Population Oscillations OR Collapsing Ecosystem

From Majia’s Blog :

The ongoing collapse of King Salmon in Alaska is once again in the news:

Nathaniel Herz (2017, Dec 29). Southeast Alaska’s king salmon are disappearing, and fishermen are grappling with the consequences. Anchorage Daily News. Available https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2017/12/28/southeast-alaskas-king-salmon-are-disappearing-and-fishermen-are-grappling-with-the-consequences/

…There’s some sense that climate change could be causing a “regime shift” and a long-term change in ecosystems, said Peter Hagen, deputy director of a federal fisheries laboratory in Auke Bay, near Juneau.

“There’s a whole question: Is this a new normal? And I don’t think we’ve determined that yet,” Hagen said.

But Hagen and Adkison, the fisheries professor, both pointed out that salmon have proven to be resilient. Fossil records show that big population changes are typical, Adkison said.

“In the salmon business, we’re used to these dramatic fluctuations in productivity,” he said. “If I had to bet, I would favor the short-term fluctuation and I would expect them to eventually rebound. But the current numbers are really low.”

I’ve been following the (reported) acceleration of excess mortality events among animal populations. Here is my 2012 post on the King Salmon that “went missing” that year:

King Salmon Missing http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/wsj-alaska-missing-its-king-salmon.html

In 2013 I created a compilation of news headlines and links addressing what I called “anomal anomalies,” as documented here in this 2013 post:

http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/animal-anomalies-is-fukushima-daiichi.html

Polar bears, walruses, salmon, sardines, starfish, etc. These and so many other marine and land animal populations experienced precipitous declines due to “inexplicable” wasting syndromes and odd infections that began being reported in great number in 2012.

[when I checked on bee and bat declines I discovered that the Wikipedia article attributes the rapid decline in bats from white fungal disease to 2012 here. In contrast, bee “colony collapse disorder” was named in 2006]

Every animal population imperiled has no doubt suffered in complex ways from human engineering and thoughtlessness, including experiences of habitat loss and rapid deterioration of remaining habitats due to the synergistic effects of countless environmental assaults.

Still, I find it more than coincidental that the acceleration of mass mortality events became markedly evident in 2012.

Fukushima’s ongoing and UNPRECEDENTED RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION of the ocean and the general dispersal of industrial pollutants by the Japan’s terrible 2011 tsunami ARE STRANGELY ABSENT from most all news coverage of marine welfare.

Yet, ALL THE SCIENTIFIC DATA available, including data generated by the US Geological Survey and the CTBTO, documented widespread fallout contamination in North America.

Scientific models on ocean dispersion predicted a plume of radioactive contamination would reach North America and add to the coastal fallout from precipitation by 2013. This prediction was tested and found to be true in San Diego, CA.

Fukushima’s ongoing dissemination of radioactive contamination has lessened since 2012 but it has not ceased.

I’m sure that Fukushima isn’t the only source of radioactive contamination from artificially engineered radio-isotopes such as Cesium-137 and Strontium-89 but it is the largest known.

Might it represent a tipping point in ocean life? That question will probably never be answerable empirically because not enough research is investigating impacts.

What is clear however is that the accelerated decimation of animal life on earth will not occur without grave human losses as well. It is my belief that when we destroy the eco-system upon which we depend, we are destroying ourselves.

Unfortunately, our capacity to grapple with the spectre of our destruction is impeded by our capacity to rationalize.

The idea of “population oscillations” is the rationalization deployed most often to account for the dislocations in ecological life observed by scientists and everyday people in touch with their environments.

Populations don’t simply oscillate by chance. Numbers drop and decline in relation to the contingencies of system-environment interactions. Precipitous declines typically result from amplifying feedback loops, often resulting from either over-population or some dramatic change in the environment, such as a sudden and unprecedented onslaught of marine contamination.

Pacific Ocean tipping points http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/pacific-ocean-tipping-points.html

Bioaccumulation: Cesium is One Among the 1000 Radionuclides Unleashed by Fukushima Bioaccumulation: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/bioaccumulation-cesium-is-one-among.html

Contaminated Water at Fukushima Daiichi Majia’s Blog: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/contaminated-water-at-fukushima-daiichi.html

Will Fukushima Daiichi Kill Vast Swathes of Ocean life Majia’s Blog: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/will-fukushima-daiichi-kill-vast.html

Endless Atmospheric and Ocean Emissions Majia’s Blog: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/endless-atmospheric-and-ocean-emissions.html

How much Fukushima Fuel is in the Ocean http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-much-fukushima-fuel-is-in-ocean.html

Ocean Releases Majia’s Blog: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/ocean-releases.html

Humanity’s End Foretold in Destruction of Oceans: Majia’s Blog: Humanity’s End Foretold in Destruction of Oceans

Compromised Oceans mean Compromised People: Majia’s Blog: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/humanitys-end-foretold-in-destruction.html

Radiation plumes headed to N. America Majia’s Blog: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/fukushima-radiation-plumes-in-ocean.html

Majia’s Blog: The Art of Deception http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-art-of-deception.html

Source:

http://majiasblog.blogspot.fr/2017/12/population-oscillations-or-collapsing.html