LA TIMES - SEA OTTER BIRTH AT MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/
El Nino rains were coming down and making the sea rough, so the mother came into an area that is
part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a place where the waters were more sheltered and calm. Siren.
A CURATED COLLECTION OF SCIENCE FACTS AND DELICIOUS FICTIONS !
Showing posts with label El Nino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label El Nino. Show all posts
3/22/16
2/4/15
HOW ROSE COLORED SEA SLUGS CAN HELP PREDICT EL NINO RAINS
INDEPENDENT : SEA SLUGS AS EL NINO FORCASTERS
EXCERPT:
Hopkins’ rose nudibranchs , as the sea slugs are known, travel as larvae at the whim of warm ocean currents, floating to the bottom as they grow during their first couple months. There they feed exclusively on a pink-colored bryozoan — a diminutive aquatic organism known as a “moss animal” that clusters in colonies — which grows all the way up to British Columbia and imparts the Okenia rosacea‘s remarkable color. Goddard knew that spotting the nudibranchs in high numbers near Morro Bay in mid-January was significant, since they usually hunt down in Southern California. They reminded him of the flourishing pink populations he’d seen near Santa Cruz during 1977’s weak El Niño.
After Morro, Goddard headed up to Monterey to check the tidepools. Along with reports from researchers at UC Santa Cruz, the Bodega Marine Laboratory, and San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences, his hypothesis was confirmed: The little creatures were everywhere, as far north as Humboldt — sometimes by the dozens per square meter....
EXCERPT:
Hopkins’ rose nudibranchs , as the sea slugs are known, travel as larvae at the whim of warm ocean currents, floating to the bottom as they grow during their first couple months. There they feed exclusively on a pink-colored bryozoan — a diminutive aquatic organism known as a “moss animal” that clusters in colonies — which grows all the way up to British Columbia and imparts the Okenia rosacea‘s remarkable color. Goddard knew that spotting the nudibranchs in high numbers near Morro Bay in mid-January was significant, since they usually hunt down in Southern California. They reminded him of the flourishing pink populations he’d seen near Santa Cruz during 1977’s weak El Niño.
After Morro, Goddard headed up to Monterey to check the tidepools. Along with reports from researchers at UC Santa Cruz, the Bodega Marine Laboratory, and San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences, his hypothesis was confirmed: The little creatures were everywhere, as far north as Humboldt — sometimes by the dozens per square meter....
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