By Daniel de la Calle
In an LA Times article titled "In Science, Words Matter" oceanographer Elizabeth Tobin refers to the often talked about controversy that terms like the "great Pacific garbage patch", the algae "red tide", "global warming", "Ocean Acidification", etc tend to be hyperbolic, inaccurate and in occasions simply wrong. She is worried this imprecise and exaggerated language probably aimed at providing "catchier headlines" could invite disbelief in the general public.
To a small, basic extent I can share the essence of this repeated argument: words are important, should be handled with care and taken seriously. But several aspects of the "Ocean Acidification is a lie" rhetoric I find somewhat irritating: the first one is that nobody dares offer an alternative to the term. I have talked in the past about how some of the scientists we met and interviewed for the documentary did not like the term "Ocean Acidification" either and wanted to come up with something easier to say and remember ("acidification" is anything but catchy and is not really getting many headlines so far, I am afraid), something that was closer to the reality, the phenomenon it tries to represent.
But I will even disagree with the idea that "Acidification" is the wrong substantive for these basic oceans. Should it be "de-basification", or "neutralization"? The neologism "debasification" would even raise more brows than poor, tongue-tiring Acidification, "neutralization" would be a lie as well, as we will never reach neutral sea waters either. And why would "Acidification" be wrong if what it does is describe the direction a dropping pH is heading? Because it is hyperbolic? But aren't the consequences of Ocean Acidification the same on calcifying organisms as what you see happens to chalk when immersed in vinegar?
Put any term under the same lens and see if it stands such scrutiny. What should we think of "Evolution", of the "Second World War", of "Democracy"? You can have a very thick set of hair and witness you are balding, there is no need to wait until there are three hairs left to say it.
I do not like "Acidification" much, but the real contribution and challenge is to come up with better alternatives.
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Tangled Up In Words
Monday, May 07, 2012
Ocean Acidification and Education
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
Inspired by our upcoming screenings for students this Thursday and Friday in the Southern Chilean town of Puerto Montt we want to post information for and about students and Ocean Acidification:
»Students from the Ridgeway School (Plymouth, UK) were commissioned by the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) and the UK Plymouth Marine Laboratory to produce an animation film to explain the issue of Ocean Acidification to young people. They talked to scientists, conducted their own research both at school and in the National Marine Aquarium and were involved in the whole process of animation. The result was this 8 minute film that won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Bill Bryson Prize.
»Last month youngsters from Ivybridge Community College,UK, and from Brest, Brittany got together and exchanged ideas and oppinions on invasive non-native species and Ocean Acidification. The event was supported by Marinexus, a cross-channel research and outreach project to bring together marine science and outreach in Devon and Brittany to raise awareness of marine ecosystems in the Western Channel and of their ability to cope with the effects of human activity.
»The classic Ocean Acidification experiment with vinegar and white chalkboard chalk carried out at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, California. Easy to replicate in any school:
»Santa Monica High School’s "Car Team" students of Team Marine won First Place out of 35 high schools in the 2011-12 QuikSCience Challenge, a regional environmental science ocean stewardship competition. Since the beginning of the school year, “Car Team” students have worked to convert a 1971 red convertible Volkswagen Super Beetle into a 100 percent electric vehicle (short video). With their zero-emission car awaiting its final step (installation of the battery pack), the students’ “lesson plan on wheels” will soon be wrapped with the logos of all sponsors and showcased across Los Angeles County at schools and community events to promote cleaner alternative transportation. As part of their competition, they also went to Lincoln and John Adams Middle Schools to educate youth about the problems of and solutions to climate change and ocean acidification.
As part of the conversion process, the students have created a manual with pictures intended to help others repeat the process. Students have worked with local electric car experts, including Paul Pearson of Gas to Electric Conversions, as well as Samohi's automotive teacher Dan Cox, and City Hall's Rick Sikes to develop the manual.
Photo: Team Marine
SOURCE
»Links to another Acidification test you can do at home or in the class. All you will need is a red cabbage, drinking straws and very small cups. Details can be found HERE and if you prefer to watch a quick demo video of the experiment and meet a young student preparing herself to be the first person on Mars click HERE.
SOURCE
»University of Miami grad student Rachel Heuer has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to study how Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta) might cope with Ocean Acidification.
Photo: FAO
"Her initial findings indicate that toadfish exposed to elevated CO2 levels, relevant for the near future and current upwelling regions, lose increased amounts of base from the body through the intestine. This is problematic since toadfish and other marine fishes need to retain bases to help them cope with acidic environments. Heuer's preliminary findings suggest that this intestinal base loss negatively affects their overall pH balance and health.
"During my NSF Fellowship, I hope to build upon these findings by assessing the energetic cost and exploring the effects of long-term CO2 exposure in the Gulf toadfish. I am excited to utilize this fellowship to contribute to a rapidly expanding field of ocean acidification research," says Heuer."
SOURCE
»College of Charleston graduate student Jennifer Bennet is one of the recipients of the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship this year. She earned her M.S. in marine biology and will serve at the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmostpheric Research Ocean Acidification Program helping scientists there optimize and standardize data collection so it can be easily translated for the public. Bennett will also engage stakeholder groups to determine their information needs for effective decision-making about Ocean Acidification impacts.
Photo (Jennifer Bennett): www.steminaction.org
SOURCE
»Finally, for those that have finished their studies and are looking for work the Imperial College London offers a 3 year Postdoc in Modelling Biodiversity Responses to Human Impact. The main research objective is to develop a rigorous global model of how local biodiversity responds to human impacts, in order to support projections of how alternative socio-political scenarios will affect global and regional biodiversity. Biodiversity data will come from published comparisons of assemblage composition along gradients of threat intensity. You will develop and populate a database of precise measures of threat intensity corresponding to the diversity data, developing new measures from remote-sensed data as necessary; you will also develop a database to hold species=92 functional trait data. You will employ advanced statistical modelling tool, such as generalized additive mixed models, to relate diversity to threat intensity. The successful candidate will work closely with Professor Andy Purvis (the Principal Investigator).
You must have a PhD in Ecology or Environmental Science or have equivalent level of professional qualifications and experience. For more details, click HERE
Inspired by our upcoming screenings for students this Thursday and Friday in the Southern Chilean town of Puerto Montt we want to post information for and about students and Ocean Acidification:
»Students from the Ridgeway School (Plymouth, UK) were commissioned by the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) and the UK Plymouth Marine Laboratory to produce an animation film to explain the issue of Ocean Acidification to young people. They talked to scientists, conducted their own research both at school and in the National Marine Aquarium and were involved in the whole process of animation. The result was this 8 minute film that won the Royal Society of Chemistry's Bill Bryson Prize.
»Last month youngsters from Ivybridge Community College,UK, and from Brest, Brittany got together and exchanged ideas and oppinions on invasive non-native species and Ocean Acidification. The event was supported by Marinexus, a cross-channel research and outreach project to bring together marine science and outreach in Devon and Brittany to raise awareness of marine ecosystems in the Western Channel and of their ability to cope with the effects of human activity.
»The classic Ocean Acidification experiment with vinegar and white chalkboard chalk carried out at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, California. Easy to replicate in any school:
»Santa Monica High School’s "Car Team" students of Team Marine won First Place out of 35 high schools in the 2011-12 QuikSCience Challenge, a regional environmental science ocean stewardship competition. Since the beginning of the school year, “Car Team” students have worked to convert a 1971 red convertible Volkswagen Super Beetle into a 100 percent electric vehicle (short video). With their zero-emission car awaiting its final step (installation of the battery pack), the students’ “lesson plan on wheels” will soon be wrapped with the logos of all sponsors and showcased across Los Angeles County at schools and community events to promote cleaner alternative transportation. As part of their competition, they also went to Lincoln and John Adams Middle Schools to educate youth about the problems of and solutions to climate change and ocean acidification.
As part of the conversion process, the students have created a manual with pictures intended to help others repeat the process. Students have worked with local electric car experts, including Paul Pearson of Gas to Electric Conversions, as well as Samohi's automotive teacher Dan Cox, and City Hall's Rick Sikes to develop the manual.
Photo: Team Marine
SOURCE
»Links to another Acidification test you can do at home or in the class. All you will need is a red cabbage, drinking straws and very small cups. Details can be found HERE and if you prefer to watch a quick demo video of the experiment and meet a young student preparing herself to be the first person on Mars click HERE.
SOURCE
»University of Miami grad student Rachel Heuer has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to study how Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta) might cope with Ocean Acidification.
Photo: FAO
"Her initial findings indicate that toadfish exposed to elevated CO2 levels, relevant for the near future and current upwelling regions, lose increased amounts of base from the body through the intestine. This is problematic since toadfish and other marine fishes need to retain bases to help them cope with acidic environments. Heuer's preliminary findings suggest that this intestinal base loss negatively affects their overall pH balance and health.
"During my NSF Fellowship, I hope to build upon these findings by assessing the energetic cost and exploring the effects of long-term CO2 exposure in the Gulf toadfish. I am excited to utilize this fellowship to contribute to a rapidly expanding field of ocean acidification research," says Heuer."
SOURCE
»College of Charleston graduate student Jennifer Bennet is one of the recipients of the Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship this year. She earned her M.S. in marine biology and will serve at the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmostpheric Research Ocean Acidification Program helping scientists there optimize and standardize data collection so it can be easily translated for the public. Bennett will also engage stakeholder groups to determine their information needs for effective decision-making about Ocean Acidification impacts.
Photo (Jennifer Bennett): www.steminaction.org
SOURCE
»Finally, for those that have finished their studies and are looking for work the Imperial College London offers a 3 year Postdoc in Modelling Biodiversity Responses to Human Impact. The main research objective is to develop a rigorous global model of how local biodiversity responds to human impacts, in order to support projections of how alternative socio-political scenarios will affect global and regional biodiversity. Biodiversity data will come from published comparisons of assemblage composition along gradients of threat intensity. You will develop and populate a database of precise measures of threat intensity corresponding to the diversity data, developing new measures from remote-sensed data as necessary; you will also develop a database to hold species=92 functional trait data. You will employ advanced statistical modelling tool, such as generalized additive mixed models, to relate diversity to threat intensity. The successful candidate will work closely with Professor Andy Purvis (the Principal Investigator).
You must have a PhD in Ecology or Environmental Science or have equivalent level of professional qualifications and experience. For more details, click HERE
End Of April News
Friday, April 27, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
»The Center for Biological Diversity has launched a new Endangered Oceans campaign in the US to save our sea life from the "unprecedented threat" of Ocean Acidification. The website is WWW.ENDANGEREDOCEANS.ORG and they want to call on "the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to produce a national action plan to tackle ocean acidification". You can sign their petition HERE and you can learn how some species are already being harmed by Ocean Acidification and how others will soon follow suit HERE.
»Australia's "Foreign Minister Bob Carr has announced the government will provide $1 million to a participation fund to help small island developing states participate in the Rio+20 conference in June.
The conference will include debate on how to sustainably manage the world's oceans.
"Small island developing states live most directly with the disastrous reality of climate change," Senator Carr said on Thursday. "Now they are facing an additional threat from ocean acidification." Senator Carr said it was crucial that the nations with so much at stake should be able to have their voices heard. "Declining ocean water quality is already killing fish, other marine species and marine vegetation," he said."
SOURCE
»North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher video about the effects that carbon dioxide emissions have on sea invertebrates.
»"Researchers at Seattle and Oregon State University have definitively linked an increase in ocean acidification to the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon, where larval growth had declined to a level considered by the owners to be "non-economically viable."
A study by the researchers found that elevated seawater carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, resulting in more corrosive ocean water, inhibited the larval oysters from developing their shells and growing at a pace that would make commercial production cost-effective. As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, this may serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine for other ocean acidification impacts on shellfish, the scientists say."
Results of the research were published in early April in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.
SOURCE
»NBC News piece on the danger of extinction for 56 coral species from water warming and Ocean Acidification:
»German scientists Kai T. Lohbeck, Ulf Riebesell and Thorsten B. H. Reusch have published on Nature.com a an article about the "Adaptative evolution of a key phytoplankton species to Ocean Acidification". The researchers examined the ability of the world's single most important calcifying organism, the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi, to evolve in response to Ocean Acidification. They say: "Specifically, we exposed E. huxleyi populations founded by single or multiple clones to increased concentrations of CO2. Around 500 asexual generations later we assessed their fitness. Compared with populations kept at ambient CO2 partial pressure, those selected at increased partial pressure exhibited higher growth rates, in both the single- and multiclone experiment, when tested under ocean acidification conditions. Calcification was partly restored: rates were lower under increased CO2 conditions in all cultures, but were up to 50% higher in adapted compared with non-adapted cultures. We suggest that contemporary evolution could help to maintain the functionality of microbial processes at the base of marine food webs in the face of global change."
Read more about it on the SOURCE page.
»The Center for Biological Diversity has launched a new Endangered Oceans campaign in the US to save our sea life from the "unprecedented threat" of Ocean Acidification. The website is WWW.ENDANGEREDOCEANS.ORG and they want to call on "the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to produce a national action plan to tackle ocean acidification". You can sign their petition HERE and you can learn how some species are already being harmed by Ocean Acidification and how others will soon follow suit HERE.
»Australia's "Foreign Minister Bob Carr has announced the government will provide $1 million to a participation fund to help small island developing states participate in the Rio+20 conference in June.
The conference will include debate on how to sustainably manage the world's oceans.
"Small island developing states live most directly with the disastrous reality of climate change," Senator Carr said on Thursday. "Now they are facing an additional threat from ocean acidification." Senator Carr said it was crucial that the nations with so much at stake should be able to have their voices heard. "Declining ocean water quality is already killing fish, other marine species and marine vegetation," he said."
SOURCE
»North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher video about the effects that carbon dioxide emissions have on sea invertebrates.
»"Researchers at Seattle and Oregon State University have definitively linked an increase in ocean acidification to the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon, where larval growth had declined to a level considered by the owners to be "non-economically viable."
A study by the researchers found that elevated seawater carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, resulting in more corrosive ocean water, inhibited the larval oysters from developing their shells and growing at a pace that would make commercial production cost-effective. As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise, this may serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine for other ocean acidification impacts on shellfish, the scientists say."
Results of the research were published in early April in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.
SOURCE
»NBC News piece on the danger of extinction for 56 coral species from water warming and Ocean Acidification:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
SOURCE»German scientists Kai T. Lohbeck, Ulf Riebesell and Thorsten B. H. Reusch have published on Nature.com a an article about the "Adaptative evolution of a key phytoplankton species to Ocean Acidification". The researchers examined the ability of the world's single most important calcifying organism, the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi, to evolve in response to Ocean Acidification. They say: "Specifically, we exposed E. huxleyi populations founded by single or multiple clones to increased concentrations of CO2. Around 500 asexual generations later we assessed their fitness. Compared with populations kept at ambient CO2 partial pressure, those selected at increased partial pressure exhibited higher growth rates, in both the single- and multiclone experiment, when tested under ocean acidification conditions. Calcification was partly restored: rates were lower under increased CO2 conditions in all cultures, but were up to 50% higher in adapted compared with non-adapted cultures. We suggest that contemporary evolution could help to maintain the functionality of microbial processes at the base of marine food webs in the face of global change."
Read more about it on the SOURCE page.
News, Some Good
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
»Washington State became last month the first in the USA to create an expert panel on Ocean Acidification. The panel, convened by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is made up of scientists, seafood industry representatives and local and tribal officials. It has set up three tasks:
1 Survey the latest science to find out what we know, and don’t know.
2 Set priorities for additional investment in research and monitoring.
3 Craft a set of practical, affordable policy recommendations to address the root causes of acidification or help businesses and natural communities adapt.
SOURCE
»The Ocean Ark Alliance in collaboration with Melbourne Aquarium will be hosting the largest environmental art show in Australia this coming October. There will be $50,000 in prize money to School Environmental Project Grants and Student Study Grants to any 9-12 year student in Victoria. OAA hopes in time this will become a national and international initiative.
Full entry details will be released before the end of the month HERE.
»The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Department of Energy and Climate Change is launching a £13 million center for carbon capture and storage research that will be coordinated at the University of Edinburgh and bring together in a virtual network over 100 of the best UK carbon capture and storage academics.
"The new state-of-the-art capture research facilities will allow UK scientists and engineers to uncover the complexities of carbon capture and work with industrial partners and SMEs to develop improved capture technologies. They include:
1 Pilot scale advanced testing facilities in Yorkshire, with a 1 ton CO2 per day amine capture facility
2 A mobile testing unit to allow a range of tests to be conducted on real power station flue gases
3 Advanced oxy-fuel fluidized bed and chemical looping pilot facilities."
"The UK has a target to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, a significant task that requires systemic changes to every sector of energy generation and use, including in industrial applications."
SOURCE
»A fungi capable of degrading and utilizing common plastic polyurethane has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest. The Yale University team responsible for the discovery has published its findings in the article "Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi" for the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal.
SOURCE
»If you live in California you might want to download Why Ocean Acidification Matters To California.
»Not many prominent political leaders include the environment and the state of the world's oceans in their speeches and agenda. That is why we want to mention in this blog the work and words of Australia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr, who recently visited the UN headquarters in New York to meet with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a group of UN ambassadors to discuss a plan to protect and manage the oceans. During a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald he had no difficulty mixing the discussion on problems in Afghanistan and between the West and Islamist countries together with over-fishing, the danger of Acidification and "the emergence of huge dead seas". ''I'm just nagged by the worry that we might be with the oceans where we were in 1975 or 1980 with awareness of what we were doing to the Earth's atmosphere,'' he said. ''We don't know how quickly a tipping point might be reached."
SOURCE
»NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program Office, the University of Washington and the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Association are preparing an invitational workshop on defining a global network for Ocean Acidification monitoring. It will be held June 26-28, 2012 in Seattle, WA, and will include representatives from around the world. The principal goals of this international workshop are:
1 To design the components and locations of an international ocean acidification observing network that includes repeat hydrographic surveys, underway measurements on volunteer observing ships, moorings, floats, and gliders, leveraging existing networks and programs wherever possible.
2 To identify measurement parameters and performance metrics for each major component of the observing system.
3 To develop a strategy for data quality assurance and distribution.
SOURCE
»World map time lapse about the history of human global CO2 emissions.
»Washington State became last month the first in the USA to create an expert panel on Ocean Acidification. The panel, convened by Gov. Chris Gregoire, is made up of scientists, seafood industry representatives and local and tribal officials. It has set up three tasks:
1 Survey the latest science to find out what we know, and don’t know.
2 Set priorities for additional investment in research and monitoring.
3 Craft a set of practical, affordable policy recommendations to address the root causes of acidification or help businesses and natural communities adapt.
SOURCE
»The Ocean Ark Alliance in collaboration with Melbourne Aquarium will be hosting the largest environmental art show in Australia this coming October. There will be $50,000 in prize money to School Environmental Project Grants and Student Study Grants to any 9-12 year student in Victoria. OAA hopes in time this will become a national and international initiative.
Full entry details will be released before the end of the month HERE.
»The UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Department of Energy and Climate Change is launching a £13 million center for carbon capture and storage research that will be coordinated at the University of Edinburgh and bring together in a virtual network over 100 of the best UK carbon capture and storage academics.
"The new state-of-the-art capture research facilities will allow UK scientists and engineers to uncover the complexities of carbon capture and work with industrial partners and SMEs to develop improved capture technologies. They include:
1 Pilot scale advanced testing facilities in Yorkshire, with a 1 ton CO2 per day amine capture facility
2 A mobile testing unit to allow a range of tests to be conducted on real power station flue gases
3 Advanced oxy-fuel fluidized bed and chemical looping pilot facilities."
"The UK has a target to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, a significant task that requires systemic changes to every sector of energy generation and use, including in industrial applications."
SOURCE
»A fungi capable of degrading and utilizing common plastic polyurethane has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest. The Yale University team responsible for the discovery has published its findings in the article "Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi" for the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal.
SOURCE
»If you live in California you might want to download Why Ocean Acidification Matters To California.
»Not many prominent political leaders include the environment and the state of the world's oceans in their speeches and agenda. That is why we want to mention in this blog the work and words of Australia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr, who recently visited the UN headquarters in New York to meet with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a group of UN ambassadors to discuss a plan to protect and manage the oceans. During a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald he had no difficulty mixing the discussion on problems in Afghanistan and between the West and Islamist countries together with over-fishing, the danger of Acidification and "the emergence of huge dead seas". ''I'm just nagged by the worry that we might be with the oceans where we were in 1975 or 1980 with awareness of what we were doing to the Earth's atmosphere,'' he said. ''We don't know how quickly a tipping point might be reached."
SOURCE
»NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program Office, the University of Washington and the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Regional Association are preparing an invitational workshop on defining a global network for Ocean Acidification monitoring. It will be held June 26-28, 2012 in Seattle, WA, and will include representatives from around the world. The principal goals of this international workshop are:
1 To design the components and locations of an international ocean acidification observing network that includes repeat hydrographic surveys, underway measurements on volunteer observing ships, moorings, floats, and gliders, leveraging existing networks and programs wherever possible.
2 To identify measurement parameters and performance metrics for each major component of the observing system.
3 To develop a strategy for data quality assurance and distribution.
SOURCE
»World map time lapse about the history of human global CO2 emissions.
Seeing Ghosts
Thursday, March 29, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
Over the past few days you might have read about a Japanese "ghost ship", a victim of last year's tsunami, that just reached British Columbia. Experts expected most of the 20 million tons of debris from the natural disaster (about the size of California!) to arrive to the other side of the Pacific by 2014, but sea currents have obviously been faster than previously thought.
Watch THIS video.
We tend to ignore the importance and extent of sea currents. Up until now they were invisible, ghostly too, even if their presence and influence is felt everywhere: in sailing, shipping, fishing, in weather patterns thousands of miles offshore, in migratory routes. Thanks to NASA, the invisible turns now visible in this astounding footage that reveals massive currents, siphon flows in the Gulf of Mexico, linked vortex that evoke Van Gogh's Starry Night along the African coast. You can even see the current that over 365 days relentlessly cradled the mystery ship from Asia to America.
As a footnote, this visualization and all the information coming from the NASA/JPS computational model called "Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II" (ECCO2) will be very valuable in the study of Ocean Acidification, climate change and pollution control.
Over the past few days you might have read about a Japanese "ghost ship", a victim of last year's tsunami, that just reached British Columbia. Experts expected most of the 20 million tons of debris from the natural disaster (about the size of California!) to arrive to the other side of the Pacific by 2014, but sea currents have obviously been faster than previously thought.
Watch THIS video.
We tend to ignore the importance and extent of sea currents. Up until now they were invisible, ghostly too, even if their presence and influence is felt everywhere: in sailing, shipping, fishing, in weather patterns thousands of miles offshore, in migratory routes. Thanks to NASA, the invisible turns now visible in this astounding footage that reveals massive currents, siphon flows in the Gulf of Mexico, linked vortex that evoke Van Gogh's Starry Night along the African coast. You can even see the current that over 365 days relentlessly cradled the mystery ship from Asia to America.
As a footnote, this visualization and all the information coming from the NASA/JPS computational model called "Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II" (ECCO2) will be very valuable in the study of Ocean Acidification, climate change and pollution control.
Information & Communication
Thursday, March 15, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
Information and communication, going hand in hand as should be:
»Lecture near Lake Tahoe: Dr. Howard Spero, UC Davis, will deliver a lecture titled Changing Seas about the earth's climate, climate change throughout history and ocean (and Lake Tahoe) acidification. The date is March 22nd at 5:30PM and the location the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.
SOURCE
»Four wave glider robots made by Liquid Robotics have broken the world distance traveled by unmanned wave power vehicles record by covering over 3,200 nautical miles from San Francisco to Hawaii. The drones consist of an underwater glider that is attached by a cable to a floating section. They convert the endless motion of the oceans into forward thrust, allowing them to travel thousands of miles with no fuel consumption. These new generation of robots are capable of monitoring everything from shrinking fisheries or natural disasters to Ocean Acidification.
Photo credit: Liquid Robotics
SOURCE
»Audio story on Ocean Acidification along the shores of the West Coast by APRN's Steve Heimel. Heimel looks at the circulation patterns that may already be acidifying fish habitat in the Arctic.
AUDIO and SOURCE
»"In order to develop consistent messaging and education and communication tools for ocean acidification, the West Coast National Marine Sanctuaries are partnering with the Monterrey Bay Sanctuary Foundation and Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to host an Effective Practices for Ocean Acidification (OA) Communication and Education workshop. This workshop is planned to take place in conjunction with and immediately following the International Science Symposium, The Ocean in a High CO2 World: Ocean Acidification, in Monterrey in September 2012.
[…]
Following the workshop, the NOAA OA Education working group will develop a National NOAA OA Education Action Plan, which will incorporate some of the results and outcomes from the Effective Practices Workshop.
Topics to be covered during the workshop will include the following:
»The Darwin Center for Biogeosciences will have a Summer School Program in Utrecht and Texel, the Netherlands, July 1st-12th, 2012. "Main subjects will be Ocean Acidification, the carbon cycle, microbial ecology, biomarkers, terrestrial carbon cycling and climate reconstructions in the past, present and future."
More INFO and SOURCE
»The British Oceanographic Data Centre has announced the launch of the data management area for the UK Ocean Acidification (UKOA) research program. UKOA is a five-year, £12 million research program that started in 2010 and involves 27 institutes in the UK and has close links to other similar programs around the world.
How to gain access UKOA data HERE
SOURCE
Information and communication, going hand in hand as should be:
»Lecture near Lake Tahoe: Dr. Howard Spero, UC Davis, will deliver a lecture titled Changing Seas about the earth's climate, climate change throughout history and ocean (and Lake Tahoe) acidification. The date is March 22nd at 5:30PM and the location the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.
SOURCE
»Four wave glider robots made by Liquid Robotics have broken the world distance traveled by unmanned wave power vehicles record by covering over 3,200 nautical miles from San Francisco to Hawaii. The drones consist of an underwater glider that is attached by a cable to a floating section. They convert the endless motion of the oceans into forward thrust, allowing them to travel thousands of miles with no fuel consumption. These new generation of robots are capable of monitoring everything from shrinking fisheries or natural disasters to Ocean Acidification.
Photo credit: Liquid Robotics
SOURCE
»Audio story on Ocean Acidification along the shores of the West Coast by APRN's Steve Heimel. Heimel looks at the circulation patterns that may already be acidifying fish habitat in the Arctic.
AUDIO and SOURCE
»"In order to develop consistent messaging and education and communication tools for ocean acidification, the West Coast National Marine Sanctuaries are partnering with the Monterrey Bay Sanctuary Foundation and Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to host an Effective Practices for Ocean Acidification (OA) Communication and Education workshop. This workshop is planned to take place in conjunction with and immediately following the International Science Symposium, The Ocean in a High CO2 World: Ocean Acidification, in Monterrey in September 2012.
[…]
Following the workshop, the NOAA OA Education working group will develop a National NOAA OA Education Action Plan, which will incorporate some of the results and outcomes from the Effective Practices Workshop.
Topics to be covered during the workshop will include the following:
• Development and implementation of effective messaging
• How to frame messaging for varying audiences
• Linkage of science to education and outreach
• Creation of a resource inventory to bring together scientific information with educational tools
• The scope of the problem and its relation to west coast sanctuary and estuary sites and regional as well as national issues
• Research linkages and regionally relevant case studies including how tangible resource impacts may affect local economies."
SOURCE»The Darwin Center for Biogeosciences will have a Summer School Program in Utrecht and Texel, the Netherlands, July 1st-12th, 2012. "Main subjects will be Ocean Acidification, the carbon cycle, microbial ecology, biomarkers, terrestrial carbon cycling and climate reconstructions in the past, present and future."
More INFO and SOURCE
»The British Oceanographic Data Centre has announced the launch of the data management area for the UK Ocean Acidification (UKOA) research program. UKOA is a five-year, £12 million research program that started in 2010 and involves 27 institutes in the UK and has close links to other similar programs around the world.
How to gain access UKOA data HERE
SOURCE
News Wire
Thursday, March 01, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
Woke up today missing Jimmy McNulty, hence the title. News, unstoppable, like rolling trains filled with sea adventures, awards, money, great videos and mahi mahi. Who could possibly offer you more?:
•MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) researchers started carrying out this past February a three month expedition along the Gulf of California, that 700 mile long finger of water between the peninsula of Baja California and mainland Mexico. You can check on their website logbook for updates on their research, which involves no less than two vessels, over 25 ROV pilots, 60 scientists plus the ship's crew. Since the scope of research is quite broad, the expedition has been divided into seven legs, each one lasting around ten days. Leg number four will be about greenhouse gases in the deep sea. It will be led by Peter Brewer (buscar) and the marine chemists present will study the behavior of methane and carbon dioxide in the high-pressure and low-temperature environment of the gulf's deep basins. They are hoping that Brewer's work will help in the design of future experiments to test the effects of Ocean Acidification on a variety of marine organisms.
Also, check this mesmerizing, soothing and informative video on jellyfish made by MBARI staff. It won honorable mention in the National Science Foundation's 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
SOURCE
•University of Miami student Sean Bignami has received a $5,000 scholarship as winner of the Guy Harvey Scholarship Award. Mr. Bignami is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. at the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. The focus of his study is how the changing chemistry of the marine waters as a result of Ocean Acidification might affect the early development of large marine fish. His work uses mahi mahi and cobias as case studies.
He intends to devote much of his career to sharing the results of his research with decision-makers to ensure marine resources are managed effectively. He has also been teaching marine science to teachers and students, and for the last two years has worked with the “Science Made Sensible” outreach program, an effort that pairs Miami graduate students in science, math and engineering disciplines with middle school science teachers to provide students with more hands-on learning experiences.
"Communication is often not the strongest of a scientist's skill set, at least not when considering the general public's need for information to be delivered in a simple way that highlights its application to everyday life," Bignami wrote in his scholarship application. "Reaching the public at a young age may be the most important way to instill love and appreciation for the ocean and the services it provides."
Photo credit: UM/RSMAS
SOURCE
SOURCE 2
•Youtube video animation showing "how aragonite saturation at the ocean's surface is projected to decrease towards the end of the 21st century as man-made carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere continues to rise."
The animation was generated as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and JAMSTEC.
•This news piece is not so new. A team of 19 scientists, using sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego reported this past January results about the broadest worldwide Ocean Acidification study to date. They measured acidity in 15 ocean locations, from the Antarctic to the temperate and tropical seawater and results were very different from one place to the other. While in places like the Line Islands of the South Pacific and Antarctica the range of pH variance is limited, in sections of the California coast subject to upwelling pH fluctuations are intense. In some of the study areas the decrease in seawater pH deriving from CO2 emissions was still within bounds of natural pH fluctuation, but other areas already experience daily acidity levels expected to only be seen at the end of the century.
The study was made possible because all sensors were designed by Todd Martz, marine chemistry researcher at Scripps, so he "was in a unique position to assimilate a number of datasets, collected independently by researchers who otherwise would not have been in communication with each other. Each time someone deployed a sensor they would send me the data, and eventually it became clear that a synthesis should be done to cross-compare this diverse collection of measurements," he said. That was when Gretchen E. Hofmann, an eco-physiologist and professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, worked with Mr. Martz to put together the research team to create that synthesis.
The authors noted that they only worked with information about coastal surface oceans, so more study is needed in deeper ocean regions further off the coast.
These two great videos show the deployment of a SeaFET pH sensor in the Ross Sea and a chilly visit to a SeaFET sensor in the very deep water under ice near McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
SOURCE
SOURCE 2
Woke up today missing Jimmy McNulty, hence the title. News, unstoppable, like rolling trains filled with sea adventures, awards, money, great videos and mahi mahi. Who could possibly offer you more?:
•MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) researchers started carrying out this past February a three month expedition along the Gulf of California, that 700 mile long finger of water between the peninsula of Baja California and mainland Mexico. You can check on their website logbook for updates on their research, which involves no less than two vessels, over 25 ROV pilots, 60 scientists plus the ship's crew. Since the scope of research is quite broad, the expedition has been divided into seven legs, each one lasting around ten days. Leg number four will be about greenhouse gases in the deep sea. It will be led by Peter Brewer (buscar) and the marine chemists present will study the behavior of methane and carbon dioxide in the high-pressure and low-temperature environment of the gulf's deep basins. They are hoping that Brewer's work will help in the design of future experiments to test the effects of Ocean Acidification on a variety of marine organisms.
Also, check this mesmerizing, soothing and informative video on jellyfish made by MBARI staff. It won honorable mention in the National Science Foundation's 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
SOURCE
•University of Miami student Sean Bignami has received a $5,000 scholarship as winner of the Guy Harvey Scholarship Award. Mr. Bignami is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. at the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science. The focus of his study is how the changing chemistry of the marine waters as a result of Ocean Acidification might affect the early development of large marine fish. His work uses mahi mahi and cobias as case studies.
He intends to devote much of his career to sharing the results of his research with decision-makers to ensure marine resources are managed effectively. He has also been teaching marine science to teachers and students, and for the last two years has worked with the “Science Made Sensible” outreach program, an effort that pairs Miami graduate students in science, math and engineering disciplines with middle school science teachers to provide students with more hands-on learning experiences.
"Communication is often not the strongest of a scientist's skill set, at least not when considering the general public's need for information to be delivered in a simple way that highlights its application to everyday life," Bignami wrote in his scholarship application. "Reaching the public at a young age may be the most important way to instill love and appreciation for the ocean and the services it provides."
Photo credit: UM/RSMASSOURCE
SOURCE 2
•Youtube video animation showing "how aragonite saturation at the ocean's surface is projected to decrease towards the end of the 21st century as man-made carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere continues to rise."
The animation was generated as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and JAMSTEC.
•This news piece is not so new. A team of 19 scientists, using sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego reported this past January results about the broadest worldwide Ocean Acidification study to date. They measured acidity in 15 ocean locations, from the Antarctic to the temperate and tropical seawater and results were very different from one place to the other. While in places like the Line Islands of the South Pacific and Antarctica the range of pH variance is limited, in sections of the California coast subject to upwelling pH fluctuations are intense. In some of the study areas the decrease in seawater pH deriving from CO2 emissions was still within bounds of natural pH fluctuation, but other areas already experience daily acidity levels expected to only be seen at the end of the century.
The study was made possible because all sensors were designed by Todd Martz, marine chemistry researcher at Scripps, so he "was in a unique position to assimilate a number of datasets, collected independently by researchers who otherwise would not have been in communication with each other. Each time someone deployed a sensor they would send me the data, and eventually it became clear that a synthesis should be done to cross-compare this diverse collection of measurements," he said. That was when Gretchen E. Hofmann, an eco-physiologist and professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, worked with Mr. Martz to put together the research team to create that synthesis.
The authors noted that they only worked with information about coastal surface oceans, so more study is needed in deeper ocean regions further off the coast.
These two great videos show the deployment of a SeaFET pH sensor in the Ross Sea and a chilly visit to a SeaFET sensor in the very deep water under ice near McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
SOURCE
SOURCE 2
Reconsider Your Shrimp
Thursday, February 23, 2012
By Daniel de la Calle
» Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass. is hosting an Oceans Symposium and next Monday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer at The New Yorker, will lead a discussion following a showing of A Sea Change, Imagine a World Without Fish.
» Beautiful new documentary on the oceans is out this year: The Last Reef, Cities Beneath The Sea. Go to their website (www.thelastreef.co.uk) and read how this project, that started out as a 3D "macro movie based in Palau", turned into an alarm call on the biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide: Ocean Acidification.
» Reconsider your shrimp. A one pound bag of frozen shrimp raised on a typical Asian fish farm produces an astounding one ton of CO2. At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science biologist J. Boone Kauffman (Oregon State University) developed the comparison to help the public understand the environmental impact of land use decisions. "The carbon footprint of the shrimp from this land use is about 10-fold greater than the land use carbon footprint of an equivalent amount of beef produced from a pasture formed from a tropical rainforest."
Mr. Kauffman said 50 to 60 percent of shrimp farms are located in tidal zones in Asian countries, mostly on cleared mangrove forests. The farms are inefficient, producing just one kilogram of shrimp for 13.4 square meters of mangrove, while the ponds created are abandoned in just three to nine years because disease, soil acidification and contamination destroy them. After abandonment, the soil takes 35 to 40 years to recover.
LINK to the original article, from Agence France Presse.
» Lecture on Ocean Acidification and the Future of Native Oysters in California Estuaries taking place tomorrow, February 24, at noon at Stanford University. It is sponsored by Hopkins Marine Station. More info HERE.
» And from the other side of the Atlantic, "Analyses of the effects of Ocean Acidification on the larval development of Crassostrea gigas", AKA Pacific oyster on Ms. Patrícia Barros Masters Theses. Info HERE.
» New video filled with European flair on Ocean Acidification, the EPOCA program and the public's awareness on the issue.
» Post Doctoral position at IMR. The Institute of Marine Research has a 3 year position as postdoctoral researcher on the effects of Ocean Acidification on marine zoooplankton, with special emphasis on krill. The position is located in Bergen, Norway. Find out about qualifications and further details HERE.
» The Second UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme annual science meeting will take place at the University of Exeter from Monday, April 16th to Wednesday, April 18th. If you are a UKOARP particiant you can register online HERE. For further reading, click HERE.
» Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass. is hosting an Oceans Symposium and next Monday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer at The New Yorker, will lead a discussion following a showing of A Sea Change, Imagine a World Without Fish.
» Beautiful new documentary on the oceans is out this year: The Last Reef, Cities Beneath The Sea. Go to their website (www.thelastreef.co.uk) and read how this project, that started out as a 3D "macro movie based in Palau", turned into an alarm call on the biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide: Ocean Acidification.
» Reconsider your shrimp. A one pound bag of frozen shrimp raised on a typical Asian fish farm produces an astounding one ton of CO2. At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science biologist J. Boone Kauffman (Oregon State University) developed the comparison to help the public understand the environmental impact of land use decisions. "The carbon footprint of the shrimp from this land use is about 10-fold greater than the land use carbon footprint of an equivalent amount of beef produced from a pasture formed from a tropical rainforest."
Mr. Kauffman said 50 to 60 percent of shrimp farms are located in tidal zones in Asian countries, mostly on cleared mangrove forests. The farms are inefficient, producing just one kilogram of shrimp for 13.4 square meters of mangrove, while the ponds created are abandoned in just three to nine years because disease, soil acidification and contamination destroy them. After abandonment, the soil takes 35 to 40 years to recover.
LINK to the original article, from Agence France Presse.
» Lecture on Ocean Acidification and the Future of Native Oysters in California Estuaries taking place tomorrow, February 24, at noon at Stanford University. It is sponsored by Hopkins Marine Station. More info HERE.
» And from the other side of the Atlantic, "Analyses of the effects of Ocean Acidification on the larval development of Crassostrea gigas", AKA Pacific oyster on Ms. Patrícia Barros Masters Theses. Info HERE.
» New video filled with European flair on Ocean Acidification, the EPOCA program and the public's awareness on the issue.
» Post Doctoral position at IMR. The Institute of Marine Research has a 3 year position as postdoctoral researcher on the effects of Ocean Acidification on marine zoooplankton, with special emphasis on krill. The position is located in Bergen, Norway. Find out about qualifications and further details HERE.
» The Second UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme annual science meeting will take place at the University of Exeter from Monday, April 16th to Wednesday, April 18th. If you are a UKOARP particiant you can register online HERE. For further reading, click HERE.
Saint Nicholas Post
Monday, December 05, 2011
By Daniel de la Calle
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As advanced celebration of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker tomorrow, here are a few links, photos, videos and news for you all, stuffed inside the shoes you are putting out tonight:
•A team of scientists at Santa Cruz's University of California have spent the past three years studying the submarine springs at Puerto Morelos, Mexico. The springs offer a preview of sorts of the fate of coral reef ecosystems in a less basic (damaged by Ocean Acidification) marine environment. The submarine springs, known as "ojos", are common along the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. For thousands of years limestone "karst" landforms near the coast have featured underground drainage systems that discharge brackish water at the ojos. The discharged water has lower pH than the surrounding seawater. Professor Adina Paytan and the rest of the team monitored ten of those "eyes" (ojos) and conducted ecological surveys around each site. "This study has some good news and some bad news for corals," said Paytan, coauthor of a paper published last november in the journal Coral Reefs, "the good news is that some species of corals are able to calcify and grow at very low pH. The bad news is that these are not the ones that build the framework of the coral reefs. So if this is an indication of what will happen with future ocean acidification, the reefs will not be as we know them today."
Read more HERE.
Download THIS extremely informative PDF.
•Following up on such efforts as the World Seed Bank, Australia's Taronga Western Plains Zoo has started developing a "frozen zoo", a bank of genetic material from endangered species. Some frozen sperm and IVF embryonic cells from two coral species present in the Great Barrier Reef were flown this past November to the New South Wales zoo. The vials, stored now in liquid nitrogen, contain enough material to produce more than a million new corals even hundreds of years from now. Those new corals could be used in some future re-population or to increase the genetic diversity of particular reefs. The work was carried out by the zoo's manager of research and conservation programs, Dr Rebecca Spindler, and by Dr Mary Hagedorn, a world expert in coral IVF at the Smithsonian Institution. They worked with two common staghorn species (Acropora millepora and Acropora tenuis), but Dr Hagedorn understands they now "need to sit with Australian coral scientists and ask which are the most important species for Australia [to store]". Read more on THIS Sydney Morning Herald piece.
Photo by Rebecca Spindler
•Northwest oyster die-offs made the news in newspapers, television and the internet last month. THIS is a good piece by Elizabeth Grossman for Yale Environment 360 on the hatcheries and the problems this $73 million a year industry has had to endure since 2006. The particular water conditions of this region, in which colder, more acidic waters surge from the bottom of the ocean, has already made it very difficult, at times impossible, for oyster larvae to grow. The article has interesting quotes by NOAA's Dick Feely, George Waldbusser from Oregon State University and Benoit Eudeline, chief scientist at the Taylor Shellfish Hatchery.
•Virginia's oyster industry is taking very seriously the news about Pacific Northwest farms being affected by Ocean Acidification and is trying to take proactive monitoring measures and lessons learned in other areas for the more-than-probable future. Although cases of damage from acidification have only been noticed in Maine, the Atlantic coast could begin to suffer from the same oyster larvae hatching problems seen West. READ MORE HERE.
•A large ceramic coral reef is awaiting those who visit the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington. The 10 by 15 feet piece was created by artist Courtney Mattison with the title "Our Changing Seas: A Coral Reef Story". In the words of Ms. Mattison it "combines marine conservation science and policy, fine art and social sciences". The large mural work is part of a group exhibition called "Beneath the Surface: Rediscovering a World Worth Conserving".
More info from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program HERE.
•Scientists at UCSB's Marine Science Institute recently confirmed the critical role algae-clearing fish have in coral growth and recovery. At Moorea Coral Reef in French Polynesia the researchers discovered that the region's herbivorous fish clear the way for coral growth by eating algae from around the reef.
A combination of a series of cyclones and the raise in numbers of crown-of-thornes sea stars had brought the previous 40-45% outer reef coral coverage (which is significantly high) to almost zero, but the corals are beginning to make a comeback. Although algae usually take over a cleared area, fish prevented them from reaching a level of coverage that kept baby corals from growing. MSI scientists believe more effort should be put in the future into preserving fringe reefs, where algae-consuming fish grow up, in order to have a healthy population of adult fish in the future.
More info HERE.
•A year or two ago we already wrote about this: Mussel shells are perfect recoding devices into which scientists can examine water acidity and other significant data. Dr. Cathy Pfister from the University of Chicago and her colleagues have been taking samples from 1,000 year old middens from the Makah Nation in Washington State, comparing them with shells from the 1970s and 2000s and measured the changes.
The conclusion is that they are even greater than would be expected from the process of Ocean Acidification, local upwelling or the changes in nitrate and phosphate.
You can download a copy of the recently published PLoS ONE manuscript HERE.
A VIDEO from the Seadoc Society with Cathy Pfister HERE.
•The University of New Hampshire will benefit from the more than $1.7 million federal funding recently awarded by NOAA to NEARCOOS, the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems. The money will go to the University of Maine, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Universities of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, in Nova Scotia as well. The University of New Hampshire plans to use these moneys to support a wave buoy implemented with instruments to continue measuring Ocean Acidification at Great Bay.
Read more HERE.
The Hook that Caught the Fish that Saves the Corals that Inspired the Artist
Sunday, November 27, 2011
By Daniel de la Calle
Here are a few Ocean and Ocean Acidification news bits found while surfing the web over the past week. I hope some are news to you:
•How long has man been catching fish from the open ocean? 42,000 years at the very least. Archeologists from the Australian National University in Canberra have found two broken fish hooks made from shells amongst 38,000 fish bones in a cave in East Timor. It is not known how the fish were caught, but researchers speculate that it was done from boats or rafts using either nets or fiber lines with hooks. Published three days ago in the journal SCIENCE. READ IT HERE.
The fishing hooks. Scale is in millimeters.
•According a study in the current issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences by researchers led by David Bellwood from James Cook University in Queensland, the depletion of large fish due to overfishing can lead to a reef containing only small fish that cannot perform crucial cleaning tasks for the development and sprouting of new colonies. Research focused on parrotfish across 18 locations from the western Indian and Central Pacific Oceans and concluded that large parrotfish are the real efficient pruners and cleaners of vast reef systems thanks to their jaw size.
Chlorunus Microrhinos parrotfish from the North coast of East Timor. Photo by Nick Hobgood, Wikipedia.
In their absence, small fish can only do their light grazing activities that are known as "dusting". An increase in the number of small fish means the dusting is overdone while the mowing and weeding is being neglected. Once again, a lesson on moderation and the fragility of ecological balance. Read more HERE or HERE.
•Colleen Flanigan, an environmental artist and metallurgist from the US is going to use Biorock (a trademark technology developed in the 1970s that runs a low-voltage electric current through metal in saltwater, causing the accumulation of limestone) to grow a coral colony on a metal sculpture. The sculpture was built in Cancún last June; it has a 15 by 6 feet sinuous design inspired by the DNA double helix and is planned to be lowered via crane into the shallow waters of MUSA, the underwater museum off Cancún I wrote about last year, the one with the 400 life-size submerged sculptures by Jason deCaires Taylor. The electrolysis taking place with Biorock lowers the acidity of water and could one day make possible small "artificial" niches of corals in a marine environment that might otherwise be hostile to polyps. READ MORE HERE.
Artist Colleen Flanigan. Photo by Ray Whitehouse/The Oregonian
•Going much farther back than the aforementioned 42,000 years, to some 250 million ago, about 95% of our planet's marine life and some 70% of all terrestrial species vanished forever as wildfires covered the planet, oceans acidified and temperatures soared. A research team led by Shu-Zhong Shen, member of China's Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology believes evidence points to a "runaway greenhouse event". A study published last week on Science gives the most detailed picture yet on how the Permian mass extinction unfolded. Our current problem comes from fossil fuel burnings, while during the Permian period the culprits were volcanoes releasing massive amounts of CO2 and methane. Geological and also fossil records point to several "kill mechanisms", such as fires, acidification, loss of oxygen in the oceans and even hypercapnia (too much CO2 build up in organisms, causing death). The world's climate at the end of the Permian changed "from basically like today, where you had hot tropics and cooler polar regions, to a world in which everything was a tropics", says Charles Henderson, of the University of Calgary. This catastrophe did not happen overnight, though. It took thousands of years to die out and the bulk of the extinctions most probably occurred over a 20,000 year period. Link to an article on the VANCOUVER SUN covering this information.
•PDF on the Impact of Ocean Acidification on Reproduction, Early Development and Settlement of Marine Organisms HERE.
•The Carnegie Institution for Science series of videos about Ocean Acidification research done in Australia continues. This is the one from November 12th:
•Interested in the Effects of Ocean Acidification on Sexual Reproduction and Early Life History Stages of Reef-Building Corals? HERE you can quench that thirst.
•An 8 minute podcast on Ocean Acidification with Joan Kleypas, 2011 Heinz Award winner. From EarthSky.org
•Mark Hays , biology professor at Georgia Tech, writes from Fiji about his research and corals at the New York Times Scientists At Work blog.
http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/a-disappearing-underwater-world/
•Ph.D. graduate research assistant position in zooplankton ecology and biological oceanography at the School of Oceanography of the University of Washington. INFO HERE.
•In need of some beautiful time lapse views of our planet from Space to be reminded of its magnificence and our technical achievements?:
Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.
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