10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day

1. Undiscovered species are still out there: Countless discoveries over the past year have reminded us that, despite centuries of research, the planet still has plenty of surprise species in store. Among the many finds include seven new forest mice species in the Philippines, a "psychedelic" gecko in Vietnam and a new type of dolphin in Australia. A new analysis released last August, billed as the most accurate ever, estimated that a total of 8.7 million different species of life exist on earth.

2. Global warming is already driving up food prices: While many fear that climate change will someday reduce crop yields and cause food prices to rise, a study published last May in Science indicates that this troubling trend has already started. The models used suggest that reduced global yields of wheat and corn are related to global warming. Although the effects are relatively small so far, they may cause severe problems in the future, as climate patterns continue to change and food demand increases.

3. Natural gas is not so great: Although advocates of natural gas argue that it contributes less to climate change than other fossil fuels such as coal, a study published last spring revealed that leakage of methane from newer types of shale gas wells and associated pipelines may be a bigger problem than first assumed. As much as 7.9 percent of the methane mined from these increasingly common wells may be escaping into the atmosphere through loose pipeline fittings and during hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a "fracking"). In the short term, the greenhouse effect of methane is 25 times that of carbon dioxide.

4. Offshore wind farms are good for biodiversity: Last August, wind advocates welcomed the news that offshore turbines apparently have no negative effect on aquatic ecosystems, and might actually provide new habitats for creatures that live in shallow water. Although a few bird species might avoid the wind farms because of the risks of spinning turbines, the net effect of the large scale-wind farm studied by the team of Dutch scientists was positive.

5. A fungus causes white-nose syndrome in bats: First discovered in a New York State cave in 2006, the disease has quickly spread to more than 115 bat colonies across North America and has caused mortality rates as high as 90 percent in affected populations. Finally, last October, researchers pinpointed the cause: the fungus Geomyces destructans. The disease forces bats to awaken too frequently from hibernation, leading to starvation, and has already caused several bat species to become endagered. Scientists are tracking movement of the disease and working on developing a cure.

6. The oceans are in bigger trouble than we thought: The annual State of the Ocean report, published in July by an international team of experts, concluded that things are far worse in ocean ecosystems than previously feared. A range of stresses-including rising sea temperatures, overfishing, acidification and pollution-have combined to threaten extinction for many aquatic species, including those that create coral reefs. "We have underestimated the overall risks," the report noted. "The whole of marine degradation is greater than the sum of its parts."

7. Large wildlife are surviving the conflict in Afghanistan: Research published in June by the World Conservation Society revealed a tidbit of positive news about the conflict in Afghanistan. A range of large mammals (including black bears, gray wolves, wild goats and rare snow leopards) have been able to survive decades of violence in Afghanistan, despite the attendant deforestation, habitat degradation and the absence of rule of law. The researchers reaffirmed the need for conservation programs that also provide livelihoods for local people to ensure this trend continues.

8. Pesticides play a major role in bee colony collapses: A study published last spring in Science proved what many have feared — low levels of a common pesticide may confuse honeybees, making it much more difficult for them to find their way home after trips away from the hive. The authors of the study say the results raise questions about the use of the chemical, neonicotinoid, while others note the possible role of other factors, such as increased susceptibility to disease and a reduction in wildflowers because of land development.

9. Eating meat warms the planet: A guide released last July by the Environmental Working Group put firm numbers on what many have argued for some time-namely, that eating meat can contribute as much to climate change as driving a car. According to the report, which took into account every step needed to produce meat (including the pesticides, fertilizers and water used to grow feed, the emissions resulting from processing the meat, the transportation and cooking of it and other factors), if every U.S. citizen gave up meat and cheese one day per week, the effect on greenhouse gas emissions would equal taking about 7.6 million cars off the road.

10. Millions likely to be trapped by climate change: A report by the British government, released last October, warned that millions of people around the world will likely end up trapped in places vulnerable to the effects of environmental change over the next century. Although previous studies simply estimated which areas might be flooded by rising sea levels and assumed that all residents would move, the report drew upon more than 70 research papers and recognized that in many cases (such as New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina), the most disadvantaged groups are unable to leave. Experts advocate increased planning to financially support migration, both within and between countries.

 By Joseph Stromberg - Surprising Science@io9.com

Collapsing Seas – An Infographic

The oceans make up about 70% of the Earth and support all life on the planet.  There are so many issues of concern with the oceans today – overfishing, pollution, sea level rise – it’s hard to keep it all straight.  This infographic packages all that into bite-size pieces.  Click to view it in a larger format.

 

 By Heather Carr@Blue Living Ideas

Research Confirms Oil from BP Disaster Contaminated Ocean Food Chain by Sue Sturgis

Temora turbinata: Recorded from tropical, subtropical and temperate coastal waters of the Indian Ocean, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Scientists have confirmed that oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster has entered the marine food chain.

Research by faculty and students at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. found crude oil from the 2010 spill in zooplankton (photo), small animals that play a critical role in the aquatic food web.

Dr. Siddhartha Mitra with ECU's Department of Geological Sciences and Dr. David Kimmel with the Department of Biology and Institute for Coastal Sciences and Policy worked with students to analyze samples of zooplankton collected from the Gulf of Mexico in August and September 2010. They identified the origin of the oil by examining polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, natural components of crude oil known to cause cancer, reproductive problems and birth defects.

"Our research helped to determine a 'fingerprint' of the Deepwater Horizon spill; something that other researchers interested the spill may be able to use," Mitra told ECU Now Blog. "Furthermore, our work demonstrated that zooplankton in the Northern Gulf of Mexico accumulated toxic compounds derived from the well."

The ECU researchers worked with colleagues at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Oregon State University and the U.S. Geological Survey. The National Science Foundation funded the study, which appeared in Geophysical Research Letters.

Next, they plan to look at whether oil compounds from the BP disaster made it to the North Carolina coast.

Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico have been severely impacted by the 2010 oil spill, with fishermen reporting that catches are down dramatically since the disaster. At the same time, consumers are reluctant to consume Gulf seafood over concerns about contamination.

From SouthernStudies.org  

Acoustic Pollution Threatens Marine Life By: Kimberly Ovitz

For thousands of years, the depths of the ocean were unreachable by humankind – either  a dark abyss or tropical seascape, which only seaman’s tales described. Though more recently humans have made considerable achievements in underwater research, our knowledge of the oceans remains quite minimal in relation to its vastness. Like on land, noise is a common phenomenon underwater and a most integral one. Marine animals’ dependence on noise for communication forces us to recognize a serious and substantial human impact on the underwater community: noise pollution.

Increasing industrial and military interest in the ocean has spurred human penetration into the depths like never before, leaving significant destruction in its wake. In waters surrounding the United States and around the globe, the existence of anthropogenic noise pollution in marine habitats has already displayed severe consequences and is of growing concern. The source of this pollution varies, but is largely the result of shipping industries, oil drilling industries and specifically, U.S. military testing. Despite significant evidence that noise pollution has harmful, even deadly effects on marine life, the industries mentioned above continue to act with utter disregard for the effects of their marine noise emissions.

Noise is a common occurrence below the ocean surface as a product of meteorological forces, marine communication and marine animal mating. Sound travels swiftly over vast expanses of underwater terrain, making it an integral means of marine mammal communication. This sound emission is crucial to the survival of marine mammals and other species for the purposes of mating, locating food sources, and communicating threats. Anthropogenic noise, or ‘acoustic pollution,’ directly interferes with this system of communication and death and destruction can result. Depending on the origins and degree of acoustic pollution, consequences vary from disorientation to fleeing of habitat, physical bodily harm and even death.

The primary causes of noise pollution include sound emissions from shipping industry boats and reflection seismology, utilized in mapping the ocean floor for both oil drilling purposes and extensive SONAR testing initiatives to detect submarine threats, run by the United States Navy. Shipping noise emission serves as a chronic source of pollution, and while not as acutely severe, can often interfere with marine life habitat when high-traffic shipping passages and migratory paths overlap, resulting in constant disorientation of marine creatures. Reflection seismology and Navy SONAR use is drastically more intensive, as is the impact on animal life.

read more@dailycollegian.com 

Ocean Health On The Global Agenda

If it's raining where you are, the ocean played a role. If you drove to work, the seas are absorbing the carbon dioxide from your car. If you ordered seafood for lunch, it may have traveled halfway around the world to land on your plate.

No matter where you live on Earth, what you do affects the ocean – and what happens to the ocean affects you.

The ocean covers more than two-thirds of the world's surface. In the past 50 years we have learned more about Earth's ocean than in all of preceding human history. But, at the same time we learned more, we lost more.

The amount of marine life we extract to feed ourselves is astronomical, and some of our fishing methods – dynamite fishing, bottom trawling, cyanide fishing, and other techniques – cause great damage to current and future fish stocks and to the underwater world in which they thrive. Today, 90 percent of the ocean's top predators are gone. Entire populations of fish, and the communities and economies they support, have collapsed. Seafloors look like war zones. Corals have been bleached white from chemical runoff. Dead zones – vast swaths of ocean that can no longer support life – are spreading throughout the marine realm.

These critical issues don't deter us. With our partners, we've embarked on a scientific mission that will tell us exactly where species and marine ecosystems are most threatened and what actions we can take to reverse them. Our research to date has already helped strengthen three protected 

“Seascapes” in critical marine areas around the world.

Our partnerships are diverse. Some of the industries we work with to protect marine life may surprise you:

continue @ conservation.org

The Blue Carbon Strategy by Mico Tatalovic

Together with seagrass beds and salt marshes, mangrove forests such as the one pictured account for 70% of the ocean's carbon storage capacity.

Mangrove forests, seagrass beds and salt marshes possess a huge carbon storage capacity, which scientists say can be used to mitigate climate change. Known as blue carbon, this resource could one day be quantified and sold on international carbon trading markets.

Mangrove forests, seagrass beds and salt marshes cover only around 0.5% of the seabed, but account for some 70% of the ocean's carbon storage capacity.

These three marine environments soak up and store carbon dioxide in their biomass and sediments, where they keep it locked up for centuries. Together with the carbon held in the rest of the ocean, this is known as 'blue carbon'.

Blue carbon is also the name of a new strategic approach to make use of the large carbon capture and storage potential of coastal ecosystems. If this carbon could be quantified and sold on international carbon trading markets, this could help fund preservation and restoration projects, which would also help capture more carbon and ease the effects of climate change.

Apart from sequestering carbon quicker than the same area of rainforests can, these three ecosystems provide other 'eco-services' which are especially valuable for vulnerable coastal communities in developing countries. These include food and energy, protecting shorelines from flood and tsunamis, filtering water, as well as recreation and tourism.

But aquaculture, agricultural development and pollution are now responsible for loss of these ecosystems at a rate of up to four times that of rainforest loss. Around 20% of mangroves and more than 50% of seagrass ecosystems have been lost in the last 25 years, and salt marshes are being lost at a rate 1 to 2% per year.

Because of the huge amount of carbon stored in mangroves, the global emissions from mangrove deforestation account for around 10% of all emissions from deforestation, despite making up just 0.7% of tropical forest area. 

continue>>>> 

Carbon dioxide is "Driving Fish Crazy" by Prof. Munday

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes’ ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Philip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

“For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 – and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival,” Prof. Munday says.

In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.

“We’ve found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life,” Prof. Munday says.

Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

“Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water – meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell.”

The team then examined whether fishes’ sense of hearing – used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day – was affected. “The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators.”

Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right – an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.

continue>>>> 

Reef Fish at Risk as Carbon Dioxide Levels Build

        An increase in CO2 interferes with the ability of the fish to hear, smell, turn and evade predators.

RISING carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions threaten the survival of some fish species by sending their central nervous systems haywire.

Researchers from the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University say concentrations of CO2 are predicted to reach between 700 and 900 microatmospheres before the end of the century, interfering with the ability of the fish to hear, smell, turn and evade predators.

''It is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival,'' Professor Philip Munday said yesterday.

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''We've found that elevated carbon dioxide in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life.''

The team examined how baby clown and damsel fish and their predators dealt with water enriched by carbon dioxide. While the predators were slightly affected, the baby fish suffered to a much greater degree.

''They found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish,'' Professor Monday said. The team looked more closely and found the hearing of the fish was affected as well as its smell. Then they started to lose their natural instinct to turn left and right.

''All this led us to suspect it wasn't simply damage to their individual senses that was going on but rather that higher levels of CO2 were affecting their whole central nervous system.''

The team concluded that high levels of carbon dioxide stimulates a receptor in the fishes' brains called GABA-A. The receptor's function is reversed and some nerve signals become overexcited.

Read more @ Theage.com.au 

 

 

Why Planting Mangroves is Good News for Whale Sharks

 

With the help of almost 300 volunteers, 10,000 mangroves were recently planted in Donsol in the Philippines. Mangroves are vital for Donsol's wildlife - providing homes for fireflies, indicators of healthy ecosystems, and fuelling the growth of plankton, which in turn attract whale sharks.

‘Whale sharks congregate in Donsol because of all the plankton,' explains WWF-Philippines Project manager Raul Burce. ‘Plankton consume nutrients discharged by Donsol's still-healthy rivers, one of the few habitats where fireflies still thrive. Remove mangroves and the fireflies shall be driven off.

If whale sharks disappear it could be catastrophic'Without the healthy rivers needed by fireflies, plankton populations cannot bloom - and the whale sharks will migrate elsewhere. If one component crashes, the others follow suit. This could be catastrophic for the people of Donsol.'

Wildlife tourism has transformed Donsol - a total of 24,191 local and foreign visitors swam with the gentle giants from December 2010 to June 2011. Donsol's Municipal Tourism Office estimated that the 2010 season alone generated over $2.3million from transportation, food, lodging, registration fees plus whale shark, mangrove and firefly tours. 

Mangroves generate 500kg seafood per hectare each yearNow the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) has spearheaded a vigorous reforestation drive to plant 10,000 mangrove seedlings in Donsol's Barangay Sibago last month.

Known in Tagalog as bakawan, mangroves constitute one of the most productive of marine habitats - able to generate 500kg of seafood per hectare annually.

They absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide- the major culprit for climate change. The thick onshore hedges protect coastal communities from violent gale winds and waves caused by typhoons. Labyrinthine roots shelter fish and invertebrates while stabilising sediments and absorbing heavy trace metals to minimize coastal erosion and prevent inland salt-water contamination. Even fallen leaves are used by some animals for food and shelter.

Nearly three-quarters of original mangroves have been destroyedAs well as threatening the tourist industry, loss of mangrove forests expose coastal communities to increased flooding, faster beach erosion, saline intrusion and severe damage from intensifying storms.

Up to 75 per cent of the original cover has been lost as a result of programmes to develop seemingly-idle mangrove forests into fish and shrimp ponds for profit. Mangrove planting drives have been attempting to remedy this.

WWF-Philippines vice-chairman and chief exectuive Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan said: ‘The key here is balance. Without it, the productivity of our natural systems will crash. Strike a balance between conservation and development and we can ensure sustainability.'

From a great site wildlifeextra.com 

Dreaming of Turtles By Michael Vincent McGinnis

                                                   Green Sea Turtle Range

In 1780, an English vessel was sailing along the coast of Jamaica and ran aground in a sea of green turtles, millions of turtles. For a time, human beings were stopped by the sea of turtles waiting for their inevitable return to the beach to forge the next generation.

Such an abundance of turtles. Their heads are breaking the sea’s surface. Imagine the smell of turtles out beyond the horizon. Imagine the coral of the reefs blooming colors. Big fish swimming. The explosion of marine life exists along a changing depth of blue hue, under a full moon sky that exists even before the sun sets.

Today, along the most of the beaches where green sea turtles once gathered, there is a silence, a silenced sea. The British Empire mined the beaches, coastal inlets, and lagoons for the sea turtles of the greater Caribbean Isles. The turtle was a major export to England and Europe in the 19th Century. Our museums are full of the large shells of sea turtles; our western fables tell the stories of the once-upon-a-time maritime abundance and bounty of sea turtles (in turtle soup). In maritime museums, the turtle’s shell represents a soon-to-be-lost race of marine life. Shells so large you can crawl into them. Great sea turtle shells are like a great palm tree or the wings of an albatross casting a shadow along the coast.

Sharks follow the path of an albatross, and the path of sea turtles. Wolves follow the raven to the herd of elk. The swordfish is the maritime emblem of the Chumash; when they return and sail to Santa Cruz Island, there is a carved abalone shell in the shape of the swordfish on their tomol or canoe. The brown bear was followed by the children of the Pleistocene; in ice, we followed the paths of the great bear and settled what indigenous North Americans’ refer to as “turtle island.”

The green sea turtle is referred to as honu in Polynesian, and represents “a spirit of change.” Honu is a spiritual and metaphoric guide that travels the world’s oceans; a shared totemic emblem that symbolizes the diverse ways people and places co-exist. The wildness is the ecological context in which honu’s path takes place – it is the space that is not embraced or understood by the Cartesian consciousness. It is a path that reflects a material and conscious transcendence of Cartesian ways and habitats.

Read more: 

Divers near Indonesia last year documented a new and unusual interaction between an octopus and a fish that may shed new light on predator – prey relationships in coral reef ecoystems.

Diving near Indonesia, Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen, Germany, filmed an unexpected pairing between a mimic octopus and a black-marble jawfish.

The mimic octopus impersonates toxic flatfish, lionfish, and even sea snakes by creatively configuring its limbs, adopting characteristic undulating movements, and displaying bold brown-and-white color patterns. The disguises enable the octopus to swim in the open with little fear of predators.

The jawfish, on the other hand, is a small and timid fish. It spends most of its adult life close to a sand burrow, where it will quickly retreat upon sighting a predator.

During the diving encounter, the black-marble jawfish was seen closely following a mimic octopus as it moved across the sandy bottom. The jawfish had brown-and-white markings similar to the octopus, and was difficult to spot among the many arms. The octopus, for its part, did not seem to notice or care.

Kopp sent the video to Rich Ross and Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences, who identified the jawfish species. Since this association had not been recorded before, they published their observations online last month in the scientific journal Coral Reefs. The authors surmise that the jawfish hitches a ride with the octopus for protection, allowing it to venture away from its burrow to look for food—a case of “opportunistic mimicry.”

“This is a unique case in the reefs not only because the model for the jawfish is a mimic itself, but also because this is the first case of a jawfish involved in mimicry,” said Dr. Luiz Rocha, assistant curator of ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences. “Unfortunately, reefs in the Coral Triangle area of southeast Asia are rapidly declining mostly due to harmful human activities, and we may lose species involved in unique interactions like this even before we get to know them.”

From the SummitCountyVoice.com 

Earth as Art: An Ocean Bloom

A massive summer phytoplankton bloom colored the waters with a swirl of turquoise, green and white in late December 2011.  

Off the coast of South Africa, near where the South Atlantic meets the Southern Indian Ocean, a massive summer phytoplankton bloom colored the waters with a swirl of turquoise, green and white in late December 2011. Although this circular bloom has the appearance of a precious antique gaming marble, it is actually the result of millions of tiny plant-like organisms (phytoplankton ) which are growing where nutrient-rich waters mix together.

Each spring and summer, lengthening sunshine comes to the southern oceans, providing light to spur the growth of these microscopic plants . The lengthening light also melts sea ice, which can release additional nutrients into the sea. Blooms such as this one become a banquet for krill, fish and other marine species which survive in these cool waters.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image on December 26, 2011 as it passed over the region. 

From OuramAzingPlanet.com 

The Bounty of Species in a Single Scoop of Seafloor Mud by Brandon Keim

                                                    Image: Craig McClain/Deep Sea News

A mere handful of seafloor mud may contain as many species as are found in a square meter of tropical rainforest. The fantastic assemblage seen above was gathered from a single scoop of mud, about 2 inches deep and 5 inches across.

“It’s easy, when you get away from the coast, to think of the oceans as a homogeneous blue. It’s a lot more complex than that,” said biologist Craig McClain of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

McClain and colleagues collected the mud while surveying distributions of seafloor organisms, the lives of which are shaped by “marine snow” — a slow, steady, shower of organic particles that drift down from high in the water column.

Like terrestrial snow, the deep-sea-life-sustaining version doesn’t collect uniformly but gathers in drifts and eddies. In a paper published last year in Marine Ecology, McClain and others showed that, depending on snowfall, seafloor communities could vary wildly in the space of a few feet. In terrestrial terms, it was a bit like finding deserts and swamps separated by footsteps.

In a December Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper, the researchers again looked at seafloor distributions — but this time, rather than surveying one small seabed plot, they took samples from across the Atlantic Ocean.

They found large-scale, trans-Atlantic patterns, somewhat reminiscent of the vast and elegant patterns seen in blooming plankton, but not measured before on seafloors.

“The oceans are not as uniform as we have a tendency to think of them,” said McClain. “When you actually look at the ocean, you find that it’s a mosaic.”

From Wired.com 

Deep-sea Creatures at Volcanic Vent by Rebecca Morelle

            

           The team used an underwater robot to film the creatures living around the hydrothermal vent 

Researchers have been surveying volcanic underwater vents - sometimes called black smokers - in the South West Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean.

The UK team found an array of creatures living in the super-heated waters, including yeti crabs, scaly-foot snails and sea cucumbers.

They believe some of the species may be new to science.

Hydrothermal vents were first discovered in 1977. These fissures in the ocean floor spew out fiercely hot, mineral-rich water, yet somehow, diverse ecosystems are able to thrive in these hostile conditions.

Species such as this sea cucumber are not found in neighbouring ridge systems

The team, from the University of Southampton, was particularly interested in the vents on the South West Indian Ridge because this range is linked to the Mid Atlantic Ridge and the Central Indian Ridge, where vent life has been well documented.

This area is also unusual because it is an "ultra-slow spreading" ridge, which means it is less volcanically active than other ridges, with fewer vents that are further apart.

Dr Jon Copley, chief scientist of the Indian Ocean vents project, said: "This place is a real crossroads in terms of the vent species around the world."

Using a remote-operated, underwater robot called Kiel 6000, from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM Geomar), in Germany, the team was able to train their cameras on the vents.

In the hottest habitat around the black smokers, they found snails and shrimp, as well as mussels, sea cucumbers and crabs. They then compared these with the animals found at vents on the neighbouring ridges.

Dr Copley said: "I was expecting there to be some similarities to what we know from the Atlantic, and some similarities to what we know from the Indian Ocean vents, and that was true, but we also found types of animals here which are not known from either of those neighbouring areas, and that was a big surprise.

"One was a type of yeti crab. There are two currently described species of yeti crab known from the Pacific, and it isn't like those, but it is the same type of animal, with long, hairy arms.

The team used an underwater robot to find creatures, such as this scaly-foot snail, around the vents in the Indian Ocean

"Also some sea cucumbers - not known from the Atlantic or Central Indian vents, but known from the Pacific."

He added: "We've got links to lots of different parts of the world here, which is very exciting."

The team was also surprised at the diversity of life they found during this expedition, which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc).

Dr Copley said: "In a lot of other vent fields I've been to, in this hot zone where you get the animals there is often just one type of animal living there: in the deep Mid Atlantic Ridge, it's the shrimp. But here, we have seen three to four all in the same zone."

There was a diverse mix of creatures, including this stalked barnacle, around the vents

The findings should help researchers to learn more about how life moves from vent to vent: vents are short lived, and without the ability to hop from one system to the next, life there would go extinct.

"That is why vents are a great place to understand how species disperse and evolve in the deep oceans, because they are like little islands," Dr Copley added.

Despite these findings, the researchers are worried about the future of this underwater terrain.

China has been granted an exploratory licence by the International Seabed Authority to explore the potential of mining the vents in this area for their rich minerals.

Dr Copley said: "This vent field is the size of a few football pitches, and it seems possible that it is the only known range of some of these species.

"It would be very premature to start disrupting it before we really know the true extent of what lives in it."

Shrimp like this one may be under threat from deep-sea mining.

From BBC Science-Environment News 

Fishing closures in protected marine areas around the spectacular Mesoamerican reef near Belize have helped recover populations of barracuda, groupers, snappers, and other predatory fish, but herbivorous fish that clean algae from the coral are not faring as well.

Results of a long-term study by the Wildlife Conservation Society show that parrotfish an surgeonfish in the Glover’s Reef study area make only sight recoveries — not enough to reverse the degradation by caused by algae overgrowing the reefs and replacing the coral that once covered 75 percent, but now represent less than 20 percent, of the seafloor cover.

“The fishing ban in the fully protected portion of the lagoon was expected to result in an increase in predatory fish and — more importantly — herbivorous fish such as parrotfish that in turn reverse the degraded condition of algal dominance in this reef,” said Dr. Tim McClanahan, lead author of the study and head of WCS’s coral reef research and conservation program.

“What happened was a recovery of predatory fish, but not of the herbivorous fish, a finding that is forcing us to come up with a more effective model of reef management and recovery,” McClanahan said. “If the nation-wide ban on parrotfish is successful, then we can see if this type of large-scale management is the only effective solution for protecting coral reefs,” he addd.

The study appears in an online version of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. The authors include: Tim McClanahan, N.A. Muthiga, and R.A. Coleman of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The authors note that a recent national-level ban by the Belizean government on the fishing of parrotfish—a widespread herbivorous species—may be the key to reef recovery, provided that the fishing ban is enforced and met with compliance. WCS provided valuable data through its monitoring program at Glover’s Reef to justify the landmark measure to protect reef grazers.

A number of factors could be contributing to the unpredicted responses of fishing closures. The complex web of species interactions may produce unexpected cascading effects because of underestimates in the possible responses to bans on fishing.

Additionally, the size of the closure may be too small to produce the desired effect, or there may not be enough compliance and enforcement. The study also mentions that environmental factors such as oceanographic oscillations and warming waters complicate any attempt to establish cause-and-effect relationships in these systems, as they noted a loss in coral cover across the 1998 El Niño that killed many corals worldwide.

“It is encouraging to see the recovery of large predatory fish such as groupers and snappers under significant pressure elsewhere in Belize, but the lagging herbivorous fish is a warning that there is no single solution to coral reef conservation,” said Dr. Caleb McClennen, Director of WCS’s Marine Program. “While no-take zones are critical, more comprehensive ecosystem-based management is essential throughout the range of targeted species for long term recovery of the entire Meso-American Barrier Reef.”

From SummitCountyVoice.com 

Black Sea Turtles Return To Baja California, But So Do Poachers From Dr. Wallace J. Nichols

Every expedition begins well before the official start and ends far after its conclusion. This is especially the case with The Black Turtle Project, an unfolding and evolving effort to join conservation photography, communication and biology. I can assure you that this project began long ago and will live on into the future. The past two weeks in Baja are just the start of a collaborative effort that will transpire over the coming year and document the nascent and emerging success story of the black sea turtle's return to the Pacific coast of the Americas.

For myself, the expedition links back to graduate school and a decision to -- against the odds, against my advisors' wishes and with no funding to speak of -- focus several decades of my life on sea turtle research and conservation. For conservation photographer and Associate Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, Neil Ever Osborne, this project also extends back into his past and includes his decision to pick up a camera and set aside a career as a biologist. For our colleagues in Mexico, from Michoacan to Baja California, this project represents decades of committed conservation efforts, dedication in the face of despair, thousands of all-nighters and -- most-recently -- some signs of hope. The story of the black turtle is about people: poachers, children, scientists, artists, fishers, politicians, teachers, conservationists, photographers, narco-traffickers, guides, leaders and followers, musicians. What I've come to realize is that all of the people in this story wear several of those hats, simultaneously or sequentially.

In the late 1990's the location in Baja that we are visiting now was one of our research sites. We caught black turtles here, tagged them, measured and weighed them and then released them back into the bay. We learned that young turtles caught here would return to the same spot, even if released in another part of the bay. But eventually poachers wiped out all of the sea turtles at our site, making our research impossible. So we moved our efforts to a different part of the bay.

Alejandro Osuna was one of those sea turtle hunters. With his father he caught and cooked sea turtles right where we are camped now, in the mangrove-lined Estero Los Cuervos, a branch of Bahia Magdalena. Now Alejandro is our captain and guide, one of the local leaders working to bring back the turtles. When we arrived to our former site to set our research nets we weren't sure what we might find. Had the turtles come back, just like many other locations along the Baja coast or was the area still recovering. The plan was to set out our nets for 24 hours to find out if Estero Los Cuervos could be a viable monitoring site, as it was so many years ago. Our answer came more quickly than expected, but not using the techniques we anticipated. At our site we found that a net was already there. It was an illegal net belonging to poachers who had set it for turtles. Alejandro wasn't pleased.Read more @HuffingtonPost.com

Ocean Animals - Creature Feature

The ocean is filled with incredible creatures! Travel with us around the world as we explore different animal adaptations, habitats, and more! See sea turtles, sharks, fish, sea snakes and other marine reptiles, and marine mammals in their natural ocean habit.
Follow the link for more reature "Creature Feature" 

Coral reefs are extremely diverse ecosystems that support enormous biodiversity. But they are at risk. Carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying the ocean, threatening reefs and other marine organisms. New research led by Carnegie's Kenneth Schneider analyzed the role of sea cucumbers in portions of the Great Barrier Reef and determined that their dietary process of dissolving calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) from the surrounding reef accounts for about half of at the total nighttime dissolution for the reef. 

The work is published December 23 by the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Reefs are formed through the biological deposition of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Many of the marine organisms living on and around a reef contribute to either its destruction or construction. Therefore it is crucial that the amount of calcium carbonate remain in balance. When this delicate balance is disrupted, the reef ceases to grow and its foundations can be weakened.

In order to fully understand a reef's ability to deposit carbonate and grow, it is necessary to understand the roles that the various elements of sea life play in this process. This is especially important because increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is predicted to decrease the amount of carbonate available due to acidification.

The research group set out to examine the role that sea cucumbers play in the reef environment.

Schneider's team included Carnegie's Ken Caldeira, as well as Jacob Silverman, of the Israeli Limnology and Oceanography Institute; Maria Byrne and Erika Woolsey, both of the University of Sydney and the latter also from James Cook University; and Hampus Eriksson of Stockholm University.

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Governments unite to call on Japanese whalers and Sea Sheperd protesters to behaves themselves by Alison Rehn

 

Whaling: A protestor throws a bottle of rotten butter, at Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No 1 in the Antarctic Ocean in 2009. Picture: AP. Source: AP

AUSTRALIA, the US, New Zealand and the Netherlands have united to call on whale hunters and protesters to behave themselves on the high seas this summer.

In a joint statement, the governments of Australia and the three anti-whaling nations condemned any actions that risked lives in the Southern Ocean.

Japanese whalers and protesters from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have had several near misses on the high seas in years past.

"We are deeply concerned that confrontations in the Southern Ocean will eventually lead to injury or loss of life among protestors, many of whom may be nationals of our countries, and whaling crews," the joint government statement said.

"We call on the masters of all vessels involved in these actions in the Southern Ocean to take responsibility for ensuring that safety of human life at sea is their highest priority."

Australia won't protect Japan whale hunt

Japan whaling fleet off to Antarctica

Special section: Stop the whale hunt

Australia, the US, New Zealand and the Netherlands said they remained "resolute" in their opposition to commercial whaling - including so-called "scientific" whaling - and that lethal techniques were not required in modern whale conservation and management.

They said they were "disappointed" at the recent departure of the Japanese whaling fleet for the Southern Ocean.

"Our governments respect the right of individuals and groups to protest peacefully, including on the high seas," the statement said.

"At the same time, we condemn dangerous or violent activities from all participants on either side.

"We are prepared to deal with any unlawful activity in accordance with relevant international and domestic laws."

Mining the Deep Sea: What’s it Worth? by Southern Fried Scientist

                                                The shimmering insides of a vent chimney

In Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea*, the iconic Captain Nemo announced that “in the depths of the ocean, there are mines of zinc, iron, silver and gold that would be quite easy to exploit” while predicting that the abundance of marine resources could satisfy human need. If the pace of development for deep-sea mining projects and the estimated value of deep-sea ores is any indicator, it seems as though our misanthropic mariner was wrong on both counts.

In The abundance of seafloor massive sulfide deposits, an international team of geologists attempts to quantify the total available copper and zinc contained in deep-sea massive sulfide mounds. Seafloor massive sulfide mounds are a byproduct of the processes that create deep-sea hydrothermal vents. As super-heated sea water emerges from the vent, it deposits heavy metals and other elements and minerals along the walls of the vent. Over thousands of years, an active vent field can build up a huge mound of metal and mineral rich ore – a massive sulfide mound. In addition to copper and zinc, these mounds can contain gold and silver. Generally, the ore is of much higher quality than its terrestrial counterpart. Over the last few decades, many exploration companies were eyeing these deposits, but it’s only recently that technological developments and economic incentives have aligned to permit potentially profitable deep-sea mining.

Not all hydrothermal vent systems produce massive sulfide mounds, and not all massive sulfide mounds are rich in heavy metals and valuable ore. To determine how much ore really is available in the deep sea, Hannington and his team examined 32 control sites of approximately equal size that broadly represent the geologic conditions of the global seafloor. They discovered 106 ore deposits great than 100 square meters, with many concentrated around neo-volcanic regions (areas of volcanic activity where most hydrothermal vents are found). Based on these samples, they estimated that there are approximately 900 neo-volcanic massive sulfide deposits, but that number could be as low as 500 or as high as 5000.

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