Tag Archives: research

Climate change may be wiping out the rainbow in our rivers

While you might still be able to see rainbows reflected in the rivers, rainbow trout may become a thing of the past.

A freshwater rainbow trout. [Photo Source: © Schwarzenarzisse under a Pixabay License.]

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are a species of salmonid fish. This means they are related to salmon and other trout species, they are found along the West Coast of North America. There are populations of rainbow trout all the way from Alaska down to Baja California. According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, habitat loss and climate change are two of the leading causes threatening our local populations of rainbow trout.

Range of rainbow trout along the West Coast of North America. [Photo Source: © 2008 Canadian Geographic/Signy Fridriksson under The Royal Canadian Geographical Society]

On a scale from “Not at Risk” to “Extinct”, the rainbow trout are considered endangered, which is the last step before extinction. While you may not be familiar with rainbow trout now, you should be paying more attention to them.

According to Dr. Patricia Schulte, a conservation zoologist from the University of British Columbia, rainbow trout are an especially important predatory fish, which means that they shape the ecosystems they live in. Crawfish and mussels are just a few of the aquatic species that count rainbow trout as an important part of their ecosystem. So while you may not have heard of rainbow trout before, you are bound to know at least one species that is affected directly or indirectly by them.

Climate change is going to cause rivers to become depleted in oxygen, affecting living organisms including the rainbow trout. [Photo Source: © mistralfamilie under a Pixabay License.]

Dr. Schulte recently sat down to discuss the importance of funding projects geared towards conservation projects.

[Source: SoundCloud, Created by: Gillian Okura & Julie Zhu]

As mentioned in the podcast, Dr. Schulte is leading a team-based project in British Columbia, which received funding from Genome Canada to help carry out the research. They conducted a study to figure out whether different types of rainbow trout differ in their ability to tolerate climate change, specifically conditions where there is low oxygen and high temperatures.

Climate change is decreasing the numbers of fish populations, including rainbow trout which are a major source in the fish industry. In the video below, we delve deeper into the effects of climate change and how Dr. Schulte and her team’s research are making predictions and gathering information to help sustain rainbow trout in the future.

[Source: Youtube, Created by: Gillian Okura & Julie Zhu]

Hopefully, learning more about this rainbow brought a little more knowledge and sunshine to your day.

~ Group 4: Gillian Okura & Julie Zhu

Mystery Behind the Pacific White Line Solved!

Modified image of a North American West Coast Map with the Pacific White Line highlighted. Source: Wikimedia Commons

For the longest time, scientists around the world never understood the phenomenon behind the Pacific White Line – a line off the coast of North America so large that it can be seen from space. Last year that all changed when marine researchers from the Oregon State University published their findings from their investigations on the Northern California coast. Using acoustic technology, they’re the first to discover that what was previously thought to be a random feature of the Pacific actually acts as a boundary for fish in the ocean. If not acted upon sooner, this boundary driven by climate change could threaten not only the lives of fish but ours, too.

How does this affect us?

The Pacific White Line is one of many tidelines, which form due to strong winds and colliding bodies of water. These regions are nutrient-rich, attracting and accumulating marine life. Although tidelines altogether only make up 1% of the world’s oceans, this 1% contributes to 20% of the global fishing in the world, making it “one of the most productive areas for fisheries” according to Dr. Mei Sato who led the research team.

The problem, however, is that as global warming worsens, this pushes the line further off the coast where fish such as sea bass, tuna, and mackerel can’t reach their prey residing at the line. If fish don’t have food, they can’t survive, and this puts a dent in the food web, the fishing industry, and our food resources. In the following podcast, Dr. Sato further discusses the tidelines, which she refers to as ‘upwelling fronts’, and how they are impacted by climate change.

What can we do moving forward?

With this new discovery comes a scare. Previously, it was thought that the Pacific White Line equally attracted smaller marine life, such as plankton, and larger organisms, such as fish. Clearly, the researchers discovered that wasn’t the case; fish are farther from their prey than they’d like to be. Using acoustic equipment, Dr. Sato and her team were able to determine how marine life was distributed at and around the line, which she explains in the following video:

Video Credit: Breyanne Bautista, Nicole Bostan & Ryan Chang; Source: Youtube

While the research demonstrates that fish are unable to reach their prey at the Pacific White Line, Dr. Sato believes that some other mechanism must be at work allowing them access to food since it’s not like fish populations are instantly depleting. “The mechanism is important to understand to be able to predict the future,” she says. She hypothesizes that plankton may be able to migrate to and from the line at different times of the day but added that higher resolution equipment is needed to explore this.

(By Breyanne Bautista, Nicole Bostan & Ryan Chang)