Farallon Islands seen as climate-change bellwether

InsideBayArea.com: Scientists are closely monitoring the Farallon Islands, sometimes called the "California Galapagos," for early signs of climate change. The islands teem with seabirds and marine mammals, sustained by an abundance of life in the waters around them. In the spring, an upwelling of water begins from deep in the ocean, replenishing the shallower waters with a fresh dose of nutrients.

Since 1968, a cadre of researchers stationed around the clock on South Farallon Island — living in housing left behind by Coast Guard and Navy personnel — have kept a close eye on the wildlife, analyzing various measures of well-being, such as how many creatures return each year and their reproductive success. Data gathered over four decades by these researchers, most of them with Petaluma's PRBO Conservation Science, and some with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, show encouraging increases in numerous species, like the common murre and northern fur seals.

But in recent years, they've also noticed puzzling deviations, said Gerry McChesney, acting manager of the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For example, in 2005 and 2006, none of the offspring of a small, dark, muscular seabird called Cassin's auklet survived to maturity….And hundreds of Brandt's cormorants, a large black seabird, have been found dead in the Bay Area alone since April, apparently of starvation.

…McChesney acknowledged that many factors could explain these events. Nonetheless, the recent anomalies have him and others concerned. "We've got this system that's not making sense," he said. "It's not following the patterns that we're used to seeing."

Cassins Auklet at night (Ptychoramphus aleuticus), photo taken in 2003 on Farallon Islands by Duncan Wright, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2