Six-Year Warming Trend On Kenai Threatens Insect Life, Salmon

[hatrack]

HOMER -- A long-term study of salmon streams on the lower Kenai Peninsula has found a steady six-year warming trend, with more days counted every year in which water temperatures exceed limits considered healthy for salmon.

The latest report found that the water last summer was not quite as warm as in the June-July peak of 2004. But 2005 wound up with the most days exceeding state standards, because researchers started counting earlier. By May 23, as king salmon were first nosing into the Anchor River, the water was already exceeding healthy temperatures.

The study also found that vital insect larvae on two of the rivers -- Deep Creek and the Anchor River -- are failing to recover as expected from major flooding in 2002. Other streams examined were the Ninilchik River and Stariski Creek, where invertebrates appear to be recovering.

The report suggests new ways in which climate change may be coming to roost in Southcentral Alaska. While much attention has gone to the effects of warming in Arctic Alaska, the southern coast has seen spruce bark beetle epidemics and drying wetlands attributed by scientists to higher temperatures.

EDIT

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7418936p-7330487c.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Who gives a shit about bugs & fish?

Hey, who ya got in the Superbowl?