A large patch of warm water covering a section of the Pacific Ocean from 2014 to 2016 acted like a B- grade horror movie and had a devastating impact on a wide variety of species.
A new study shows how the environmental horror show continues to affect the marine environment.
Animals that were stuck in place like anemones were impacted by the Blob. Six years have passed since this research was done and the underwater populations still aren't where they were.
The number of Bugula neritina and Watersipora subatra, the two Invasive species, have gone up recently. Bryozoans are small, colonial, tentacled animals that act together in groups.
The group of animals that seemed to be the winners were clams and sea anemones.
The story is not the same after the blob. There are two species of bryozoans that are now much more plentiful.
When the Blob took hold, the number of Sessile Insturments dropped by 71 percent, as the warmer water meant creatures like anemones, tubeworms, and clams ran out of food.
The warm water made it hard for Plankton to get the food it needs. The heat increased the metabolisms of these animals so they needed more food.
The researchers say that there are several reasons why W. subatra and B. neritina are dominant. The space for these bryozoans may have been cleared by the resilience of the kelp forests.
The scaled worm snail has been doing well because it's better able to tolerate warmer waters and because it's a native species.
The problem with these changes is that the newcomers don't play the same role as their predecessors. The bryozoans aren't as good at surviving periods of warming as the animals they've replaced are.
The pattern in the community structure has persisted for the entire post-Blob period, suggesting that this might be more of a long-term shift in the benthic animals. As we experience more marine heat waves, these communities may change.
El Nio events can cause temperature fluctuations in the water. Similar to the Blob, these events are accompanied by significant wave and storm action.
The reefs have shown they can bounce back from warmer periods, but the Blob didn't cause the seas to go crazy. It's an interesting time for researchers to study because ocean temperatures are rising due to global warming.
The region has been monitored for a long time. The effects of the Blob are expected to continue, including how it affects marine species higher up the food chain.
Bob Miller is a marine ecologist from the University of California, Santa Barbara. We wouldn't know what the true effect was if we reacted with new research.
The research has appeared in a journal.
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