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Counting Horseshoe Crabs

By Guest PostMay 17, 2012Nature, Sciencecensus, crab line, crab population, delaware bay, dover, eadoh reshef, fertilization, field research, horseshoe crab, joanna york, jonathan dinman, kayla krenitsky, marine science, megan nogan, migration, pvc pipe, st jones reserve, tammy beeson, teresa messmore, university of delaware, will goldman

Marine science majors conduct field research with horseshoe crab census

Wearing sneakers and rain boots, University of Delaware freshmen got their feet wet as marine biologists recently while counting horseshoe crabs along the Delaware Bay. The students participated in a monitoring effort to gain firsthand experience in field research with their fellow marine science majors.

“Where else can you go on a Saturday night to count horseshoe crabs?” freshman Will Goldman said. (more…)

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…)

‘Undersea Methane Could be Contributor to Increased Ocean Acidity’

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2010Environmentacidity, algae, bacteria, bottom of the ocean, carbon dioxide, chris osburn, CO2, cold seeps, degradation, dissolved organic carbon, doc, fluids, marine science, methane, methane-derived doc, microbial processing, ocean, ocean acidification, oceanic microorganisms, pacific ocean, phytoplankton, seawater, sediments, undersea, undersea ecosystems

A North Carolina State University researcher is part of a team which has found that methane from “cold seeps” – undersea areas where fluids bubble up through sediments at the bottom of the ocean – could be contributing to the oceans’ increasing acidity and stressing already delicate undersea ecosystems.

Oceanic microorganisms and bacteria survive by consuming dissolved organic carbon, or DOC. A byproduct of this consumption is CO2 – carbon dioxide – which, in large enough concentrations, makes seawater more acidic. (more…)

Tag Archives: marine science

Counting Horseshoe Crabs

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

‘Undersea Methane Could be Contributor to Increased Ocean Acidity’