Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Climate change effects seen in Antarctic winds (plankton declines and some penguin populations drop)
AP on Yahoo ^ | 3/12/09 | AP

Posted on 03/12/2009 5:36:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON – Changing wind patterns linked to global warming are altering the food chain in Antarctica and may lead to further increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The most basic food, plankton, is declining in the northern portions of the Antarctic peninsula reaching toward South America, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

At the same time, populations of Adelie penguins, who require a colder climate, have dropped sharply in that region, while warmer-weather chin-strap penguins have increased.

"We're showing for the first time that there is an ongoing change on phytoplankton concentration and composition along the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula that is associated with a long-term climate modification. These phytoplankton changes may explain in part the observed decline of some penguin populations," Martin Montes-Hugo, a marine scientist at Rutgers University, said in a statement.

The change reflects shifting patterns of cloud cover, ice formation and winds, the report said.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antarcticwinds; climatechange; marinebiology; penguins; plankton
Boo.
1 posted on 03/12/2009 5:36:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge; Delacon; CygnusXI; Entrepreneur; Defendingliberty; WL-law; Genesis defender; ...
 


Beam me to Planet Gore !

2 posted on 03/12/2009 5:38:05 PM PDT by steelyourfaith (Yo, Washingtonians, the American people called. They DEMAND their country back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Ummmm, they missed an above water ice pack the size of California...but they can tell us the tiny underwater plankton counts?

sure.

3 posted on 03/12/2009 5:40:28 PM PDT by icwhatudo (The Dow is down nearly 6,000 points since democrats took back congress.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Plankton disagrees with your hypothesis



4 posted on 03/12/2009 5:43:09 PM PDT by GQuagmire
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Uuuuh??!

I am both astounded and dismayed at the argument in that piece.

At the end the writer says that higher winds pull deepwelling waters up and they release more CO2 and that makes it warmer and that is the cause of more penguins of one kind than another.

Think that through ~ deepwelling waters around Antarctica are NEAR FREEZING. When they get to the top they are colder than the surface waters. That makes it tougher for the phytoplankton to live and grow.

Without the phytoplankton the fish have less to eat. Without fat fish the penguins have less to eat.

Result, fewer Big Penguins, and maybe more Small Penguins!

I don't think the writer figured out what the researchers were telling her.

5 posted on 03/12/2009 5:44:29 PM PDT by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Change!


6 posted on 03/12/2009 5:45:14 PM PDT by Redbob (W.W.J.B.D.: "What Would Jack Bauer Do?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Redbob

Sounds like these scientists are fishing for some stimulus bucks. No coin no climate change.


7 posted on 03/12/2009 5:48:42 PM PDT by Patrick1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
These doom and gllomm stories about Antarctica always are based on the relatively small region around the peninsula that extends north toward South America. It appears to be subject to local conditions and is atypical of the rest of the vast continent.

Babbling about penguins on the peninsula is akin to whining about the pinebark beetle in Southern Alaska. Neither one has any significance beyond its own borders, yet is held up as a harbinger of doom.

8 posted on 03/12/2009 5:50:21 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Sounds like they are taking the changing wind patterns which are the real cause, and attributing them to global warming to get around the facts.


9 posted on 03/12/2009 5:50:35 PM PDT by Williams (It's The Policies, Stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Three guys die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, “We only have one rule here in heaven...don’t step on the penguins.”

So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are penguins all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a penguin, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first guy accidentally steps on one. Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest woman he ever saw. St. Peter chains them together and says “Your punishment for stepping on a penguin is to spend eternity chained to this ugly woman!”

The next day, the second guy steps accidentally on a penguin, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn’t miss a thing, and with him is another extremely ugly woman. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first guy.

The third guy has observed all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly woman, is very, VERY careful where he steps. He manages to go months without stepping on any penguins, but one day St. Peter comes up to him with the most gorgeous woman he has ever laid eyes on ... a very tall, tan, curvaceous, blonde. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word. The guy remarks, “I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?”

She says, “I don’t know about you, but I stepped on a penguin.


10 posted on 03/12/2009 5:51:12 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

We’ve heard this BS before.
Did another Sensor drift a few thousand miles ?
Did Russia send a bad set of Siberian numbers so Obama would carbon Tax us into the Stone age ?
3.5 million unemployed don’t care about Global warming.


11 posted on 03/12/2009 5:54:46 PM PDT by 4Speed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Cooling global temperatures have negative effects. (Well, the observed phenomena can’t be caused by global warming, because the global average temperature has been falling for the past decade!)


12 posted on 03/12/2009 5:56:21 PM PDT by sourcery (Obama Lied. The Economy Died!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

We are DOOMED I tell you DOOMED!


13 posted on 03/12/2009 6:06:22 PM PDT by bikerman (Obama lied;the Country died.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

Note to the Ass. Press: You clueless and gullible people really need to get a life. You weren’t cut out to report the news.


14 posted on 03/12/2009 6:06:43 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Just being a "U.S. citizen" does not make one an American.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge

There are literally millions of specias of animals in the world. If any one of them has a population change it’s proof of Global Warning? I’m impressed. That’s a theory that is proven automatically by everything from an increase in population for one penguin type to a decrease in another penguin’s numbers, to cold weather (as proof of warming climate!). Catch-22 meets 1984.


15 posted on 03/12/2009 6:17:44 PM PDT by TurtleUp (Turtle up: cancel optional spending until 2012, and boycott TARP/stimulus companies forever!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson
LOL!

Damned if you do, damned if you don't...
16 posted on 03/12/2009 10:22:35 PM PDT by Fichori (The only bailout I'm interested in is the one where the entire Democrat party leaves the county)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Jim Robinson

You’ve been waiting a long time to post that joke, haven’t you?

:)


17 posted on 03/13/2009 2:02:27 PM PDT by Brad’s Gramma ( PRAY! Pray for the U.S. Pray for Israel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson