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Study Assesses Nations’ Vulnerabilities to Reduced Mollusk Harvests from Ocean Acidification

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2011Environmentatmosphere, carbon dioxide emissions, carbonate shells or skeletons, changes in ocean chemistry, CO2, co2 levels, corrosive environment, fossil fuel, gambia, haiti, hauke kite powell, industrial revolution, Madagascar, marine ecosystems, marine environments, marine fisheries, mollusk aquaculture, mollusk harvests, mollusks, mozambique, noelle lucey, ocean acidification, ph, sarah cooley, scott doney, senegal, shellfish, transition decade, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution, world oceans

Changes in ocean chemistry due to increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are expected to damage shellfish populations around the world, but some nations will feel the impacts much sooner and more intensely than others, according to a study by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

As CO2 levels driven by fossil fuel use have increased in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, so has the amount of CO2 absorbed by the world’s oceans, leading to changes in the chemical make-up of seawater. Known as ocean acidification, this decrease in pH creates a corrosive environment for some marine organisms such as corals, marine plankton, and shellfish that build carbonate shells or skeletons. (more…)

Yale Students’ Trip to Rainforest Yields New Way to Degrade Plastic

By Guest PostAugust 7, 2011EnvironmentAmazon rainforest, biological activity, bioremediation, degrade polyurethane, endophytes, enzyme, equador, fungi, howard hughes medical institute, jeffrey huang, jonathan r russell, kaury kucera, new haven, organisms, plastic, pria anand, rainforest plants, yale rainforest expedition, yale students, yale undergraduates

Organisms discovered by Yale undergraduates growing within fungi in the Amazon Rainforest can degrade polyurethane, a findings that may lead to innovative ways to reduce waste in the world’s landfills.

The paper, accepted for publication in July by the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, is the work of undergraduates who participated in Yale’s Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (more…)

Six Million Years of African Savanna

By Guest PostAugust 6, 2011Environment, Scienceancient soil, anthony macharia, ape, ardipithecus, australopithecus, bipedalism, c3 pathway of photosynthesis, c4 photosynthesis, carbon isotope ratios in fossil soils, chemical isotopes, david kimutai korir, early human fossils, east african, environments, fossils of human ancestors, geochemist, geological past, homo, human ancestors, kenya wildlife service, michael bird, national science foundation, omo turkana basin of ethiopia and kenya, open grasslands, paleo shade proxy for soil temperature and woody cover, paleosols, paranthropus, prehistoric tree cover, ratio of rare carbon 13 to common carbon 12, richard lane, samuel andanje, savanna, savanna landscape, scattered trees, thure cerling, tropical landscapes, university of utah, vegetation chronologies of the awash valley of ethiopia, woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years

*Open, grassy environments accompanied human evolution*

Scientists using chemical isotopes in ancient soil to measure prehistoric tree cover–in effect, shade–have found that grassy, tree-dotted savannas prevailed at most East African sites where human ancestors and their ape relatives evolved during the past six million years.

“We’ve been able to quantify how much shade was available in the geological past,” says University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of a paper titled “Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years” on the results in this week’s issue of the journal Nature. (more…)

WHOI Study Reports Microbes Consumed Oil in Gulf Slick at Unexpected Rates

By Guest PostAugust 4, 2011Environmentbacterial microbes, benjamin van mooy, bethanie edwards, breaking down the oil slick, catherine a carmichael, christopher m reddy, deepwater horizon spill, dilution, dispersion, evaporation, gulf of mexico, gulf waters, krista longnecker, largest oil spill in history, macondo well, metabolic potential, microbes, new cells, nitrogen, nutrients, oil consumption by the microbes, oxygen levels in water samples, oxygen optode, oxygen to create carbon dioxide and energy, phosphorus, richard camilli, sensor, state of the art methods, surface oil slick, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

More than a year after the largest oil spill in history, perhaps the dominant lingering question about the Deepwater Horizon spill is, “What happened to the oil?” Now, in the first published study to explain the role of microbes in breaking down the oil slick on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers have come up with answers that represent both surprisingly good news and a head-scratching mystery.

In research scheduled to be published in the Aug. 2 online edition of Environmental Research Letters, the WHOI team studied samples from the surface oil slick and surrounding Gulf waters. They found that bacterial microbes inside the slick degraded the oil at a rate five times faster than microbes outside the slick—accounting in large part for the disappearance of the slick some three weeks after Deepwater Horizon’s Macondo well was shut off. (more…)

Exeter Scientists Grow Plants with Friendly Fungi

By Guest PostAugust 1, 2011Environmentclimate change, drought tolerance, friendly fungi, higher food prices, plant growth, strain of trichoderma

The lack of rainfall and higher-than-average temperatures in spring 2011 were predicted to hit harvests, leading to higher food prices.

Climate change may mean that these dry and hot conditions will become more common in the UK, so researchers are looking at ways to make plants more tolerant of dry spells. (more…)

UF Study Shows Tundra Fires Could Accelerate Climate Warming

By Guest PostJuly 31, 2011Environmentanaktuvuk river fire, arctic carbon cycle, arctic fires, arctic tundra, atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide, canada, carbon, city of miami, ecologist, ecosystem ecology, global climate, global climate warming, greenhouse gases, michelle mack, Nature, north slope of alaska brooks range, organic matter, permafrost, radiocarbon dating, russia, smoke, soil bound carbon, ted schuur, terry chapin, tundra, university of alaska, university of florida, wildfires

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a University of Florida study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames.

In a study published in the July 28 issue of the journal Nature, UF ecologist Michelle Mack and a team of scientists including fellow UF ecologist Ted Schuur quantified the amount of soil-bound carbon released into the atmosphere in the 2007 Anaktuvuk River fire, which covered more than 400 square miles on the North Slope of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The 2.1 million metric tons of carbon released in the fire — roughly twice the amount of greenhouse gases put out by the city of Miami in a year — is significant enough to suggest that Arctic fires could impact the global climate, said Mack, an associate professor of ecosystem ecology in UF’s department of biology. (more…)

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Advanced Imaging Lab Assists in Location of Thunder Bay Shipwrecks

By Guest PostJuly 30, 2011Environment, Scienceadvanced imaging and visualization lab, aivl, bill lange, evan kovacs, expedition, exploration of historic wrecks, lake huron, marine archaeologists, national oceanic and atmospheric association, noaa, project shiphunt, remotely operated vehicles, rov, shipwrecks, sony 3d hd stereoscopic imaging systems, sony vaio computers, steel freighter etruria, the brittanic, the interseas explorer, the laurentian, the schooner m f merrick, the titanic, thunder bay wrecks, underwater led and hid lighting systems, uss arizona, woods hole oceanographic institution

When a group of five high school students embarked on Project Shiphunt, an expedition in search of lost shipwrecks, in May in Lake Huron, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab (AIVL) was there, surveying and capturing 3D footage of the finds. The work was conducted as part of Project Shiphunt, an initiative developed by Sony and Intel Corp and led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

“It was gratifying to be a part of a project that engages kids in the excitement of exploration and discovery,” said Bill Lange, director of AIVL. Lange led a crew of videographers, divers and pilots of two remotely operated vehicles (ROV) during the expedition. “Our Sony cameras gave the students the ability to have that experience in real time and in some cases to direct the cameras to investigate specific features of the wreck. The high-definition footage we collected will be invaluable to scientists and marine archaeologists working to learn from the wrecks.” (more…)

WHOI Announces 2011 Ocean Science Journalism Fellows

By Guest PostJuly 28, 2011Environmentcoastline change, fellowship program, ice sheet dynamics, ocean engineering, ocean science journalism, science journalists, seafloor earthquakes

Ten writers and multimedia science journalists from the U.S., Canada, France, Great Britain and South Korea have been selected to participate in the competitive Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Ocean Science Journalism Fellowship program. (more…)

Category Archives: Environment