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Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Severely Impairs Reproduction in Atlantic Croaker, Researchers Find

By Guest PostJune 16, 2011Environment, Scienceandrogens, aromatase, atlantic croaker, coast of louisiana, coastal regions, dead zone, enzyme, estrogens, female sex hormones, fish population, gulf of mexico, hypoxic area, hypoxic coastal zone, hypoxic dead zone, impairment of reproductive output, low oxygen waters, male sex hormones, marine animals, marine science, marine scientist, masculinized, neuroendocrine function, ovarian masculinization, oxygen levels, peter thomas, reproductive impairment, saydur rahman, second largest seasonal hypoxic zone, sperm and eggs, the university of texas at austin, thomas and rahman, world

AUSTIN, Texas — Atlantic croaker living in the large Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone” exhibit severe reproductive impairment with potential long-term impacts on the fish’s population abundance, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute have found.

Males and females were found to produce dramatically fewer sperm and eggs. In addition, females in the hypoxic Dead Zone waters were masculinized — some 20 percent actually produced sperm in their ovaries. The sex ratio was also heavily skewed toward males in the hypoxic area. (more…)

It Takes a Community of Soil Microbes to Protect Plants From Disease

By Guest PostMay 15, 2011Environment, Scienceactinobacteria, archaea, bacteria, berkeley lab, burkholderia, complex microbial network, coral reefs, deepwater horizon spill, disease, dna sequences, dutch scientists, environmental mysteries, gary andersen, gulf of mexico, immune system, mammals, pathogens, phylochip, plants, potato, psuedomonas, puerto rico, rathmann family foundation, rhizoctonia solani, rice, root fungus, soil, soil microbes, sugar beet, todd desantis, types of bacteria, vegetables, xanthomonas, yvette piceno

*Berkeley Lab scientists decipher immune system for plants beneath our feet*

Those vegetables you had for dinner may have once been protected by an immune system akin to the one that helps you fight disease. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Netherland’s Wageningen University found that plants rely on a complex community of soil microbes to defend themselves against pathogens, much the way mammals harbor a raft of microbes to avoid infections.

The scientists deciphered, for the first time, the group of microbes that enables a patch of soil to suppress a plant-killing pathogen. Previous research on the phenomenon of disease-suppressive soil had identified one or two pathogen-fighting microbes at work. (more…)

2,000 Year-old Deep-sea Black Corals call Gulf of Mexico Home

By Guest PostApril 1, 2011Environmentagainst suffering, anthoza, antipatharia, black coral trees, black corals, coral reefs, corals, deep sea black corals, deep sea coral reef ecosystems, delaware, discover expedition, ecosystem, environmental change, glabberima, greek roots, gulf of mexico, hawaii, johnson sea link, leiopathes, marine ecology, maryland, nancy prouty, organic matter, sea floor, skeletons, symbiotic algae

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — For the first time, scientists have been able to validate the age of deep-sea black corals in the Gulf of Mexico. They found the Gulf is home to 2,000 year-old deep-sea black corals, many of which are only a few feet tall.

These slow-growing, long-living animals thrive in very deep waters—300 meters (984 feet) and deeper—yet scientists say they are sensitive to what is happening in the surface ocean as well as on the sea floor. (more…)

Extent and Speed of Lionfish Spread Unprecedented

By Guest PostMarch 15, 2011Environment, Natureatlantic coast, bermuda, caribbean, cayman islands, coast of florida, coastal systems, gulf of mexico, indo west pacific ocean, invasive lionfishes, lionfish, lionfish diets, native species, non native marine fish, pam schofield, species, u s eastern seaboard

*Invasive Marine Fish May Stress Reefs*

Gainesville, Fla. — The rapid spread of lionfishes along the U.S. eastern seaboard, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean is the first documented case of a non-native marine fish establishing a self-sustaining population in the region, according to recent U.S. Geological Survey studies.

“Nothing like this has been seen before in these waters,” said Dr. Pam Schofield, a biologist with the USGS Southeast Ecological Science Center here. “We’ve observed sightings of numerous non-native species, but the extent and speed with which lionfish have spread has been unprecedented; lionfishes pretty much blanketed the Caribbean in three short years.” (more…)

Psychological Effects of BP Oil Spill Go Beyond Residents of Impacted Shorelines

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2011Environment, Health1989 exxon valdez oil spill, alabama, anxiety and depression, bp oil spill, coastal communities, domestic violence, emotional and financial situations, environmental disaster, florida, franklin county, glenn morris, gulf fishing industries, gulf of mexico, human history, longitudinal analysis, natural events, oil exposure, oil spill, protein scum, psychological effects, psychological impact, red tide, seafood, spill, william mahan

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The psychological effects of the BP oil spill, the largest recorded environmental disaster in human history, extend far beyond people living around the areas of the Gulf of Mexico that were directly impacted by the spill, a new study finds.

Writing in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institutes of Health, the researchers reported that even in areas that did not have oil exposure, people still experienced elevated levels of anxiety and depression and reduced ability to show resilience in difficult emotional and financial situations because of the disaster. (more…)

New View of Family Life in the North American Nebula

By Guest PostFebruary 10, 2011Sciencecontamination, cosmic community, earth, gulf of mexico, infrared view, light years, luisa rebull, micron, NASA, north american nebula, spitzer image, spitzer space telescope, stars, toddler stars, wavelength, young stars, zodiacal dust

Pasadena, Calif. — Stars at all stages of development, from dusty little tots to young adults, are on display in a new image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

This cosmic community is called the North American nebula. In visible light, the region resembles the North American continent, with the most striking resemblance being the Gulf of Mexico. But in Spitzer’s infrared view, the continent disappears. Instead, a swirling landscape of dust and young stars comes into view.

“One of the things that makes me so excited about this image is how different it is from the visible image, and how much more we can see in the infrared than in the visible,” said Luisa Rebull of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. Rebull is lead author of a paper about the observations, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. “The Spitzer image reveals a wealth of detail about the dust and the young stars here.” (more…)

First Study of Dispersants in Gulf Spill Suggests a Prolonged Deepwater Fate

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2011Environmentbiodegradation, biological exposure, chemical dispersant, chromatographic technique, david valentine, deep ocean, deepwater horizon oil spill, dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate, doss, effects on corals, elizabeth b kujawinski, environmental data, fate of dispersants, gas flow, gulf of mexico, gulf spill, hydrocarbon, levels of methane, marshes and coastlines, melissa c kido soule, oil droplets, oil gas plume, toxicity, wellhead

To combat last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, nearly 800,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were injected directly into the oil and gas flow coming out of the wellhead nearly one mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, as scientists begin to assess how well the strategy worked at breaking up oil droplets, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) chemist Elizabeth B. Kujawinski and her colleagues report that a major component of the dispersant itself was contained within an oil-gas-laden plume in the deep ocean and had still not degraded some three months after it was applied.

While the results suggest the dispersant did mingle with the oil and gas flowing from the mile-deep wellhead, they also raise questions about what impact the deep-water residue of oil and dispersant—which some say has its own toxic effects—might have had on environment and marine life in the Gulf. (more…)

USGS Undertakes Additional Studies of Reef Damage in Gulf of Mexico to Assess Cause

By Guest PostJanuary 4, 2011Environmentchemosynthetic tubeworm, coral tissues, deep sea reefs, deepwater horizon site, gulf of mexico, samples of coral

Gainesville, Fla.— A team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and academic scientists are analyzing samples of coral and surrounding sediments from an area damaged near the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)

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