El Coyote in the North
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Posted by Rosemary Drisdelle Oct 21, 2006 |
What is El Coyote? Read my article “El Niño, El Coyote, and the Birds.” It seems that this strange phenomenon didn’t just hit the seabirds and marine life of California: its effects were felt further north as well. Cassin’s Auklet chicks in colonies off the west coast of Canada died in the millions in 2005 because the adults could not find food. Fortunately, 2006 was a better year.
Scientists are still studying the events of the last two years and the picture is becoming clearer. It isn’t that the normal upwelling of cold ocean water from the depths isn’t occurring; it’s that it is arriving later than usual – too late for species that rely on it for food during the breeding season.
The phenomenon may originate even further north in the Gulf of Alaska, where weather and currents affect the jet stream and the California Current, the force behind the coastal upwelling. Records show that it’s happened before. Whether or not the events of the last few years are a result of global warming, likely to return year after year, remains to be seen. If they are, it’s bad news for Cassin’s Auklets
Source: Schwing, Franklin B.; Bond, Nicholas A.; Bograd, Steven J.; Mitchell, Todd; Alexander, Michael A.; Mantua, Nathan. “Delayed coastal upwelling along the U.S. West Coast in 2005: A historical perspective.” Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 33, No. 22, 07 October 2006.
Other blog entries about El Coyote:
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