Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 20 augusT 2019

Blooms, beasts affected as Alaska records hottest month

By DAN JOLING drought in the rainforest,
Associated Press said Rick Thoman, another
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) climate expert at the Inter-
— Alaska has been Amer- national Arctic Research
ica’s canary in the coal Center.
mine for climate warm- Cities in the southern half of
ing, and the yellow bird is the rainforest have limited
swooning. or no hydropower because
July was Alaska’s warmest of low water levels. That
month ever, according to means power has to be
the National Oceanic and generated by burning die-
Atmospheric Administra- sel fuel, Thoman said.
tion. July was the hottest month
Sea ice melted. measured on Earth since
Bering Sea fish swam in records began in 1880,
above-normal tempera- NOAA reported Thursday.
tures. So did children in And a United Nations re-
the coastal town of Nome. port earlier this month
Wildfire season started ear- warned that global warm-
ly and stayed late. Thou- ing threatens food supplies
sands of walruses thronged around the world.
to shore. But Alaska’s recent heat
Unusual weather events has had silver linings. Barley
like this could become and other crops are ready
more common with cli- to harvest, said Stephen
mate warming, said Brian Brown of the University of
Brettschneider, an asso- Alaska Fairbanks Coopera-
ciate climate researcher tive Extension Service.
at the University of Alaska The growing season has
Fairbanks’ International Central Florida resident Paul Leake photographs a dahlia garden in Town Square in Anchorage, been extended by a
Arctic Research Center. Alaska, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. Associated Press month, and if extra days
Alaska has seen “multiple become the norm, they
decades-long increases” in vious recorded high of 85 bers before August. started in April. July’s dry will expand what can be
temperature, he said. degrees (29.44 Celsius). Effects were less obvious and hot temperatures ex- grown in the state. Brown
“It becomes easier to have Sea ice off Alaska’s north in the Bering Sea off Alas- tended it. An expected used heat radiated from
these unusual sets of condi- and northwest shore and ka’s west coast. Lyle Britt, rainy season marked by his blacktop driveway to
tions that now lead to re- other Arctic regions retreat- a NOAA Fisheries biologist southwest winds pushing grow fruit not usually seen
cords,” Brettschneider said. ed to the lowest level ever who oversees the agency’s up moisture and soak- outside greenhouses.
Alaska’s average temper- recorded for July, accord- annual Bering Sea ground- ing fires did not show up “I’ve got a bumper crop of
ature in July was 58.1 de- ing to the National Snow fish survey, was on a trawler on time, said Tim Mowry, tomatoes and jalapenos
grees (14.5 Celsius). That’s and Ice Data Center at the east of the island of Saint spokesman for the state Di- this summer,” he said.
5.4 degrees (3 Celsius) University of Colorado. Matthew during the first vision of Forestry. On the other hand, the
above average and 0.8 Arctic sea ice for July set week of July. “It extended our fire season weather has stressed birch
degrees (0.4 Celsius) higher a record low of 2.9 million “The temperature out there through the month of July,” trees and left them vulner-
than the previous warmest square miles (7.6 million for us was in the high 70s,” Mowry said. able to leaf-eating insects.
month of July 2004, NOAA square kilometers). That Britt said. “On those boats, Alaska by mid-July can “That gives the leaf miners
said. was a South Carolina-size everything up there is de- usually free up crews to opportunity to really whack
The effects were felt from loss of 30,900 square miles signed to conserve heat, fight fires in other states, them good,” he said. “I’m
the Arctic Ocean to the (80,000 square kilometers) not vent heat. It was un- but only about 15 people looking at my lawn right
world’s largest temperate below the previous record bearably warm inside the have left this year. High fire now, and I need to rake
rainforest on Alaska’s Pan- low July in 2012. boat.” danger around Anchor- leaves.”
handle. Sea ice is the main habi- On the ocean bottom, age, the Kenai Peninsula Brettschneider, the climate
Anchorage, the state’s tat for polar bears and a Britt’s crew for the second and the Matanuska-Susitna researcher, sees mostly
largest city, on July 4 for resting platform for female consecutive year found Borough has kept crews in negative effects from the
the first time hit 90 degrees walruses and their young. scant evidence of a “cold Alaska. hot July and climate warm-
(32.22 Celsius) at Ted Ste- Several thousand walrus- pool,” the east-west bar- “We’ve pretty much held ing.
vens Anchorage Interna- es came to shore July 30, rier of extremely cold, salty on to all our resources in- Alaska looks the way it does
tional Airport, 5 degrees the first time they’ve been water that traditionally state at this point,” Mowry because of the tempera-
higher than the city’s pre- spotted in such large num- concentrates Pacific cod said. ture regime, he said, and in
and walleye pollock, the A burn ban and water 50 years, Alaska may look
species that make fast- sprinkler restrictions remain like Idaho.
food fish sandwiches, in the in place for Haines, just out- “We should expect chang-
southeastern Bering Sea. side the Tongass National es. We should expect the
Alaska’s wildfire season Forest. July extended a forests to be in different lo-
cations. We should expect
wildlife to move. We should
expect plants to move.
And in many cases, if they
can’t move fast enough,
we should expect them to
just go away,” he said.q