On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 9:21 PM, Doug Stemke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I thought the list might find this article interesting.
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/09/marine.census.ap/index.html
>

The "octopus highway" descriptions are a bit misleading.  Under
current ocean conditions, salty water from the Caribbean (because
water evaporates off the Caribbean and rains on the eastern Pacific)
is taken north by the Gulf Stream to the north Atlantic.  It gets
cold, and freezing can make it even saltier.  Saltier and colder both
mean heavier, so it sinks and heads south, getting a little more salt
coming out of the Mediterranean.  Getting near Antarctica, it comes
closer to the surface, gets cold, and sinks again to proceed north
into the Indian Ocean and finally to the north Pacific.  This pattern
can change with global climate change and/or rearrangement of
continents and oceans.  The so-called "highway" is a current favoring
dispersal, not a place of regular commuting back and forth.

The global circulation patterns have major impacts on the distribution
of marine animals, both by directly affecting which way things can go
easily and indirectly by affecting climate and physical
characteristics of seawater in particular places.


--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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