Available research assistantship for a graduate student

Research assistantships are available for one or two graduate students (at MS or Ph.D.l evel) interested in quantitative fisheries management and ecology. Examples of research topics include estimation of multi parameters in non-linear models, prediction of unknown random variables, development of a model tool, extinction risk analysis (population viability analysis), and detection of environmental conditions that affect temporal variability in mortality under both an individual stock frame and multi-stock interaction perspective, etc. Financial support includes salary payment, and waived tuition, etc.

Please be informed that more jobs in fisheries are available for quantitatively trained graduates: e.g., UN FAO, NOAA NMFS, state and tribal governments, consulting companies, academia, etc. The incumbent would work in the School for Marine Science & Tech. (SMAST) at the Univ. of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with Saang-Yoon Hyun (PI, Professor), but please note that his/her degree (MS or Ph.D.) would be awarded by the School of Marine Science (SMS) at the Univ. of Massachusetts beyond the Dartmouth campus.

Interested applicants should contact Saang-Yoon Hyun (see contact info below) with his/her resume and transcript although there are separate application procedures (http://www.umassmarine.net/admissions/admissions.html).

Contact info

PI: Saang-Yoon Hyun
Phone: 508-999-8875
Email: shyun@umassd.edu
Web: http://www.smast.umassd.edu/qfm/

Arctic current warmer than for 2,000 years: study

A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed.

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By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed.

Scientists said that waters at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, averaged 6 degrees Celsius (42.80F) in recent summers, warmer than at natural peaks during Roman or Medieval times.

"The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years," lead author Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, told Reuters of the study in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait, have risen from an average 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.36F) from 1890-2007 and about 3.4C (38.12F) in the previous 1,900 years.

The findings were a new sign that human activities were stoking modern warming since temperatures are above past warm periods linked to swings in the sun's output that enabled, for instance, the Vikings to farm in Greenland in Medieval times.

"We found that modern Fram Strait water temperatures are well outside the natural bounds," Thomas Marchitto, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the authors, said in a statement.The Fram strait is the main carrier of ocean heat to the Arctic.

ICE-FREE OCEAN

The authors wrote that the warming temperatures "are presumably linked to the Arctic amplification of global warming" and that the warming "is most likely another key element in the transition to a future ice-free Arctic Ocean."

Ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank to its lowest on record in 2007 and many experts expect the ocean will be ice-free in summers in coming decades, a threat to the hunting livelihoods of indigenous peoples and to creatures such as polar bears.

The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the global average as part of a trend the U.N. panel of climate scientists blames on a build-up of greenhouse gases from mankind's use of fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.

The shrinking of reflective ice and snow in the Arctic region exposes water or ground which are darker colored and so soak up more heat from the sun, amplifying warming.

Climate Change Threatens Many Tree Species

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2011) — Global warming is already affecting the earth in a variety of ways that demand our attention. Now, research carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem indicates that many tree species might become extinct due to climate change if no action is taken in time.

According to the research, trees which disperse their seeds by wind, such as pines and maples, will be unable to spread at a pace that can cope with expected climate changes.

The research, which focused on the ecological consequences of expected changes in the climate and the environment on tree spread, was conducted by Prof. Ran Nathan, head of the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Science at the Hebrew University; his student, Nir Horvitz; and researchers from abroad.

Climate changes, which can be sensed already today and which are expected to continue in the next 50 years, include the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in the air and a reduction of surface wind speed in many areas. On the basis of earlier work, elevated concentration of carbon dioxide is expected to cause trees to produce many more seeds and to reach maturity earlier than under current conditions, hence speeding up their spread. On the other hand, the weakening of wind speed in certain areas should reduce spread rate of these trees. The balance between these opposing forces remained unknown.

Furthermore, it was unclear whether even the projected increase in wind speed in certain areas, together with the higher seed production and earlier maturation, will result in a fast enough spread of trees in order to be sufficient to match the climate changes.

These questions were examined in this study for the first time. Surprisingly, the results show that changes in wind speed, either the projected increase or decrease, have negligible effects on the rate of wind-driven spread of these species. The effects of increased seed production and earlier maturation is that which prevails, giving rise to faster spread in the future compared to current conditions. Still, this research showed that the faster spread predicted for these trees in the future will be much slower than the expected poleward shift of climate (temperature) ranges. Consequently, these tree species might not be able to withstand the climate change.

"Our research indicates that the natural wind-driven spread of many species of trees will increase, but will occur at a significantly lower pace than that which will be required to cope with the changes in surface temperature," said Prof. Nathan. "This will raise extinction risk of many tree populations because they will not be able to track the shift in their natural habitats which currently supply them with favorable conditions for establishment and reproduction. As a result, the composition of different tree species in future forests is expected to change and their areas might be reduced, the goods and services that these forests provide for man might be harmed, and wide-ranging steps will have to be taken to ensure seed dispersal in a controlled, directed manner."

The new research, published in the journal Ecology Letters is based on a unique, fully mechanistic model developed to predict trends in plant spread. This model is the first to consider how projected changes in biological and environmental factors would impact tree spread in future environments. Predictions which were made until now were founded on past trends and did not take into consideration the expected future changes in the key biological and environmental factors that determine plant spread.

In Israel, the research has bearing on various native tree species whose seeds are dispersed by the wind, such as Aleppo pine, Syrian maple and Syrian ash. The model that has been developed will be useful also in predicting the invasive spread of alien tree species, such as the tree of heaven, into Israeli natural habitats.

Trees with wind-dispersed seeds are mainly common in forests of North America and Eurasia. The current research points to the need to take human action to insure the dispersal of the seeds of these trees within the next half century, in view of the expected climate changes.

"It is important for those responsible for forest management in many parts of the world to understand that nature alone will not do the job," said Prof. Nathan. "Human action will be required to ensure in a controlled manner the minimization of unexpected detrimental byproducts, and that those trees which are very important for global ecological processes will not become extinct," he said. "These forests are important in many ways to man, including the supply of wood, the safeguarding of water quality, and the provision of recreation and tourism facilities."

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ran Nathan, Nir Horvitz, Yanping He, Anna Kuparinen, Frank M. Schurr, Gabriel G. Katul. Spread of North American wind-dispersed trees in future environments. Ecology Letters, 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01573.x

Underwater glider sets 2 Antarctic firsts

  Researchers prepare to deploy the SG503 "Ice Dragon" glider  into the open waters of the Ross Sea. In the background is Mt. Erebus (an active volcano). 





Credit: Photo courtesy of Walker Smith.

 Researcher Walker Smith of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, has been conducting shipboard studies of biological productivity in Antarctica's Ross Sea for the last three decades. This year he's letting underwater robots do some of the work.

Smith and graduate student Xiao Liu are using a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to deploy and test a free-swimming underwater glider in the frigid waters of the Ross Sea near the U.S. McMurdo Research Station. The grant also funds efforts by fellow VIMS professor Marjorie Friedrichs to use glider data to help improve computer models of the Ross Sea's physics and biology.

Smith deployed the team's glider—SG503, also know as the Ice Dragon—for its first mission on November 29, 2010. He and colleagues, including investigators from Old Dominion University, launched the 114-pound vehicle through a whale breathing-hole, and then directed it into the open waters of the "polynya" that forms each austral summer when seasonal sea-ice melts from the Ross Sea.

The launch, at a latitude of 77°S, is the most southerly glider deployment ever. A short (and unintentional) jog off course also made it the first-ever glider to successfully dive beneath the Ross Ice Shelf.

The Ice Dragon glider in the waters of the Ross Sea.The glider has now—as of January 19, 2011—completed 783 dives to depths as great as 700 meters (2,330 feet), traveling a total of 1,402 kilometers (871 miles). It is scheduled to continue yo-yoing back and forth across the Ross Sea polynya until the researchers retrieve it in early February.

Each of the glider's dives lasts about 120 minutes, during which sensors on its fiberglass hull measure water temperature, salinity, levels of dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll concentrations (the latter a measure of photosynthesis and phytoplankton abundance). At the end of each dive, the glider flips its tail into the air so that its antenna can send the collected data to researchers and receive guidance for its next dive. Data is transmitted via the Iridium satellite network.

The potential of gliders

Lacking a motor or propeller, gliders zigzag up and down through the water using a set of fins to translate changes in buoyancy into lateral motion. Their top speed is about one-half mile per hour. A small battery powers the buoyancy changes by forcing mineral oil in and out of an inflatable bladder. Moving the battery fore or aft within the hull shifts the center of gravity to control pitch, rotating it from side to side controls roll.

Smith says that gliders bring several potential benefits to ocean research. For one, because they're propelled by buoyancy changes rather than an energy-hungry motor, they can remain in the water for months at a time before needing a recharge (the current world record is a 4,500-mile transatlantic crossing that lasted 221 days, using the equivalent power of just 3 Christmas tree lights). Motor-driven underwater robots are limited to missions of a few days at most.

A glider's small size and simplicity (with only a few moving parts) also makes it relatively inexpensive to own and operate, especially compared to the costs of ship-based ocean research. Smith's glider—developed at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington and now sold commercially by iRobot, Inc. (maker of the Roomba© vacuum cleaning robot)—cost $150,000. A single ship-day, including costs for fuel and crew, can run up to $60,000.

Dr. Mark Patterson, head of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory at VIMS and developer of the Fetch autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), notes that gliders and other AUVs hold great promise for solving one of the oldest problems in oceanography: the fact that "the ocean changes faster than we have the ability to observe."

"Traditional ship-based studies can only provide snapshots of the constantly changing ocean ecosystem," says Patterson. He says "that's like trying to figure out what's going on in a TV series like 'Lost' by watching just one or two episodes per year." By sampling the ocean almost continually for months at a time, gliders allow researchers to better understand and model short-term physical changes and how they influence ocean biology.

Gliders in the Ross Sea

Previous studies by Smith and other polar researchers suggest that short-term physical variations—changes in sunlight, wind speed and direction, and current patterns—play a key role in controlling the magnitude, timing, and duration of phytoplankton blooms in the Ross Sea. These blooms sustain the Antarctic food web, from krill up to fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. But a comprehensive understanding of how these short-term changes impact the polar ecosystem has so far remained elusive. That's where gliders come in.

"Our glider will help detail the physical and biological oceanography of the southern Ross Sea by sampling the region continuously through the growing season," says Smith. "Given its ability to repeatedly sample specific areas, it holds great promise for resolving short-term and seasonal trends."

Mission & Modeling

During the team's upcoming retrieval mission, which sets sail on January 19, Smith and Liu will first spend several weeks comparing their shipboard measurements of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll to those recorded by the glider. That's to ensure that the glider's sensors are still accurately calibrated after more than two months in the water. The retrieval team will be aboard the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer.

Friedrichs will feed the glider's high-resolution data into computer models of physical and biological processes in the Ross Sea, with the long-term goal of making model predictions more accurate.

"Current models are difficult to evaluate using data that are appropriate on the same space and time scales," says Friedrichs. "Data collected by gliders over shorter time-scales are what we need to drive the next generation of circulation and ecosystem models. Improving the modeling and predictability of dynamic systems like the Ross Sea is our ultimate goal."

Provided by Virginia Institute of Marine Science

NOAA Offers ‘How Do We Explore’— A Free Online Ocean Exploration Course for Teachers and the Public

January 19, 2011 

 

NOAA scientists on the Okeanos Explorer examine live video feed from Little Hercules (Credit: NOAA).

A free online educational workshop for formal and informal educators, ocean explorers, scientists and other interested members of the public will be available from NOAA later this month. The course named “How Do We Explore?” is based on the voyages of NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, which most recently completed a joint expedition with an Indonesian vessel and scientists in Indonesian waters.

The workshop will be accessible seven days a week, 24 hours a day starting Jan. 24 through Feb. 11, thereby allowing participants to work on their own time and at their own pace. Topics will include: searching for ocean anomalies, selecting sites for exploration, communication tools, telepresence technology, ocean mapping techniques, water column study and operating underwater robots called remotely-operated vehicles, or ROVs.

Registration is open and information is available at: http://www.coexploration.org/oe-hdwe. Participants will engage with ocean explorers and others, and will receive a variety of downloadable supporting materials. For educators, the course contains inquiry-based lesson plans for all grade levels and the option to receive either one graduate extension credit ($100) from California State University at Fullerton or a certificate of completion.

“All life on Earth relies on the ocean and yet the ocean is 95 percent unexplored, unknown and unseen by human eyes,” said Paula Keener, director of education programs for NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. “To better understand, manage and protect the ocean and its resources, NOAA believes it is critical to use the best technology to explore, discover, inform, educate and motivate.”

Workshop presenters include:

• Steve Hammond, Ph.D., chief scientist, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
• Lieutenant Nicola VerPlanck, operations officer, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer
• Catalina Martinez, regional manager and expedition coordinator, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
• Mashkoor Malik, physical scientist, NOAA Okeanos ExplorerProgram, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research
• Sharon L. Walker, oceanographer, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
• Edward Baker, Ph.D., supervisory oceanographer, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
• Dave Lovalvo: founder/owner, Eastern Oceanics; adjunct professor, Institute for Exploration;
  ROV team lead,

The course is the latest in an online series presented by NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research in partnership with The College of Exploration to provide an online setting through which educators and others from around the world can meet, view keynote addresses given by ocean explorers and ask questions of keynote speakers.

 

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, America’s Ship for Ocean Exploration (Credit: NOAA).

Celebrating 10 years of ocean exploration, NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research uses state-of-the-art technologies to explore the Earth's largely unknown ocean in all its dimensions for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge. Follow NOAA’s ocean expeditions at: http://www.OceanExplorer.noaa.gov.

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is operated, managed and maintained by NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, which includes commissioned officers of the NOAA Corps and civilian wage mariners. NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research is responsible for operating the cutting-edge ocean exploration systems on the vessel. It is the only federal ship dedicated to systematic exploration of the planet’s largely unknown ocean. Davisville, R.I., is the ship's designated home port.
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. Find us online and on Facebook.

New findings on why Antarctic ice sheets melt

January 17, 2011 
 

Research from Victoria University has revealed new findings on why Antarctic ice sheets have melted in the past, as well as how future melting may affect sea levels.

Victoria researcher Dr. Andrew Mackintosh is the lead author of the research published today in the prestigious journal Nature Geoscience. Victoria researchers Dr. Nick Golledge and Dr. Dan Zwartz also contributed.

"Our research looked at how ice sheets behave, in particular the East Antarctic ice sheet. The retreat of this ice sheet at the end of the last glacial period has previously been attributed to both sea level rise and ocean warming," says Dr. Mackintosh.

"We found that although the initial stage of retreat may have been forced by sea level rise, the majority of the ice loss resulted from ocean warming. Increasing ocean warmth seems to be the main driver of ice sheet retreat.

"This means that we should be particularly concerned about the present-day warming of the oceans around the Antarctic periphery. Our findings suggest that a substantial contribution from melting ice sheets to global sea level rise in the near future is very likely.

"As a caveat though, we also show that the response of an ice sheet margin can vary significantly between locations, depending on the geometry of the land beneath the ice. This makes it challenging to predict the actual response of the ice sheet without detailed computer modelling."

Dr. Mackintosh says that researchers study past records of ice sheet behavior to help understand current change.

"It’s very difficult to tell what might happen with modern observations such as satellite imagery because they cover a very short period of time, so we look at past information, asking questions such as ‘What caused the retreat of ice sheets thousands of years ago?’.

In particular, we use computer models, which are tested against geological data, to help answer these questions."

Dr. Mackintosh leads a glacier modelling group in the Antarctic Research Center at Victoria University and he says that this paper represents the most significant publication of the group to date.

More information: Paper online: http://www.nature. … geo1061.html

Provided by Victoria University

Science bloggers gather to wrestle down myths about research and themselves

By Robin Lloyd | Jan 17, 2011 09:30 AM | 

DURHAM, North Carolina­­­­—TV pundit and Washington Post columnist George Will has a history of misrepresenting climate science—and it's bloggers who typically make sure the record is set straight on such points.

For instance, a 2009 Will editorial in the Washington Post asserting, among other things, that the extent of global sea ice today is the same as it was in 1979 drew particularly loud howls. The debate blew up quickly in the blogosphere, pressure was applied to the Post not to disseminate falsehoods, and the upshot was a counter-editorial in the Post by journalist and blogger Chris Mooney.

The role of bloggers as monitors of scientific and medical misinformation—be it erroneous claims about cancer drugs, vaccines, autism, evolution or climate change—was a theme here this weekend at the fifth annual Science Online conference. Some 300 scientists, bloggers and journalists attended—with lots of overlap among those jobs, which was the point and also a point of contention.

Be skeptical of skeptics, Reuters Health Executive Editor Ivan Oransky urged a standing-room-only crowd at what was called a "keepers of the bulls**t filter" session.

His tips apply to all consumers and producers of science, health and medical information: keep a biostatistician in your pocket (that is, call on experts to assess the stats you read in research reports); understand the limits of the review procedures used to decide what is published in a journal; avoid disease mongering, the expansion of disease definitions in order to promote unnecessary treatments.

Maia Szalavitz, who blogs for Time magazine on health issues, advised against buying into myths about addiction and the "drug scare of the week." National magazines have raised panic with cover stories about crack babies. It's obviously a bad idea to smoke crack when pregnant (or at all), but Szalavitz said that medical research suggests that doing so actually carries the same fetal risk as smoking cigarettes. Other addiction myths unsupported by medical research but sometimes promulgated in the media: addiction is always a lifelong chronic disease, and prescription drug addicts are the victims of over-prescribing doctors. Typically, Szalavitz said, the patient in the latter case has a history of crime or drug abuse.

Some bloggers at the conference grumbled and tweeted about being pressured to adopt journalistic standards for their writing and reporting. However, as more science and health blogs are digested by mainstream media or other "blog network" sites—like those run by Wired Science, Nature Network, Scientopia and Discover—bloggers are expected or feel that they are expected by their media overlords to keep the lines clear as to who is paying for their work and any industry or corporate sponsorships or support.

The imposition of journalistic standards can be a tough pill to swallow for bloggers, not because they dislike facts or ethics, but because they are traditionally independent, said science blogger Ed Yong.

"You assume the mantle of responsibility when you join a network, especially one associated with an established media brand," Yong said. "It's not as simple as 'I am a blogger and have extremely independent things to do.'"

The role of blogs in science and medical research and communications is quite positive overall, but remains blurry. As Ars Technica science editor John Timmer said, "George Will got most of his disinformation off blogs in the first place."

Dramatic Ocean Circulation Changes Caused a Colder Europe in the Past

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2011) — The unusually cold weather this winter has been caused by a change in the winds. Instead of the typical westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents, cold northerly Arctic winds are influencing much of Europe.

 

However, scientists have long suspected that far more severe and longer-lasting cold intervals have been caused by changes to the circulation of the warm Atlantic ocean currents themselves.

Now new research led by Cardiff University, with scientists in the UK and US, reveals that these ocean circulation changes may have been more dramatic than previously thought.

The findings, published January 14, 2011 in the journal Science, show that as the last Ice Age came to an end (10,000 -- 20,000 years ago) the formation of deep water in the North-East Atlantic repeatedly switched on and off. This caused the climate to warm and cool for centuries at a time.

The circulation of the world's ocean helps to regulate the global climate. One way it does this is through the transport of heat carried by vast ocean currents, which together form the 'Great ocean conveyor'. Key to this conveyor is the sinking of water in the North-East Atlantic, a process that causes warm tropical waters to flow northwards in order to replace the sinking water. Europe is kept warmer by this circulation, so that a strong reduction in the rate at which deep water forms can cause widespread cooling of up to 10 degrees Celsius.

Lead author Dr David Thornalley, Cardiff School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, explains how the scientists studied changes in ocean circulation: "We retrieved ocean sediment cores from the seafloor of the Northeast Atlantic which contained the shells of small organisms. We used these shells to examine the past distribution of radiocarbon in the ocean. Radiocarbon is a radioactive form of carbon that acts like a natural stopwatch, timing how long it has been since water was last at the sea surface. This allows us to determine how quickly deep water was forming in the Northeast Atlantic at different times in the past."

The team of scientists found that each time deep water formation switched off, the Northeast Atlantic did not fill with water that sank locally. Instead it became inundated with water that had originally formed near Antarctica and then spread rapidly northwards. The new results suggest that the Atlantic ocean is capable of radical changes in how it circulates on timescales as short as a few decades.

Dr Thornalley said: "These insights highlight just how dynamic and sensitive ocean circulation can be. Whilst the circulation of the modern ocean is probably much more stable than it was at the end of the last Ice Age, and therefore much less likely to undergo such dramatic changes, it is important that we keep developing our understanding of the climate system and how it responds when given a push."

The research is funded through the Natural Environment Research Council's Rapid Climate Change programme and the National Science Foundation (USA). The Science paper The Deglacial Evolution of North Atlantic Deep

Climate change and the Antarctic: Ocean acidification

Ocean acidification is a consequence of rising global carbon dioxide levels that is predicted to have serious consequences for cold-water ecosystems, including cold-water corals. Rising CO2 levels upset the balance of carbonate ions in seawater, making it difficult for some organisms, which have shells composed of the mineral calcium carbonate, to form their shells. Many of the organisms that are affected, and are predicted to be affected, are critical for ecosystem health. The Southern Ocean will be impacted early by acidification due to its unique chemistry.

Background

The process of ocean acidification involves several steps. CO2 in the air above the sea surface constantly dissolves in seawater and forms carbonic acid. Carbonic acid can break up into hydrogen ions and bicarbonate ions. The hydrogen ions react with carbonate ions and create more bicarbonate ions, while concentrations of carbonate ions decreases. Decreased carbonate ion concentration means that less carbonate is available for the formation of calcium carbonate, a mineral that forms the shells of many organisms. The decreased concentration also can result in existing shells dissolving. Under normal circumstances the amount of carbon dioxide dissolving in seawater occurs at a level that is not detrimental to shell-forming organisms. However, as CO2 increases, the balance is tipped towards decreased carbonate availability and mineral dissolution. The increased concentration of hydrogen ions under the process described above tends to drive down ocean pH, making the water more acidic – hence the term ocean acidification.


Impact on the Southern Ocean

Colder water is naturally lower in calcium carbonate concentration. Furthermore, scientists believe that ocean acidification will affect the Southern Ocean food webs first because the Southern Ocean is closer to undersaturation levels with respect to calcium carbonate than other oceans. Numerous experiments have reported that calcium carbonate-dependent organisms (also called calcifying organisms or calcifiers) experience significant problems when exposed to lower pH environments. Current atmospheric CO2 concentrations have resulted in a drop of about 0.1 pH units (a 30% increase in acidity), and if current trends continue, ocean pH could drop by an average of 0.5 units to about 7.8 around the year 2100 under the IS92a “business as usual” emissions scenario. The latter represents an ocean that is 320% more acidic than it was in pre-industrial times. Despite that change, the ocean will still be in a slightly alkaline state, the boundary between acid and alkali lying at a pH of 7. Calcifying organisms play critical roles in marine ecosystems, such as the Southern Ocean, and declining populations will have serious consequences for the food web.

The impact on cold-water corals could also be severe. Cold-water corals are particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification, since cold water makes it more difficult for corals to survive. Corals, like calcifying organisms, rely on calcium carbonate to form their skeletons. These cold-water corals found in the Southern Ocean are believed to be several hundred years old and provide valuable information on the history of the ocean and past climate.

ASOC believes it is critical that global leaders act now to minimize sources of carbon dioxide emissions to mitigate the impact of climate change and ocean acidification on the world’s oceans. Scientists are still learning about Southern Ocean ecosystems and species – who knows what we could lose if we upset ocean chemistry.

Read more about ocean acidification in our recent paper.

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, Web site.

NASA Satellites Capture a Stronger La Nina

New NASA satellite data indicate the current La Niña event in the eastern Pacific has remained strong during November and December 2010.

A new Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite image of the Pacific Ocean that averaged 10 days of data was just released from NASA. The image, centered on Dec. 26, 2010, was created at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

"The solid record of La Niña strength only goes back about 50 years and this latest event appears to be one of the strongest ones over this time period," said Climatologist Bill Patzert of JPL. "It is already impacting weather and climate all around the planet." 

 

The La Niña is evident by the large pool cooler than normal (blue and purple) water stretching from the eastern to the central Pacific Ocean, reflecting lower than normal sea surface heights. "This La Niña has strengthened for the past seven months, and is one of the most intense events of the past half century," said Climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA JPL. Credit: NASA JPL/Bill Patzert



This Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite image of the Pacific Ocean is based on the average of 10 days of data centered on Dec. 26, 2010. The new image depicts places where the Pacific sea surface height is higher (warmer) than normal as yellow and red, with places where the sea surface height is lower (cooler) than normal as blue and purple. Green indicates near-normal conditions. Sea surface height is an indicator of how much of the sun's heat is stored in the upper ocean. Credit: NASA JPL/Bill Patzert


"Although exacerbated by precipitation from a tropical cyclone, rainfalls of historic proportion in eastern Queensland, Australia have led to levels of flooding usually only seen once in a century," said David Adamec, Oceanographer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The copious rainfall is a direct result of La Niña’s effect on the Pacific trade winds and has made tropical Australia particularly rainy this year."

The new image depicts places where the Pacific sea surface height is near-normal, higher (warmer) than normal and lower (cooler) than normal. The cooler-than normal pool of water that stretches from the eastern to the central Pacific Ocean is a hallmark of a La Niña event.

Earth's ocean is the greatest influence on global climate. Only from space can we observe our vast ocean on a global scale and monitor critical changes in ocean currents and heat storage. Continuous data from satellites like OSTM/Jason-2 help us understand and foresee the effects of ocean changes on our climate and on climate events such as La Niña and El Niño.

The latest report from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) noted that "A moderate-to-strong La Niña continued during December 2010 as reflected by well below-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean." The CPC report said that La Niña is expected to continue well into the Northern Hemisphere spring 2011.

Unchanging Wind

by Hadel Samir Ma’ayeh

The wind hurls among the Olive trees
unchanging its path through the brittle leaves.
Murky waters unsettled by the sands
and red lobsters do their usual dance.
The lonely wind makes a wave
as it passes the hallowed cave.
Untouched by time and
no sound or chime.
The reddish sun hides in the distance
like the unchanging wind without resistance.

Global Warming Causes and Effects

By Derek Markham

One of the biggest issues facing us right now is global warming. Its effects on animals and on agriculture are indeed frightening, and the effects on the human population are even scarier. The facts about global warming are often debated, but unfortunately, even if we disagree about the causes, global warming effects are real, global, and measurable. The causes are mainly from us, the human race, and the effects on us will be severe.

Global Warming Effects and Causes: A Top 10 List

 

1. Global Warming Cause: Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants
Our ever increasing addiction to electricity from coal burning power plants releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 40% of U.S. CO2 emissions come from electricity production, and burning coal accounts for 93% of emissions from the electric utility industry [EPA, pg. 10]. Every day, more electric gadgets flood the market, and without widespread alternative energy sources, we are highly dependent on burning coal for our personal and commercial electrical supply.



2. Global Warming Cause: Carbon dioxide emissions from burning gasoline for transportation
Our modern car culture and appetite for globally sourced goods is responsible for about 33% of emissions in the U.S. [EPA pg. 8] With our population growing at an alarming rate, the demand for more cars and consumer goods means that we are increasing the use of fossil fuels for transportation and manufacturing. Our consumption is outpacing our discoveries of ways to mitigate the effects, with no end in sight to our massive consumer culture.



3. Global Warming Cause: Methane emissions from animals, agriculture such as rice paddies, and from Arctic seabeds

Methane is another extremely potent greenhouse gas, ranking right behind CO2. When organic matter is broken down by bacteria under oxygen-starved conditions (anaerobic decomposition) as in rice paddies, methane is produced. The process also takes place in the intestines of herbivorous animals, and with the increase in the amount of concentrated livestock production, the levels of methane released into the atmosphere is increasing. Another source of methane is methane clathrate, a compound containing large amounts of methane trapped in the crystal structure of ice. As methane escapes from the Arctic seabed, the rate of global warming will increase significantly.



4. Global Warming Cause: Deforestation, especially tropical forests for wood, pulp, and farmland
The use of forests for fuel (both wood and for charcoal) is one cause of deforestation, but in the first world, our appetite for wood and paper products, our consumption of livestock grazed on former forest land, and the use of tropical forest lands for commodities like palm oil plantations contributes to the mass deforestation of our world. Forests remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and this deforestation releases large amounts of carbon, as well as reducing the amount of carbon capture on the planet.



5. Global Warming Cause: Increase in usage of chemical fertilizers on croplands

In the last half of the 20th century, the use of chemical fertilizers (as opposed to the historical use of animal manure) has risen dramatically. The high rate of application of nitrogen-rich fertilizers has effects on the heat storage of cropland (nitrogen oxides have 300 times more heat-trapping capacity per unit of volume than carbon dioxide) and the run-off of excess fertilizers creates ‘dead-zones’ in our oceans. In addition to these effects, high nitrate levels in groundwater due to over-fertilization are cause for concern for human health.



6. Global Warming Effect: Rise in sea levels worldwide 

Scientists predict an increase in sea levels worldwide due to the melting of two massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, especially on the East coast of the U.S. However, many nations around the world will experience the effects of rising sea levels, which could displace millions of people. One nation, the Maldives, is already looking for a new home, thanks to rising sea levels.




7. Global Warming Effect: More killer storms

The severity of storms such as hurricanes and cyclones is increasing, and research published in Nature found:

“Scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide. The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to research published in Nature this week. And the upward trend, thought to be driven by rising ocean temperatures, is unlikely to stop at any time soon.”

8. Global Warming Effect: Massive crop failures

According to recent research, there is a 90% chance that 3 billion people worldwide will have to choose between moving their families to milder climes and going hungry due to climate change within 100 years.

“Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies. “Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts.”" – Guardian: Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year

9. Global Warming Effect: Widespread extinction of species

According to research published in Nature, by 2050, rising temperatures could lead to the extinction of more than a million species. And because we can’t exist without a diverse population of species on Earth, this is scary news for humans.

“Climate change now represents at least as great a threat to the number of species surviving on Earth as habitat-destruction and modification.” Chris Thomas, conservation biologist at the University of Leeds

10. Global Warming Effect: Disappearance of coral reefs

A report on coral reefs from WWF says that in a worst case scenario, coral populations will collapse by 2100 due to increased temperatures and ocean acidification. The ‘bleaching’ of corals from small but prolonged rises in sea temperature is a severe danger for ocean ecosystems, and many other species in the oceans rely on coral reefs for their survival.

“Despite the oceans’s immensity — 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface with an average depth of almost 4km (2½m) — there are indications that it is approaching its tipping point. For reefs, warming waters and acidification are closing in like a pair of jaws that threaten to make them the first global ecosystem to disappear.” – Times Online: 21st-century Noah’s Ark needed to save coral reefs from extinction

New scheme launched for 'bleached and dying' coral life

 

By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News

 

Conservationists led by scientists from the Zoological Society of London have launched a new drive to save some of the world's most endangered corals. 

The new EDGE Coral Reefs programme lists the most endangered corals and has enlisted scientists around the world to educate local communities on their importance.

The most dire predictions suggest that tropical coral reefs will be all but extinct within the next half a century, with rising sea temperatures posing the greatest threat.

Coral bleaching

Coral reefs are not just beautiful explosions of colour and sea life - they protect coastal communities from storms and the fish and shrimp they sustain feed people the world over.

But the reefs are in immediate danger from a host of sources.

Top of the list is the threat from rising sea temperatures, which results in "coral bleaching". This involves the loss of algae cells called zooxanthellae, which renders the coral unable to photosynthesise.

While the coral can survive temporary spikes in ocean temperature and the resulting bleaching, longer-term temperature rises kill the marine organisms.

Other threats include ocean acidification, as the seas absorb increased levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

 

Rising sea temperatures result in "bleached" coral which prevents the organism from photosynthesising.
 

"Corals are hugely threatened by climate change, by things like rising sea temperature which leads to coral bleaching, ocean acidification, increased storm intensity and frequency and then there's also the local pressures which affect the reef," says Catherine Head, who is co-ordinating the EDGE Coral Reefs project from London.

"Things like overfishing, pollution, sedimentation, coastal development. All those things exacerbate the effects of climate change."

Addressing such local pressures, she says, can buy the reefs some time until governments move to address rising atmospheric and air temperatures.
   
Local interests

As part of the new project, a list of the most endangered corals has been compiled, including a "top 10" of threatened coral species.

Unlike the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the EDGE list, say its creators, ranks species in both in terms of the threat they face of extinction and in terms of their evolutionary uniqueness.

Such species, they argue, could play a key role in the adaptation of coral populations to climate change.
The project has also enlisted scientists around the globe to research threatened species and to educate local communities on their importance.

According to Rachel Jones, Senior Aquarium Keeper at the Zoological Society of London (London Zoo), the challenge is to convince those who live close to reefs that protecting them is in their interests.

"Tropical reefs are found in places where often population pressures are really really high and where people are poor they rely on the reef for their food.

"So we need to create an environment where it's worth more to the people who live on reefs to keep the reef alive than it is to dynamite fish it or to trawl it for shrimp or whatever."

Most Endangered

• Elegance coral or Catalaphyllia jardinae has large tubular tentacles which are green with pink tips and a 'zebra' striped oral disk
• Crisp pillow coral or Anomastraea irregularis has an overall blue-grey or cream colour and its individual polyps are small, numerous and a shade of brown
• Horastrea coral or Horastrea indica is a hemispherical, colonial species and is pale-brown in colour with blue-grey oral discs
• Pillar coral or Dendrogyra cylindrus grows in tall cylindrical columns of heights up to 2m giving it a distinctive pillar-like appearance
• Elliptical star coral or Dichocoenia stokesii is spherical in shape with irregularly shaped corallites
• Mushroom coral or Heliofungia actiniformis has a flat shape with large, lobed teeth
• Elkhorn coral or Acropora palmata forms branching 'antler' type colonies which are yellowy-tan in colour with white tips to the branches
• Parasimplastrea coral or Parasimplastrea sheppardi is a small, encrusting coral which is colourful in appearance
• Pearl bubble coral or Physogyra lichtensteini is a colonial species that can form 'massive' colonies with a bubble-like appearance
• Ctenella coral or Ctenella chagius is a brain coral that is endemic to the Chagos Archipelago

Source: ZSL

 Corals Reefs see Second Worst Year Ever in 2010

by Zachary Shahan

 

"Forecast stress on coral due to warm ocean temperatures for Australia, Jan - Apr 2011. The northern 2/3 of the Great Barrier Reef are under the highest alert level for coral bleaching. Waters are cooler along the southern portion of the reef, due, in part, to the storms that have brought record flooding to portions of Queensland, Australia."

We’ve covered coral bleaching, the devastation of coral reefs and their relationship to global warming here on Planetsave numerous times over the past few years. For clear reasons: this is a true global environmental catastrophe with numerous harmful ramifications. Dr Jeff Masters of WunderBlog delves into the harsh coral reef collapse of 2010 and future projections in a recent post. Here’s the intro:

Record warm ocean temperatures across much of Earth’s tropical oceans during the summer of 2010 created the second worst year globally for coral-killing bleaching episodes. The warm waters, fueled in part by the El Niño phenomena, caused the most coral bleaching since 1998, when 16 percent of the world’s reefs were killed off. “Clearly, we are on track for this to be the second worst (bleaching) on record,” NOAA coral expert Mark Eakin in an interview last month. “All we’re waiting on now is the body count.” The summer 2010 bleaching episodes were worst in Southeast Asia, where El Niño warming of the tropical ocean waters during the first half of the year was significant. In Indonesia’s Aceh province, 80% of the bleached corals died, and Malaysia closed several popular dive sites after nearly all the coral were damaged by bleaching. However, in the Caribbean’s Virgin Islands, coral bleaching was not as severe as experienced in 2005, according to National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Miller. I’ll discuss the reasons for this in a future blog post. In other portions of the Caribbean, such as Venezuela and Panama, coral bleaching was worse than that experienced in 2005.

"Departure of sea surface temperature in the Australian region over the past one hundred years, year-by-year (red line), and decade-by-decade (grey bars.) The 2010 value is preliminary and does not include data for December 2010. If ocean temperatures and ocean acidity continue to rise in Australian waters at the same pace as has occurred over the past 100 years, the Great Barrier Reef will be in significant danger by 2050."

And here’s the future outlook portion of the piece:

Long term outlook for world’s coral reefs: grim
The large amount of carbon dioxide humans have put into the air in recent decades has done more than just raise Earth’s global temperature–it has also increased the acidity of the oceans, since carbon dioxide dissolves in sea water to form carbonic acid. Corals have trouble growing in acidic sea water, and the combined effects of increasing ocean temperatures, increasing acidity, pollution, and overfishing have reduced coral reefs globally by 19 percent since 1950. Another 35 percent could disappear in the next 40 years, even without the impact of climate change, according to a report released in October 2010 by the World Meteorological Organization and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Coral loss has been the most severe in Earth’s hottest ocean, the Indian Ocean. Up to 90% of coral cover has been lost in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Tanzania and in the Seychelles. Global warming has heated up most of the tropical ocean surface waters by about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the past 50 years, and the remarkable bleaching episodes of 1998 and 2010 both occurred when strong (natural) El Niño episodes heated up Pacific tropical waters to record levels. If the Earth continues to heat up this century as expected, coral bleaching episodes will grow more frequent and intense, particularly during strong El Niño episodes. The twin stresses of ocean acidification and increasing ocean temperatures will probably mean that by 2050, it will be difficult for any coral reefs to recover when subject to additional stresses posed by pollution or major storms, according to a talk presented by Stanford climate scientist Ken Caldeira at last month’s American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting.

Read more here: Globe’s coral reefs take second worst beating on record during 2010

Why Sleep Is Good for You

See-through fish are helping neuroscientists settle a scientific debate about whether slumber improves the brain's performance

By Carrie Arnold 

X

World energy demand will increase by around a third by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency. Which area of the energy industry will create most new jobs by 2035? (Click all that apply)

		Wind energy
		Biofuels development
		Solar power
		Capturing carbon and storing it underground
		Boosting the production of oil from existing reservoirs
		Nuclear power technology
		Other (please use the comment box to let us know what you think)

 

Zebrafish synapses Image: Courtesy of Gordon Wang and Philippe Mourrain Stanford University

 

The benefits of sleep seem obvious. And yet scientists have long debated precisely how it improves brain performance at the cellular level. One camp argues that sleep reduces the unimportant connections between neurons, preventing brain overload. Another camp maintains that sleep consolidates memories from the previous day.

A group of researchers recently tried to settle this debate by studying the larvae of a common see-through aquarium pet, the zebrafish. Like humans, zebrafish are active during the day and sleep at night. Unlike humans, zebrafish larvae are transparent, which allowed researchers to watch their brains as they slept. The researchers, led by Lior Appelbaum and Philippe Mourrain of Stanford University, tagged the larvae neurons with a dye so that active neuron connections, or synapses, appeared green, whereas inactive ones appeared black. Decreased synaptic activity would show that sleep pruned unnecessary memory connections, whereas memory consolidation would have a different pattern. After following the fluctuations of these synapses over the course of a day, the team found that the zebrafish did indeed have lower overall synapse activity during sleep. The researchers published their results in the journal Neuron, becoming the first to show the effects of sleep/wake cycles and time of day on the synapses of a living vertebrate. “Sleep is an active process that reduces the activity in the brain,” Mourrain says. “It allows the brain to recover from past experiences.” Without the synapse reduction that happens during sleep, he notes, the brain would not have the ability to continually take in and store new information.

But the debate is not yet settled. Among the team’s other findings was that not all neural circuits are affected by sleep in the same way. Learning and memory may benefit the most, Mourrain says. For this reason, the two hypotheses about sleep “may not be mutually exclusive,” says neuroscientist Jan Born of the University of Lübeck in Germany.  A resolution may not be far off; Mourrain and Applebaum’s new imaging technique will allow for more detailed study of the brain during sleep in years to come.

Climate change to continue to the year 3000 in best case scenarios

By Jennifer Myers
 
Dr. Shawn Marshall co-authored a study that is the first full climate model simulation to make predictions out to 1,000 years from now.

New research indicates the impact of rising CO² levels in the Earth’s atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1,000 years, causing researchers to estimate a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by the year 3000 and an eventual rise in the global sea level of at least four metres.

The study, published in the Jan. 9 Advanced Online Publication of the journal Nature Geoscience, is the first full climate model simulation to make predictions out to 1,000 years from now. It is based on best-case, ‘zero-emissions’ scenarios constructed by a team of researchers from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (an Environment Canada research lab at the University of Victoria) and the University of Calgary.

“We created ‘what if’ scenarios,” says Dr. Shawn Marshall, co-author of the paper, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change and University of Calgary geography professor. “What if we completely stopped using fossil fuels and put no more CO2 in the atmosphere? How long would it then take to reverse current climate change trends and will things first become worse?” The research team explored zero-emissions scenarios beginning in 2010 and in 2100.

The Northern Hemisphere fares better than the south in the computer simulations, with patterns of climate change reversing within the 1,000-year timeframe in places, such as Canada. At the same time, parts of North Africa experience desertification as land dries out by up to 30 percent and ocean warming of up to 5oC off of Antarctica is likely to trigger widespread collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, a region the size of the Canadian prairies.

Researchers hypothesize that one reason for the variability between the North and South is the slow movement of ocean water from the North Atlantic into the South Atlantic. “The global ocean and parts of the Southern Hemisphere have much more inertia, such that change occurs more slowly,” says Marshall. “The inertia in intermediate and deep ocean currents driving into the Southern Atlantic means those oceans are only now beginning to warm as a result of CO2 emissions from the last century. The simulation showed that warming will continue rather than stop or reverse on the 1,000-year time scale.”

Wind currents in the Southern Hemisphere may also have an impact. Marshall says that winds in the global south tend to strengthen and stay strong without reversing. “This increases the mixing in the ocean, bringing more heat from the atmosphere down and warming the ocean.”

Researchers will next begin to investigate more deeply the impact of atmosphere temperature on ocean temperature to help determine the rate at which West Antarctica could destabilize and how long it may take to fully collapse into the water.

The paper “Ongoing climate change following a complete cessation of carbon dioxide emissions” by Nathan P. Gillett, Vivek K. Arora, Kirsten Zickfeld, Shawn J. Marshall and William J. Merryfield is available online at http://www.nature.com/ngeo/index.html

Epic Journeys of Turtles Revealed Via Satellite Tracking

 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2011) — The epic ocean-spanning journeys of the gigantic leatherback turtle in the South Atlantic have been revealed for the first time thanks to groundbreaking research using satellite tracking.

 

Top: This is a leatherback turtle on a beach in the South Atlantic. Bottom: This map shows three migration routes monitored during the research. Each one illustrates one of the three main migration strategies identified by the research. (Credit: Matthew Witt)

Experts at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter led a five-year study to find out more about these increasingly rare creatures and inform conservation efforts.

The research, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, has shed new light on the little-known migration behaviour of these animals -- following their movement from the world's largest breeding colony in Gabon, Central Africa, as they returned to feeding grounds across the South Atlantic.

The research has been carried out with the help of Parcs Gabon, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), PTMG (Marine Turtle Partnership for Gabon), the Trans-Atlantic Leatherback Conservation Initiative (TALCIN) -- a multi-partner effort coordinated by WWF, and SEATURTLE.org

Out of 25 females studied in the new research, three migratory routes were identified -- including one 7,563km (4,699 mile) journey straight across the South Atlantic from Africa to South America.

Other routes still involved large distances, as they moved from Gabon to food-rich habitats in the southwest and southeast Atlantic and off the coast of Central Africa. They will stay in these areas for 2-5 years to build up the reserves to reproduce, when they will return to Gabon once again.

Dr Matthew Witt said: "Despite extensive research carried out on leatherbacks, no-one has really been sure about the journeys they take in the South Atlantic until now. What we've shown is that there are three clear migration routes as they head back to feeding grounds after breeding in Gabon, although the numbers adopting each strategy varied each year. We don't know what influences that choice yet, but we do know these are truly remarkable journeys -- with one female tracked for thousands of miles travelling in a straight line right across the Atlantic."

In the Pacific ocean, leatherback turtles have seen a precipitous decline over the past three decades -- with one nesting colony in Mexico declining from 70,000 in 1982 to just 250 by 1998-9*. The exact cause of the dramatic fall-off in numbers is not clear, but turtle egg harvesting, coastal gillnet fishing, and longline fishing have been identified as potential factors.

In the Atlantic, population levels have been more robust but, due to variations in numbers at nesting sites each year, it's not clear whether they are in decline. Conservationists are keen to take action now to avoid a repeat of the Pacific story.

Dr Brendan Godley said the new research would be vital for informing this conservation strategy: "All of the routes we've identified take the leatherbacks through areas of high risk from fisheries, so there's a very real danger to the Atlantic population. Knowing the routes has also helped us identify at least 11 nations who should be involved in conservation efforts, as well as those with long-distance fishing fleets. There's a concern that the turtles we tracked spent a long time on the High Seas, where it's very difficult to implement and manage conservation efforts, but hopefully this research will help inform future efforts to safeguard these fantastic creatures."

Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program, said: "This important work shows that protecting leatherback turtles -- the ancient mariners of our oceans -- requires research and conservation on important nesting beaches, foraging areas and important areas of the high seas. Armed with a better understanding of migration patterns and preferences for particular areas of the ocean, the conservation community can now work toward protecting leatherbacks at sea, which has been previously difficult."

The research was carried out with the financial support of a range of donors, including the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, UK), the Darwin Initiative, the Large Pelagics Research Center (LPRC, USA) Competitive Grants Program, and the European Association of Zoos & Aquaria (EAZA) Shellshock Campaign.

---

Journal Reference:

1. M. J. Witt, E. Augowet Bonguno, A. C. Broderick, M. S. Coyne, A. Formia, A. Gibudi, G. A. Mounguengui Mounguengui, C. Moussounda, M. NSafou, S. Nougessono, R. J. Parnell, G.-P. Sounguet, S. Verhage, B. J. Godley. Tracking leatherback turtles from the world's largest rookery: assessing threats across the South Atlantic. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2011; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2467