Climate: Tracking Arctic ecosystem changes

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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An adult female walrus on an ice floe in the Arctic. Photo courtesy USGS.

Five-year project will monitor Bering Sea

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — With a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, a team of biologists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory will take an in-depth look at how global warming plays out in the Arctic ecosystems of the Bering Sea.

The two researchers, Jackie Grebmeier and Lee Cooper, have been visiting the area north of Alaska for nearly 30 years, reporting that the biggest changes have come in just the past few years. Last summer marked a record-low for Arctic sea ice extent, and eight of the last ten years have seen the lowest ice coverage on record. (more…)

Filed under: Arctic, biodiversity, climate and weather, Environment, global warming | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Feds claim progress on recovering fisheries

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

A flounder in seagrass. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA.

Several valuable species have been rebuilt to sustainable levels

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal fisheries experts say that collaborative efforts have helped rebuild stocks of several valuable commercial and recreational fisheries, including Bering Sea snow crab, Atlantic coast summer flounder, Gulf of Maine haddock, northern California coast Chinook salmon, Washington coast coho salmon, and Pacific coast widow rockfish — all fully rebuilt to healthy levels.

Those are record results for a single, year, the National Marine Fisheries Service said in a report, declaring that experts have been able to recover 27 U.S. marine fish populations to sustainable levels in the past 11 years. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, Environment, Marine biology | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Climate: Seasonal Arctic ice cap meltdown begins

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

 Arctic sea ice starting melting quickly in late April

Sea ice extent in Antarctica has been above average during the Austral summer.

Antarctica. IMAGE COURTESY NASA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — After staying near average levels during much of April, the Arctic sea ice extent started a rapid decline late in the month, marked by the meltdown of freshly formed thin ice that can’t persist from year to year.

The linear rate of decline for April ice extent over the satellite record is 2.6 percent per decade.

For the month, the ice extent averaged 5.69 million square miles. Because of the very slow rate of ice loss through the last half of March and the first three weeks of April, ice extent averaged for April ranked close to average out of 34 years of satellite data, according to the latest update from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. (more…)

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February Arctic sea ice extent below average

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Despite rapid monthly growth, Arctic ice extent continues long-term decline

Arctic sea ice grew at an above-average pace in February, 2012.

Monthly February ice extent for 1979 to 2012 shows a decline of 3 percen per decade. GRAPHIC COURTESY NSIDC.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Arctic sea ice extent grew at a faster than average rate, and spiked in late February, but despite spreading farther than normal on the Pacific side of the Arctic, the overall extent was lower than average. Thick multi-year ice continues to melt quickly, according to NASA researchers.

Overall, the Arctic gained 369,000 square miles of ice during the month. This was 188,000 square miles more than the average ice growth for February 1979 to 2000.

For the month, the ice extent averaged 5.62 million square miles, about 409,000 square miles below the 1979 to 2000 average extent, making it the fifth-lowest February ice extent in the satellite data record, according to the monthly update from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Environment, global warming | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Arctic sea ice near record low levels in January

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Bering Sea ice is the exception, with well above-average ice

This NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image, acquired in mid-January, shows heavy sea ice conditions in Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, off the western coast of Alaska. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY —Other than the Bering Sea, Arctic sea ice remained below average in January, with the extent totaling about 5.3 million square miles, the fourth-lowest January sea ice extent in the satellite record going back to 1979.

Since satellite records started, the linear rate of decline for January ice extent over the satellite record is 3.2 percent per decade, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which posted its latest update this week. (more…)

Filed under: climate and weather, Environment, global warming, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

House GOP questions sea lion conservation science

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

 Republicans claim fishing restrictions hurt regional economies

Steller sea lions at a coastal rookery. PHOTO COURTESY NOAA.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Radical House Republicans last week found a new target as part of their extreme anti-environmental agenda, taking aim at endangered and threatened Steller sea lions during a field hearing, when they claimed that efforts to protect the marine mammals have “devastating impacts” on the fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest.

Steller sea lions are distributed mainly around the coasts to the outer continental shelf along the North Pacific Ocean rim from northern Hokkaiddo, Japan through the Kuril Islands and Okhotsk Sea, Aleutian Islands and central Bering Sea, southern coast of Alaska and south to California. (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, Marine biology, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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