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WATER WORLD
Tidal pumps keep streets dry, but could they hurt water quality?
by Brooks Hays
Miami (UPI) Oct 10, 2014


Scientists say tropics will be fish-less by 2050
Vancouver, British Columbia (UPI) Oct 10, 2014 - Just as Manhattan was a decade ago, and Brooklyn is now, the tropics are so "over." It's not that the tropics are no longer cool or hip; they're getting too hot.

According to new research, fish are moving poleward in search of cooler, better oxygenated water -- water with healthier habitat and more food to eat. And it's not just a fad or an overreaction to the rising price of prime coral-side real estate; it's a trend that's picking up steam in a hurry and isn't likely to slow down. In fact, scientists at the University of British Columbia say the tropics will be fish-less by 2050.

Adopting the global warming projections calculated in the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists at UBC developed models to predict the large-scale shift of marine fish and invertebrates over the next several decades.

If the climatologists' worst-case scenario comes true, and the oceans get three degrees warmer, fish will move toward the poles at an average pace of 16 miles per decade. A best-case scenario of only a single degree increase in ocean temps would see fish moving poleward at nine miles per decade.

"The tropics will be the overall losers," study co-author William Cheung, associate professor at the UBC Fisheries Center, said in a press release. "This area has a high dependence on fish for food, diet and nutrition. We'll see a loss of fish populations that are important to the fisheries and communities in these regions."

Cheng and his colleagues built their statistical models using yearly catch data, which helped explain how fish have reacted to temperature changes since 1970.

"As fish move to cooler waters, this generates new opportunities for fisheries in the Arctic," said lead study author Miranda Jones, a UBC Nereus Fellow. "On the other hand it means it could disrupt the species that live there now and increase competition for resources."

The work of Cheng and Jones was published Friday in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.

Miami Beach recently installed a series of high power pumps to keep king tides -- the highest of high tides, sometimes called spring tides -- from flooding city streets. On Thursday, residents got to see those pumps in action as the seasonal high tide peaked. As waters rose, thoroughfares remained dry.

But while especially high tides in Miami currently happen just a few times a year, a litany of new reports -- including one published this week by the Union of Concerned Scientists -- suggest tidal flooding will become increasingly frequent as global warming pushes sea levels higher. As such, researchers are concerned over the potential environmental consequences of continuously pumping floodwater back into the ocean.

"The big question is how these high tides are impacting the water quality in the bay," Jeff Absten told the Miami Herald. Absten is the field coordinator for a new project at Florida International University -- one which will have researchers and students from the school's Southeast Environmental Research Center looking at the environmental and ecological effects of pumping storm water back to where it came from.

"We're probably going to see degraded water in the bay because they're not pumping out clean water, for sure," Absten added.

"You have this built environment that they're focusing on protecting, and you can understand that," Chris Sinigalliano, an NOAA microbiologist helping test for microbes in the water, told the Herald. "If your sole goal was to keep the city from flooding, you accomplished that. But I'm not sure that would be the only goal."

Flood and storm waters are frequently dirtied as they mix with sewage runoff, trash and other pollutants. Such water is often implicated in the spread of disease, and can be detrimental to local marine life. Of course, Miami isn't the only place with tidal flooding issues, nor storm water pollution. Pumps or no pumps, a number of coastal cities will need to address some of these vexing environmental problems as king tides become the new normal.

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