Antarctic Krill - Ocean Food-Chain Base - Down More Than 80% In 25 Years

[hatrack]

"Krill — the heart of the rich Antarctic food chain that nourishes whales, seals and penguins — have declined by more than 80% in the last 25 years in key ocean regions, according to a new study that links the loss to warming temperatures.

The new research, published in today's issue of the journal Nature, is the first comprehensive attempt to estimate numbers of the small, shrimp-like creatures that once were so abundant that their swarms colored vast patches of the southern oceans blood red.

Now, krill have largely been replaced by salp, clear, gelatinous invertebrates that provide so little nutrition to predators that they are considered ecological dead-ends, said Angus Atkinson, a marine biologist with the British Antarctic Survey who led the study.

Such a steep decline in krill could decimate the region's abundant wildlife, ecologists said. The finding may signal that a shift is underway in one of the world's most productive and pristine ecosystems. "We're just holding our breath to see what the consequences are," said William Fraser, an Antarctic researcher who was not involved in the current study."

EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-sci-krill4nov04,1,2026259.story?coll=la-news-a_section

[patrice]

1. Salp!

Sounds like most of the food in our grocery stores!

See Gaia IS Real!!!!

[hatrack]

2. But it's not just salp!

It's salp with Zesty Nacho Cheese flavor!!

[patrice]

3. Made with with the same stuff they make dry cleaning bags out of. n/t

[Village Idiot]

4. Hope you enjoy eating Soylent Green in a few years.

[jpak]

5. Adele penguins getting the one-two punch with GW

Bill Fraser has been working on penguin rookeries near Palmer Station for many years.

He has evidence that climate warming has increased late winter snowpack on the rookery islands.

This has resulted in massive reproductive failures on some of these islands.

After the snow melts in the summer, you can see abandoned pebble nests everywhere....

[amazona]

6. did you read "waiting to fly"

...by Ron Naveen. It has some material in there about this. Here's the Amazon link to this wonderful book if you are curious:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688175732/qid=1099595786/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-0028943-6904114?v=glance&s=books


I think we are losing them. Enjoy them now. Don't know what else to say.

[jpak]

7. No, but I spent 5 months at Palmer station back in '99

I visited the nearby penguin rookeries on several occasions.

We also have data indicating the "Ozone Hole" has a dramatic effect on the microbial ecology of Antarctic waters.

Concentrations of heterotrophic bacteria in surface waters decline dramatically. Bacterial production is severely inhibited until stratospheric ozone levels recover.

Protozoa in surface waters simply disappear.

The "microbial loop" that plays a major role in the Antarctic marine iron cycle collapses.

(thats in addition to the 12% decline in phytoplankton production attributed to enhanced UV in the early Antarctic spring)

I was astonished to see how bad it really was....

[hatrack]

8. I saw an interesting magazine article a few years back

It was about a marine survey team in Antarctica. They were dragging some specimen nets off the Ross Ice Shelf, and (not surprisingly) came up with a bunch of krill.

One of the scientists put a couple in a beaker of sea water so that the journalist could get a good look at them. Then, they went on to the next task.

Only some hours later did the journalist remember that he'd left the krill beaker sitting on the deck, and that it was a bright, sunny day. When he picked up the beaker, the krill were not only dead, but bright red (he said) from hours of exposure to the high UVB environment.

[jpak]

10. Not surprised (journalists - bah!)

Sunburn or temperature changes - it will kill 'em every time.

Another indirect effect of the Ozone Hole is that it changes the light environment of the upper water column.

Organisms normally "invisible" in the UVB and UVA portion of the spectrum are "lit up" and become more vulnerable to predation.

Lots to consider - but its all bad...

[pffarrell]

9. bush advisors already on the offensive

or jsut offensive. story in Evening Standard (London)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/14484397?source=Evening%20Standard

"Blair and Bush advisers at war
By Joe Murphy Political Editor In Washington, Evening Standard
4 November 2004
George Bush's environmental adviser today launched a savage attack on Britain's chief scientist for suggesting that global warming threatened the planet.

Myron Ebell, director of global warming at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, said that Sir David King's warnings on climate change were "ridiculous" and "alarmist".

<snip>

But in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Ebell said the warning that climate change was the greatest crisis for humanity was based on "a tissue of improbabilities": "We have people who know nothing-about climate science like Sir David King, who are alarmist and continually promote this ridiculous claim," he said.

Mr Ebell said there was no prospect of the US signing up to the Kyoto Treaty to cut atmospheric pollution and claimed that the European Union was using the issue to attack America's economic superiority.

He said that it was "pretty obviously and explicitly" the mission of the EU to "get America". "


ummm, yeah, ok

[OrwellwasRight]

11. More suppression from Bush Admin

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23541-2004Nov3.html

U.S. Wants No Warming Proposal
Administration Aims to Prevent Arctic Council Suggestions

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 4, 2004; Page A13

The Bush administration has been working for months to keep an upcoming eight-nation report from endorsing broad policies aimed at curbing global warming, according to domestic and foreign participants, despite the group's conclusion that Arctic latitudes are facing historic increases in temperature, glacial melting and abrupt weather changes.

State Department representatives have argued that the group, which has spent four years examining Arctic climate fluctuations, lacks the evidence to prepare detailed policy proposals. But several participants in the negotiations, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of derailing the Nov. 24 report, said officials from the eight nations and six indigenous tribes involved in the effort had ample science on which to draft policy.

The recommendations are based on a study, which was leaked last week, that concludes the Arctic is warming much faster than other areas of the world and that much of this change is linked to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment -- produced by a council of nations with Arctic territory that includes the United States, Canada, Russia and several Nordic countries -- reflects the work of more than 300 scientists.

Several individuals close to the negotiations said the Bush administration -- which opposes mandatory cuts in carbon emissions on the grounds that they will cost American jobs -- had repeatedly resisted even mild language that would endorse the report's scientific findings or call for mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.

More...

[Nihil]

12. Myron, you are a paranoid, pig-ignorant fanatic. Please die now.

> But in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Ebell said
> the warning that climate change was the greatest crisis for humanity
> was based on "a tissue of improbabilities": "We have people who know
> nothing-about climate science like Sir David King, who are alarmist
> and continually promote this ridiculous claim," he said.

I heard this on the radio while driving in to work and was so angry
that I had to turn the radio off.

David King has his faults but at least he *is* a scientist.
How can that wanker Ebell DARE to accuse King of knowing nothing
about "climate science" when Ebell is just a political appointee of
an ignoramus whose only "science" has been creationism?

How can Ebell pretend that climate change is "ridiculous"?
Is he totally illiterate? Is he incapable of listening to people?

It's bad enough that corrupt fundamentalists are in power anyway
but when the "less educated" members of the public (to be polite)
hear this sort of shit coming from a supposedly highest level
scientific adviser, what hope is left for normal, *sapient* members
of the species?

Nihil