons. These changes put the whole reef structure at risk.

“Few people are aware that more than half the coral species known to science are found in deep-waters growing in chilly temperatures, and that spectacular reefs supporting a wealth of other marine life grow in the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: news-oceanacidification-icc.org

GR: Ocean warming and acidification may increase rapidly as polar ice masses melt and fresh water spreads across the surface of the heavier, saltier, oceans. Corals do indeed appear to be doomed.

Massive Sargassum Seaweed Bloom is Choking The Caribbean — Climate Change a Likely Culprit

Posted on August 19, 2015 by GarryRogers

“According to Carribean leaders, it’s a disaster that will take at least 100,000 people and 120 million dollars to clean up. And disaster may not be the best word to describe it — for an enormous Caribbean beach and water choking bloom of sargassum algae may be a new abnormal ocean condition. Yet one more dangerous upshot of a warming world.

“Great, sulfur-stinking mats of sargassum algae are now choking the beaches and near-shore waters of the Caribbean. In some places the mats are 10 feet deep. These great piles of seaweed can foul beaches, kill off native species, and result in ocean dead zones when they rob waters of nutrients and then die off — pulling life-giving oxygen out of the water by decomposition. Image source: Mission Blue.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: robertscribbler.com

The oceans can’t take any more: Fundamental change in oceans predicted

Posted on July 6, 2015 by GarryRogers

GR: Running out of time. Species extinctions, intensifying storms, dying forests and the seas. Scientists study the causes, activists fight small battles and talk about solutions, and our corporate-controlled governments and politicians say it isn’t practical just now to change course. The article below and others describe the approaching disaster.

A warm-water coral reef and boat. Credit: A. Venn

Science News: “Our oceans need immediate and substantial reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. If that doesn’t happen, we could see far-reaching and largely irreversible impacts on marine ecosystems, which would especially be felt in developing countries. That’s the conclusion of a new review study published today in the journal Science. In the study, the research team from the Ocean 2015 initiative assesses the latest findings on the risks that climate change poses for our oceans, and demonstrates how fundamentally marine ecosystems are likely to change if human beings continue to produce just as much greenhouse gases as before.” www.sciencedaily.com

April 2015 ranks as 4th-warmest on record for Earth

Posted on May 19, 2015 by GarryRogers

Take note of the cold spot in the North Atlantic. From the movie The Day After Tomorrow: Terry Rapson: “We found something extraordinary… extraordinary and disturbing, that is. You recall what you said in New Delhi about how polar melting might disrupt the North Atlantic Current?”
Jack Hall: “Yes.”
Terry Rapson: “Well… I think it’s happening.”

Summit County Citizens Voice

Year to-date is record warm

Only a few small areas of the globe were cooler than average in April 2015.

Staff Report

FRISCO — April’s globally averaged temperature was the fourth-warmest on record, at 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, according to federal climate trackers releasing the monthly Global State of the Climate update.

View original post 203 more words

Dead Zones: Massive Loss of Ocean Biodiversity From Warming May Take Millennia to Recover

Posted on April 4, 2015 by GarryRogers

Image from the Washington Post.

“. . . the effects of the current rise in temperatures of our oceans is worse than you or I could have imagined. It’s so bad that it may take thousands of years for ocean life to recover. That’s a recovery time measured in millennia, for those who prefer polysyllabic Latinate words:

“A study has found that it might take thousands of years for the ocean to recover from climate change. Researchers studied more than 5,400 fossils from a 30-foot-long core sample taken from the Pacific Ocean floor near Santa Barbara, California, and found that it can take millennia for ocean ecosystems to recover after periods of deoxygenation and warming waters. […] “In this study, we used the past to forecast the future,” Peter Roopnarine, curator of invertebrate zoology and geology at the California Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “We don’t want to hear that ecosystems need thousands of years to recover from disruption, but it’s critical that we understand the global need to combat modern climate impacts.”

“Here is what the article posted at Science News regarding this research study has to say about its importance to our understanding of the impacts of global warming on Ocean ecosystems and biodiversity (Source: www.dailykos.com).”

GR: I agree with the author “News like this should be cause for all of us to be running around screaming with our heads on fire.”

When one of the Coldwater Farm ponds developed a heavy algae bloom that began killing fish, I felt the same urgency that comes when you watch a newborn on its first search for a teat. I aerated and filtered desperately, but in the end all the fish died.

Are we as helpless to save our ocean ecosystems? Probably, but let’s watch for opportunities to urge our leaders to apply the Earth Ethic to our marine ecosystems.