Climate change and the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) population in Baja California, Mexico

M. Concepción García-Aguilar (2018, [Artículo])

The Earth0s climate is warming, especially in the mid- and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) breeds and haul-outs on islands and the mainland of Baja California, Mexico, and California, U.S.A. At the beginning of the 21st century, numbers of elephant seals in California are increasing, but the status of Baja California populations is unknown, and some data suggest they may be decreasing. We hypothesize that the elephant seal population of Baja California is experiencing a decline because the animals are not migrating as far south due to warming sea and air temperatures. Here we assessed population trends of the Baja California population, and climate change in the region. The numbers of northern elephant seals in Baja California colonies have been decreasing since the 1990s, and both the surface waters off Baja California and the local air temperatures have warmed during the last three decades. We propose that declining population sizes may be attributable to decreased migration towards the southern portions of the range in response to the observed temperature increases. Further research is needed to confirm our hypothesis; however, if true, it would imply that elephant seal colonies of Baja California and California are not demographically isolated which would pose challenges to environmental and management policies between Mexico and the United States. © 2018 García-Aguilar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

air temperature, article, Baja California, climate change, human, Mirounga angustirostris, nonhuman, population size, warming, animal, ecosystem, environmental protection, Mexico, Phocidae, population density, population migration, temperature, Anima CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA

Maintenance of Coastal Surface Blooms by Surface Temperature Stratification and Wind Drift

MARY CARMEN RUIZ DE LA TORRE (2013, [Artículo])

Algae blooms are an increasingly recurrent phenomenon of potentially socio-economic impact in coastal waters globally and in the coastal upwelling region off northern Baja California, Mexico. In coastal upwelling areas the diurnal wind pattern is directed towards the coast during the day. We regularly found positive Near Surface Temperature Stratification (NSTS), the resulting density stratification is expected to reduce the frictional coupling of the surface layer from deeper waters and allow for its more efficient wind transport. We propose that the net transport of the top layer of approximately 2.7 kilometers per day towards the coast helps maintain surface blooms of slow growing dinoflagellate such as Lingulodinium polyedrum. We measured: near surface stratification with a free-rising CTD profiler, trajectories of drifter buoys with attached thermographs, wind speed and direction, velocity profiles via an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, Chlorophyll and cell concentration from water samples and vertical migration using sediment traps. The ADCP and drifter data agree and show noticeable current shear within the first meters of the surface where temperature stratification and high cell densities of L. polyedrum were found during the day. Drifters with 1m depth drogue moved towards the shore, whereas drifters at 3 and 5 m depth showed trajectories parallel or away from shore. A small part of the surface population migrated down to the sea floor during night thus reducing horizontal dispersion. The persistent transport of the surface bloom population towards shore should help maintain the bloom in favorable environmental conditions with high nutrients, but also increasing the potential socioeconomic impact of the blooms. The coast wise transport is not limited to blooms but includes all dissolved and particulate constituents in surface waters. © 2013 Ruiz-de la Torre et al.

chlorophyll, algal bloom, article, cell count, cell density, coastal waters, controlled study, dinoflagellate, Lingulodinium polyedrum, meteorological phenomena, Mexico, near surface temperature stratification, nonhuman, nutrient concentration, popul CIENCIAS FÍSICO MATEMÁTICAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA Y DEL ESPACIO OCEANOGRAFÍA OCEANOGRAFÍA