Marine Science
sheril | March 14, 2008
Check it out at Carnival of the Blue 10 now live up at Kate Wing's place with a contribution from The Intersection in the mix...
sheril | March 3, 2008A recent article in Science featured the research of Benjamin Halpern and colleagues at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. By mapping 17 kinds of human ocean impacts, they begin to visually tell the story of what we're doing to that other 71% of the earth's surface. My post at Correlations is now up for more details...
Click on the map below for an interactive look at what we've done.
sheril | February 28, 2008This morning I'm off to Cap City for an Ocean Leadership Public Policy Forum on the Hill. Senator Landrieu is set to deliver the keynote address and speakers include Vice Admiral Lautenbacher (Administrator of NOAA), and Rita Colwell (former Director of the National Science Foundation).
While it's a little early in season for the cherry blossoms, I'm looking forward to catching up with old friends across agencies and around town. There's also a certain rumor about oceans and the current administration that I hope to validate so stay tuned...
Regardless of what I learn, I'm glad members…
sheril | February 6, 2008"The ocean holds a special place in all of our souls. A place where life came about, evolved and was cradled. A historical refuge from extinction. A place where bountiful resources nurtured early civilizations. A superhighway and living market for modern civilizations. Yet a place where we can rest our weary bodies, contemplate and find inspiration."
Carnival of the Blue 9 is now up at The Other 95% where host Kevin Z reminds us to 'Live like you love the ocean.' Of course, I already do...
sheril | January 28, 2008Craig McClain--scibling, intrepid deep sea explorer, and all around cool guy over at Deep Sea News has provided a great reminder of how vast oceans are...
Randomly place a point on our planet and it would be deep sea. In our daily activities so far removed from this environment, we begin to think all the earth is like our tiny, little corner. We begin to think this is all there is.
By volume, land makes up only 0.5% of the earth and the shallow seas 21%. The deep is 78.5%. That thin, little red strip at 0.5% represents the part we've explored. Every day will yield something new as we…
sheril | January 24, 2008It should be no surprise to readers that I'm a huge fan of marine scientist, scibling, and friend Jennifer Jacquet. In many ways, I consider her my scienceblogging counterpart on the west coast. Last Saturday, we shared the Framing Science panel with Chris and even managed to have some fun in Durham over the weekend too.
So naturally I read Shifting Baselines and couldn't help but notice her post yesterday on the the slimy hagfishery off the coast of Maine. You see, the last talk I gave during graduate school was at an emerging fisheries meetup in Halifax, Nova Scotia where there were lots…
sheril | January 14, 2008Dive into Carnival of the Blue 8 live at I'm a chordata, urochordata:
'For the inaugural edition of 2008 we've got a number of great articles for your consumption on food, sex, death, and more!'
sheril | December 21, 2007
We already know everyone's favorite echinoderm is a far-eastern delicacy, has purported aphrodisiac qualities, and is a real life shape shifter even J. K. Rowling couldn't dream up... but according to an international team of scientists, the under appreciated sea cucumber may just be a veritable miracle worker to boot!
Not only are these critters up to regenerating our organs and bringing eyesight to the blind, now they're potentially stopping the spread of malaria which might one day save millions of lives.
It's like the second coming... errr, for holothurians.
From PLoS Pathogens:
Malaria…
sheril | December 5, 2007
Over at Natural Patriot, you'll find Carnival of the Blue 7 - the best in oceans blogging for the month of November. I contributed my post on Cyclone Sidr's approach to the coast of Bangladesh - a region extremely vulnerable to rising sea level and storms.
As host Emmett Duffy describes:
'Our salty selections this month span the gamut from, well perhaps not all the way from the sublime to the ridiculous, but they cover a lot of ground nevertheless.'
It's an interesting mix, so dive in...
sheril | November 26, 2007Earlier this month, 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel poured into San Francisco Bay when the cargo ship Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge. What I want to know is--since the actual amount of oil released in the Bay was relatively small compared to scenarios like Exxon Valdez, why are we witnessing a major environmental disaster?
You see, the real tragedy was twofold... yes, the spill was preventable, but equally troubling, the containment and response efforts were inadequate.
As explained in The San Francisco Chronicle:
The spill could have serious long-term consequences for fish, birds and…
sheril | November 6, 2007You may have been hearing all the hullabaloo over 'ocean acidification.' Sure sounds frightening [visions of a melting Wicked Witch of the West], but no CAP, the oceans are not turning to acid. Still, it is a very scary possibility nonetheless... So what's really going on just beneath the surface?
Ocean acidification means that the pH of oceans is becoming less basic because of us. Really. Now I know what you're thinking and sure... oceans are pretty big. But the truth is, yes, our actions do indeed have a real impact in the marine realm.
My post is now up over at Correlations explaining…
sheril | November 5, 2007They did.
When a person's cornea - the transparent surface layer at the front of the eye - becomes damaged, it can be replaced using tissue from an organ donor. But there is a big shortage of corneal donors, as there are for every other type of organ.
An ideal solution would be to develop an artificial cornea, but is has proved very hard to design and manufacture a structure so that it is optically clear in the middle and biocompatible at the edges.
Now Garret Matthews, a biophysicist at the University of South Florida in Tampa, US, and his colleagues have come up with a design for artificial…
sheril | November 5, 2007
Over at Cephalopodcast, check out Carnival of the Blue VI. It's a synthesis of the best ocean-related blogging and, as Jason explains, does represent the other 70% of our planet! You'll find a couple of my posts from October and recognize some other familiar sciblings who have made interesting contributions as well.
sheril | October 22, 2007As someone who's spent a heck of a lot of time studying sea cucumbers, I'm the first to know when these critters make the news. It's not because I follow the literature, but rather that everyone who does feels the desire to forward me related articles. Despite that this is an extremely charismatic animal, I'm not sure I'm completely comfortable with the association. I've definitely waded into many other (arguably as interesting) areas since my early days with echinoderms. Still, I'm beginning to recognize the reputation will follow me regardless.
Well, every species needs a hero and I'…
sheril | October 17, 2007
Never underestimate the impact of the little guys... at least when it comes to fishing practices and North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles. Today in PLoS one, Ocean Conservancy Scientist Wallace J. Nichols and University of California (UC)-Santa Cruz researcher Hoyt Peckham report that small-scale operations are a greater threat to the survival of loggerheads than large industrial practices. This finding comes after 10 years of research and what makes it interesting is the result is not quite what we'd expect...
The New York Times recently explained: "For an oceanic species such as the…
sheril | October 16, 2007
We've been hearing lots in the news about Aquarius - America's Innerspace Station, so I call this photo 'Friends in Low Places. It comes courtesy of my pals at the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. (You may remember these are the very same folks that hosted Capitol Hill Oceans Week in June).
Check out my post at Correlations for details on Aquarius and more cool photos from NMSF and you'll understand why this research is yet another reason I love marine biology. For who knows what we'll discover as we continue to explore life under the sea...