Chesapeake Bay Eelgrass - Keystone Species - Dying Of Heat Stress

A year earlier, a lush forest of green eelgrass swayed beneath the waves of Tangier Sound here in the southern Chesapeake Bay. The plants were a vibrant breeding ground for blue crabs, terrapin, sea horses and pipefish, said Naylor, a biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

But now as Naylor hunted from cove to cove with his rake, he found much of the underwater vegetation dead or gone. "The record heat last summer just cooked the eelgrass," he said, eyeing the desiccated stem drooping between the tines of his rake.

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Eelgrass - a lime-green plant with delicate, spaghetti-like leaves - is the dominant aquatic plant in the salty southern bay closest to the Atlantic Ocean. The species is the only underwater plant that lives year-round in the bay, and it is viewed by biologists as a crucial producer of oxygen and shelter for marine life. An aerial survey this spring of Tangier Sound in the lower Chesapeake, as well as Chincoteague and Isle of Wight bays along the Atlantic coast, showed a widespread loss of eelgrass, Naylor said. Some eelgrass survives in Tangier Sound, and Naylor was pleased to find that some of the plants sent out flowering shoots.

But he and other researchers worry that any comeback would be squelched by another year of record-breaking heat, which could turn large expanses of the southern bay into desert-like zones devoid of plants. "If we have another hot summer like last summer, the change in the Chesapeake Bay could be catastrophic," said Robert J. Orth, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "We are quite concerned that evidence continues to stack up that global warming is having rapid impacts in many areas of the world for animal and plant species, including the eelgrass here."


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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.eelgrass13may13,0,6698650.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

...to drive their carbon spewing SUVs to the eastern shore this year to enjoy a day at the desert err..., beach. :sarcasm:

They've found something still alive in Chesapeake Bay?

from the Chesapeake.

I hope it wasn't the last one.