The warm water is back…. The waters around BC are ~4C hotter than normal. We are working to document the impacts this will have. Check out the article about this marine heat wave in the Times Colonist (PDF). The article was reprinted in the Vancouver Sun. Julia also spoke to 1040FM CFAX morning show about the effects of the marine heatwave on our coastal ocean life and Brian was interviewed on CBC.

One of the previous times we had a marine heat wave in BC waters led to kelp populations on the west coast of Vancouver Island decreasing by 40% during ‘The Blob’. However, the kelp that survived may hold the key to helping kelp forests in the future.

Working in collaboration with Kelp Rescue, research led by post-doc Sam Starko found that 40% of kelp vanished on the west coast of Vancouver Island due to ‘The Blob’, a marine heat wave that started in 2014. The research found that environmental variations on a small scale (few kilometers or less) could be enough to protect kelp from heat stress. But it also found that although deeper waters stayed cooler, the heat from the blob aggravated sea star wasting disease which allowed a boom in the urchin population, putting further pressure on the kelp forests. This reduced in the capacity for these cool microclimates to serve as refugia from the marine heatwave.

Read more about this study here: Ecological Applications

This research was covered by the Canada National Observer:

Photo Credit: Goya Page