El Nino weakening doesn't mean cooler temperatures this summer, forecasters say
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Marine creatures and plants typically found in coastal regions have found new ways to survive in the open ocean by colonizing plastic pollution, scientists say.
A new study, published on Thursday in the journal Nature Communications, has found coastal marine species inhabiting floating trash after catching a ride to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, also known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” hundreds of miles out to sea.
"The issues of plastic go beyond just ingestion and entanglement," Linsey Haram, lead author of the article and fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said in a news release. "It’s creating opportunities for coastal species’ biogeography to greatly expand beyond what we previously thought was possible."
Gyres of plastic form when currents deliver plastic pollution from the coasts into regions where rotating currents trap the floating objects in place and they can accumulate over time. There are at least five plastic-infested gyres around the globe. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, located between California and Hawaii, has the most floating plastic with an estimated 79 million kilograms floating in a region over 1.5 million square kilometres.
Until now, confirmed sightings of coastal species on plastic in the open ocean were rare. Scientists first began suspecting these species could use plastic to survive out in the ocean for long periods of time after the 2011 tsunami in Japan when they discovered that nearly 300 species had rafted all the way across the Pacific on debris over the course of several years.
"The open ocean has not been habitable for coastal organisms until now," Greg Ruiz, a senior scientist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and co-author of the study. "Partly because of habitat limitation—there wasn’t plastic there in the past—and partly, we thought, because it was a food desert."
Plastic is providing the habitat, but Ruiz says scientists are still trying to figure out the species are finding food, such as whether they drift into hot spots or if the plastic acts like a reef and attracts nutrition sources.
Now that they know coastal species can exist far into the ocean, scientists are wondering how their presence could impact an environment already inhabited by sea creatures who also use the plastic as a habitat.
"Coastal species are directly competing with these oceanic rafters," Haram said. "They’re competing for space. They’re competing for resources. Those interactions are very poorly understood."
The discovery also raises questions about the possibility of coastal species invading regions where they are foreign. This has already been seen with tsunami debris from 2011 that carried organisms from Japan to North America.
"Those other coastlines are not just urban centres,” Ruiz said. “That opportunity extends to more remote areas, protected areas, Hawaiian Islands, national parks, marine protected areas."
The study authors say they still don’t know how common these ocean communities of coastal species are, if they can continue to sustain themselves or if they exist outside of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. But with the world’s increasing dependence on plastic and more frequent storms as a result of climate change, they expect more plastic will be pushed out into the sea and for colonies of coastal species in the ocean to grow.
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
A 15-year old boy who was critically injured after a stabbing in Nepean on Thursday has died of his injuries, Ottawa's English public school board said Sunday.
Police say it’s fortunate no one was injured or killed in a collision at North Vancouver’s Park and Tilford shopping centre Saturday evening that sent one vehicle careening into a flower shop and another into a set of concrete barriers outside a Winners store.
The Maple Leafs battled back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins with consecutive 2-1 victories - including one that required extra time - in their first-round playoff series to push the club's Original Six rival to the limit before suffering a devastating Game 7 overtime loss.
Amid scientists' warnings that nations need to transition away from fossil fuels to limit climate change, Canadians are still lukewarm on electric vehicles, according to a study conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News.
Three people have died and two have been hospitalized after a speeding car struck a tree and landed on another vehicle in Fredericton Sunday morning.
A Montreal man is warning Tesla drivers about using the Smart Summon feature after his vehicle hit another in a parking lot.
Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro's vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.
Thieves killed two Australians and an American on a surfing trip to Mexico in order to steal their truck, particularly because they wanted the tires, authorities said Sunday.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.