A student of mine recently sent me this photo of a jellyfish strewn beach with the following text:
I took this picture when I was living in Arica, Chile four years ago. The people who lived there said that it was like this every summer, but it was getting progressively worse each year, not by much, but enough to notice.
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I almost don't dare to post it.. but I used this photo as base for a "lol-oshunz" image -> http://www.myfavouriteplaces.org/wl/pivot/entry.php?id=74
Please let me know if you happen to think this is outrageously evil.
And I'd like to say thanks for the blog posts. Shifting Baselines is one of the best ScienceBlogs around.
I nearly had to learn a new language to understand all these. Fun! Thanks Pepjin.
As is the case when attempting to measure change in remote or under-studied (there..that just about covers it all) environments, the lack of controls leads me to be sceptical about off-hand time-series observations, even from locals. The debate over the direction of the Western Hudson Bay polar bear population is fueled by local observations of more bears coming ashore for longer periods. The other side of the argument includes off-shore aerial surveys and analysis of declining seaice possibly funneling bears to fewer on-shore locations earlier in spring.
And what about kids these days! Every generation seems worse! There's your shifting baseline :/