Seaweed records show impact of ocean warming
As the planet continues to warm, it appears that seaweeds may be in especially hot water. New findings reported online on October 27 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, based on herbarium records collected in Australia since the 1940s suggest that up to 25 percent of temperate seaweed species living there could be headed to extinction. The study helps to fill an important gap in understanding about the impact that global warming is having on the oceans, the researchers say.
“Our findings add an important piece in the puzzle that is determining the global impacts of climate change,” said Thomas Wernberg of the University of Western Australia.
“We found that temperate seaweed communities have changed over the past 50 years to become increasingly subtropical, and that many temperate species have retreated south towards the Australian south coast. By extending the observed rates of poleward retreat to other species in the southern Australian seaweed flora, we estimated that projected ocean warming could lead to several hundred species retracting south and beyond the edge of the Australian continent, where they will have no suitable habitat and may therefore go extinct.”
The magnitude of the shifts the researchers observed are consistent with patterns of observed warming in those areas.
The findings in Australia represent two of the major global oceans, the Indian and Pacific, Wernberg said. He added that it is also important to have documented these shifts in Australia because the Southern Hemisphere has been substantially underrepresented in climate change studies.
The analyses draw on a very extensive marine database of more than 20,000 records of collected seaweeds. “Importantly, we did not select species based on preconceived ideas about which ones should have shifted or not—we looked at all 1,500 or so species in the southern seaweed flora and analyzed all of those species that had sufficient records.”
The changes observed in the seaweed community could have cascading effects across marine ecosystems, Wernberg said, as seaweeds are the “trees of the ocean,” providing food, shelter, and habitat to a diversity of other species.
“I hope people will appreciate that the threats of climate change to marine environments are not just about exotic tropical coral reefs but also are likely to affect the diversity of life across a much broader spectrum of marine ecosystems,” Wernberg said.
What annoys me is that scientists move into an area for a few weeks over their summer vacation and declare that they are the fountain of all knowledge.
A couple of years back, BBC breakfast had a traditional couple from Lapland on and they were explaining how times were hard. Straight away Bill and Sian said Global warming, “no” said the couple “it has been so cold that our reindeers can not forrage for food”. End of interview. I do wish I could find a recording of that one.
Prof. Bob Carter hep to this? His back yard, surely? And his comments valuable.
Where’s the data that shows that the water temperature has risen measurably?
MrF …
he is quoting directly from the article …
Is there a direct link to the report, I’d really like to see those temperature readings taken over the last 17 years or so. They did take readings I hope as there is a lot of confusing temperature “stuff” floated these days.
“I hope people will appreciate that the threats of climate change to marine environments are not just about exotic tropical coral reefs but also are likely to affect the diversity of life across a much broader spectrum of marine ecosystems,” Wernberg said.
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Yep, go after their emotions.
They may already be drained of emotion by the economy, but don’t let that deter you.
Enjoy your funding, while it lasts.
MrF, The Anthropogenic Part is what we SCEPTICS are sceptical of!
Of the 1500 or so species, how many had sufficient records? This constitutes the actual sample size, not 1500. Of this smaller sample, no more than (another way to say “up to”) 25 percent showed the possibility of extinction (which is an extrapolation of decreased what, prevalence in the ecosytem)? What of the other 75% that had adequate records? Stable and, or thriving, same as those that didn’t have adequate records. I’m not convinced that I should be concerned.
You want grants you produce the warming goods , and it really does not matter the subject , the logic or even the quality, if you want to dip into the still large and full AGW bucket you better make sure your ‘results ‘ tell the right story no matter what you have to do to get them.
As always, the picture is rather more complex than global warming caused it.
I’d point the finger at the PDO, which has been in its warm phase for the last 30 years and is now shifting to its cold phase.
And I’d like to see their pre-1970 data to see if exhibits the same pattern.
The real problem is that they’ve been smoking too much kelp. They need a lot of kelp.
Such alarmist nonsense is beautifully explained by the writer Dan Gardner in his books ‘Risk’ and ‘Future Babble’.
Much as I’d like to believe that there’s a global warmist conspiracy – the other Dan (the da Vinci Code tosser) should write that book – these alarmists aren’t bad. They’re just bonkers.
So, how many kelp species have they documented as having gone extinct so far due to Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Climate Disruption? None? Oh, okay then.
By the way, how much has the south pacific ocean warmed between 1957 (the start of CAGCD) and today? Is it more, or less than it warmed from 1800 and 1957? What about the warming from year 0 and 1957? Wait! wasn’t the world warmer in the early part of the current Holocene? A good bit warmer? How long until we are warmer (according to the scientists currently panicking) than we were then? Call me when we hit that point, I’ll panic, too.
Research…based on herbarium specimens…hahahahaha
What happened to field trips and extensive observational data?
For about a split-second I went “Wait another split-second, is this some sort of rapidly evolving species? I know it didn’t have to survive the MWP because we erased that already.” In the next split-second I realized that just a day or so ago we also erased the entire Holocene thermal history so this species might have been around since MIS-5e, which is patiently awaiting the eraser. Patently it couldn’t have survived that entire warmer interglacial, so if it did we have the first line of the eraser nub scrubbing away at MIS-5e.
Got that hockey team? That was a freebee.
As usual “…it’s much worse than we thought.”
Anyone like to predict natural variability and adaptation?
“Kelp! Kelp! I’m being repressed!”
(Adapted from “The holy grail” by Monty Python.)
@Glenn Skankey says:
October 27, 2011 at 3:42 pm
The real problem is that they’ve been smoking too much kelp.
I think you nailed it. Diving in gorgeous Australian waters is addictive and everyone knows kelp is one of those gateway things. It leads to funding that covers expenses and “earns” you a paycheck. Two addictions with one stone, er paper….BRILLIANT!
oops, herbarium specimens. Just the funding addiction then.
“… where they will have no suitable habitat and may therefore go extinct.”
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I think someone forgot the kelp’s main seed transport mechanism: ocean currents. Going extinct is unlikely as the whole globe’s temperate zones are available. Just not growing where the researchers found it (this year) in future years is quite likely, but extinction? It’s a bit of a long shot….
higley7 says:
This from the land of artificially altered temperature data. New Zealand boasts the largest fabricated warming on the planet
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The research and the paper was from Perth, Western Australia which is roughly five thousand kms (that’s lots of ocean) due West from Auckland, New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand are two sovereign countries separated by about 2100kms of ocean (the Tasman Sea). New Zealand is NOT Australia and Australia is NOT (thank the gods) New Zealand.
No arguments from me about “the largest fabricated warming” though, which was from one thermometer in Wellington being moved from the sea shore into a nearby suburban area. UHI effect?
B E W A R E , T H E M A N!
Why? Asked the Great white shark, and for some funny reason that, apparently, only the shark and the eaten man, understood, laughed heartedly.
The magnitude of the shifts the researchers observed are consistent with patterns of observed warming in those areas.
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Only problem is, there has been no warming…
…SST’s look like they’ve been going down in Australia
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/monitoring/nino3.png
Dang, apparently the Kelp is smarter than humans. They actually ADAPT to their environment rather than whining and taking actions that hurt their chances of survival!!!
In a few years they will start their trek back toward the equator!! Kinda like migrant workers following the seasons!!
I wonder (sorry to use that word) what might be discovered by observation without preconceived notions.
I wonder:
“Giant Kelp (like other kelps) also have a capacity for some of the most remarkable growth rates in the plant kingdom – in southern California, Macrocystis plants can grow up to 50cm a day. These extraordinary growth rates, and their known industrial and pharmaceutical benefits, have resulted in the world-wide commercial harvesting and exploitation of Giant Kelp forests both, in Tasmania (eg. east coast) and overseas (eg. California). In the USA, M.pyrifera is harvested from large offshore beds off the coasts of California and Mexico. Some 120,000 tonnes wet weight are gathered each year using ships equipped with cutting machinery. ”
http://www.geol.utas.edu.au/kelpwatch/h_c.html