PDN: Jamestown S’Klallam Prepares for Climate Change
Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe Chairman Ron Allen wrote a piece for the Peninsula Daily News about the tribe's effort to prepare for climate change. The tribe underwent an extensive study recently…
Climate change threatens Northwest icons
The Skagit Valley Herald has a series this week about climate change. One story highlights the challenge to salmon survival:
Several recent studies using computer models indicate that climate change will affect salmon in several ways:
* Rising seas could reduce habitat size for young salmon, which may spend several weeks in the estuary preparing for the change from fresh water to saltwater.
* Lower summer stream flows could mean that juvenile salmon, especially coho, will have less habitat and food during the one to two years they spend in the river.
* Increased incidents of flooding will wash away more salmon eggs from streambeds.
* Warmer stream temperatures can cause the fish what amounts to heat exhaustion.
* Higher stream temperatures reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen, making it difficult for salmon to breathe.
* Warmer oceans, such as in an El Niño year, bring other species, such as squid, north where they compete with adult salmon for food.
* Warmer seas prevent the upwelling of the nutrient-rich cold water, reducing the amount of plankton and bait fish, which are an important part of the food web that salmon need.