{"id":4918,"date":"2016-02-25T17:18:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T12:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=4918"},"modified":"2016-02-25T17:18:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T12:18:04","slug":"whats-causing-californias-bright-pink-sea-slug-bloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cawater-info.net\/all_about_water\/en\/?p=4918","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Causing California\u2019s Bright Pink Sea Slug Bloom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

They might be fun to look at, but they’re not necessarily good news<\/em><\/p>\n

Tide pools along the coast of central and northern California are filling up with\u00a0inch-long, pink Hopkins\u2019 rose nudibranch\u2014a sea slug whose vivid coloring gives it a kind of punk rock appeal.<\/p>\n

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The Hopkins’ Rose nudibranch, or pink sea slug<\/p><\/div>\n

Scientists are logging dozens of the creatures per square meter, says\u00a0the\u00a0University of California, Santa Cruz.\u00a0The sea slugs,\u00a0common to the waters of southern California,\u00a0have not been seen in such numbers in the colder reaches of the state since 1998.<\/p>\n

That was when the last big El Nino events contributed to \u201cperiods of warmer-than-usual ocean water and heavy rains,\u201d explains Science Codex. But there\u2019s been only weak El Ni\u00f1o effects recently, and only a 50-60 percent chance of related conditions occurring in 2015. So what\u2019s causing the slew of slugs?<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0UC-Santa Cruz , the population boom is reminiscent of one that hit California in 1977:<\/p>\n

That bloom was also during a weak El Ni\u00f1o, but it happened to coincide with a major climate shift in the eastern Pacific Ocean known as the\u00a0Pacific Decadal Oscillation. That shift marked the beginning of more than two decades of coastal water temperatures that were elevated compared to the preceding 30 years, triggering range shifts in numerous coastal species, including gastropods, barnacles, fish, and dolphins.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today’s\u00a0warmer\u00a0ocean temperatures can be blamed, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, on rare wind patterns: they\u00a0aren\u2019t blowing away warmer surface water,\u00a0and that encourages colder, deeper water to rise up.<\/p>\n

Scientists aren\u2019t completely sure of what is causing the change in weather and ocean patterns, though, nor how long it could last. As John Pearse, ecology and evolutionary biology professor at UC Santa Cruz, told the Sentinel, \u201cWe have no idea whether this is part of the ongoing oscillation back and forth or if it\u2019s perturbed by global warming; probably both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rising temperatures are bringing other usually southern animals to California\u2019s northern shorelines\u2014in the fall, an endangered green sea turtle was spotted near San Francisco. Yet, experts like Dr. Terry Gosliner of the California Academy of Science caution that while visitors like pink sea slugs are nice to look at, they may have dire implications for wider ocean life. He tells Science Codex, “Our current climate conditions are great for some of my favorite slugs, but we can’t ignore that warming seas mean less food for sea birds, and adverse impacts for all marine ecosystems. California’s unique marine life can’t always adapt to so much instability.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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