EurekAlert! - Science News: Marine Science Portal

Public Release: 23-Jan-2012
Broadest study of ocean acidification to date helps scientists evaluate effects on marine life
Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans since the industrial revolution. One-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.

Public Release: 23-Jan-2012
Researchers meet to refine carbon budget for US East Coast
A large group of researchers gathered at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to integrate and refine field measurements and computer models of carbon cycling in the waters along the US East Coast.

NASA

Public Release: 23-Jan-2012

Journal of Wildlife Diseases
Patterns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in Galapagos reptiles
Land and marine iguanas and giant tortoises living close to human settlements or tourist sites in the Galapagos islands were more likely to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria than those living in more remote or protected sites on the islands, researchers report in a new study. Many of the reptiles harbor E. coli bacteria that are resistant to ampicillin, doxycycline, tetracycline, and trimethoprin/sulfamethoxazole.

US Environmental Protection Agency, Conservation Medicine Center of Chicago

Public Release: 22-Jan-2012

Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Lessons in coral reef survival from deep time
Lessons from tens of millions of years ago are pointing to new ways to save and protect today's coral reefs and their myriad of beautiful and many-hued fishes at a time of huge change in the Earth's systems. Today's complex relationship between fishes and corals developed relatively recently in geological terms -- and is a major factor in shielding reef species from extinction, says David Bellwood of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Public Release: 22-Jan-2012

Nature Climate Change
Unprecedented, man-made trends in ocean's acidity
Recent carbon dioxide emissions have pushed the level of seawater acidity far above the range of the natural variability that existed for thousands of years, affecting the calcification rates of shell-forming organism. These findings by an international team of scientists appear in the Jan. 22 online issue of Nature Climate Change.

Nature Conservancy, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 20-Jan-2012

Nature Climate Change
Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'
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 Phillip Munday of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

Public Release: 20-Jan-2012

Nature Climate Change
Multiple partners not the only way for corals to stay cool
For the first time scientists have shown that corals hosting a single type of zooxanthellae can have different levels of thermal tolerance– a feature that was only known previously for corals with a mix of zooxanthellae. This finding is important because many species of coral are dominated by a single type of zooxanthellae.

ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Public Release: 19-Jan-2012
The biodiversity crisis: Worse than climate change
Biodiversity is declining rapidly throughout the world. The challenges of conserving the world's species are perhaps even larger than mitigating the negative effects of global climate change. This is the main conclusion from scientists from University of Copenhagen, after 100 researchers and policy experts from EU countries were gathered this week at the University of Copenhagen to discuss how to organize the future UN Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES -- an equivalent to the UN Panel on Climate Change.

Public Release: 19-Jan-2012

92nd American Meteorological Society Meeting
Louis St. Laurent receives Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award from AMS
Louis St. Laurent of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was selected by the American Meteorological Society to receive the prestigious Nicholas P. Fofonoff Award. There will be a formal presentation at the Annual Awards Banquet on Jan. 25, 2012, at the AMS annual meeting in New Orleans, La.

American Meteorological Society

Public Release: 19-Jan-2012

Environmental Research Letters
Mysterious flotsam in Gulf of Mexico came from Deepwater Horizon rig, WHOI study finds
Using state-of-the-art chemical forensics and a bit of old-fashioned detective work, a research team led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution confirmed that mysterious material found floating in the Gulf of Mexico came from the Deepwater Horizon rig. They further determined that tracking debris from damaged rigs can help forecast coastal impacts and guide response efforts in future spills.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 19-Jan-2012

Environmental Microbiology Reports
Hardy bacteria help make case for life in the extreme
The bottom of a glacier is not the most hospitable place on Earth, but at least two types of bacteria happily live there, according to researchers.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 19-Jan-2012
Low temperatures enhance ozone degradation above the Arctic
Extraordinarily cold temperatures in the winter of 2010/2011 caused the most massive destruction of the ozone layer above the Arctic so far: The mechanisms leading to the first ozone hole above the North Pole were studied by scientists of the KIT Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research.

Public Release: 19-Jan-2012

Chemistry: a European Journal
Avalanche of reactions at the origin of life
The origin of life is seen as the formation of the first biomolecules which may be subject to multiplication and further development. Hitherto it was unclear, which reactions could have triggered the evolution of this ur-metabolism. Now scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen revealed mechanisms, by which a few biomolecules may bring forth new products in the style of an avalanche to initiate a self-expanding metabolism. Chemistry – A European Journal now published their results.

DFG, Fonds der Chemischen Industrie

Public Release: 18-Jan-2012
W&M professor named outstanding scientist for VA
Governor Bob McDonnell and the Science Museum of Virginia have named Chancellor professor John Milliman of the College of William and Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science as one of Virginia's Outstanding Scientists for 2012.

Public Release: 18-Jan-2012
Extremely rare turtle released into the wild
The Wildlife Conservation Society, in conjunction with the Cambodian Fisheries Administration and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, announced today the successful release of a Southern River terrapin – one of the most endangered turtles on earth – into the Sre Ambel River in Cambodia.

Public Release: 18-Jan-2012

PLOS ONE
University of Toronto/Royal Ontario Museum scientists discover unusual 'tulip' creature
A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500 million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies. Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, fossils reveal a tulip-shaped creature that is about the length of a dinner knife (approximately 20 centimeters or eight inches) and has a unique filter feeding system.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Public Release: 17-Jan-2012

PLOS ONE
Juvenile predation preventing Steller sea lion recovery
A new study suggests that the impact of predation on juvenile Steller sea lions in the Gulf of Alaska has been significantly underestimated, creating a "productivity pit" from which their population will have difficulty recovering without a reduction of predators.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Public Release: 17-Jan-2012

Issues in Ecology
Solutions for a nitrogen-soaked world
Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for human and ecological health.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 16-Jan-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Does the La Niña weather pattern lead to flu pandemics?
Worldwide pandemics of influenza caused widespread death and illness in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009. A new study examining weather patterns around the time of these pandemics finds that each of them was preceded by La Niña conditions in the equatorial Pacific. Since the La Niña pattern is known to alter the migratory patterns of birds, the scientists theorize that altered migration patterns promote the development of dangerous new strains of influenza.

Public Release: 13-Jan-2012
AGU journal highlights -- Jan. 13, 2012
Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Variability of North Atlantic heat transport observed from instrument data"; "Methane exceeds nitrous oxide in rivers' contribution to warming"; "Waste recycling primary source of energy in deep ocean"; "Record Arctic ozone depletion could occur again"; "Traveling supraglacial lakes observed on Antarctic ice shelf"; and "Lunar images alter understanding of impact history."

Public Release: 12-Jan-2012

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Breakthrough model reveals evolution of ancient nervous systems through seashell colors
Determining the evolution of pigmentation patterns on mollusk seashells -- which could aid in the understanding of ancient nervous systems -- has proved to be a challenging feat for researchers. Now, however, through mathematical equations and simulations, University of Pittsburgh and University of California, Berkeley, researchers have used 19 different species of the predatory sea snail Conus to generate a model of the pigmentation patterns of mollusk shells.

Public Release: 12-Jan-2012

Science
Largest bird alters its foraging due to climate change
Wandering albatrosses have altered their foraging due to changes in wind fields in the southern hemisphere during the last decades. Since winds have increased in intensity and moved to the south, the flight speed of albatrosses increased and they spend less time foraging. As a consequence, breeding success has improved and birds have gained 1 kilogram. These are the results of the study of an international research team published in the latest issue of Science.

French Polar Institute, Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, European Union

Public Release: 12-Jan-2012

Analytical Chemistry
Explosives and fish are traced with chemical tags
Researchers at the University of Oviedo have come up with a way of tagging gunpowder which allows its illegal use to be detected even after it has been detonated. Based on the addition of isotopes, the technique can also be used to track and differentiate between wild fish and those from a fish farm, such as trout and salmon.

Public Release: 12-Jan-2012

BMC Microbiology
Titanium dioxide film enhances the sun's natural disinfection power
With fears about overfishing and the sustainability of fish stocks in our seas fish farming is becoming big business. New research published in BioMed Central's open-access journal BMC Microbiology demonstrates that a prototype water purification reactor containing a thin film of titanium dioxide is able to enhance the sun's natural disinfection properties This device could be used to manage aquaculture infections without the need for expensive antibiotics or poisonous chemicals.

Public Release: 11-Jan-2012

PLOS ONE
New species of tiny frog is world's smallest vertebrate
Researchers have found two new frog species in New Guinea, one of which is the new smallest known vertebrate on Earth.