SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Environmental researchers said climate change is changing the way scientists view the future of ocean resources off the U.S. West Coast.
A group of oceanographers, climatologists and ecologists last week, in San Francisco during for a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said they've determined increasingly wild fluctuations in winds and currents appear to account for a series of recent anomalous ocean events -- from repeated low oxygen zones larger than the size of Rhode Island to massive die offs of seabirds.
The scientists say the underlying swings in winds and position of the jet stream are consistent with climate change predictions.
"There is no other viable suspect right now, no other obvious explanation," said Jane Lubchenco of Oregon State University. "We've entered new territory. These arrhythmias in the coastal ocean suggest we're observing a system that is out of kilter."
The research is to appear in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
