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Sea Otter Show Striking Variability In Diets And Feeding Strategies
2008-01-24 11:38:00
Ecologists have long observed that when food becomes scarce, animal populations exploit a wider range of food sources. So scientists studying southern sea otters at different sites in California's coastal waters were not surprised to find that the dietary diversity of the population is higher where food is limited. But this diversity was not reflected in the diets of individual sea otters, which instead showed dietary specialization in response to limited food.The new findings by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will be published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of January 14. The study found that all sea otters in an area with abundant food resources share the same dietary preferences. Where food is limited, however, a diverse array of feeding strategies emerges, with individual sea otters specializing on particular types of prey.Tim Tinker, a UCSC research biologist and first author of the paper, said the study has bot...
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Lungfish a breed apart
2008-01-24 11:37:00
QUEENSLAND lungfish may be regarded as unusual and totally protected, but Gordon Hides has about 7000 of them."We have worked out how to breed them where the scientists couldn't," said Hides, who with his wife, Linda, operates the world's only commercial lungfish farm at Howard, near Maryborough.And they export young lungfish to fish fanciers all over the world at $500 each."There's been a lot of talk, with scientists getting on the bandwagon, about the Traveston dam killing lungfish and making them extinct and it's a whole lot of garbage," he said.Hides, 67, said scientists had said female lungfish laid 100 eggs which were individually fertilised by the male."That's poppycock," he said. "One big old female can lay 15,000 eggs and it would be impossible for the male to fertilise them all. They are pea-sized eggs, and in the wild, everything from insects to fish and snakes will eat them."When the young hatch, they lie on their sides for the first couple of weeks, hardly moving a...
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480-million-year-old Fossil Sheds Light On 150-year-old Paleontological Mys
2008-01-24 11:36:00
480-million-year-old Fossil Sheds Light On 150-year-old Paleontological MysteryDiscovery of an exceptional fossil specimen in southeastern Morocco that preserves evidence of the animal's soft tissues has solved a paleontological puzzle about the origins of an extinct group of bizarre slug-like animals with rows of mineralized armor plates on their backs, according to a paper in Nature.While evolution has produced great diversity in the body designs of animals, over the course of history several highly distinct groups, such as trilobites and ammonites, have become extinct. The new fossil is of an unusual creature known as a machaeridian, an invertebrate, or animal without a backbone, that existed for about 180 million years from 485 to 305 million years ago."The new specimen unequivocally identifies machaeridians as annelid worms, an extremely successful and diverse group of animals that includes familiar living animals like the sea mouse, the earthworm and the leech," said Jakob Vi...
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In Diatom, Scientists Find Genes That May Level Engineering Hurdle
2008-01-24 11:33:00
Denizens of oceans, lakes and even wet soil, diatoms are unicellular algae that encase themselves in intricately patterned, glass-like shells। Curiously, these tiny phytoplankton could be harboring the next big breakthrough in computer chips. Diatoms build their hard cell walls by laying down submicron-sized lines of silica, a compound related to the key material of the semiconductor industry--silicon. "If we can genetically control that process, we would have a whole new way of performing the nanofabrication used to make computer chips," says Michael Sussman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemistry professor and director of the UW-Madison's Biotechnology Center.To that end, a team led by Sussman and diatom expert Virginia Armbrust of the University of Washington has reported finding a set of 75 genes specifically involved in silica bioprocessing in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, as published January 21 in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National A...
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New Study Finds Biodiversity Conservation Secures Ecosystem Services For Pe
2008-01-23 05:06:00
Healthy ecosystems that provide people with essential natural goods and services often overlap with regions rich in biological diversity, underscoring that conserving one also protects the other, according to a new study। Titled Global Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , the report confirms the value of making biological diversity a priority for conservation efforts. It shows that more than 70 percent of the world's highest priority areas for biodiversity conservation also contain significant value in ecosystem services such as fresh water, food, carbon storage, storm buffers and other natural resources that sustain human life and support social and economic development.Scientists from Conservation International (CI), the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, and the Global Environment Facility found that the value of ecosystem services in the 7 percent of the planet of greatest biodiversity conservation priority was more than dou...
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Nonlinear Ecosystem Response Points To Environmental Solutions
2008-01-23 05:02:00
The preservation of coastal ecosystem services such as clean water, storm buffers or fisheries protection does not have to be an all-or-nothing approach, a new study indicates, and a better understanding of how ecosystems actually respond to protection efforts in a "nonlinear" fashion could help lead the way out of environmental-versus-economic gridlock। There may be much better ways to provide the majority of environmental protection needed while still maintaining natural resource-based jobs and sustainable communities, scientists from 13 universities and research institutes will suggest January 18 in a new article in the journal Science."The very concept of ecosystem-based management implies that humans are part of the equation, and their needs also have to be considered," said Lori Cramer, an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University."But ecosystem concerns have too often been viewed as an all-or-none choice, and it doesn't have to be that way," Cramer said. ...
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Paired Microbes Eliminate Methane Using Sulfur Pathway
2008-01-23 05:00:00
Anaerobic microbes in the Earth's oceans consume 90 percent of the methane produced by methane hydrates -- methane trapped in ice -- preventing large amounts of methane from reaching the atmosphere। Researchers now have evidence that the two microbes that accomplish this feat do not simply reverse the way methane-producing microbes work, but use a sulfur compound instead. "The dominant role anaerobic oxidation of methane plays in regulating marine methane makes it a significant component of the global methane and carbon cycles," the researchers report in the current issue of Environmental Microbiology. "Its importance in these cycles highlights the need to close gaps in the current understanding of the specific interaction between the microbial groups that work in concert to mediate anaerobic oxidation of methane."In this case, the microbial consortia consist of an Archaea -- a single cell organism -- that consumes methane for energy and bacteria that reduce sulfates to obtain en...
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How Baby Fish Find A Home
2008-01-22 05:57:00
One of the most significant questions facing marine ecologists today, is just how much of an impact global variations in the environment are having on the dispersal of larval and juvenile marine species from open oceans to coral reefs। Previously, tracking how fish larvae migrate was done through direct observation by divers on older larvae found near the reefs, after they'd spent weeks to months in the plankton. This method did not permit divers to follow small larvae, diving larvae or larvae as they returned to the reefs at night. How tiny coral reef fish larvae locate the reef habitat across vast expanses of water has remained an enduring mystery.An innovative research tool, designed by UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, division of Applied Marine Physics Assistant Professor, Dr. Claire B. Paris and Senior Research Associate Cedric Guigand is making the task possible on younger larvae as they move with currents. Dubbed the OWNFOR (Orientation With No Frame...
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Alaska Glacier Speed-up Tied To Internal Plumbing Issues, Says Study
2008-01-22 05:55:00
A University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates meltwater periodically overwhelms the interior drainpipes of Alaska 's Kennicott Glacier and causes it to lurch forward, similar to processes that may help explain the acceleration of glaciers observed recently on the Greenland ice sheet that are contributing to global sea rise।According to CU-Boulder Professor Robert Anderson of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, the amount of water passing through conduits inside and underneath the Kennicott Glacier increases during seasonal melting and also following annual flooding from a nearby lake. The addition of excess water from melting and flooding causes water to back up into a honeycomb of passages inside the glacier, he said, suggesting the resulting increase in water pressure causes the glacier to slide more rapidly down its bedrock valley."The phenomenon is similar to the plumbing system of a house that is incapable of handling excess water or waste, causing it to back u...
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Renewed Interest In Turning Algae Into Fuel Generated
2008-01-22 05:53:00
The same brown algae that cover rocks and cause anglers to slip while fly fishing contain oil that can be turned into diesel fuel, says a Montana State University microbiologist।Drivers can't pump algal fuel into their gas tanks yet, but Keith Cooksey said the idea holds promise. He felt that way 20 years ago. He feels that way today."We would be there now if people then hadn't been so short-sighted," Cooksey said.Cooksey is one of many U.S. scientists who studied the feasibility of turning algal oil into biodiesel in the 1980s. The U.S. Department of Energy, through its Aquatics Species program, funded their research. Cooksey's lab made a number of discoveries. Scientific journals published his findings.Funding dried up, however, and the scientists went on to other things."Rumor had it that big oil got in the way," Cooksey said. "They didn't want competition so the project was dropped."Cooksey "sort of" retired as a research professor in 2003. He now directs the Department of...
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Climate Influences Deep Sea Populations
2008-01-22 05:06:00
In a new article Joan B. Company and colleagues at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC) in Spain describe a mechanism of interaction across ecosystems showing how a climate-driven phenomenon originated in shelf environments controls the biological processes of a deep-sea living resource।The progressive depletion of world fisheries is one of the key socio-economical issues of the forthcoming century. However, amid this worrying scenario, Company's study demonstrates how a climate-induced phenomenon occurring at a decadal time-scale, such as the formation of dense shelf waters and its subsequent downslope cascading can repeatedly reverse the general trend of overexploitation of a deep-sea living resource.Strong downslope currents associated with intense cascading events displace the population of the shrimp Aristeus antennatus from the fishing grounds, producing a temporary fishery collapse. However, nutritive particles brought by cascading waters to deep regions cause an enhan...
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Exploration Of Lake Hidden Beneath Antarctica's Ice Sheet Begins
2008-01-22 05:04:00
A four-man science team led by British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Dr Andy Smith has begun exploring an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet। The lake -- the size of Lake Windermere (UK) -- could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise.Glaciologist Dr Smith and his colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh and Northumbria are camped out at one of the most remote places on Earth conducting a series of experiments on the ice. He says,"This is the first phase of what we think is an incredibly exciting project. We know the lake is 3.2km beneath the ice; long and thin and around 18 km2 in area. First results from our experiments have shown the lake is 105m deep. This means Lake Ellsworth is a deep-water body and confirms the lake as an ideal site for future exploration missions to detect microbial life and recover climate records."If the survey work goes well, the next phase will be to build a probe, drill down into the lake an...
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Seagull Blood Shows Promise For Monitoring Pollutants From Oil Spills
2008-01-22 05:02:00
Like the proverbial coal miners' canary-in-the-cage, seagulls may become living sentinels to monitor oil pollution levels in marine environments, report scientists in Spain। In the study, Alberto Velando and colleagues note that researchers have known for years that large oil spills can increase levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in marine environments.Studies have linked these compounds to cancer in humans. While oil spills quickly kill large numbers of seabirds and other animals, scientists do not fully understand the non-lethal biological effects of these spills, the Spanish researchers say.The researchers measured PAH levels in the blood of Yellow-legged gulls living in the vicinity of the oil spill caused by the 2002 shipwreck of the Prestige, one of Europe's largest oil spills.Gulls exposed to the oil showed twice the levels of PAHs in their blood than unexposed birds, even though these levels were measured 17 months after the initial spill, the researchers ...
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Solving The Mystery Of The Metallic Sheen Of Fish
2008-01-22 04:59:00
The bright, metallic sheen of fish skin -- source of endless fascination for fishermen and aquarium owners -- is due to a sophisticated system of crystals that enhance light reflection and may help fish hide from predators in the wild, scientists in Israel are reporting।In the new study, Lia Addadi and colleagues note that researchers have known for years that guanine crystals in the skin underneath the scales of fish reflect light to produce a mirror-like sheen.This silvery reflectance acts as a form of camouflage that helps protect fish from predators as fish swim near the water's surface. However, the exact shape of these guanine crystals and how they work remained a mystery.The researchers extracted guanine crystals from the skin of the Japanese Koi fish and analyzed the crystals using X-ray diffraction and an electron microscope. They compared the results to guanine crystals made in the laboratory.The researchers found that the biogenic crystals develop in an unexpected dire...
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Increasing Amounts Of Ice Mass Have Been Lost From West Antarctica
2008-01-15 08:31:00
Increasing amounts of ice mass have been lost from West Antarctica and the Antarctic peninsula over the past ten years, according to research from the University of Bristol and published online recently in Nature Geoscience।Meanwhile the ice mass in East Antarctica has been roughly stable, with neither loss nor accumulation over the past decade.Professor Jonathan Bamber at the University of Bristol and colleagues estimated the flux of ice from the ice sheet into the ocean from satellite data that cover 85% of Antarctica's coastline, which they compared with simulations of snow accumulation over the same period, obtained using a regional climate model.They arrived at a best estimate of a loss of 132 billion tonnes of ice in 2006 from West Antarctica -- up from about 83 billion tonnes in 1996 -- and a loss of about 60 billion tonnes in 2006 from the Antarctic Peninsula.Professor Bamber said: "To put these figures into perspective, four billion tons of ice is enough to provide drink...
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Older Arctic Sea Ice Replaced By Young, Thin Ice
2008-01-15 08:28:00
A new study by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers indicates older, multi-year sea ice in the Arctic is giving way to younger, thinner ice, making it more susceptible to record summer sea-ice lows like the one that occurred in 2007।The team used satellite data going back to 1982 to reconstruct past Arctic sea ice conditions, concluding there has been a nearly complete loss of the oldest, thickest ice and that 58 percent of the remaining perennial ice is thin and only 2-to-3 years old, said the lead study author, Research Professor James Maslanik of CU-Boulder's Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research. In the mid-1980s, only 35 percent of the sea ice was that young and that thin according to the study, the first to quantify the magnitude of the Arctic sea ice retreat using data on the age of the ice and its thickness, he said."This thinner, younger ice makes the Arctic much more susceptible to rapid melt," Maslanik said. "Our concern is that if the Arctic continues to...
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Sending Carbon Dioxide To Sea
2008-01-15 08:25:00
As the discussion of global warming becomes more serious, there is more talk about options for dealing with the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere। Some people say we could store millions of tons of carbon in the ocean if we encourage the growth of microscopic marine plants by “fertilizing” the water with dissolved iron.A perspective in the journal Science states that the idea is intriguing, but it would require solid verification before it entered the market for carbon credits. The authors say that the verification research would have to show that the mechanism is effective and environmentally safe and that any negative impacts were balanced by the positive effect of reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.Anthony Michaels, director of the USC College’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, said the point of the paper is not that ocean iron fertilization is a bad idea, but rather that it requires more proof, both as a general idea and each time it is tried ...
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Warming Climate Can Support Glacial Ice: It Did In Much Warmer Times
2008-01-14 06:38:00
New research challenges the generally accepted belief that substantial ice sheets could not have existed on Earth during past super-warm climate events। The study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego provides strong evidence that a glacial ice cap, about half the size of the modern day glacial ice sheet, existed 91 million years ago during a period of intense global warming. This study offers valuable insight into current day climate conditions and the environmental mechanisms for global sea level rise.The new study examines geochemical and sea level data retrieved from marine microfossils deposited on the ocean floor 91 million years ago during the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum. This extreme warming event in Earth's history raised tropical ocean temperatures to 35-37°C (95-98.6°F), about 10°C (18°F) warmer than today, thus creating an intense greenhouse climate.Using two independent isotopic techniques, researchers at Scripps Oceanography studie...
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Humans Have Caused Profound Changes In Caribbean Coral Reefs
2008-01-11 05:46:00
Coral reefs in the Caribbean have suffered significant changes due to the proximal effects of a growing human population, reports a new study।"It is well acknowledged that coral reefs are declining worldwide but the driving forces remain hotly debated," said author Camilo Mora at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. "In the Caribbean alone, these losses are endangering a large number of species, from corals to sharks, and jeopardizing over 4 billion dollars in services worth from fisheries, tourism and coastal protection," he added."The continuing degradation of coral reefs may be soon beyond repair, if threats are not identified and rapidly controlled," Mora said. "This new study moves from the traditional localized study of threats to a region-wide scale, while simultaneously analyzing contrasting socioeconomic and environmental variables," he added.The study monitored coral reefs, including corals, fishes and macroalgae, in 322 sites across 13 countries throughout the Caribbe...
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Parrot fish critical to Coral Reefs sustainability Scientists Warn
2007-11-06 05:28:00
Coral reefs could be damaged beyond repair, unless we change the way we manage the marine environment। New research by the Universities of Exeter and California Davis, published November 1, 2007 in Nature, shows how damaged Caribbean reefs will continue to decline over the next 50 years.Coral reefs conjure up images of rich, colourful ecosystems yet an increasing number of reefs are becoming unhealthy and overrun by seaweed. The research team wanted to test whether reefs that are overgrown with algae could return to good health if the original causes of the problem, such as fishing or pollution, were addressed. This could mean, for example, reducing fishing or introducing better sewage management. The study revealed that the answer is ‘no’ because coral reefs can become permanently unhealthy.In the 1980s, reefs in the Caribbean were hit by the devastating impact of the near-extinction of the herbivorous urchin, Diadema antillarum, with devastating results. Along with parrotfis...
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Why Do So Many Species Live In Tropical Forests And Coral Reefs?
2007-11-05 07:40:00
The latest development in a major debate over a controversial hypothesis of biodiversity and species abundance is the subject of a paper to be published in the 1 November 2007 issue of the journal Nature। The authors report good agreement between the species richness of two of the world's most vulnerable ecosystems -- tropical forests and coral reefs -- and a simple mathematical model building on the so-called "neutral theory of biodiversity." "We're helping to refine and improve this theory because it might have important implications for the effort to protect terrestrial biodiversity from climate change and urban development," says Jayanth Banavar of the Department of Physics at Penn State, a member of the research team.The Nature paper is based on a counterintuitive assumption of neutral theory: that one can largely ignore interactions between species in modeling patterns of species abundance. The authors are physicists Igor Volkov and Jayanth Banavar of Penn State University...
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Small Seabirds Log Longest Animal Migration Ever Recorded
2007-11-05 07:36:00
Every summer, millions of sooty shearwaters arrive off the coast of California, their huge flocks astonishing visitors who may have trouble grasping that the dark swirling clouds over the water consist of seabirds। Scientists have long known that sooty shearwaters breed in New Zealand and Chile and migrate to feeding grounds in the Northern Hemisphere. But the details of this remarkable transequatorial migration are only now emerging from a study using electronic tracking tags to follow individual birds. The flights of sooty shearwaters documented in this new study represent the longest animal migration routes ever recorded using electronic tracking technology: around 65,000 kilometers (39,000 miles). Taking advantage of prevailing winds along different parts of the migration route, the birds trace giant figure eights over the Pacific Basin."The only other bird species known that could rival the migrations of the sooty shearwater would be the arctic tern, which breeds in the Arcti...
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Climate Change Drives Endangered Seabird Into UK Waters
2007-11-05 07:32:00
Around 10 per cent of the world population of Balearic shearwaters has visited UK inshore waters this summer and autumn, with more than 1,200 birds being recorded from just one watchpoint near Land's End in Cornwall।The findings come from a new survey, led by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) in collaboration with the RSPB, which has been monitoring numbers of the birds off the coast of South West England.Balearic shearwaters are the only European seabird to be classified as 'critically endangered' on the recently released 2007 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List. They could become extinct by 2050 if current rates of decline continue.Dr Russell Wynn, who is co-ordinating the SeaWatch SW survey, said: 'Balearic shearwaters leave their Mediterranean breeding colonies in late summer and head for richer feeding grounds along north Atlantic coasts. The numbers recorded during the survey this year show...
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Twenty Of World's 162 Grouper Species Threatened With Extinction
2007-11-05 07:29:00
The first comprehensive assessment of the world’s 162 species of grouper, a culinary favorite and important commercial fish, found that 20 are threatened with extinction unless proper management or conservation measures are introduced। Eight species previously were listed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as under extinction threat, and the new assessment proposes adding 12 more.A panel of 20 experts from 10 nations determined the extinction threat facing groupers, which are the basis of the multimillion-dollar live reef food fish trade based in Hong Kong and comprise one of the most valuable groups of commercial fishes in chilled fish markets of the tropics and sub-tropics. Around the world, consumers pay up to $50 per kilogram for grouper.“This shows that over-fishing could decimate another major food and economic resource for humans, similar to the loss of the cod stocks off New England and Canada that has put thousands of people out of work,” said Roger McManus, a s...
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Oceanographers Say Dead Whales Provide Deep-Sea Living Legacy
2007-11-05 07:25:00
Dead whales may tell no tales, but they are an undersea encyclopedia to scientists who believe they may provide the building blocks for a variety of deepwater creatures। Craig Smith, a biological oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, and other researchers, have been conducting research on the ecology of whale falls – the whale corpses that drop to the bottom of the ocean – supported in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Undersea Research Program and its West Coast and Polar Regions Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Smith, Dan Distel, Amy Baco and other individuals have found that whale bones, along with sunken wood, could be a missing link in the introduction of new species near deep-sea vents, which can reach high temperatures and spew a chemical soup that many organisms find intolerable. The researchers' results will be published in the Feb. 17 issue of the journal Nature.Smith and his colleagues are intrigued by the cr...
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New Group Of Algae Discovered: Picobiliphytes
2007-11-05 07:17:00
An international group of researchers has succeeded in identifying a previously unknown group of algae। As currently reported in the scientific journal Science, the newly discovered algae are found among the smallest members of photosynthetic plankton - the picoplankton ('Picobiliphytes: A marine picoplanktonic algal group with unknown affinities to other Eukaroytes" Science, Vol. 316'). On account of the minute size of the organisms (no more than a few thousandth of a millimetre) and the appearance of phycobili-proteins, researchers have termed the new group Picobiliphyta.Approximately 50 percent of global photosynthesis is conducted in the world's oceans where it is dominated by microscopic algae, the so-called phytoplankton. Scientists estimate that up to 90 percent of phytoplanktonic species are currently unidentified. In the present study, scientists used molecular techniques to investigate the smallest members of the plankton, the picoplankton. Because picoplankton algae ...
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Forests Of Endangered Tropical Kelp Discovered
2007-11-05 07:13:00
A research team led by San Jose State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara has discovered forests of a species of kelp previously thought endangered or extinct in deep waters near the Galapagos Islands।The discovery has important implications for biodiversity and the resilience of tropical marine systems to climate change."The ecosystems that form in these cold, deep pockets beneath warm tropical waters look more like their cousins in California than the tropical reefs just 200 feet above," said co-author Brian Kinlan, a researcher with UC Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute. "It is very similar to what we see when we climb a high mountain. For example, high alpine country in California looks more like Alaska."Kinlan and Michael Graham, associate professor at SJSU, began by developing a mathematical model designed to predict likely habitat for the kelp, Eisenia galapagensis, based on information from satellites and oceanographic instruments on condition...
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Divers Find New Species In Aleutians
2007-11-05 07:10:00
There are unknown creatures lurking under the windswept islands of the Aleutians, according to a team of scientific divers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks।This summer, while completing the second phase of a two-year broad scientific survey of the waters around the Aleutian Islands, scientists have discovered what may be three new marine organisms. This year's dives surveyed the western region of the Aleutians, from Attu to Amlia Island, while last year's assessment covered the eastern region.During the dives, two potentially new species of sea anemones have been discovered। Stephen Jewett, a professor of marine biology and the dive leader on the expedition, says that these are "walking" or "swimming" anemones because they move across the seafloor as they feed. While most sea anemones are anchored to the seabed, a "swimming" anemone can detach and drift with ocean currents. The size of these anemones ranges from the size of a softball to the size of a basketball.Another...
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Fluorescence In Key Marine Creature Discovered
2007-11-05 07:08:00
Fluorescent proteins found in nature have been employed in a variety of scientific research purposes, from markers for tracing molecules in biomedicine to probes for testing environmental quality. Until now, such proteins have been identified mostly in jellyfish and corals, leading to the belief that the capacity for fluorescence in animals is exclusive to such primitive creatures. Researchers say green fluorescent proteins, which could play role as 'sunscreen' or stress reducer, may be widespread in animal kingdom.Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have discovered fluorescent-light emitting features in an evolutionarily important marine organism and say such a capacity may be much more prevalent across the animal kingdom than previously believed.In the October issue of Biological Bulletin, Dimitri Deheyn and his colleagues in La Jolla, Calif. and Japan describe finding green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) in amphioxus, a fish-like animal closely studie...
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'Microplastics' may pose previously unrecognized pollution threat
2007-11-05 07:07:00
Microscopic particles of plastic debris that litter marine environments may pose a previously unrecognized threat to marine animals by attracting, holding, and transporting water pollutants, a new study by British researchers is reporting. Emma L. Teuten and colleagues note long-standing awareness that large pieces of plastic waste, including cargo wrapping sheet plastic and six-pack rings, can sicken and kill fish, birds, turtles and other animals. Seawater eventually breaks down these large pieces into microplastics, which can adsorb high levels of PCBs and other toxins. Microplastics also enter the environment directly from use as "scrubbers" in household and industrial cleaning products. However, little research has been done on the environmental impact of these tiny, pollution-packed pellets. In the new study, researchers exposed several different types and sizes of microplastics to phenanthrene, a major marine pollutant, and used a model to predict their effects on a group of ...
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