More Consequences of Warming Oceans

[gleem]

Science has known of the sensitivity of organisms to temperature. Recently algal blooms have occurred in arctic waters. A particular one is of concern Alexandrium catenella in the Bering Sea. These algae produce a toxin that shellfish consume that can paralyze shellfish humans who consume them. Some areas had concentrations 100 times higher than is needed to produce a health warning.
https://www.science.org/content/article/warming-oceans-are-pushing-harmful-algal-blooms-polar-waters#:~:text=Fachon and colleagues suspect the,allowed the algae to expand.

Also, the warming waters have affected the red king crab harvests. Fishermen have just started harvesting last fall again after a two-year moratorium.

As the clock ticks, we see the slow continuing changing of the dynamics of our ecosystems.

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[gleem]

I edited by OP because I misread the effects of the toxin. The shellfish consuming the algae accumulates the toxin. If these shellfish are consumed this can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning that can be fatal.

These blooms ( also known as Red Tides) have occurred around the US for many years usually in summer as the waters warm. The algae reproduce by producing "cysts" that accumulate at the bottom of the water and are activated by the warming winter waters. In the Gulf of Maine for example theAlexandrium catanella and Alexandrium fundyense are common and the water temperature in the winter is less than 50 deg F. As the water warms above this temperature in the spring and summer the cysts float to the surface producing the blooms. There have been many red tide health warnings on the east coast when levels of the toxins could be fatal. As noted in the article in the OP the Bering Sear blooms had regions where the concentration of the toxin was 100 time higher that the warning threshold.