Global warming could spur toxic algae, bacteria in seas

why are all the effects of global warming negative?

Our poor planet. We are truly testing its limits. Let's hope it doesn't get even.

Global Warming gave me gas.

Ocean Dead Zones Grow
Multiple agencies seek plan for ocean health

Marine life is disappearing off the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Multiple government agencies just released a joint scientific assessment of the crisis. The purpose of their work is to learn how to prevent fishing collapse. “The nation’s coastal waters are vital to our quality of life, our culture, and the economy,” wrote Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the Council on Environmental Quality, and John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Nearly every coastal state has a marine dead zone, from Boston, Mass., to Florida, and around the Gulf to Texas, the West Coast, and even some Great Lake states. According to the report, over the past 50 years global dead zones have risen approximately by a factor of 10 times. But U.S. coastal dead zones have been growing by a factor of 30 times and continue to grow....

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For the full report, please see:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/hypoxia-report.pdf

Global warming COULD......................................

The human impact on the planet is harming us in so many ways scientist are only touching the surface of what's going on out there! Just last night Jan I saw a show on how the major natural predators have been so over hunted that the Humboldt Squid is taking over the pacific, and in the not too distant future that squid is being predicted to end up in the Atlantic and the Caribbean soon.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11067/1130371-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml

Climate researchers have long warned that the Arctic is particularly vulnerable to global warming. The dramatic shrinking of sea ice in areas circling the North Pole highlights those concerns.

A new report finds that the disappearing ice apparently has triggered another dramatic event -- one that could disrupt the entire ecosystem of fish, shellfish, birds and marine mammals that thrive in the harsh northern climate.

Each summer, an explosion of tiny ocean-dwelling plants and algae, called phytoplankton, anchors the Arctic food web. But these vital annual phytoplankton blooms are now peaking as much as 50 days earlier than they did 14 years ago, satellite data show.

"The ice is retreating earlier in the Arctic, and the phytoplankton blooms are also starting earlier," said study leader Mati Kahru, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, Calif.

Drawing on observations from three U.S. and European climate satellites, Mr. Kahru and his international team studied worldwide phytoplankton blooms from 1997 through 2009. The satellites can spot the blooms by their color, as billions of the tiny organisms turn huge swaths of the ocean green for a week or two.

The blooms peaked earlier and earlier in 11 percent of the areas where Mr. Kahru's team was able to collect good data. Mr. Kahru said the impacted zones cover roughly 1 million square kilometers, including portions of the Foxe Basin and the Baffin Sea, which belong to Canada, and the Kara Sea north of Russia.

In the late 1990s, phytoplankton blooms in these areas hit their peak in September, only after a summer's worth of relative warmth had melted the polar ice cap edges. But by 2009, the blooms' peaks had shifted to early July.

"The trend is obvious and significant, and in my mind there is no doubt it is related to the retreat of the ice," said Mr. Kahru, who published the work in the journal Global Change Biology.

"A 50-day shift is a big shift," said Oregon State University plankton researcher Michael Behrenfeld, who was not involved in the study. "As the planet warms, the threat is that these changes seen closer to land may spread across the entire Arctic."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11067/1130371-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml#ixz...
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It may well be possible this is being felt now. The oceans have been warming regardless of the mouthpieces for the oil lobby putting out misinformation to the contrary.