From huge whales to tiny plankton, species migrate across newly ice-free Northwest Passage

[Judi Lynn]

From huge whales to tiny plankton, species migrate across newly ice-free Northwest Passage
By Associated Press, Published: June 26 | Updated: Saturday, June 25, 4:11 PM

AMSTERDAM — When a 43-foot (13-meter) gray whale was spotted off the Israeli town of Herzliya last year, scientists came to a startling conclusion: it must have wandered across the normally icebound route above Canada, where warm weather had briefly opened a clear channel three years earlier.

On a microscopic level, scientists also have found plankton in the North Atlantic where it had not existed for at least 800,000 years.

The whale’s odyssey and the surprising appearance of the plankton indicates a migration of species through the Northwest Passage, a worrying sign of how global warming is affecting animals and plants in the oceans as well as on land.

“The implications are enormous. It’s a threshold that has been crossed,” said Philip C. Reid, of the Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science in Plymouth, England.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/from-huge-whales-to-tiny-plankton-species-migrate-across-newly-ice-free-northwest-passage/2011/06/25/AGZKGxkH_story.html