Mayday: Gulf of Maine in distress, a 6-part series on climate change from Staff Writer Colin Woodard

The ecosystem’s species – and the people who rely on them – are caught in the cross-hairs of a changing climate.

Efforts to understand the challenges facing the Gulf of Maine are hampered by Ottawa’s tight grip of the contact between the media and government researchers.

What happened to a Maine flock’s chicks in 2012 and ’13 bodes ill for many animals, from phytoplankton to right whales.

Cod, shrimp, salmon stocks have already been affected, while still-plentiful lobster have exhibited a dramatic geographic shift northward.

Bringing promise and problems, new species throw the evolving coastal waters into an unpredictable state of flux.

Some native species simply won’t survive the changes in water chemistry that are on the horizon, researchers say.

Some say the state needs more funding to collect data, monitor waterways and assess the impact of acidification.