New England's 1816 'Mackerel Year' and Climate Change Today
http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/new-england%E2%80%99s-1816-%E2%80%98mackerel-year%E2%80%99-and[font face=Serif][font size=5]New Englands 1816 Mackerel Year and Climate Change Today[/font]
[font size=4]UMass Amherst, New England researchers explore past global climate catastrophe[/font]
January 18, 2017
Contact: Janet Lathrop 413/545-0444
[font size=3]AMHERST, Mass. Hundreds of articles have been written about the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, at Indonesias Mount Tambora just over 200 years ago. But for a small group of New England-based researchers, one more Tambora story needed to be told, one related to its catastrophic effects in the Gulf of Maine that may carry lessons for intertwined human-natural systems facing climate change around the world today.
In the latest issue of Science Advances, first author and research fellow Karen Alexander at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and 11 others including aquatic ecologists, climate scientists and environmental historians recount their many-layered, multidisciplinary investigation into the effects of Tambora on coastal fish and commercial fisheries.
Alexander says, We approached our study as a forensic examination. We knew that Tamboras extreme cold had afflicted New England, Europe, China and other places for as long as 17 months. But no one we knew of had investigated coastal ecosystems and fisheries. So, we looked for evidence close to home.
In work that integrates the social and natural sciences, they used historical fish export data, weather readings, dam construction and town growth chronologies and other sources to discover Tamboras effects on the Gulf of Maines complex human and natural system.
[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601635 (Doesnt work yet.)
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/1/e1601635