EurekAlert! - Science News: Marine Science Portal

Public Release: 31-Jan-2012
AGU journal highlights -- Jan. 31, 2012
Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Fine, jagged ash increased Eyjafjallajökull volcano's influence," "Geological evidence for past earthquakes in Tokyo region," "Much irrigation water comes from non-sustainable sources," "Greenland's pronounced glacier retreat not irreversible," "New record from stalagmites shows climate history in Central Asia," "Io's volcanism influences Jupiter's magnetosphere," and "Massive swarm of tunicates tilts ocean's chemical balance."

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012
Major electric utility buys US Solar Decathlon winner
WaterShed, the international-prize-winning solar house built by University of Maryland students, faculty and professional partners, has found a buyer and a permanent site: Electric service provider Pepco is purchasing the high-tech building. The purchase secures WaterShed's future and will make its innovative technology and design available to the public for educational purposes. The house will serve as a "living classroom and laboratory" to demonstrate smart, clean energy options.

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

Journal of Shellfish Research
New probiotic bacteria shows promise for use in shellfish aquaculture
The use of probiotic bacteria, isolated from naturally occurring bacterial communities, is gaining in popularity in the aquaculture industry as the preferred, environmentally friendly management alternative to the use of antibiotics and other antimicrobials for disease prevention. Known to the public for their use in yogurt and other foods to improve human digestion and health, probiotic bacteria isolated from other sources can also be used to improve survival, nutrition and disease prevention in larvae grown in shellfish hatcheries.

NOAA Fisheries Service, NOAA Aquaculture Program

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

Geophysical Research Letters
New CU-Boulder-led study may answer questions about enigmatic Little Ice Age
According to new University of Colorado Boulder-led study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism, and was sustained for centuries by a self- perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean.

National Science Foundation, Icelandic Science Foundation

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Poisonous morning hygiene
Professor Dr. Georg Pohnert of the University Jena and colleagues did find out how the microalgae "Nitzschia cf pellucida" makes her deadly 'morning hygiene'. The algae wrap themselves and their surroundings in a highly toxic poison: Cyanogen bromide. Like a 'molecular toothbrush', which removes other micro-organisms thoroughly, every morning this chemical mace 'disinfects' the ground on which these diatoms grow. Thus they can ideally grow and keep direct competitors for light and free space in check.

Public Release: 30-Jan-2012

Nature Climate Change
The Arctic is already suffering the effects of a dangerous climate change
Two decades after the United Nations established the Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system", the Arctic shows the first signs of a dangerous climate change. A team of researchers led by CSIC assures so in an article published in the latest issue of the Nature Climate Change magazine.

Public Release: 29-Jan-2012

Aquatic Biosystems
What do killer whales eat in the Arctic?
Killer whales are the top marine predator. The increase in hunting territories available to killer whales in the Arctic due to climate change and melting sea ice could seriously affect the marine ecosystem balance. New research published in BioMed Central's re-launched open-access journal Aquatic Biosystems has combined scientific observations with Canadian Inuit traditional knowledge to determine killer whale behavior and diet in the Arctic.

Public Release: 27-Jan-2012
Capturing an octopus-eye view of the Great Barrier Reef
A specialized camera that allows scientists to see as reef-dwelling animals do has been built by a team of researchers at the University of Bristol. The team will travel to Lizard Island off the coast of Queensland this year to capture images of the Great Barrier Reef which they hope will provide new insight into this underwater world.

Yulgilbar Foundation

Public Release: 27-Jan-2012

Geology
What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?
In a study published in the journal Geology, Dr. Peter Swart if the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggests that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as "Snowball Earth," are unrelated to worldwide glacial events.

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012
Detecting detrimental change in coral reefs
Phil Dunstan has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that the Landsat Satellite data offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find 'hotspots' where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.

NASA

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012

Landscape Ecology
Living on the edge: An innovative model of mangrove-hammock boundaries in Florida
University of Miami Ecologist Donald L. DeAngelis, who is also a researcher for the US Geological Survey, has worked with collaborators to develop a novel computer model describing how future hurricanes and sea level rise may trigger changes to South Florida's native coastal forests.

USGS

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012
UMass Amherst ecologists among the first to record and study deep-sea fish noises
University of Massachusetts Amherst fish biologists have published one of the first studies of deep-sea fish sounds in more than 50 years, collected from the sea floor about 2,237 feet below the North Atlantic. With recording technology now more affordable, Rodney Rountree, Francis Juanes and colleagues are exploring the idea that many fish make sounds to communicate with each other, especially those that live in the perpetual dark of the deep ocean.

MIT SeaGrant

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012

Hydrobiologia
Life beyond Earth? Underwater caves in Bahamas could give clues, says Texas A&M marine expert
Discoveries made in some underwater caves by Texas &M University at Galveston researchers in the Bahamas could provide clues about how ocean life formed on Earth millions of years ago, and perhaps give hints of what types of marine life could be found on distant planets and moons.

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012

Current Biology
Viruses con bacteria into working for them
MIT researchers have discovered that certain photosynthetic ocean bacteria need to beware of viruses bearing gifts. These viruses are really con artists carrying genetic material taken from their previous bacterial hosts that tricks the new host into using its own machinery to activate the genes, a process never before documented in any virus-bacteria relationship. The con occurs when a grifter virus injects its DNA into a bacterium living in a phosphorus-starved region of the ocean.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy

Public Release: 26-Jan-2012

Global Change Biology
Scientist: Temperate freshwater wetlands are 'forgotten' carbon sinks
A new study comparing the carbon-holding power of freshwater wetlands has produced measurements suggesting that wetlands in temperate regions are more valuable as carbon sinks than current policies imply, according to researchers.

US Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 25-Jan-2012
Olivucci models potential of toxic algae photoreceptors
Blue-green algae is causing havoc in Midwestern lakes, but researchers are using supercomputers to study a closely related strain of the toxic cyanobacteria to harness its beneficial properties. Bowling Green State University's Massimo Olivucci has created sophisticated computer simulations at the Ohio Supercomputer Center to study the Anabaena sensory rhodopsin bacteria. Olivucci's research is expected to lead to an unprecedented tool that can screen thousands of mutant models for valuable spectroscopic, photochemical and photobiological traits.

Ohio Board of Regents, Bowling Green State University

Public Release: 25-Jan-2012

Current Biology
Attack or retreat? Circuit links hunger and pursuit in sea slug brain
If you were a blind, cannibalistic sea slug, living among others just like you, nearly every encounter with another creature would require a simple cost/benefit calculation: Should I eat that -- or flee? In a new study, researchers report that these responses are linked to a simple circuit in the brain of the sea slug Pleurobranchaea.

Public Release: 25-Jan-2012
CU-Boulder-led team to assess decline of Arctic sea ice in Alaska's Beaufort Sea
A national research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder is embarking on a two-year, multi-pronged effort to better understand the impacts of environmental factors associated with the continuing decline of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.

NASA

Public Release: 25-Jan-2012
Scientists aboard Iberian coast ocean drilling expedition report early findings
Mediterranean bottom currents and the sediment deposits they leave behind offer new insights into global climate change, the opening and closing of ocean circulation gateways and locations where hydrocarbon deposits may lie buried under the sea.

Public Release: 25-Jan-2012

PLOS ONE
Coastal storms have long-reaching effects, study says
Coastal storms are known to cause serious damage along the shoreline, but they also cause significant disruption of the deep-sea ecosystem as well.