Saturday, December 29, 2012

Marine Sanctuaries

The US has over 1,800 marine protected areas.  National Geographic has an image gallery from those sanctuaries.

Photo: Northern Mariana Islands

Here's a link to the image gallery: Marine National Sanctuaries


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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Awfully Small for a Whale...

I read the short article below on pygmy right whales and a recent study done on them.


Found: Whale thought extinct for 2 million years

Mysterious, elusive, diminutive creature rarely came to shore

Darryl Wilson, University of Otago
The pygmy whale, a mysterious cetacean that looks radically different from all living whales, is actually the last living member of a group thought to have gone extinct 2 million years ago.
By Staff Writer

The pygmy right whale, a mysterious and elusive creature that rarely comes to shore, is the last living relative of an ancient group of whales long believed to be extinct, a new study suggests.
The findings, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, may help to explain why the enigmatic marine mammals look so different from any other living whale.
"The living pygmy right whale is, if you like, a remnant, almost like a living fossil," said Felix Marx, a paleontologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand. "It's the last survivor of quite an ancient lineage that until now no one thought was around."

The relatively diminutive pygmy right whale, which grows to just 21 feet long, lives out in the open ocean. The elusive marine mammals inhabit the Southern Hemisphere and have only been spotted at sea a few dozen times. As a result, scientists know almost nothing about the species' habits or social structure.
The strange creature's arched, frownlike snout makes it look oddly different from other living whales. DNA analysis suggested pygmy right whales diverged from modern baleen whales such as the blue whale and the humpback whale between 17 million and 25 million years ago. However, the pygmy whales' snouts suggested they were more closely related to the family of whales that includes the bowhead whale. Yet there were no studies of fossils showing how the pygmy whale had evolved, Marx said.
To understand how the pygmy whale fit into the lineage of whales, Marx and his colleagues carefully analyzed the skull bones and other fossil fragments from pygmy right whales and several other ancient cetaceans.

The pygmy whale's skull most closely resembled that of an ancient family of whales called cetotheres that were thought to have gone extinct around 2 million years ago, the researchers found. Cetotheres emerged about 15 million years ago and once occupied oceans across the globe.
The findings help explain how pygmy whales evolved and may also help shed light on how these ancient "lost" whales lived. The new information is also a first step in reconstructing the ancient lineage all the way back to the point when all members of this group first diverged, he said. 
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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Coral Reefs

Today's "Image of the Day" from NASA's Earth Observatory was of Palau and its coral reefs.  We discussed reef structure and form earlier this marking period and will be discussing the marine biology aspect of reefs later this school year.


Palau's Reefs
acquired December 11, 2012download large image (79 KB, JPEG, 720x720)
The Republic of Palau, a chain of islands at the far western end of Micronesia, consists of nine inhabited islands and more than 700 small islets in the Philippine Sea.
The archipelago contains a range of geological features but, when viewed from above, it’s the archipelago’s many turquoise coral reefs that command attention. The island chain is comprised of 458 square kilometers (177 square miles) of dry land, and approximately 525 square kilometers (203 square miles) of reefs spread through the ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this view of Palau on December 11, 2012.
Scientists divide coral reefs into the three main types. About half of Palau’s reefs—102 square kilometers—are barrier reefs. These appear in long stretches along island coastlines, separated from the shoreline by a channel of deep water. The western side of Babeldaob, Palua’s largest island, has a well-developed barrier reef system that extends about 150 kilometers (93 miles); the eastern side has some barrier reefs near the southern part of the island, but they are less developed and have gaps.
Palau’s second most common type of reef—“fringing”—accounts for about 37 percent of the country’s total reef area. Unlike barriers, fringing reefs develop adjacent to islands with little or no separation from the shore. Palau is home to several fringing reef systems, but one of the most prominent is attached to Peleliu, an island south of Babeldaob made famous by the battle fought there during World War II. There are also extensive fringing reefs along the eastern edge of Babeldaob, particularly in the northern part of the island.
Atolls are the third most common type of reef in Palau’s waters. Atolls are isolated coral islands that often encircle a lagoon. About 12 percent—65 square kilometers—of Palau’s coral reefs are considered atolls. There are a few examples of atolls north of Babeldaob. The northernmost is mainly submerged, while the atoll just south of that has four small coral islets that are part of Kayangel atoll.
Reefs can evolve from one type to another over time. Fringing reefs are the youngest, forming around a volcanic island within a span of 10,000 years. Over the next 100,000 years, such reefs will continue to grow if conditions are right, becoming barrier reefs as the island erodes and subsides. When an island has eroded so much that land no longer rises above sea level, an atoll is what remains. Transitioning from fringing reef to atolls can take as long as 30 million years.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response. Caption by Adam Voiland.
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Monday, December 10, 2012

Taking a Beating

While the US east coast was being by slammed by Sandy, Alaska was being pounded by a powerful storm of its own.  Below is an image of the day from WHOI.

Image of the Day

Healy bow wave
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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

The Arctic's Record-Setting Year


Arctic continues to break records in 2012: Becoming warmer, greener region with record losses of summer sea ice and late spring snow

December 5, 2012
Arctic warming.
Difference from average temperature in the Arctic from 2001-2011 compared to the long-term average (1971-2000).
Download on Climate.gov. (Credit: NOAA)
The Arctic region continued to break records in 2012—among them the loss of summer sea ice, spring snow cover, and melting of the Greenland ice sheet. This was true even though air temperatures in the Arctic were unremarkable relative to the last decade, according to a new report released today.
“The Arctic is changing in both predictable and unpredictable ways, so we must expect surprises,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, during a press briefing at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. “The Arctic is an extremely sensitive part of the world and with the warming scientists have observed, we see the results with less snow and sea ice, greater ice sheet melt and changing vegetation.”
Lubchenco participated in a panel discussion that presented the annual update of the Arctic Report Card, which has, since 2006, summarized the quickly changing conditions in the Arctic. A record-breaking 141 authors from 15 countries contributed to the peer-reviewed report. Major findings of this year’s report include:
  • Sept. sea ice.
    Ice concentration on Sept. 16, 2012, compared to previous record low (yellow line) and historic median extent (black line.)
    Download on Climate.gov.
    (Credit: NOAA/National Snow & Ice Data Center.)
    Snow cover: A new record low snow extent for the Northern Hemisphere was set in June 2012, and a new record low was reached in May over Eurasia.
  • Sea ice: Minimum Arctic sea ice extent in September 2012 set a new all-time record low, as measured by satellite since 1979.
  • Greenland ice sheet: There was a rare, nearly ice sheet-wide melt event on the Greenland ice sheet in July, covering about 97 percent of the ice sheet on a single day.
  • Vegetation: The tundra is getting greener and there’s more above-ground growth. During the period of 2003-2010, the length of the growing season increased through much of the Arctic.
  • Wildlife & food chain: In northernmost Europe, the Arctic fox is close to extinction and vulnerable to the encroaching Red fox. Additionally, recent measurements of massive phytoplankton blooms below the summer sea ice suggest that earlier estimates of biological production at the bottom of the marine food chain may have been ten times lower than was occurring.
  • Ocean: Sea surface temperatures in summer continue to be warmer than the long-term average at the growing ice-free margins, while upper ocean temperature and salinity show significant interannual variability with no clear trends.
  • Weather: Most of the notable weather activity in fall and winter occurred in the sub-Arctic due to a strong positive North Atlantic Oscillation, expressed as the atmospheric pressure difference between weather stations in the Azores and Iceland. There were three extreme weather events including an unusual cold spell in late January to early February 2012 across Eurasia, and two record storms characterized by very low central pressures and strong winds near western Alaska in November 2011 and north of Alaska in August 2012.
“Popular perceptions of the Arctic as a distant, icy, cold place that has little relevance to those outside the region are being challenged”, said Martin Jeffries, co-editor of the 2012 Report Card and Arctic science adviser, Office of Naval Research & research professor, University of Alaska-Fairbanks. “As snow and ice retreat, the marine and terrestrial ecosystems respond, and talk of increased tourism, natural resource exploitation, and marine transportation grows. The Arctic Report Card does a great service in charting the many physical and biological changes.”
phytoplankton bloom
Summer retreat of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea brings on phytoplankton bloom on July 10, 2012.
Download on Climate.gov. (Credit: NASA)
Apart from one or two exceptions, the scientists said the air temperatures were not unusually high this year relative to the last decade. Nevertheless, they saw large changes in multiple indicators affecting Arctic climate and ecosystems; combined, these changes are strong evidence of the growing momentum of Arctic environmental system change.
The record-breaking year also indicates that it is unlikely that conditions can quickly return to their former state.
“The record low spring snow extent and record low summer sea ice extent in 2012 exemplify a major source of the momentum for continuing change,” added Jeffries. “As the sea ice and snow cover retreat, we’re losing bright, highly reflective surfaces, and increasing the area of darker surfaces—both land and ocean—exposed to sunlight. This increases the capacity to store heat within the Arctic system, which enables more melting—a self-reinforcing cycle.”
In 2006, NOAA’s Climate Program Office introduced the State of the Arctic Report which established a baseline of conditions at the beginning of the 21st century. It is updated annually as the Arctic Report Card to monitor the often-quickly changing conditions in the Arctic. To view this year’s report, visit http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/.
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at www.noaa.gov and join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.
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Monday, December 3, 2012

Methylmercury

Long touted as being very healthy, eating seafood may not be quite so.  The article below discusses mercury pollution in ocean surface waters.


Mercury Released Into Air Contaminates Ocean Fish

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2012) — In new research published in a special issue of the journalEnvironmental Health Perspectives and in "Sources to Seafood: Mercury Pollution in the Marine Environment" -- a companion report by the Dartmouth-led Coastal and Marine Mercury Ecosystem Research Collaborative (C-MERC), scientists report that mercury released into the air and then deposited into oceans contaminates seafood commonly eaten by people in the U.S. and globally.
Over the past century, mercury pollution in the surface ocean has more than doubled, as a result of past and present human activities such as coal burning, mining, and other industrial processes. The research findings by C-MERC published December 3 also examine the effects of local mercury inputs that dominate some near-shore coastal waters.
C-MERC's research is presented through nine scientific papers inEnvironmental Health Perspectivesand is the culmination of two years of work by approximately 70 mercury and marine scientists from multiple disciplines including biology, ecotoxicology, engineering, environmental geochemistry, and epidemiology. The research provides a synthesis of the science on the sources, fate, and human exposure to mercury in marine systems by tracing the pathways and transformation of mercury to methylmercury from sources to seafood to consumers.
Two other papers focusing on the health effects of methylmercury were published earlier this year inEnvironmental Health Perspectives. Methylmercury has long been known as a potent neurotoxicant, particularly as a result of acute and high level human exposures primarily through seafood consumption, but more recent research has revealed health effects at increasingly lower levels of exposure.
The companion report, "Sources to Seafood: Mercury Pollution in the Marine Environment," looks at the pathways and consequences of mercury pollution across marine systems by drawing on findings from the C-MERC papers, scientific literature, and data from a range of marine systems and coastal basins. Specifically, the report examines mercury sources, pathways, and inputs for the Hudson River Estuary, San Francisco Bay, Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Maine, Arctic Ocean, and the open ocean.
C-MERC's research findings are especially timely, as the U.S. and other nations prepare for the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Programme's Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC5) on January 13-18, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland, which is working to prepare a legally binding instrument to control mercury releases to the environment.
"Despite the fact that most people's mercury exposure is through the consumption of marine fish, this is the first time that scientists have worked together to synthesize what is known about how mercury moves from its various sources to different areas of the ocean and then up the food chain to the seafood most people eat," said Celia Y. Chen, Ph.D., Research Professor of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth. She is a co-author of the new Environmental Health Perspectivespapers on nutrient supply and mercury dynamics, and mercury sources in the Gulf of Maine, and authored an editorial on the subject in the journal, and is also a lead author of "Sources to Seafood." Chen will represent Dartmouth as an accredited non-governmental organization at INC5 in an observer status. Copies of C-MERC's Sources to Seafood report will be made available to INC5 attendees.
C-MERC research suggests that mercury deposited from the atmosphere ranges from 56% of the mercury loading to several large gulfs to approximately 90% in the open ocean.
"Oceans are home to large tuna and swordfish, which together account for more than half of the mercury intake from seafood for the overall U.S. population," said Elsie M. Sunderland, Assistant Professor of Aquatic Science at Harvard University. She is a lead author of an Environmental Health Perspectivespaper on mercury sources in the Gulf of Maine and a lead author of "Sources to Seafood."
Model estimates from the report indicate that methylmercury concentrations in marine fish will decline roughly in proportion to decreases in mercury inputs, though the timing of the response will vary.
"Our model estimates show that for the North Atlantic Ocean, a 20% cut in the amount of mercury deposited to the ocean from the atmosphere would lead to about a 16% decline in mercury levels in fish… But it is important to realize that achieving a 20% decrease in mercury deposition will require substantial cuts in current anthropogenic emissions, given the already very sizeable build-up of mercury in terrestrial environments and ocean waters," said Robert P. Mason, Ph.D., Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Mason is a lead author of the Environmental Health Perspectives paper on mercury biogeochemical cycling in the ocean and a lead author of "Sources to Seafood."
The C-MERC team also evaluated the fate of mercury in nearshore coastal waters and found a contrasting pattern to the oceans. "For some nearshore coastal waterbodies, like San Francisco Bay and the Hudson River Estuary, where there are large mercury sources such as historically contaminated sites, ongoing releases from wastewater or industrial waste and atmospheric mercury deposition in the watershed, mercury loading can be dominated by river inputs," said Charles T. Driscoll, Ph.D., University Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering at Syracuse University. He is a lead author on anEnvironmental Health Perspectives paper on nutrient supply and mercury dynamics, and a lead author of "Sources to Seafood."
The C-MERC team estimates that river inputs can be as much as 80% of the total mercury inputs to some estuaries. "The impact of mercury released to coastal waters from watersheds via rivers has been a somewhat underappreciated aspect of the problem. Yet, these bays and estuaries can be important sources of fish for local anglers, thus controls on these sources can have substantial local benefits," explained Driscoll.
"C-MERC's synthesis of research identifies the most important drivers of mercury pollution to different oceans and coastal waters, and can help policymakers understand the links between environmental processes, methylmercury levels in marine ecosystems, human exposure, and the human health effects -- all of which are critical to the discussion of how local, regional and global mercury pollution affects the world's supply of seafood," said Chen.
Approximately one-third of all mercury emissions are associated with current industrial sources and other human activities that can be controlled. "The good news is that the science suggests that if mercury inputs are curtailed, mercury levels in ocean fish will decline and decrease the need for warnings to limit consumption of this globally important food source," added Chen.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided byDartmouth College, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Dartmouth College (2012, December 3). Mercury released into air contaminates ocean fish. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2012/12/121203150008.htm
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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