As undergraduates, Rafe Sagarin and Sarah Gilman published their findings on species
shifts on the edge of Monterey Bay in “Climate-Related, Long-Term Faunal Changes in a
California Rocky Intertidal Community,” Science267, 1995. An update appeared in “Climate-
Related Changes in an Intertidal Community over Short and Long Time Scales,” Ecological
Monographs69, 1999.
Sagarin’s website, http://www.stanford.edu/~sagarin/HistoricalEcol.html, shows photos
of the area, with a nifty feature showing changes in algae cover on the rocks as you pass your
cursor over it.
John McGowan’s stark report on the zooplankton drop in the California Current off south-
ern California first appeared in “Climatic Warming and the Decline of Zooplankton in the
California Current,” Science267, 1995. His proposition that warming-related deepening of the
thermocline led to the die-off appears in “The Biological Response to the 1977 Regime Shift in
the California Current,” Deep-Sea Research50, no. 11, 2003. The sooty shearwater’s decline is
documented in two studies by McGowan and Richard Veit: “Ocean Warming and Long-Term
Change of Pelagic Bird Abundance within the California Current System,” Marine Ecology
Press Series, no. 139, 1996, and “Apex Marine Predator Declines 90 Percent in Association with
Changing Oceanic Climate,” Global Change Biology3, 1997.
More information about the habitats and restoration of San Francisco Bay NWR is avail-
able on the refuge’s website at http://desfbay.fws.gov. Further data on the endangered
California clapper rail and salt marsh harvest mouse may be found at the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s website at http://endangered.fws.gov.
Background on the decline of other California marine species is documented in
California’s Living Marine Resources: A Status Report, California Department of Fish and Game
Publications, SG01-11, 2001. General information about climate change globally appears in
Climate Change 2001: Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change.
CHAPTEREIGHT
David Helvarg combined reporting trips to the Florida Keys in 2000 and Australia and Fiji
in 2001 to examine the impact of climate on the world’s reefs. Billy Causey is manager of the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. His sanctuary’s website is http://www.fknms.noaa.
gov, although it is more fun to visit the site in person. Aquarius, the world’s only underwater
laboratory, can be observed at http://www.uncw.edu/aquarius. When scientists are living
aboard, the website provides live images from the habitat. Reef Relief is one of the more
effective environmental groups working to protect the Florida Keys (and the world’s) living
coral reefs; go to http://www.reefrelief.org.
On the Great Barrier Reef, Jeremy Tager remains an active voice for environmental pro-
tection as an advisor to the Australian Democrats and a leader of the Queensland
Conservation Council (online at http://www.qccqld.org.au)..) The Australian Institute of
Marine Science in Townsville continues to do leading studies on the impact of climate
change on coral. It can be found at http://www.aims.gov.au. Also in Townsville is the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (online at http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au)..)
Fiji is one of forty-three member nations of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
fighting for more rapid global action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transition-
ing to noncarbon renewable energy before their lands and peoples are further damaged, dis-
placed, or destroyed. For more on this alliance, go to http://www.sidsnet.org/aosis. In
Fiji, the ministry of local government, housing, squatter settlement and environment has its
hands full just trying to keep up. Its efforts may be researched at http://www.fiji.gov. A cen-
ter for climate and coral research in Fiji is the University of the South Pacific (online at
http://www.usp.ac.fj)..) Also working to link political and environmental rights for Fijians of
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