海水温度上升导致许多海洋生物向北移动

Study: Warm Waters Caused Many Sea Creatures to Move Far North

A study has found that warmer waters off North America’s West Coast caused many kinds of sea life to move farther north than ever before.

The study was a project of scientists from the University of California, Davis. Their findings were reported in the online publication Scientific Reports.

The scientists examined waters off the coast of Northern California in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The researchers say they identified a total of 67 species between 2014 and 2016, during what was described as a “marine¹ heatwave.” Marine heatwaves were defined in the study “as periods of extreme sea surface temperatures lasting² for days to months.” The 2014-2016 heatwave is thought to be the largest ever recorded.

The report says this weather event began in 2013 when a “warm-water blob” formed in the Gulf³ of Alaska. The warm water later moved southward toward California.

El Ni?o conditions

The warmer waters were partly a product of El Ni?o conditions during the same period, researchers noted⁴. El Ni?o develops when winds off the coast of South America weaken. This enables warm water in the western Pacific to move eastward⁵.

El Ni?o often causes ocean temperatures in the area to rise between 2 to 4 degrees Celsius⁶, the study found.

The researchers reported that 37 of the 67 species they studied had never before been observed so far north as California. These creatures are native to an area hundreds of kilometers to the south, mainly around Baja California in Mexico.

Some species were discovered outside a marine laboratory belonging to the University of California, Davis. A few were even found north of California, off the state of Oregon. The northward⁷ travel of so many different sea creatures was considered “unprecedented⁸” by the researchers.

Among the species identified in the study were a meat-eating sea slug that hunts other sea slugs, a sea snail⁹ “butterfly” and a purple-lined jellyfish. Another unexpected visitor was the pelagic red crab¹⁰, which researchers said had only been found in areas off the coast of Mexico.

Scientists involved in the study believe the findings can provide valuable information for predicting future sea life reactions to warming oceans.

Similar findings along the U.S. East Coast

There is also evidence suggesting that warming waters in the Atlantic Ocean have caused some sea creatures to move northward.

A 2017 report in Yale University’s online magazine Environment 360 explores this subject. The report notes that for many years, the ocean “has served as our best defense¹¹ against climate change.” This is because ocean waters have taken in nearly all of the atmosphere’s extra heat. This has led to warmer oceans, with experts predicting continuing rising temperatures.

Warmer waters along the U.S. East Coast have affected¹² the black sea bass¹³. Researchers from Rutgers University reported the fish once was mainly found off the coast of North Carolina. But they discovered the species had traveled more than 700 kilometers northward, to waters off the coast of New Jersey¹⁴, Environment 360 reported.

A 2018 Rutgers study estimated climate change will force hundreds of fish species and other creatures to seek out cooler waters in coming years. Using climate models, researchers predicted that some species along the U.S. and Canadian Pacific coasts will move as far as 1,400 kilometers north from their current habitats.

Such movement is expected to cause major difficulties for fisheries both in the U.S. and Canada, the study found.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

online – adj. of or related to a computer or telecommunications system

species – n. a biological classification or grouping

marine – adj. relating to the sea

blob – n. something that does not have a regular shape

unprecedented – adj. never happened before

habitat – n. the place or kind of place where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives

1 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

3 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 eastward   

adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部

参考例句：

• The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
• The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去，他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。

6 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

7 northward   

adv.向北；n.北方的地区

参考例句：

• He pointed his boat northward.他将船驶向北方。
• I would have a chance to head northward quickly.我就很快有机会去北方了。

8 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

9 snail   

n.蜗牛

参考例句：

• Snail is a small plant-eating creature with a soft body.蜗牛是一种软体草食动物。
• Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.放假前的时间过得很慢。

10 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

11 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。