QUITO (AFP) ― Think Galapagos and you think nature in its most pristine expression. But the destructive weather phenomenon called El Nino turns coral reefs there a sickly white and sea iguanas scrawny.
And now, in an unprecedented experiment, scientists using unmanned submarines in the waters off the Ecuadoran archipelago are probing whether global warming is related to El Nino.
There is not yet conclusive evidence of a link. But experts are very serious about the possibility that climate change is making El Nino ― unusually warm water in the Pacific off the west coast of South America ― more frequent and more intense.
For hundreds of years, the weather system at the Galapagos did not have to worry about global warming, said Eduardo Espinoza, head of maritime research at the Galapagos National Park.
But climate change associated with human activity could turn El Nino into a death sentence for several marine species that are unique to the archipelago.
With future studies, it will become clear if global warming is making El Nino nastier and more frequent, said Espinoza.
Located 1,000 kilometers off the coast, the Galapagos Islands ― the natural laboratory that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution ― every now and then suffer with the arrival of El Nino.
Besides warmer water, the phenomenon is also characterized by heavy rains and weaker winds.
Scientists from Ecuador’s Navy Oceanographic Institute, working with U.S. organizations like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Scripps Research Institute, launched robot subs late last month to learn more about the weather quirk.
For two years, six subs will submerge in the Galapagos sea to collect data on what is known as the Cromwell Current, an underwater stream that helps nurture the food supply in the waters and is involved in El Nino, said INOCAR’s Captain Wellington Renteria.
“El Nino has ravaged the Galapagos. In particular, the rise in temperature has caused almost all the coral reefs to disappear,” he said.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
