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Dispersant from Deepwater Horizon Spill Found to Persist in the Environment

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2014Environmentbacteria, bp, chris reddy, deepwater horizon spill, doss, elizabeth kujawinski, Environment, epa, fruehjahrsputz staub, gomri, gulf of mexico, hantavirus infektionen, helen white, infektionsrisiko durch hantaviren, krank durch fruehjahrsputz, mini brains, oceanographic institution, puumala virus, puuv infektionen, puuv virus, roetelmaus, whoi, woods hole

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest accidental release of oil into the ocean, with approximately 210 million gallons gushing from the blown out well. In an attempt to prevent vast quantities of oil from fouling beaches and marshes, BP applied 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersant to oil to oil released in the subsurface and to oil slicks at the sea surface. The dispersant was thought to rapidly degrade in the environment. (more…)

Tags Reveal Chilean Devil Rays Are Among Ocean’s Deepest Divers

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2014Naturecorey shdaimah, electrochromic polymers, geschmacksforscher, heilbronn, katie hail jares, kaust, north atlantic ocean, ocean, oceanographic institution, project dawn court, research into prostitution, self powered, simon thorrold, whoi, wolf reisst schafe, wolfsbeobachtung, wolfsriss, woods hole, yueh lin

Thought to dwell mostly near the ocean’s surface, Chilean devil rays (Mobula tarapacana) are most often seen gliding through shallow, warm waters. But a new study by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and international colleagues reveals that these large and majestic creatures are actually among the deepest-diving ocean animals. (more…)

Understanding the Ocean’s Role in Greenland Glacier Melt

By Guest PostAugust 24, 2014Environmentdaniela pfabigan, fiamma straneo, fjords, global climate system, greenland ice sheet, katharina gang, ocean, oceanographic institution, oceanography, role, sermilik fjord, steuerbehoerde, steuern zahlen, submarine melting, university of oregon, warum, whoi, wir, woods hole

The Greenland Ice Sheet is a 1.7 million-square-kilometer, 2-mile thick layer of ice that covers Greenland. Its fate is inextricably linked to our global climate system.

In the last 40 years, ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet increased four-fold contributing to one-quarter of global sea level rise. Some of the increased melting at the surface of the ice sheet is due to a warmer atmosphere, but the ocean’s role in driving ice loss largely remains a mystery. (more…)

Climate Change Winners and Losers

By Guest PostAugust 12, 2014Environmentadelie, antarctic peninsula, brian cummins, climate change, ebiomedicine, environmental change, glenn walker, innovation gap, last ice age, lungenkrebszellen, michael polito, oceanographic institution, paper pumps, penguins, steven kaye, tilman brummer, whoi, woods hole

The Antarctic Peninsula, the northern most region of Antarctica, is experiencing some of the most dramatic changes due to climate warming, including population declines of some penguin species.

This is not the first time that region has felt the effects of climate warming. How did penguins respond to the melting of snow and ice cover 11,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age? (more…)

How Do Phytoplankton Survive Scarcity of a Critical Nutrient?

By Guest PostJuly 10, 2014Environmentfossile zapfen, hiatus, janet sinsheimer, joann manson, life on earth, north atlantic, oceanic heat sink, oceanographic institution, phosphorus, phytoplankton, sargasso sea, simon poppinga, survive, thomas speck, whoi, woods hole, zapfen

New study up-ends conventional wisdom

Phytoplankton—tiny, photosynthetic organisms—are essential to life on Earth, supplying us with roughly half the oxygen we breathe. Like all other life forms, phytoplankton require the element phosphorus to carry out critical cellular activity, but in some parts of the world’s ocean, P is in limited supply. How do phytoplankton survive when phosphorus is difficult to find? (more…)

New Sensor Array to Monitor Impacts of Changing Gulf of Maine Conditions on New England Red Tide

By Guest PostMay 14, 2014Environmentalexandrium fundyense, brexit, changing, computer model, condition, costs of healthcare, don anderson, environmental sample processors, gulf of maine, harmful algal bloom, hawking, henry cabin, kohl kanwit, manik mian, michael cleman, new england, noaa, oceanographic institution, palmaz schatz stent, phenomenon, red tide, street hawker, votum, whoi, woods hole

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are kicking off an innovative NOAA-funded pilot program using robotic instruments and computer modeling analysis to shed light on changing ocean conditions in the Gulf of Maine as they relate to the harmful algal bloom (HAB) phenomenon commonly known as the New England red tide.

The red tide is caused by the germination of dormant cysts of alga called Alexandrium fundyense, which produces a toxin that can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). These cysts are found in bottom sediments and near-bottom waters, accumulating in “seedbeds” that serve as the source of swimming, rapidly dividing cells that form the blooms each spring. (more…)

Scientists Identify Core Skin Bacterial Community in Humpback Whales

By Guest PostApril 2, 2014Naturealaska, american samoa, amy apprill, bering sea, bugs, caroline albertin, clifton ragsdale, core, eleni panagopoulou, hawaii, hox genes, Humpback whales, mammals, marathousa, michael labarbera, michael moore, nicholas thompson, north atlantic, north pacific, oceanographic institution, octopus bimaculoides, octopus genome, South Pacific, tracy mincer, two spot octopus, vangelis tourloukis, whoi, woods hole

Results Could Aid Future Efforts to Monitor Health

Bacteria are invisible to the naked eye, but they reside on nearly every surface humans encounter—including the skin. Uncovering the role these microorganisms play in human health is a major focus of research in skin microbiology, but little is known about the identity or function of skin bacteria in other mammals.

In a paper published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues identified a core skin bacterial community that humpback whales share across populations, which could point to a way to assess the overall health of these endangered marine mammals. (more…)

Scientists Train the Next Generation on Oil Spill Research

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2014Environmentbp, bryan james, chemical industry, chris reddy, deepwater horizon, ecosystem health, eric chassignet, gomri, goo, gulf coast, gulf oil observers, oceanographic institution, oil eating microbes, oil spill, whoi, woods hole

As part of on-going research nearly four years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will team up with a group of high school students in Florida to collect remnants of oil from Gulf Coast beaches this week.

Marine chemist Chris Reddy studies how the many compounds that compose petroleum hydrocarbon, or oil, behave and change over time after an oil spill. He and his researchers have collected and analyzed about 1,000 oil samples from the Gulf Coast since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (more…)

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