scholarly journals Toxic Meals for Seabirds and Seals: Monitoring Mercury in the San Francisco Bay

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cossaboon ◽  
Shawn Acuña ◽  
Bruce G. Hammock ◽  
Tomofumi Kurobe ◽  
Marie Stillway ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
San Francisco Bay ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Food Chains ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Wetland Habitats ◽  
Mercury Mining

Mercury is a metal pollutant that travels thousands of miles through air and water. It flows along rivers to lakes, estuaries, and the sea, cycling between animals and their environments. Extensive mercury mining during the Gold Rush left lasting impacts on the San Francisco Bay Delta, one of California’s largest wetland habitats and home to thousands of species. Burning fossil fuels in cities like San Francisco also releases mercury, leading to its buildup in local food chains. Mercury accumulates from plankton to fish to top predators like sharks and seals, where it reaches potentially harmful levels. Mercury never fully breaks down and continues cycling in ecosystems, even reaching migratory animals living offshore in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists collect samples from wildlife to uncover clues about mercury sources and threats to human health. This article explains the mercury problem and why we track this invisible pollutant in the San Francisco Bay.

Hardly Pacific

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Igler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Gold Rush ◽  
Violent Death ◽  
The West ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean

American culture has long associated the nineteenth-century U.S. frontier with episodes of violent death and random bloodshed. But what about the vast watery expanse west of the West? The Pacific Ocean contains its own violent past, especially during the period stretching from Captain James Cook's historic voyages to the California Gold Rush. The nature and degree of this violence stemmed not merely from contact relations between indigenous communities and newcomers, but more specifically from commercial desires, the diffusion of diseases, and the great hunt for marine mammals. Historicizing this violent past remains an imperative for new studies of the Pacific.

How Weird Squiggles Led from Sheaves of Rice to the Depth of the Seas

Tsunami ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 17-26
Author(s):  
James Goff ◽  
Walter Dudley
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Travel Time ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Geodetic Survey ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Tidal Waves ◽  
Earthquake Detection ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
1946 Tsunami

Through an amazing chain of events, the Japanese story of how a town squire sacrificed his wealth to save his villagers from a deadly tsunami is intricately woven together with how in 1855 Benjamin Franklin’s great grandson accurately determined the depth of the Pacific Ocean based on the travel time of this same tsunami from Japan to San Francisco, California. This scientific breakthrough would lead to the first known prediction of tsunami wave generation through earthquake detection yet would be ignored by official government agencies with tragic consequences. Immediately following the 1946 tsunami, the Commander of the Coast and Geodetic Survey ignorantly stated, “Less than one in one hundred earthquakes result in tidal waves and you don’t alert every port in the Pacific each time a quake occurs.”

Stratigraphy of Late Quaternary Estuarine Deposits and Amino Acid Stereochemistry of Oyster Shells Beneath San Francisco Bay, California

1981 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian F. Atwater ◽  
Bruce E. Ross ◽  
John F. Wehmiller
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
San Francisco Bay ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Dune Sand ◽  
Quaternary Deposits ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Native Oyster ◽  
Kinetics Of

AbstractThe sequence of Quaternary deposits beneath the floor of San Francisco Bay includes four to seven noncontemporaneous estuarine units intercalated with alluvium and dune sand. Units L (0–10,000 B.P.), M (>40,000 B.P., probably ca. 80,000–140,000 B.P.), and N (older than unit M) are distinctly superposed. The dominant molluscan fossil in each of these three units is Ostrea lurida Carpenter, the native oyster along much of the pacific Coast of North America. Despite a lamellar structure that suggests vulnerability to contamination, O. lurida shells generally yield amino acid enantiomeric ratios that are analytically reproducible and stratigraphically consistent. The kinetics of racemization in O. lurida conceivably resembles that of Protothaca and Saxidomus, other bivalves whose kinetics of racemization are relatively well understood. Assuming such a resemblance, enantiomeric ratios in O. lurida imply that (1) unit M is the same approximate age as estuarine terrace deposits bordering San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, providing that the terrace deposits have been at diagenetic temperatures 1°-2°C warmer than unit M; and (2) the age of unit N is about four times greater than that of unit M, providing that both units have been at the same approximate diagenetic temperature.

Biomass, Size, and Trophic Status of Top Predators in the Pacific Ocean

Science ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 314 (5806) ◽  
pp. 1773-1776 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Sibert ◽  
J. Hampton ◽  
P. Kleiber ◽  
M. Maunder
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Trophic Status ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean

Migration and stopover strategies of individual Dunlin along the Pacific coast of North America

2004 ◽  
Vol 82 (11) ◽  
pp. 1687-1697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Warnock ◽  
John Y Takekawa ◽  
Mary Anne Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Length Of Stay ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
San Francisco Bay ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Willapa Bay ◽  
Stopover Site ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Flyway ◽  
Migration Strategies ◽  
Copper River Delta

We radio-marked 18 Dunlin, Calidris alpina (L., 1758), at San Francisco Bay, California, and 11 Dunlin at Grays Harbor, Washington, and relocated 90% of them along the 4200 km long coastline from north of San Francisco Bay to the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. The Copper River Delta, Alaska, was the single most important stopover site, with 79% of the marked birds detected there. Our second most important site was the Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor complex of wetlands in Washington. The mean length of stay past banding sites ranged from 1.0 to 3.8 days. Controlling for date of departure, birds banded at San Francisco Bay had higher rates of travel to the Copper River Delta than those banded at Grays Harbor. The later a bird left a capture site, the faster it traveled to the Copper River Delta. Length of stay at the Copper River Delta was inversely related to arrival date. We did not find any effect of sex on travel rate or length of stay. Combining the results of this study with our previous work on Western Sandpipers, Calidris mauri (Cabanis, 1875), reveals variation of migration strategies used within and among shorebird species along the eastern Pacific Flyway.

scholarly journals Western North American Monarchs: Spiraling into Oblivion or Adapting to a Changing Environment?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
David G James
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
San Francisco Bay ◽  
San Francisco Bay Area ◽  
Breeding Population ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Monarch Butterflies ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Winter Breeding

Abstract Monarch butterflies in western North America typically migrate each fall from the Pacific Northwest to overwintering sites in California. Winter 2020/21 saw the lowest number of overwintering western monarch butterflies ever recorded, but was also marked by a winter-breeding population in the San Francisco bay area that appeared to be the largest ever seen. Recoveries of monarchs with wing tags from the Pacific Northwest suggested that many non-reproductive migrants in fall 2020 became reproductive in the San Francisco bay area and did not reach coastal overwintering sites. Mean daily maximum temperatures for San Francisco during fall and winter increased by ~1 °C during the past decade and were 2.5 °C above the 30 year mean during September-October 2020. Warm fall and winter temperatures along with the availability of non-native milkweeds likely caused the increase in winter breeding in winter 2020/21. The outcome of continued winter-breeding in the San Francisco bay area is uncertain. Whether it becomes a sink or source will be dependent on whether winter-breeding monarchs can re-enter their migratory state during spring. However, endemic levels of infection by the protozoan parasite, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE), are often high in winter-breeding monarchs which can limit migration success. The eventual co-existence of winter-breeding and non-breeding monarch populations in northern and central California is probable, with an optimistic view suggesting that the adaptability of the monarch butterfly will allow it to persist in a changed environment.

The South Seas from the Deck of a Steamship

2021 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-96
Author(s):  
Diana L. Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
The United States ◽  
The South ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Time Zones ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
The Many

The story of the people who sailed the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Hawai‘i, Samoa, and points beyond is well documented, yet historians have neglected the voyages themselves and what the travelers encountered on the five-day to five-week journeys to their destinations. Those who crossed the Pacific recorded their thoughts about the sea creatures they discovered, the birds that followed the ships, and the potential of American expansion to the islands. They gossiped about their shipmates, celebrated the change in time zones, and feared the sharks that swam near the vessels. The voyagers had little else to distract them from the many miles of endless water, so they paid attention to their surroundings: nature, people, and shipboard activities. The adventures on the ships enlivened their travels to the islands of the Pacific and proved to be an opportunity to expand their personal horizons, as well as their hopes for the United States.

The Arctic vessel Gjøa

Polar Record ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell-G. Kjær
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Golden Gate ◽  
Fish Products ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Novaya Zemlya ◽  
Franz Josef Land ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
Maritime Museum

The Arctic vessel Gjøa was the first ship that sailed through the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, a voyage captained by Roald Amundsen. Gjøa was launched in 1872 and for 10 years was captained by Asbjørn Sexe while transporting fish products from northern Norway to ports on the west coast. She was wrecked in 1882 and sold to Captain Hans Chr. Johannesen, under whose ownership she sailed for 18 years as a sealer in Arctic waters including voyages to the Kara Sea, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Svalbard, and northeast Greenland. In 1892 she was the expedition ship for the Axel Hamberg expedition to Spitsbergen, and in 1900 she was a tender for the Svensksund expedition to Spitsbergen. The following year she was sold to Amundsen. On 17 June 1903, Amundsen and his companions sailed from Kristiania (present-day Oslo) and three years later they completed the transit of the Northwest Passage. In 1909 Gjøa was put ashore in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. In 1972 — 100 years after Gjøa was launched — she returned to Oslo and was made a permanent exhibit outside the maritime museum (Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum), where she can be seen today.

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