What Seth and other scientists have discovered is that the lack of cooling was so severe that it created a large area of warmer-than-usual water in the North Pacific. This area of warm water, called “the blob†by some scientists, had a reduced level of mixing between the lower and upper ocean layers. The puzzling impacts of this phenomenon are what the scientists of Gulf Watch Alaska are starting to piece together. It may have played an important part in the massive die-offs of seabirds like the common murre, because as we learned from Kathy scientists suspect that the murres were not receiving enough food to pile on their important fat reserves.
Sonia mentioned that the bloom of phytoplankton was less productive than it had been in the past. And as we know, that could have a ripple effect throughout the entire food web, impacting everything from the tiniest of plankton to forage fish like herring and on up to their predators such as the murres. With the decrease in marine nutrients, apex predators like the mightiest of whales or even humans could be impacted by this situation.
The potential consequences of “the blob†may seem frightening, but Gulf Watch scientists will be keeping an eye out for this and similar anomalies to better understand the health of the Gulf of Alaska.
By combining their different areas of expertise, the Gulf Watch scientists were able to begin solving the mystery of the dying seabirds in the Gulf of Alaska but many questions remained. The Gulf Watch team will continue working together to understand not only how the ecosystem continues to recover from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but also how the Gulf of Alaska continues to change as a result of other types of changes, both natural and human-caused in the ocean through interactions of Earth systems.
Help the scientists of Gulf Watch Alaska continue to monitor ‘The Blob’ as the seasons change. Click here to access the Alaska ‘Blob’ Tracker.
Who is watching the Blob?
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