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New Ocean Current Discovered
2008-05-07 10:04:00
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern explains, for the first time, changes in the water that are important in helping commercial fishermen understand fluctuations in the fish stock. They're also finding that as the temperature of the Earth is warming, large fluctuations in these factors could help climatologists predict how the oceans will respond in a warmer world."We've been able to explain, for the first time, the changes in salinity, nutrients and chlorophyll that we see in the Northeast Pacific," said Emanuele Di Lorenzo, assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.Since 1945, fishermen in the California current of the Pacific Ocean have been tracking temperature, salinity and nutrients, among other things, in the ocean to help them predict changes in fish populations like sardines and anchovies that are important for the industry....
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Acidic oceans may be water of life for plankton
2008-05-07 10:01:00
Most life in the ocean will suffer as carbon dioxide levels increase and the water becomes more acidic. Some plankton will buck the trend, however, thriving and putting on weight as carbon dioxide levels rise - but it remains to be seen how this will affect the global carbon balance.Débora Iglesias-Rodríguez, from the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, UK, and her colleagues, simulated the increase in dissolved carbon dioxide in surface ocean waters by bubbling carbon dioxide through cultures of coccolithophores, a type of single-celled photosynthesising plankton.In previous experiments water acidity had been regulated by simply adding acid or base, but this method has been criticised for being too artificial. Iglesias-Rodríguez's method found that higher carbon dioxide concentrations increased calcification, speeding up growth of the tiny calcite plates on the plankton cell.Carbon storageCoccolithophores appear to benefit in two ways. The extra carbo...
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US ordered to act on polar bear
2008-05-07 09:57:00
Listing the polar bear might lessen industry's impact on the Arctic A judge has told the US government to decide within weeks whether to list polar bears as an endangered species. The decision was hailed by conservation groups which have been hounding the government on the issue for years. The federal judge rejected the Bush administration's pleas for a further delay, and ordered it to make and implement its decision by 15 May. A listing could restrict oil and gas exploration in the US Arctic, and lead to curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. Defendants have been in violation of the law requiring them to publish the listing determination for nearly 120 days Court judgement "Today's decision is a huge victory for the polar bear," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the conservation groups behind the legal challenge. "By 15 May, the polar bear should receive the protections it deserves under the Endangered Species Act, which is...
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World's biggest squid reveals 'beach ball' size eyes
2008-05-07 09:56:00
The largest squid ever caught began to reveal its secrets Wednesday, including eyes the size of beach balls that one scientist said were likely the biggest ever known in the animal kingdom.The 495-kilogram (1,090-pound) colossal squid -- accidentally caught by a fishing boat in Antarctic waters in February 2007 -- is slowly thawing under the fascinated gaze of a team of scientists at the Museum of New Zealand.While the defrosting was taking longer than expected Wednesday, one of the earliest revelations were eyes measuring 27 centimetres (11 inches) across -- about 11 times the size of a human eye -- with lenses of 10 to 12 centimetres in diameter."We saw two of the most sensational eyes possible," Auckland University of Technology marine biologist Steve O'Shea said.Those figures are based on the current collapsed state of the eyes.If the squid were alive, said Professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund in Sweden, the eyes would probably measure about 40 centimetres across, "...
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New Zealand scientists thaw 1,000-pound squid corpse
2008-05-07 09:54:00
Marine scientists in New Zealand on Tuesday were thawing the corpse of the largest squid ever caught to try to unlock the secrets of one of the ocean's most mysterious beasts. No one has ever seen a living, grown colossal squid in its natural deep ocean habitat, and scientists hope their examination of the 1,089-pound, 26-foot long colossal squid, set to begin Wednesday, will help determine how the creatures live. The thawing and examination are being broadcast live on the Internet.The squid, which was caught accidentally by fishermen last year, was removed from its freezer Monday and put into a tank filled with saline solution. Ice was added to the tank Tuesday to slow the thawing process so the outer flesh wouldn't rot, said Carol Diebel, director of natural environment at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa.After it is thawed, scientists will examine the squid's anatomical features, remove the stomach, beak and other mouth parts, take tissue samples for DNA analy...
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Phytoplankton responding to climate change
2008-05-07 09:51:00
The microscopic marine organisms called coccolithophores, one of nature’s most prolific consumers of atmospheric carbon dioxide, may continue to absorb carbon at today's rates — even as greenhouse-gas concentrations continue to rise.Coccolithophores are phytoplankton that live in the upper layers of the world's oceans। The creatures use calcium carbonate, the material that makes up chalk and seashells, to build tiny plates on their exterior. Although building these plates produces carbon dioxide, coccolithophores also consume the gas while undergoing photosynthesis. On balance, the phytoplankton absorb more carbon dioxide than they produce.Previous research has suggested that changing ocean chemistry may prod the plankton to become more efficient carbon sinks, eliminating more and more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a study appearing today in Science suggests they may be no help at all1."It is unlikely that coccolithophores are going to be mitigating or exacerbatin...
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Dolphin Dies In Freak Accident At SeaWorld's Discovery Cove
2008-05-07 09:50:00
A tragic ending to a SeaWorld stunt intended to captivate its spectators left one dolphin dead after two dolphins collided in a mid-air trick. Park officials are taking another look at their training practices.SeaWorld officials say nothing like this has ever happened before and they're doing whatever it takes to make sure it doesn't happen again.SeaWorld's Discovery Cove offers a more intimate setting for people to interact with animals. So SeaWorld says there were only a few people around when the tragedy happened. The accident happened during a show at Discovery Cove where visitors get an up-close and personal experience with the dolphins.But during an aerial stunt Saturday afternoon, Sea World officials say a dolphin named Sharky collided with another dolphin and died."It's just a freak accident," said Sean Gilligan, a park visitor.A SeaWorld spokeswoman said it's unusual for two dolphins to crash in mid-air. Visitors who didn't see the accident say after watching dolphin ...
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Polar bears 'at risk' in Canada
2008-05-07 09:50:00
Canada's polar bears are at risk from hunting and melting ice in the Arctic Polar bears in Canada are at risk from climate change but not threatened with extinction, a panel of experts has advised the Canadian government. The government should develop a plan to protect the country's estimated 15,000 polar bears, the panel said. The plight of the polar bear has long concerned environmentalists. The animals face loss of habitat on two fronts, the panel said - hunting, and melting ice in the Arctic, which is widely blamed on climate change. While recognising both problems, the panel found that Canada's polar bear population was not declining enough to place it in the most serious category as an endangered species. Instead, it has been classified as a species of special concern. 'At risk' "Based on the best available information at hand, there was insufficient reason to think that the polar bear was at imminent risk of extinction," said Jeff Hutchings, the panel's chairman. "That...
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Diving deep for climate clues
2008-05-07 09:48:00
Earlier in April, UK scientists attending a conference in Vienna warned that sea-levels could rise by up to 1.5 metres by the end of this century, putting low-lying countries such as Bangladesh under threat. One of the main causes is the rapidly melting glaciers which cover huge areas of the world's surface - mostly in the Antarctic, Greenland and the south of Argentina and Chile. Mr Cardenas has discovered several sub species Glaciers melt and grow naturally, but the rate of change is raising concerns. Two million hectares of ice are found in the Magellan Strait at the southern tip of South America. Charles Darwin came here in the 1830s. It is where he began to formulate his Theory of Evolution, before sailing on to the Galapagos Islands. But the remoteness and difficult weather conditions, as well as the high cost of transport, mean few have studied in this particular area since. As a result, there is little scientific data about the fauna and flora of the Tierra del Fuego region...
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Colossal squid comes out of ice
2008-05-07 09:48:00
Technicians in New Zealand have begun to thaw a rare colossal squid specimen. The operation to defrost the 10-metre (34 feet) long, half-tonne squid began on Monday afternoon in Wellington following a postponement of 24 hours. The animal is now sitting in a bath of salt water. Once it is thawed, scientists will begin to dissect it. Very little is known about colossal squid, which appear to live largely in the cold Antarctic waters and can grow up to 15 metres (50 feet) long. "They're incredibly rare - this is probably one of maybe six specimens ever brought up," said Carol Diebel, director of natural environment at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa centre. "It's certainly the one that we're being really careful about, completely intact and in really fantastic condition." The Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni specimen was caught in February 2007 in the Ross Sea. Big unknown The colossal squid is remarkable for its size, but also for how rarely it has been sighted. It was identified first...
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No sex for all-girl fish species
2008-05-07 09:45:00
A fish species, which is all female, has survived for 70,000 years without reproducing sexually, experts believe. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh think the Amazon Molly may be employing special genetic survival "tricks" to avoid becoming extinct. The species, found in Texas and Mexico, interacts with males of other species to trigger its reproduction process. The offspring are clones of their mother and do not inherit any of the male's DNA. Typically, when creatures reproduce asexually, harmful changes creep into their genes over many generations. The species will eventually have problems reproducing and can often fall victim to extinction. Scientists at Edinburgh University have been studying complex mathematical models on a highly powerful computing system to look at the case of the Amazon Molly. Researchers calculated the time to extinction for the fish based on modelling genetic changes over many thousands of generations. They are now able to say conclusively, for t...
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Wee creatures are key to Earth's environment
2008-05-07 09:44:00
Microbes living in the oceans play a critical role inregulating Earth's environment, but very little is known about theiractivities and how they work together to help control natural cycles ofwater, carbon and energy. A team of MIT researchers led by ProfessorsEdward DeLong and Penny Chisholm is trying to change that.Borrowing gene sequencing tools developed for sequencing the humangenome, the researchers have devised a new method to analyze geneexpression in complex microbial populations. The work could helpscientists better understand how oceans respond to climate change."This project can help us get a better handle on the specific details ofhow microbes affect the flux of energy and matter on Earth, and howmicrobes respond to environmental change," said DeLong, a professor ofbiological engineering and civil and environmental engineering."The new approach also has other potential applications, for example,one can now realistically consider using indigenous microbes as in situbios...
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Cleveland zoo researchers find rare giant turtle in Vietnam
2008-05-07 09:41:00
Researchers from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo have discovered a rare giant turtle in northern Vietnam — a find that carries great scientific and cultural significance. Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle was previously thought to be extinct in the wild. Three other turtles of the species are in captivity, said experts from the Zoo's Asian turtle program.The discovery represents hope for the species, said Doug Hendrie, the Vietnam-based coordinator of the zoo program.Turtle expert Peter Pritchard, president of the Chelonian Research Institute, confirmed the find based on a photo Hendrie showed him."It looked like pretty solid evidence. The animal has a pretty distinctive head," Pritchard said.There have been rumors for years of a mythical creature living deep in the waters of a northern Vietnam lake. Some in a village west of Hanoi claimed to be blessed by catching a glimpse of it's concave shell as it crested above the surface of their lake.A national legend tells of a giant golden tur...
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Killer whales bring the hunt onto land
2008-05-07 09:40:00
A six-ton Killer Whale, torpedoes toward the beach, its dorsal fin cutting the Patagonian sea. It launches itself onto the sand in an explosion of water and foam. Before the waters die down, the orca is shaking its immense head from side to side with a Sea Lion pup clamped between his jaws.Then the Killer Whale wriggles into position to catch a wave to carry it back out to sea.This is a rare occurrence, in which a whale seems to defy its instincts by coming onto land, risking death if it becomes stranded on the inhospitable beach.Only seven Killer Whales in the world are known to hunt this way, all of them members of a pod that patrols the coast of Patagonia's Valdes Peninsula at this time of year. It happens almost exclusively in March and April -- early autumn in the southern hemisphere -- when baby sea lions are learning to swim.One of the favorite hunting spots is at Playa Punta Norte, the northern tip of the peninsula, where a deep channel leads up to the sand, passing between...
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Oceans Absorbing Less CO2 May Have 1,500 Year Impact
2008-05-07 09:39:00
Global oceans are soaking up less carbon dioxide, a developmentthat could speed up the greenhouse effect and have an impact for thenext 1,500 years, scientists said on Wednesday. Research from a five-year project funded by the European Union showedthe North Atlantic, which along with the Antarctic is of the world's twovital ocean carbon sinks, is absorbing only half the amount of CO2 thatit did in the mid-1990s. Using recent detailed data, scientists said the amount absorbed is alsofluctuating each year, making it hard to predict how and whether thetrend will continue and if oceans will be able to perform their vitalbalancing act in the future. Oceans soak up around a quarter of annual CO2 emissions, but should theyfail to do so in the future the gas would stay in the atmosphere andcould accelerate the greenhouse effect, a prospect project directorChristoph Heinze called "alarming". Oceans are like a "slow-mixing machine". Carbon absorbed in the NorthAtlantic takes around 1,500 yea...
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First Animal on Earth Was Surprisingly Complex
2008-05-07 09:34:00
Earth's first animal was the ocean-drifting comb jelly, not the simple sponge, according to a new find that has shocked scientists who didn't imagine the earliest critter could be so complex.The mystery of the first animal denizen of the planet can only be inferred from fossils and by studying related animals today. To get to the bottom of that, scientists analyzed massive volumes of genetic data to define the earliest splits at the base of the animal tree of life.The tree of life is a hierarchy of evolutionary relationships among species that shows which groups split off on their own evolutionary path first.The new study surprisingly found that the comb jelly was the first animal to diverge from the base of the tree, not the less complex sponge, which had previously been given the honor. "This was a complete shocker," said study team member Casey Dunn of Brown University in Rhode Island. "So shocking that we initially thought something had gone very wrong."Dunn's team checked an...
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Dolphin kills in India
2008-05-07 09:32:00
The Kerala coastline is fast turning into killingfields for dolphins. Several instances of fishermen slaughtering thedolphins and selling the meat have come to light in places likePoonthura near here, Beypore in Kozhikode and Cherai near Kochi.“We have taken up the issue with the authorities but no action hasbeen initiated. The animal is being hunted mainly because anglers areignorant of the law. Dolphin s face an uncertain future in Kerala,â€Â�conservation campaigner Prof Kunhikkannan said.“The authorities remain silent spectators while hundreds of dolphinsare being slaughtered and sold. Similar is the plight of the oliveridley turtles which is a delicacy for many here,â€Â� he said.On Thursday, a dolphin caught in a net was auctioned despite protestsby animal right activists at Poonthura where dolphin slaughtering is aregular affair.A midsized dolphin weighing around 100kg can fetch as much asRs10,000. Most of the time, the meat makes its way to the city hotels.ââ...
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Rare seahorses breeding in Thames
2008-05-07 09:29:00
Colonies of rare seahorses are living and breeding in the River Thames, conservationists have revealed. The short-snouted variety are endangered and normally live around the Canary Islands and Italy. Experts at London Zoo said the species had been found at Dagenham in east London and Tilbury and Southend in Essex, over the last 18 months. The revelation coincided with new laws which came into force on Sunday to give the creatures protected status. The seahorses, or Hippocampus hippocampus, are now protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. They are usually found in shallow muddy waters, estuaries or seagrass beds and conservationists said their presence in the Thames is another good sign that the water quality of the river was improving. Monitoring work Alison Shaw, from London Zoo, said: "These amazing creatures have been found in the Thames on a number of occasions in the last 18 months during our regular wildlife monitoring work. "It demonstrates that the Thames is be...
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Squid beaks may have medical application
2008-05-07 09:20:00
The razor-sharp beaks that giant squids use to attack whales — and maybe even Captain Nemo's submarine — might one day lead to improved artificial limbs for people. That deadly beak may be a surprise to many people, and has long posed a puzzle for scientists. They wonder how a creature without any bones can operate it without hurting itself.Now, researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, report in Friday's edition of the journal Science that they have an explanationThe beak, made of hard chitin and other materials, changes density gradually from the hard tip to a softer, more flexible base where it attaches to the muscle around the squid's mouth, the researchers found.That means the tough beak can chomp away at fish for dinner, but the hard material doesn't press or rub directly against the squid's softer tissues.Herbert Waite, a professor in the university's department of molecular, cellular & developmental biology and co-author of the paper, said suc...
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Mantis Shrimp Vision Reveals New Way That Animals Can See
2008-03-28 13:09:00
Mantis shrimp can see the world in a way that had never been observed in any animal before, researchers report in the March 20th Current Biology, a Cell Press publication। The discovery--which marks the fourth type of visual system--suggests that the ability to perceive circular polarized light may lend mantis shrimp a secret mode of communication."Mantis shrimp ventured into a new dimension of vision," said Justin Marshall of the University of Queensland in Australia. Also known as stomatopods, mantis shrimp are large and particularly violent marine crustaceans that aren't actually a kind of shrimp but look something like one.Marshall describes circular polarized light as a spiraling beam that spins either to the left or the right. Scientists had shown before that some animals, such as scarab beetles, reflect that kind of light, but they hadn't shown that any animal could actually see it--until now, that is."It's complicated physics," Marshall said, "but that makes it all the ...
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Layers Of Once Molten Rock Under The Atlantic Ocean Mapped
2008-03-28 13:07:00
For the first time scientists have mapped the layers of once molten rock that lie beneath the edges of the Atlantic Ocean and measure over eight miles thick in some locations। The research, reported in Nature, gives us a better understanding of what may have happened during the break up of continents to form new mid-ocean ridges. The same volcanic activity in the North Atlantic may also have caused the subsequent release of massive volumes of greenhouse gases which led to a spike in global temperatures 55 million years ago.The scientists, led by Professor Robert White, FRS at the University of Cambridge, also developed a new method of seeing through the thick lava flows beneath the seafloor to the sediments and structures beneath. The technique is now being employed to further oil exploration of the area which was previously restricted by the inability to image through the lava flows.When a continent breaks apart, as Greenland and Northwest Europe did 55 million years ago, it is s...
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Ice seals candidates for endangered list
2008-03-28 06:53:00
A federal agency said Wednesday it will consider listing four species of ice seals as endangered, a move hailed by the environmental group that pushed for it as government recognition that Arctic marine life is threatened by global warming. The National Marine Fisheries Service accepted a petition seeking threatened or endangered status for ribbon seals, which have been losing habitat as sea ice recedes. The agency also expanded the status review to include ringed, spotted and bearded seals."While the four species of ice seals in Alaska all utilize various types of sea ice habitats, they use the ice in different ways," said Doug Mecum, acting administrator for the Alaska Region, in the announcement. "Therefore, careful status reviews of each species is warranted."Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity and the lead author of the listing petition, said the agency's action came as a surprise, given that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is two and a half mon...
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Fish may respond to sound
2008-03-28 06:52:00
Scientists are testing a plan to train fish to catch themselves by swimming into a net when they hear a tone that signals feeding time. If it works, the system could eventually allow black sea bass to be released into the open ocean, where they would grow to market size, then swim into an underwater cage to be harvested when they hear the signal.What's next, teaching them to coat themselves in batter and hop inside a fryer?"It sounds crazy, but it's real," said Simon Miner, a research assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Hole, which received a $270,000 grant for the project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Miner said the specially trained fish could someday be used to bolster the depleted black sea bass stock. Farmed fish might become better acclimated to the wild if they can be called back for food every few days.The bigger goal is to defray the costs of fish farming, an increasingly important source of the world's seafood. If fish can...
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Giant waves break up Caribbean coral
2008-03-28 06:49:00
Unusually large waves churned by an Atlantic storm system have littered the beaches of Barbados with broken coral in what could be a sign of damage to reefs across the region, a scientist said Sunday. The amount of rubble on the island's west coast suggests the coral took a heavy pounding, said Leo Brewster, director of Barbados' Coastal Zone Management Unit, who was organizing dives later this week to survey the damage."We think it's going to be pretty extensive," Brewster said. "I think we're going to see it across the Caribbean ."The waves, reaching as high as an estimated 30 feet, lashed coastlines from Guyana to the Dominican Republic last week as a large low-pressure system idled off the northeastern United States.At their peak on Thursday morning, a buoy north of the U.S. Virgin Islands recorded swells of 15 feet — the highest since 1991, said Shawn Rossi, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Weather Service in San Juan. Several countries reported flooding in coastal a...
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Giant marine life found in Antarctica
2008-03-28 06:48:00
Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish. A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt."The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.But beyond the discovery of new species, scientists said the survey, the most comprehensive to date in the Ross Sea, turned up other surprises.Hanchet singled out the discovery of "fields...
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Stingray Kills Woman on Boat in Florida
2008-03-28 06:47:00
A 75-pound stingray killed a Michigan woman Thursday when it flew out of the water and struck her face as she rode a boat in the Florida Keys, officials said. Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Mich., was sitting in the front seat of a boat going 25 mph when the spotted eagle ray, with a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet, leaped out of the water, said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.The 57-year-old woman's father was driving the boat on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key, Pino said."He had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously," Pino said.The collision knocked Zagorski backward onto the floor of the boat, Pino said.The impact likely killed the woman, and she did not appear to have puncture wounds from the ray's barb, Pino said. An autopsy is planned, Pino said.Zagorski's sister was standing next to her when the stingray appeared but was not injured, Pino said.The stingray died from the impact, officials said.Spotted eagle rays c...
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Thousands of dead starfish found on beach
2008-03-28 06:36:00
Thousands of starfish have been found washed up dead on a beach in Kent. A carpet of the dead creatures covered hundreds of yards of the beach at Pegwell Bay near Sandwich. Tony Flashman, from Kingsdown near Deal, who took a photograph [visible on the website] said: "The dead starfish stretched as far as you could see in both directions."Fishermen and bird watchers were among the 1st to stumble on the bizarre sight, and it was quickly picked up by specialist websites. The Environment Agency is investigating the incident but said it was not connected with the recent storms, pollution or climate change.Spokesman Ian Humphries said it was not uncommon for starfish to be washed up on the shore and it was likely they had entered shallow waters in search of mussels to feed on. "As they get hungry they get more desperate... they take risks and come into shallow water where they're more vulnerable." he said.There was speculation on some of the websites that the starfish, which congregate i...
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Threatened Atlantic Leatherback Turtles Split Into Two Groups To Forage, Is
2008-03-28 06:34:00
The beaches of French Guiana constitute a major reproduction site for leatherback turtles। This sea turtle, although a protected species, is threatened by human activity: it ingests plastics, get accidentally caught in fishing nets, sees its egg-laying sites destroyed and its adults hunted illegally for their meat and their eggs. Female turtles return to the same beach every two to three years to lay their eggs. What happens in the interval remains a mystery. It is sometimes possible to spot them offshore in the North Atlantic . Some even swim to very high latitudes (Canada) in search of their favorite food (principally jellyfish). Argos beacons have recently revealed that some females were swimming in two principal directions: the north as would be expected, but also towards the African coast east of French Guiana.The question is whether these locations represent two distinct feeding areas or simply an extra stopover in their migration to the far north.Several French and Belgian s...
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Delicate Partnership Between Coral And Algae Threatened By Global Warming
2008-03-28 05:43:00
Over two hundred million humans depend for their subsistence on the fact that coral has an addiction to ‘junk food’ - and orders its partners, the symbiotic algae, to make it।This curious arrangement is one of Nature’s most delicate and complex partnerships – a collaboration now facing grave threats from climate change.The symbiosis between coral – a primitive animal – and zooxanthellae, tiny one-celled plants, is not only powerful enough to build the largest living organism on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef, but also underpins the economies and living standards of many tropical nations and societies who harvest their food from the reefs or have developing tourism industries.The issue of whether the partnership is robust enough to withstand the challenges of climate change is driving a worldwide scientific effort to decipher how corals and their symbiotic algae communicate with one another, says Professor David Yellowlees of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral R...
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Iron Gets Into The North Pacific In Unexpected Ways, Will Impact Climate Ch
2008-03-28 05:38:00
Most oceanographers have assumed that, in the areas of the world's oceans known as High Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions, the iron needed to fertilize infrequent plankton blooms comes almost entirely from wind-blown dust। Phoebe Lam and James Bishop of the Earth Sciences Division at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have now shown that in the North Pacific , at least, it just ain't so. Lam, a biogeochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a guest at Berkeley Lab, and Bishop, an Earth Sciences oceanographer and professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California at Berkeley, report that the key source of iron in the Western North Pacific is not dust but the volcanic continental margins of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands.Can iron affect climate change?Understanding the origins, transport mechanisms, and fate of naturally occurring iron in high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll surfac...
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