Sea levels are rising as a result of climate change; most people know that. But many do not know that oceans also are growing increasingly acidic. What will that do to fish stocks and other marine life off the California coast?

Reporter Kera Abraham set out to explore these and other questions for Monterey County Weekly, an independent alternative newspaper in Seaside, Calif. With degrees in environmental science (B.A., UC Berkeley, 2001) and magazine journalism (M.A., University of Oregon, 2004), she specializes in translating complex environmental and political issues into narrative articles your grandma can understand.

Before moving back to California in 2007, she reported for Eugene Weekly in Oregon, where she earned national recognition for her coverage of forestry, political censorship and eco-sabotage. For clues about California's offshore waters, she investigated marine life off Chile and Peru.

---

The stories:

Sea Sickness: A Dummy’s Guide to Oceanic Symptoms of Global Warming

"Global warming causes less mixing of nutrient-rich deep waters and oxygen-rich shallow waters. Sea level rises as glaciers melt and waters expand." Read more

Scuba Without Borders: An International Glimpse at Underwater Neighborhoods

"On the surface, Monterey Bay has a few things in common with the coasts of Peru and Chile: marine researchers, military bases, poetic summer fog, chilly beaches. Dolphins draw boatloads of life-jacketed tourists, and fishermen haul prolific catches onto bustling wharfs." Read more

Is the Ocean a Victim of Global Warming?

"A cold, salty wind blows from the west. The gray Pacific Ocean – incubator of slimy life, cycler of nutrients, composer of storms – doesn’t seem like itself lately." Read more

---

From Sept. 13-27, Abraham and freelance photographer Robin Parrott traveled to Peru and Chile to document the ways in which global warming is changing the ocean. Weekly photographer Nic Coury shot related photos in the Monterey Bay area. See them here: Chile | Monterey| Peru

Notes from the field: "I woke Friday morning in Coquimbo, a desert region eight uncomfortable hours by bus from Valparaiso. The green, flower-covered hills surrounding the Universidad Catolica del Norte campus are an anomoly, according to my oceanographer hosts; usually the landscape here is brown. But it´s rained three times in the past few months, and the dormant wildflower and grass seeds took full advantage." Read the rest of their travel blog

---