Constantine Alexander's blog

Our Sea, Our Life!

I am always star struck when I look at nature. Perhaps this is because we are all made from stardust forged in the heart of a star and infused with a whisper of celestial wisdom.

Like so many others, I have come to realize that our lives are completely dependent on nature that provides us with clean water, fruits, vegetables, grains, fuel, fresh air, seasonal climates, coastal protection, recreation and scenic landscapes around the world that will take your breath away. It is no wonder then that nature has been immortalized for centuries by poets, musicians, artists and explorers who have appreciated that which has too often been overlooked by others.

In spite of the extent to which we have unwittingly disturbed so many terrestrial and marine ecosystems in our quest for what is often termed as progress, nature in its infinite wisdom has so far been resilient against our unnatural and often toxic incursions, adaptable, forgiving and regenerative except in some localized areas which are experiencing an unnatural species extinction rate. This degradation signals to us that nature’s strength alone cannot endure the unnatural incursions that are increasingly reaching areas of the world previously thought to be impenetrable by man such as 1,500 meter depths at which fishermen can now trawl for orange roughy and areas beneath the blue-white Antarctic ice from which tons of krill on which whales feed are now being harvested for sport fishing bait, aquarium feeds and aquaculture.

After hearing from people all over the world who share a passion and concern for the preservation of life’s necessities as well as gifts from nature, this blog was launched to share with you international wildlife news, exciting environmental research activities, political action or inaction, and what each of us can do to ensure that the wisdom of nature endures for the benefit of us all as we are mere caretakers of nature for future generations of all species which have a right to thrive in and contribute to a healthy and beautiful world.

Constantine Alexander (a.k.a. Konstantinos A. Mentzelopoulos)

Biographical note: Constantine Alexander's professional experience includes having served as a Merrill Lynch Financial Consultant and Managing Director for H. J. Meyers investment banks in California; a consultant to the Commission of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium; a professional consultant to members of the French dairy and European olive oil industries and the Hellenic Municipalities of Tilos and Andros; and the Project Coordinator of the EU LIFE-Nature Project on Tilos. His civic activities include community service as the President of the California Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce; Founder and Director of the California Council of European-American Chambers of Commerce; Board of Directors Member of the Axios Foundation and the Los Angeles Rainbow PUSH Coalition; Member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Sierra Club, Audubon Society; and Founder, Vice President and Director of the Tilos Park Association. Mr. Alexander’s articles and photographs have been published by newspapers and magazines in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, the U.K. and U.S., and he has been interviewed by television and radio journalists from Belgium, Greece, Japan, Spain, Turkey and the U.S.. He has contributed as a speaker to conferences organized by the European Commission, the United Nations Environment Program, Mugla University and the Mugla Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, Washington State University and the National Institute of Public Administration in Greece. In 2007, Constantine was appointed as an Ambassador of the EU Natura 2000 Networking Program for exemplary environmental management of an EU Special Protection Area (SPA). He is currently working for the establishment of a management plan for the Andros Island EU SPAs and a Northern Cycladic marine protected area. Constantine Alexander (a.k.a. Konstantinos Alexandros Mentzelopoulos) is a citizen of the United States and Greece.

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EU Reform of the common fisheries policy

A new European Fund for the EU's Maritime and Fisheries Policies.

The European Commission has proposed a new fund for the EU's maritime and fisheries policies for the period 2014-2020: the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). The Fund will help deliver the ambitious objectives of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and will help fishermen in the transition towards sustainable fishing, as well as coastal communities in the diversification of their economies. The fund will finance projects that create new jobs and improve quality of life along European coasts. Red tape will be cut so that beneficiaries have easy access to financing.

Maria Damanaki, Commissioner in charge of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said: “This new fund will increase economic growth and create jobs in the sector. No more money will be spent to build big vessels. Small scale fisheries and aquaculture will benefit of this budgetary greening of the Common Fisheries Policy."

This new fund will replace the existing European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and a number of other instruments. The proposed envelope amounts to € 6.5 billion for the period 2014 to 2020.

 

Background:

Underpinning the environmental, economic and social principles of the Common Fisheries Policy reform

The EMFF will be a fundamental instrument for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that the Commission proposed in July. The transition to sustainability requires some radical changes in the way we fish – and the fund will give fishermen the incentive they need, so that fishing can be less damaging to marine ecosystems, overexploitation can be stopped and the decline of fish stocks can be reversed.

As we relieve pressure on the stocks and leave them time to recover, the communities depending on fishing will need to find alternative sources of income. The EMFF will help them find innovative ways to add value to their catches and diversify their economy.

But the EMFF is not just a catalyst for the transition to sustainability and good economic performance. It is also a vehicle to deliver the Commission's social agenda. Spouses often play a fundamental role in the family fishing business. Now they will be able to get support for training or other economic activities related to fishing. Producers' Organisations will be helped to plan production to satisfy market demands and to market their products in a way that meets the expectations of an increasingly discerning public.

Smart, green fisheries:

Despite the 1.7 billion EUR spent on scrapping since the 1990s, the EU fleet still suffers from overcapacity, as the decommissioning of vessels was offset by the technological upgrade of the remaining fleet. Therefore, money will not go to scrapping anymore and the money will be deployed towards economically and socially productive activities. Diversification is one of them. Encouraging bottom-up initiatives has so far produced excellent results in areas connected to fishing, such as processing, catering or tourism. The EMFF will reinforce this kind of community-led innovation. As small-scale coastal fleets remain the lifeblood of the economy of many coastal communities, the aid to support them will be intensified.

The new fund will also support innovative projects such as replacing fishing nets with more selective gear in order to reduce discards, or the development of new technologies that could lower the impact of fishing and fish-farming on the environment.

Smart, green aquaculture

Fish farming carries a huge potential to reduce our dependence on imports. It provides high-quality jobs in rural areas and puts healthy food on European dinner tables. The fund will strive to boost this industry in a sustainable manner, rewarding innovation and promoting also new strands of aquaculture, such as non-food aquaculture.

Support the partnership of science and fishermen:

Having the proper data on the state of fish stocks and the marine environment in general plays a key role in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and the EMFF will give sufficient funds for data collection, monitoring and control. As it does not make sense that those working on the sea (the fishermen) and those studying the sea (the scientists) should live in separate worlds, the EMFF will encourage them to work in tandem to find ways to exploit natural resources in a sustainable manner.

A single fund for fisheries and the Integrated Maritime Policy:

The 2007 EU Integrated Maritime Policy interconnects maritime sectors which have historically been compartmentalised and managed in isolation. The EMFF will provide support for projects such as maritime spatial planning, integrated maritime surveillance and marine knowledge. These are examples where integration can help avoid duplications and reduce costs through greater cooperation and coordination across sectors. Including the Maritime Policy into the EMFF will ensure greater coherence and help deliver synergies between the two policy strands.

Simplification:

The rules governing the EMFF will be harmonised with those for other EU funds. This will make life easier for both beneficiaries and national authorities. The EMFF will be part of the new Common Strategic Framework, which will ensure that all the various existing EU funds work consistently with each other, avoiding overlaps or duplications.

How the Fund works:

The new Fund will be used to co-finance projects with Member states. The total budget will be allocated to the Member States based on the importance of the fisheries sector in each country. Then the principles of shared-management between the Commission and the Member States will apply. Each Member State draws up an operational programme for the period, specifying how they intend to spend the money allocated to them. Once the Commission approves this programme, it is up to the Member state to decide the actual projects to be financed. Both the eligibility of the actions to support and the implementation of the programme are monitored by the Member States and the Commission.

• Download Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund
• Download Impact Assessment
• Download Executive summary of the Impact Assessment
• Download Opinion of the Impact Assessment Board

 

For the birds

Winged predators seek certain trees when foraging for caterpillars

Location matters for birds on the hunt for caterpillars, according to researchers at UC Irvine and Wesleyan University. Findings suggest that chickadees and others zero in on the type of tree as much as the characteristics of their wriggly prey.

Unfortunately for caterpillars, munching on tree leaves that are healthy and tasty can dramatically boost their own risk of becoming food. Study results, published online this week in The American Naturalist, show that dining on the trees that are most nutritious for caterpillars – such as the black cherry – can increase by 90 percent their chances of being devoured by a discerning bird.

"The jump in risk is surprising," said co-author Kailen Mooney, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at UCI. "It shows that for caterpillars, moving from one tree to the next can mean the difference between getting eaten and surviving."

The findings indicate a "neat potential pest control system," because the healthiest tree species harbor the greatest number of caterpillars, thereby offering the easiest pickings for winged predators, said lead author Michael Singer of Wesleyan. "Our study addresses basic theoretical questions in ecology, but we also want forest managers and conservation biologists to take away practical knowledge."

Mooney, who specializes in the ecology of predatory birds, said tree identification is probably learned by birds, not genetic. He added that Southern California bird species probably do the same with coastal sage scrub, determining which types of bushes afford a better chance of tasty insect treats.

With help from a small army of students, the scientists conducted a two-year experiment in Connecticut forests involving hundreds of tree branches either covered with bird-proof netting or left bare.

Mooney noted that the results illustrate a stark choice between gaining strength through a good diet but being more vulnerable to predators and remaining weaker and hungrier but more safe.

"If a caterpillar could feed on nutritious, high-quality tree species and be left alone, this would be the best of all worlds," he said. "Instead, it's faced with a trade-off. Overall, it appears that it's better to feed on poor-quality tree species and have fewer caterpillars around you than to be on a nutritious plant with many others."

University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with nearly 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,000 staff. Orange County's second-largest employer, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $4 billion. 

Contact: Janet Wilson
janethw@uci.edu
949-824-3969
University of California - Irvine

Detecting detrimental change in coral reefs

		Left: A Landsat pixel-based map showing where the most change has been detected on Caryfort Reef between 1984 and 1996. Right: The spine of elevation shows where the most change has occurred, for Carysfort this change has been correlated with coral decline. Credit: Phil Dustan

Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan—a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula—found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.

But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close. In the late 1970s Dustan helped build a handheld spectrometer, a tool to measure light given off by the coral. Using his spectrometer, Dustan could look at light reflected and made by the different organisms that comprised the living reefs. Since then, he has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that Landsat offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find 'hotspots' where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.

Situated in shallow clear water, most coral reefs are visible to satellites that use passive remote sensing to observe Earth's surface. But coral reefs are complex ecosystems with coincident coral species, sand, and water all reflecting light. Dustan found that currently orbiting satellites do not offer the spatial or spectral resolution needed to distinguish between them and specifically classify coral reef composition. So instead of attempting to classify the inherently complex coral ecosystem to monitor their health, Dustan has instead started to look for change—how overall reflectance for a geographic location varies over time.

Dustan uses a time series of Landsat data to calculate something called temporal texture¬—basically a map showing where change has occurred based on statistical analysis of reflectance information. While Dustan cannot diagnosis the type of change with temporal texture he can establish where serious changes have occurred. Coral communities have seasonal rhythms and periodicities, but larger, significant changes show up as statistical outliers in temporal texture maps and often correlate with reef decline.

A Case Study

Carysfort reef—named for the HMS Carysfort, an eighteenth century British warship that ran aground on the reef in 1770—is considered the most ecologically diverse on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's northern seaward edge, but today it is in a state of ecological collapse.

Dustan and colleagues conducted the first quantitative field study of coral health at Carysfort in 1974. After a quarter century their studies showed that coral had declined 92 percent. The coral had succumbed to an array of stressors culminating with deadly diseases.

Using the well-characterized Carysfort reef as his control, Dustan calculated the temporal texture for the reef using a series of 20 Landsat images collected between 1982 and 1996. The resulting temporal texture maps correlated with the known areas of significant coral loss (where coral communities have turned into algal-dominated substrates) and they correctly showed that the seaward shallow regions have had the most detrimental change.

This novel approach to change detection is only possible because the long-term calibration of Landsat data assures that data from year-to-year is consistent. Dustin needs at least 6 to 8 Landsat images to create a reliable temporal texture map, but the more data that is available, the finer the results.

Dustan tested this work in the U.S. because he had a robust study site and because prior to 1999 coverage of reefs outside of the U.S. was spotty. With the Landsat 7 launch in 1999 a new global data acquisition strategy was established and for the first time the planet's coral reefs were systematically and regularly imaged, greatly increasing our knowledge of reefs. The Landsat archive enabled the completing of the first exhaustive global survey of reefs (Millennium Global Coral Reef Mapping Project, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/news-archive/news_0031.html). Efforts are currently underway to receive and ingest Landsat data collected and housed by international ground-receiving stations. International partners often downlink Landsat scenes of their countries that the U.S. does not, so it is very likely that historic reef images will be added the U.S. Landsat archive during this process.

Carrying on Outside of Carysfort

Temporal texture gives scientists an entirely new way to look at coral reefs. A worldwide study could help managers locate change 'hotspots' and could better inform conservation efforts.

Ideally, after more testing, Dustan would like to see an automatic change detection system implemented to follow major worldwide reef systems. "There is no reason that a form of temporal texture monitoring could not be implemented with current satellites in orbit," Dustan says.

Because reefs are underwater it is difficult to grasp the extensive devastation being exacted upon them. Global temporal texture mapping could bring the ravages into focus.

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Landsat satellites have been consistently gathering data about our planet since 1972. They continue to improve and expand this unparalleled record of Earth's changing landscapes for the benefit of all.

Contact: Rani Gran
Rani.C.Gran@nasa.gov
301-286-2483
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

 

Life discovered on dead hydrothermal vents

New evidence found for ecological succession in microbial communities on deep-sea hydrothermal vents

Scientists at USC have uncovered evidence that even when hydrothermal sea vents go dormant and their blistering warmth turns to frigid cold, life goes on.

Or rather, it is replaced.

A team led by USC microbiologist Katrina Edwards found that the microbes that thrive on hot fluid methane and sulfur spewed by active hydrothermal vents are supplanted, once the vents go cold, by microbes that feed on the solid iron and sulfur that make up the vents themselves.

These findings – based on samples collected for Edwards by US Navy deep sea submersible Alvin (famed for its exploration of the Titanic in 1986) – provide a rare example of ecological succession in microbes.

The findings were published today in mBio in an article authored by Edwards, USC graduate researcher Jason Sylvan, and Brandy Toner of the University of Minnesota.

Ecological succession is the biological phenomenon whereby one form of life takes the place of another as conditions in an area change – a phenomenon well-documented in plants and animals.

For example, after a forest fire, different species of trees replace the older ones that had stood for decades.

Scientists have long known that active vents provided the heat and nutrients necessary to maintain microbes. But dormant vents – lacking a flow of hot, nutrient-rich water – were thought to be devoid of life.

Hydrothermal vents are formed on the ocean floor with the motion of tectonic plates. Where the sea floor becomes thin, the hot magma below the surface creates a fissure that spews geothermally heated water – reaching temperatures of more than 400° C.

After a (geologically) brief time of actively venting into the ocean, the same sea floor spreading that brought them into being shuffles them away from the hotspot. The vents grow cold and dormant.

"Hydrothermal vents are really ephemeral in nature," said Edwards, professor of biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Microbial communities on sea floor vents have been studied since the vents themselves were first discovered in the late 1970s. Until recently, little attention had been paid to them once they stopped venting, though.

Sylvan said he would like to take samples on vents of various ages to catalogue exactly how the succession from one population of microbes to the next occurs.

Edwards, who recently returned from a two-month expedition to collect samples of microbes deep below the ocean floor, said that the next step will be to see if the ecological succession is mirrored in microbes that exist beneath the surface of the rock.

"The next thing is to go subterranean," she said.

Their research was funded by the Keck Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Research Council and NASA postdoctoral fellowship programs.

Contact: Robert Perkins
perkinsr@usc.edu
213-740-9226
University of Southern California

Coastal structure repairs can significantly disturb marine ecosystems

Human-made, coastal defence infrastructures at Cesenatico, along the Italian shores of the north Adriatic sea. View of the study area and breakwaters from Google Earth. B) View of a breakwater under maintenance (photo L. Airoldi).

Renovating coastal structures, such as breakwaters, groynes, artificial reefs, quays and sea walls, can be destructive to marine ecosystems as it encourages opportunistic and invasive species, according to recent research. Repairs can be particularly damaging if conducted in spring or summer, so repair schedules should be recognised in marine planning strategies to minimise negative ecological effects, say the researchers.

More than 50% of the Mediterranean coastline around Spain, Italy and France is covered with artificial features that help protect against extreme weather, preserve beaches and add aesthetic value. However, instead of supporting marine life by mimicking natural hard-bottom habitats, as previously thought, scientists have found that repair work carried out over the lifetime of such features causes extreme ecological disturbances by removing, replacing and dislodging large portions of the structure on which biological communities have settled.

The team of researchers, funded under the EU THESEUS¹ and DELOS² projects, monitored the ecological effects of repair works to four breakwaters along Italy’s North Adriatic coastline over a period of three years.

They found that one month after repair works, more than 80% of the landward (sheltered) sides of breakwaters were covered with either bare rock, where mussel and oyster beds had been lost, or biofilm, a thin coating formed by opportunistic marine microorganisms. This was relative to 30% cover for breakwaters that had undergone no repair work.

On the seaward (exposed) side, the effect was less pronounced with an increase in biofilm of just 10-20%. The scientists attribute the difference between the landward and the seaward sides to the level of exposure and differences in the structure of the mussel beds; smaller individuals in single-layer beds on the seaward side are far less susceptible to damage than larger ones in multi-layer beds on the landward side.

Macroalgae, including the invasive species Codium fragile, dominated the breakwaters after a year, reaching up to 50% cover on the seaward sides, compared to 20% on non-repaired breakwaters.

In a controlled experiment, the scientists simulated the destructive effects of repair work by removing the resident biological communities from sections of three breakwaters that had not been repaired in the last three years. They were removed at a different time of year for each section. They found that sections disturbed in January displayed no increase in macroalgae and recovered to their original state after only four months, while sections disturbed in April and August had significant macroalgae growth and still had not recovered a year later. This could be related to the time of year that both mussels and macroalgae reach maturity, according to the researchers.

As the need for coastal defence structures increases in response to a greater risk of storm surges and sea level rise with global climate change, the scientists recommend that repair works should be carried out in winter to reduce negative biological impacts. Reducing the spread of invasive species will also have indirect benefits for the fishery and aquaculture industries. Importantly, the higher cost of carrying out repairs in winter would be offset by a reduction in expensive clean-up procedures currently required to remove macroalgae washed up on tourist beaches.

1. THESEUS (Innovative technologies for safer European coasts in a changing climate) is supported by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.
2. DELOS (Environmental Design of Low Crested Coastal Defence Structures) was supported by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework Programme. 

Source: Airoldi, L. & Bulleri, F. (2011). Anthropogenic disturbance can determine the magnitude of opportunistic species responses on marine urban infrastructures. PLoS ONE, 6(8); e22985. 

• Download Anthropogenic Disturbance Can Determine the Magnitude of Opportunistic Species Responses on Marine Urban Infrastructures

Contact: laura.airoldi@unibo.it

Deep sea filming reveals thriving fish communities among Irish coral reefs

The importance of coral reefs in supporting diverse fish communities has been highlighted in a recent study. However, the effects of damaging fishing techniques were also observed in video footage of the reefs studied, located off the coast of Ireland.

Coral reefs are known to provide an important deep sea habitat that supports a wide range of marine life. They are also known to be easily damaged by current fishing practices. Such damage can be long-lasting and persist even many years after fishing has ceased.

The study, conducted under the EU KnowSeas project, contributes in particular to our understanding of the wide variety of habitats that individual coral reefs can provide. The researchers investigated fish populations in the North-East Atlantic, at two cold water coral reefs off the west coast of Ireland, 600-1110m deep. They estimated the number of fish at the sites from video footage taken by remotely controlled underwater robotic vehicles.

Over 30 varieties of fish and nearly 5000 individual fish were estimated to be sighted in all, from over 2000 suitable still images from the video footage. The most commonly sighted species for both sites was the North Atlantic codling, which comprised just under half of all sightings, followed by the northern cutthroat eel, which accounted for around a quarter of all fish observed.

Two species of fish were particularly associated with coral habitats: the false boarfish, spotted most frequently above dead coral rubble, and the Guttigadus latifrons, most commonly found among dense living coral thickets. Indeed, there was significant evidence of fish occupying distinct habitat types. For example, the North Atlantic codling was most commonly found in structurally complex habitats, where their preferred prey can be found, and different fish communities were found among living and dead coral structures. This demonstrates how corals provide a complex habitat, able to home a large range of fish.

Of concern was evidence of damage caused by some fishing practices, which may have implications for the resident fish communities. Traditionally, bottom trawling (dragging fishing nets along the seabed) was avoided in rough areas such as these, as the equipment could be easily damaged or lost. However, this changed in the 1980s with the introduction of ‘rockhopper’ trawls, which are able to pass over rough surfaces.

The researchers suggest that this study contributes to the increasing body of evidence of Irish coral reefs’ importance. As coral habitats grow very slowly, taking hundreds to thousands of years to form, the impacts of any reef destruction on marine life must be acknowledged.

Source: SÖffker, M. Sloman, K.A., Hall-Spencer. J.M. (2011). In situ observations of fish associated with coral reefs off Ireland. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 58(8): 818-825.

Contact: mks204@exeter.ac.uk  

Mercury in Forest Songbirds Project

The Mercury in Forest Songbirds Project is the result of many years of collaborations both within and outside of the Biodiversity Research Institute.

Mercury accumulation, previously considered a risk for aquatic ecosystems, is also found in many wildlife species living on the land. This new scientific data is presented in a new report published by Biodiversity Research Institute  in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

Mercury is a pollutant that is cause for concern at local, regional, and global scales. While areas of high contamination (known as biological mercury hotspots) may occur near mercury-emitting sources, often they do not. Because mercury released into the atmosphere can circle the world before being deposited, wildlife living in habitats located far from point sources of mercury can still be at risk. Although great strides have been made to reduce mercury released into the air and water from human activities, the Hidden Risk report illustrates that high levels of mercury persist in many wildlife species distributed across many habitat types.

• Download Hidden Risk Mercury in Terrestrial Systems of the Northeast

• Download NWF Poisoning Wildlife Report

Contact: Allyson Jackson, M.S.
allyson.jackson@briloon.org

 

Broadcast study of ocean acidification to date helps scientists evaluate effects on marine life

		The image shows a SeaFET pH sensor deployed underneath approximately 12 feet of sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Ross Island, Antarctica, in Oct. 2010. Scientists use these sensors to identify the natural dynamics of ocean pH in order to better understand how marine organisms may be impacted by climate change. The black object is the sensor, which is anchored to the ocean bottom using weights. Along the ocean bottom, worms and sea stars are visible. Credit: Rob Robbins

Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans since the industrial revolution. One-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.

A UC Santa Barbara marine scientist and a team of 18 other researchers have reported results of the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification to date. Acidification is known to be a direct result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists used sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to measure the acidity of 15 ocean locations, including seawater in the Antarctic, and in temperate and tropical waters.

As oceans become more acidic, with a lower pH, marine organisms are stressed and entire ecosystems are affected, according to the scientists. Gretchen E. Hofmann, an eco-physiologist and professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, is lead author of the recent article in PLoS ONE that describes the research.

"We were able to illustrate how parts of the world's oceans currently have different pH, and thus how they might respond to climate changes in the future," said Hofmann. "The sensors allowed us to capture that." The sensors recorded at least 30 days of continuous pH values in each area of the study.

		UCSB graduate student Emily Rivest positions a SeaFET pH sensor in a coral reef off the island of Moorea, in French Polynesia. The large cement posts once held up a pier that toppled over the reef; one of the fallen posts provides an anchor for the sensor. The grey bottle is used to collect seawater samples for chemical analyses that augment the pH data. The reefs surrounding the island of Moorea are home to UCSB's Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research site (MCR LTER). Credit: Anderson Mayfield

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, human activities have accelerated the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide mixes with water. The two molecules combine to become carbonic acid, making seawater more acidic. As billions of molecules combine and go through this process, the overall pH of the oceans decreases, causing ocean acidification.

Acidification limits the amount of carbonate forms that are needed by marine invertebrates, such as coral, urchins, snails, and shellfish, to make their skeletons. As the concentration of carbonates decreases in acidified water, it is harder to make a shell. And, the structures of some organisms may dissolve when water chemistry becomes too unfavorable.

"The emerging pH data from sensors allows us to design lab experiments that have a present-day environmental context," said Hofmann. "The experiments will allow us to see how organisms are adapted now, and how they might respond to climate change in the future."

Hofmann researched the Antarctic, where she has worked extensively, as well as an area of coral reefs around the South Pacific island of Moorea, where UCSB has a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. She also studied the coastal waters of Santa Barbara, in conjunction with UCSB's Santa Barbara Coastal LTER. The research team provided 30 days of pH data from other ocean areas around the world.

		This is Gretchen Hofmann. Credit: Mary Sewell, University of Auckland

The researchers found that, in some places such as Antarctica and the Line Islands of the South Pacific, the range of pH variance is much more limited than in areas of the California coast that are subject to large vertical movements of water, known as upwellings. In some of the study areas, the researchers found that the decrease in seawater pH being caused by greenhouse gas emissions is still within the bounds of natural pH fluctuation. Other areas already experience daily acidity levels that scientists had expected would only be reached at the end of this century.

"This study is important for identifying the complexity of the ocean acidification problem around the globe," said co-author Jennifer Smith, a marine biologist with Scripps. "Our data show such huge variability in seawater pH, both within and across marine ecosystems, making global predictions of the impacts of ocean acidification a big challenge."

Todd Martz, a marine chemistry researcher at Scripps, developed the sensor. "When I arrived at Scripps, we re-engineered my prototype design, and since then I have not been able to keep up with all of the requests for sensors," said Martz. "Because every sensor used in this study was built at Scripps, I was in a unique position to assimilate a number of datasets, collected independently by researchers who otherwise would not have been in communication with each other. Each time someone deployed a sensor, they would send me the data, and eventually it became clear that a synthesis should be done to cross-compare this diverse collection of measurements." Hoffman worked with Martz to put together the research team to create that synthesis.

The team noted that the Scripps sensors, called "SeaFET" and "SeapHOx," allow researchers to continuously and autonomously monitor pH from remote parts of the world, providing important baselines from which scientists can monitor future changes caused by ocean acidification.

Despite surveying 15 different ocean regions, the authors noted that they only made observations on coastal surface oceans, and that more study is needed in deeper ocean regions farther away from land.

Hofmann is the director of the Center for the Study of Ocean Acidification and Ocean Change, a UC multi-campus initiative. Hofmann participated in writing a report on ocean acidification while on the National Research Council's Ocean Acidification Committee, and she is currently participating as a lead author on the National Climate Assessment. Hofmann is a member of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs Advisory Panel, and she is an Aldo Leopold Fellow.

In addition to Hofmann, Martz, and Smith, co-authors include Emily B. Rivest and Pauline Yu of UCSB; Uwe Send, Lisa Levin, Yuichiro Takeshita, Nichole N. Price, Brittany Peterson, and Christina A. Frieder of Scripps; Paul Matson and Kenneth Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Fiorenza Micheli and Kristy Kroeker of Stanford University; Adina Paytan and Elizabeth Derse Crook of UC Santa Cruz; and Maria Cristina Gambi of Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy.

Funding for instrument development and related field work came from several sources, including the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the University of California, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the WWW Foundation, Scott and Karin Wilson, the Rhodes family, and NOAA.

Contact: Gail Gallessich
gail.g@ia.ucsb.edu
805-893-7220
University of California - Santa Barbara

 

Saving the snow leopard with stem cells

The survival of the endangered snow leopard is looking promising thanks to Monash University scientists who have, for the first time, produced embryonic stem-like cells from the tissue of an adult leopard.

Never before have induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which share many of the useful properties of embryonic stem cells, been generated from a member of the cat family. The breakthrough raises the possibility of cryopreservation of genetic material for future cloning and other assisted reproduction techniques.

The study, published in Theriogenology, is part of the PhD project of Rajneesh Verma, supervised by Dr Paul Verma, both from the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR). Associate Professor Peter Temple-Smith of Monash University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Professor Michael Holland of the University of Queensland also collaborated.

The researchers used ear tissue samples taken from adult snow leopards at Mogo Zoo, in NSW, to generate the iPS cells.

Dr Verma said the breakthrough was significant due to the difficulty of obtaining reproductive cells, or gametes, even from animals in captivity.

"There is a lot of interest in cryopreservation of tissue from endangered species, but for this to be useful for conservation, both sperm and an egg are required."

"The power of stem cells is that they can differentiate into all the cell types in the body. This means, they have the potential to become gametes. In fact, mouse iPS cells have given rise to entire off-spring, so the possibilities are enormous," Dr Verma said.

Mr Verma said the benefits of the breakthrough for the conservation of cat species, and biodiversity were clear.

"By generating these stem cells, we've taken the first step in creating reproductive cells from adult tissues of an endangered animal. In the future, we aim to harness the potential of the iPS cells and create off-spring. This would help save species from extinction," Mr Verma said.

The snow leopard is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia. Their high-altitude habitat and shy nature make accurate population counts difficult, but it is estimated that between 3500 and 7000 snow leopards exist in the wild, with numbers on the decline.

Mr Verma said he became fascinated with large cats during his childhood in India.

"I'm really following my passion in applying my expertise in stem cells to help save these animals. I am applying the same techniques to other members of cat family, including the Bengal tiger, the jaguar and the serval."

Contact: Emily Walker
emily.walker@monash.edu
61-399-034-844
Monash University

 

Lessons in coral reef survival from deep time

A butterflyfish, Chaetodon rainfordi, feeding on coral polyps. Coral reefs are both a museum and a cradle for reef fishes. Association with coral reefs has provided fishes with both a stimulus for diversification, and a potential refuge in a time of high extinction. Photo courtesy of João Paulo Krajewski.

Lessons from tens of millions of years ago are pointing to new ways to save and protect today's coral reefs and their myriad of beautiful and many-hued fishes at a time of huge change in the Earth's systems.

The complex relationship we see today between fishes and corals developed relatively recently in geological terms – and is a major factor in shielding reef species from extinction, says Professor David Bellwood of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"Our latest research provides strong evidence for a view that today's coral hotspots are both a refuge for old species and a cradle for new ones," said Peter Cowman, lead author of a recent report. "This is the first real inkling we've had that just protecting a large area of reef may not be enough – you have to protect the right sorts of reef."

Early coral reefs, 300-400 million years ago were much simpler affairs than today's colourful and complex systems, Prof. Bellwood says. The fish were not specialised to live on or among corals – either lacking jaws altogether, or else feeding on detritus on the seabed or preying on one another.

"By 200 million years ago we are starting to see fish with jaws capable of feeding on corals, but the real explosion in reef diversity doesn't occur till about 50 million years ago when we see fishes very like today's specialist coral feeders emerging."

It is the ever-increasing complexity of this relationship between corals and fishes over the last 20 or 30 million years that produces the wondrous diversity of today's reefs, he says. Each has become more critical to the survival of the other as their lives have become more interwoven.

"When people think of coral reefs, they usually think of the beautiful branching corals like staghorn (Acropora) – well the evidence is now fairly clear that Acropora needs certain fish for it to flourish. But, it now appears that this may be a reciprocal relationship with Acropora being important for the evolution and survival of fishes on coral reefs. "

Unfortunately Acropora corals are highly vulnerable to external impacts like Crown-of-Thorns starfish, coral bleaching, climate change and ocean acidification. Their demise will have far reaching effects on the fishes which interact with them, such as damsels, butterfly fish, cardinals and wrasses.

"The study of the past tells us that reefs are all about relationships and, like a family, for them to survive those relationships need to remain strong," Peter Cowman said.

"In coming years it is probable reefs will be subject to relentless presses that may cause them to change fundamentally. Those with the best long-term prospects of survival will be the ones where the relationships between fish and corals are healthiest.

Both fish and corals managed somehow to survive the five great mass extinction events of the past, though they sustained massive loss of species. Over time these have left us with a world focus of reef biodiversity centered on the Coral Triangle region to Australia's north, which in turn helps recharge Australian coral reefs, especially in the west.

"The Coral Triangle is currently subject to intensifying human and ecosystem pressure. The latest work by Peter Cowman and Prof Bellwood suggests it is both a cradle for new species and a refuge in troubled times – so it is vital that it remain intact.

"This isn't about saving individual species or particular reefs, it's about maintaining the basic relationships which ensure the survival of the whole," says Prof Bellwood.

"We've had a 'heads up' from the past that is giving us fresh insights into what is most important on reefs and why we must protect our precious reefs and fishes into the future."

Their paper "Coral reefs as drivers of cladogenesis: expanding coral reefs, cryptic extinction events, and the development of biodiversity hotspots" by Peter F. Cowman and David R. Bellwood was published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24: 2543-2562. DOI 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02391.x

Contact: David Bellwood
David.Bellwood@jcu.edu.au
61-074-781-4447
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies

One Earth to protect

Janez Potočnik

Janez Potočnik is the European Commissioner in charge of Environment. His job is to deal with things like waste, pollution and air and water quality, as well as other complex issues such as the protection of European biodiversity and making the European economy more environmentally friendly, or 'greener'.

 

The biology of politics: Liberals roll with the good, conservatives confront the bad

New study brings to light physiological, cognitive differences of political left and right.

From cable TV news pundits to red-meat speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire, our nation's deep political stereotypes are on full display: Conservatives paint self-indulgent liberals as insufferably absent on urgent national issues, while liberals say fear-mongering conservatives are fixated on exaggerated dangers to the country.

A new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests there are biological truths to such broad brushstrokes.

In a series of experiments, researchers closely monitored physiological reactions and eye movements of study participants when shown combinations of both pleasant and unpleasant images. Conservatives reacted more strongly to, fixated more quickly on, and looked longer at the unpleasant images; liberals had stronger reactions to and looked longer at the pleasant images compared with conservatives.

"It's been said that conservatives and liberals don't see things in the same way," said Mike Dodd, UNL assistant professor of psychology and the study's lead author. "These findings make that clear – quite literally."

To gauge participants' physiological responses, they were shown a series of images on a screen. Electrodes measured subtle skin conductance changes, which indicated an emotional response. The cognitive data, meanwhile, was gathered by outfitting participants with eyetracking equipment that captured even the most subtle of eye movements while combinations of unpleasant and pleasant photos appeared on the screen.

While liberals' gazes tended to fall upon the pleasant images, such as a beach ball or a bunny rabbit, conservatives clearly focused on the negative images – of an open wound, a crashed car or a dirty toilet, for example.

Consistent with the idea that conservatives seem to respond more to negative stimuli while liberals respond more to positive stimuli, conservatives also exhibited a stronger physiological response to images of Democratic politicians – presumed to be a negative to them – than they did on pictures of well-known Republicans. Liberals, on the other hand, had a stronger physiological response to the Democrats – presumed to be a positive stimulus to them – than they did to images of the Republicans.

By studying both physiological and cognitive aspects, the researchers established unique new insights into the growing notion that political leanings are at least partial products of our biology, UNL political scientist and study co-author Kevin Smith said.

Recent research on the subject has focused mostly on physiological reactions to negative stimuli. The new study's use of cognitive data regarding both positive and negative imagery adds to the understanding of how liberals and conservatives see and experience the world, Smith said.

UNL political scientist and co-author John Hibbing said the results might mean that those on the right are more attuned and attentive to aversive elements in life and are more naturally inclined to confront them. From an evolutionary standpoint, that makes sense, he said.

The results also are consistent with conservatives' support of policies to protect society from perceived external threats (support for increased defense spending or opposition to immigration) and internal ones as well (support for traditional values and being tough on crime), Hibbing said.

The researchers were careful to not make a value judgment on either political orientation. But they did note that their discovery provided an opportunity to recognize the relevance of deeper biological variables in politics and turn down political polarization.

Rather than believing those with opposite political views are uninformed or willfully obtuse, the authors said, political tolerance could be enhanced if it was widely understood that political differences are based in part on our physiological and cognitive differences.

"When conservatives say that liberals are out of it and just don't get it, from this standpoint, that's true," Hibbing said. "And when liberals say 'What are (conservatives) so frightened of? Is the world really that dangerous?' Given what each side sees, what they pay attention to, what they physiologically experience – the answer is both sides are right."

The study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, is in a forthcoming edition of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B and was authored by Dodd, Hibbing and Smith, as well as UNL's Amanda Balzer, Carly Jacobs and Michael Gruszczynski.

Contact: Mike Dodd
mdodd2@unl.edu
402-472-0547
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Searaser seawater pump

Searaser

Invented by Devon engineer Alvin Smith, Searaser harnesses the almost constant power of ocean swells to create electricity on demand. It’s a very simple design which could produce electricity cheaper than any other wave-power technology, or indeed any other type of renewable energy. Potentially it could be cheaper than all existing sources of electricity – including gas, coal and nuclear – and it’s carbon free.

The following animation shows how Searaser produces electricity. As the ocean swell moves two buoys up and down, it pumps seawater through a pipe to an onshore turbine. The green energy company Ecotricity, which has a controlling stake in the technology, believes it is potentially a cheaper way of producing electricity than any other form of generation including all fossil fuels.

 

Preparing for the future of LIFE's role in EU nature conservation

As Head of the LIFE Nature Unit, Angelo Salsi has spent much of his last year overseeing progress of these two LIFE + Components and preparing the ground for the next period of LIFE Programme funding from 2014-2020.

Angelo Salsi. Credit: Jon Eldridge

Mr Salsi notes that, “The present LIFE + regulation still has two calls to be implemented before its application process formally closes at end of 2013. This means that potential applicants and interested parties should continue to look at the present regulation for guidance on Programme priorities”.

Reflecting on the overall state of the Programme in its current form Mr Salsi draws attention to the fact that, “The application rounds continue to become more and more competitive. In 2011 for instance we saw that the numbers of applications peaked and 50% more proposals were submitted than before. We had a 100% increase in the numbers of some types of proposals, especially for the LIFE Information and LIFE Environment Components. Stronger competition was also seen for LIFE Nature and LIFE Biodiversity. The biggest increases we found were in proposals coming from the public sector. This was interesting because countries like Greece and Italy were able to submit a useful collection of proposals.”

“Factors affecting the increase in competitiveness are difficult to definitively assess but we must assume that one of the biggest drivers is the financial crisis. As budget cuts get worse we expect that competition will become even fiercer because there are very few areas in the field of environment where you find cash available from instruments like LIFE to make additional investments.”

Mr Salsi points to the quality of LIFE project proposals becoming a vital success ingredient for applicants. “Quality factors remain relatively constant from one year to another,” he says, and continues, “The ambition of the proposal to achieve added value at an EU level, not just nationally or regional, to address a priority environmental issue is crucial.”

“Ambitious projects can involve a lot of quite complicated inter-related issues and actions which can be a challenge to explain concisely in the application form. The quality of the basic project description is therefore more and more important as a determinant for accessing the LIFE co-finance. This is true for all of the Programme’s Components.”

For LIFE Nature and LIFE biodiversity, Mr Salsi believes that demand will continue to increase as the implementation of the Habitats Directives moves from planning to active management. “Money is needed to manage the land and waters that support species and habitats in our Natura network. LIFE remains the main dedicated source of co-finance for such actions so we suspect that Member States’ interest in LIFE Nature will increase.”

“During the next funding period after 2013, LIFE’s Natura investments will be joined by EU funds from rural development and cohesion policy, but until then LIFE is still the core financial instrument for Natura.”

Referring to LIFE’s Biodiversity Component, the Head of Unit also expects that it will play a bigger role in the future, now that understanding about its role is becoming more widespread. “The context for LIFE + Biodiversity has been better clarified in 2011 following the adoption of the new EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy.”

“Certain elements are well established like the strategy’s mandate covering nature conservation and species protection. These are perceived in EU terms as being under the wing of Natura 2000, and so LIFE Nature, as key delivery vehicles. Other important strategy areas like how to deal with alien species are also well known and we have cases where LIFE Biodiversity is working here.”

Added values:

EU biodiversity policy promotes harmonised approaches to sustainable development which balance socio-economic and environmental objectives. The emphasis on LIFE Nature contributions to this balance is stressed by Mr Salsi as important for the Programme to add value. Talking about moves towards greater consideration of social impacts and ecosystem services, he is pleased to report that, “We are now starting to see a growing number of positive responses to our push for a full spectrum of added value actions in LIFE. Beneficiaries are able to present project proposals which demonstrate clear social dividends from species protection.”

“I am aware that many of the jobs created by LIFE projects in the field of species conservation often have significant knock-on benefits. This is particularly so in rural areas where employment opportunities are commonly limited. We know that LIFE can help provide important jobs in the countryside and also it can show that looking after our natural resources can be a viable career path for young people in rural areas.”

“Furthermore, social dividends from LIFE actions are being achieved as our projects help to change people’s behaviour patterns and convert the perception of species that were formally considered problematic into symbolic icons of regional identity. For instance, species like the Iberian Imperial Eagle had in the past been considered a menace by land owners in Spain but now people are proud to have nesting Eagles on their farms. Similarly, the Brown Bear in Trentino Italy was once ostracised but it is now used as a marketing tool to attract visitors and its paw prints have even been used as the basis for company branding in the region. These types of economic benefits from nature conservation can be measured and we want to see more of these types of social dividends being integrated in LIFE proposals.”

Ecosystem services are another of the added value elements from LIFE that will contribute to the competitiveness of future project proposals. Strategic approaches to the provision and maintenance of ecosystem services at a territorial level are becoming increasingly significant for LIFE and Mr Salsi explains that, “We have welcomed the applications that were submitted in 2011 for methodologies which we have promoted regarding Prioritised Action Frameworks (PAF). These have their legal basis in Article 8 of the Habitats Directive and this year we have for the first time received proposals to use LIFE for helping to develop PAF approaches. This is extremely encouraging and it shows once again how LIFE can be effective for implementing very specific elements of EU Directives.”

PAF methods are based on the concept of a territorial plan that combines, integrates and coordinates sets of actions and measures which address nature conservation needs from a holistic and ecosystem service approach.

“We are still reviewing the proposals that have been submitted and we know now that beneficiaries are able to organise themselves to prepare such territorial approaches” says Mr Salsi who goes on to describe how, “Territorial planning will help overcome difficulties and inefficiencies in managing Natura sites using piece-meal techniques. LIFE co-finance can be used to set up a territorial plan for nature conservation in the same way that territorial plans exist for waste management, river basins, air quality or climate action. LIFE can help with the work involved to prepare a plan, which is an exception in itself because with other types of LIFE support most of the money needs to target more tangible types of habitat or species work.”

“Our promotion of PAF planning corresponds with our intention to focus a growing proportion of the future LIFE funds into integrated projects, which catalyse and mobilise large scale resources geared towards nature conservation outcomes. We want to see more of both of these types of proposals in the last two rounds of LIFE+. By providing funding in the final stages of LIFE+ for this type of preparatory actions, we are aiming to help pave the way for Member States to be ready, from 2014 onwards, for using LIFE more strategically in managing Natura 2000 as a coherent network.”

“Co-finance could be approved in 2012 for successful front runners in this priority area for LIFE. Beneficiaries might take up to 24 months to prepare their plans and so successful applicants should therefore be in a good position to start implementing PAF type approaches with the funds from the new LIFE regulation when it comes on stream in 2014.”

“We are currently reviewing 10 different territorial applications from seven Member States covering north, south, east, west and central Europe. In 2012 it would be good if this number of applications could double. Expectations and demands are rising and we are very glad that there are authorities out there with the political courage to make the commitment to strategic management of nature resources. The New LIFE regulation will be pushing in this direction and this will complement other efforts for more coordinated territorial developments like those through the Common Strategic Framework guiding the common agricultural policy and cohesion policy.”

“There is no doubt that, while retaining a capacity to accommodate traditional LIFE Nature projects, the future of the Programme post 2014 will increasingly focus more of its funding on integrated approaches. We will start slowly but as we move closer to 2020 the relative share of co-finance provided by ‘LIFE Biodiversity’, as it will be called in the next period, for integrated projects will grow. This is why we have been encouraging regions and countries to make use of the opportunities we have under LIFE+ in the final two calls to get ready to manage their Natura sites on territorial basis after 2013.”

 

Sea Shepherd Chases the Japanese Whalers into Yesterday

Operation Divine Wind

The Japanese whaling fleet is not where they should be this time of year. Last year the fleet was operating in the Ross Sea. This year their “scientific survey” was to be in the waters south and west of Tasmania east and south of South Africa.

Every year they alternate. But not this year! Although the whalers attempted to begin their killing operations in the waters southwest of Australia, the Sea Shepherd ships have chased the entire whaling fleet ever eastwards. At 1700 hours AEST, the Bob Barker encountered the Yushin Maru No. 3 at 66 Degrees, 22 minutes South and 179 Degrees, 05 minutes West.

From being intercepted 500 miles west of Fremantle, Australia, the Japanese fleet has run over 4,500 nautical miles for the last 30 days, all the way into the Ross Sea, far to the East of Australia. This is an average of 150 miles a day, leaving very little time to kill whales with only one harpoon vessel. The other two harpoon vessels have either been tailing or searching for the Sea Shepherd ships.

“You can say we chased the whale killers into yesterday since we have crossed the International Date Line,” said Captain Paul Watson, of the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin. “This illustrates that they really have no scientific agenda at all since their so-called survey requires them to “sample” whales from the two different areas alternatively each year. This is not about science and it never has been. It’s not even about profit anymore because we have negated their profits. It’s simply about pride. Whaling in the Southern Ocean has become a heavily subsidized welfare project for an archaic industry that has no place in the twenty-first century.”

Sea Shepherd’s campaign, Operation Divine Wind, has been challenging this year due to the thirty million dollars allocated to the whaling fleet for added security. This money was taken from the tsunami and earthquake relief fund.

“They have ten million dollars for every one million dollars we have to finance our three ships,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Bob Barker. “They have the full support of their government and literally have a license to kill because if any of us are injured or killed, their government will back them and justify their actions. Our governments condemn us just for tossing rotten butter on their decks.”

The chase across the bottom of the world involves five ships from the Japanese whaling fleet and two ships from Sea Shepherd. The third Sea Shepherd ship, the Brigitte Bardot, was damaged by heavy seas and had to return to Fremantle, Australia for repairs.

Never before has the Japanese whaling fleet abandoned one designated whaling “survey” area for another. Sea Shepherd has apparently seriously disrupted the Japanese whaling plan for this season and has cost them a huge amount in fuel costs. In addition, two of the three harpoon vessels have been taken away from killing whales to tail the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker, with the Yushin Maru No. 2 tailing the Steve Irwin and the Yushin Maru No. 3 tailing the Bob Barker. This has left only the Yushin Maru to hunt for whales.

Sea Shepherd has been able to keep the whaling fleet on the move and continues to track their movements by relying on drone operations and ten years of experience following the predictable movements of the whalers.

Last season the Bob Barker was able to chase the Nisshin Maru all the way to the tip of South America before they quit and returned in humiliation to Japan after taking only seventeen percent of their kill quota.

Source: Sea Shepherd Press Release.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Unprecedented, man-made trends in ocean's acidity

		These are yellow tangs frolicking among corals. Credit: Dwayne Meadows, NOAA

Nearly one-third of CO₂ emissions due to human activities enters the world's oceans. By reacting with seawater, CO₂ increases the water's acidity, which may significantly reduce the calcification rate of such marine organisms as corals and mollusks. The extent to which human activities have raised the surface level of acidity, however, has been difficult to detect on regional scales because it varies naturally from one season and one year to the next, and between regions, and direct observations go back only 30 years.

Combining computer modeling with observations, an international team of scientists concluded that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions over the last 100 to 200 years have already raised ocean acidity far beyond the range of natural variations. The study is published in the January 22 online issue of Nature Climate Change.

The team of climate modelers, marine conservationists, ocean chemists, biologists and ecologists, led by Tobias Friedrich and Axel Timmermann at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, came to their conclusions by using Earth system models that simulate climate and ocean conditions 21,000 years back in time, to the Last Glacial Maximum, and forward in time to the end of the 21st century. They studied in their models changes in the saturation level of aragonite (a form of calcium carbonate) typically used to measure of ocean acidification. As acidity of seawater rises, the saturation level of aragonite drops. Their models captured well the current observed seasonal and annual variations in this quantity in several key coral reef regions.

Today's levels of aragonite saturation in these locations have already dropped five times below the pre-industrial range of natural variability. For example, if the yearly cycle in aragonite saturation varied between 4.7 and 4.8, it varies now between 4.2 and 4.3, which – based on another recent study – may translate into a decrease in overall calcification rates of corals and other aragonite shell-forming organisms by 15%. Given the continued human use of fossil fuels, the saturation levels will drop further, potentially reducing calcification rates of some marine organisms by more than 40% of their pre-industrial values within the next 90 years.

"Any significant drop below the minimum level of aragonite to which the organisms have been exposed to for thousands of years and have successfully adapted will very likely stress them and their associated ecosystems," says lead author Postdoctoral Fellow Tobias Friedrich.

		The upper panels shows simulated surface aragonite saturation for the years 1800, 2012 and 2100, respectively. White dots indicate present-day main coral reef locations. The lower panels shows atmospheric CO2 concentration in parts per million simulated for the years 1750 to 2100. Credit: Tobias Friedrich

"In some regions, the man-made rate of change in ocean acidity since the Industrial Revolution is hundred times greater than the natural rate of change between the Last Glacial Maximum and pre-industrial times," emphasizes Friedrich. "When Earth started to warm 17,000 years ago, terminating the last glacial period, atmospheric CO₂ levels rose from 190 parts per million (ppm) to 280 ppm over 6,000 years. Marine ecosystems had ample time to adjust. Now, for a similar rise in CO₂ concentration to the present level of 392 ppm, the adjustment time is reduced to only 100 – 200 years."

On a global scale, coral reefs are currently found in places where open-ocean aragonite saturation reaches levels of 3.5 or higher. Such conditions exist today in about 50% of the ocean – mostly in the tropics. By end of the 21st century this fraction is projected to be less than 5%. The Hawaiian Islands, which sit just on the northern edge of the tropics, will be one of the first to feel the impact.

The study suggests that some regions, such as the eastern tropical Pacific, will be less stressed than others because greater underlying natural variability of seawater acidity helps to buffer anthropogenic changes. The aragonite saturation in the Caribbean and the western Equatorial Pacific, both biodiversity hotspots, shows very little natural variability, making these regions particularly vulnerable to human-induced ocean acidification.

"Our results suggest that severe reductions are likely to occur in coral reef diversity, structural complexity and resilience by the middle of this century," says co-author Professor Axel Timmermann."

This animation was generated as part of a project funded by The Nature Conservancy, the National Science Foundation and JAMSTEC.

This study was funded by The Nature Conservancy, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) through its sponsorship of the International Pacific Research Center, and National Science Foundation grant.

Citation: T. Friedrich, A. Timmermann, A. Abe-Ouchi, N. R. Bates, M. O. Chikamoto, M. J. Church, J. E. Dore, D. K. Gledhill, M. González-Dávila, M. Heinemann, T. Ilyina, J. H. Jungclaus, E. McLeod, A. Mouchet, and J. M. Santana-Casiano: Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability. Nature Climate Change - DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE1372.

Contact: Gisela Speidel
gspeidel@hawaii.edu
University of Hawaii ‑ SOEST

Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'

Clownfish. Photo courtesy of Dr Simon Foale, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 – and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival," Prof. Munday says.

In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.

"We've found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life," Prof. Munday says.

Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water – meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell."

The team then examined whether fishes' sense of hearing – used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day – was affected. "The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators."

Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right – an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.

"All this led us to suspect it wasn't simply damage to their individual senses that was going on – but rather, that higher levels of carbon dioxide were affecting their whole central nervous system."

The team's latest research shows that high CO2 directly stimulates a receptor in the fish brain called GABA-A, leading to a reversal in its normal function and over-excitement of certain nerve signals.

While most animals with brains have GABA-A receptors, the team considers the effects of elevated CO2 are likely to be most felt by those living in water, as they have lower blood CO2 levels normally. The main impact is likely to be felt by some crustaceans and by most fishes, especially those which use a lot of oxygen.

Prof. Munday said that around 2.3 billion tonnes of human CO2 emissions dissolve into the world's oceans every year, causing changes in the chemical environment of the water in which fish and other species live.

"We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption – as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons – but the actual dissolved CO2 itself is damaging the fishes' nervous systems."

The work shows that fish with high oxygen consumption are likely to be most affected, suggesting the effects of high CO2 may impair some species worse than others – possibly including important species targeted by the world's fishing industries.

The team's latest paper "Near-future CO2 levels alter fish behaviour by interfering with neurotransmitter function" by Göran E. Nilsson, Danielle L. Dixson, Paolo Domenici, Mark I. McCormick, Christina Sørensen, Sue-Ann Watson, and Philip L. Munday appears in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Contact: Philip Munday
Philip.Munday@jcu.edu.au
61-074-781-5341
ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies

Protect biodiversity to safeguard ecosystem services

Most species in an ecosystem could help supply essential ecosystem services, according to a recent study. The researchers found that 84% of species in the grassland ecosystems they studied contributed towards at least one ecosystem service. Losing any of these species would therefore degrade the ecosystem services such an environment could provide.

The results suggest that, following the precautionary principle, conservationists should protect all of the species in an ecosystem as they cannot be sure which contribute to the provision of ecosystem services, and which may do so if conditions change. Given every species could contribute to ecosystem function in some way, the findings also suggest that ecosystems contain little functional redundancy: if a species is lost, there may be no other species that can take over the provision of the services it provided.

Ecosystem services underpin many of the basic services on which our societies depend, including our supply of drinking water, carbon uptake and pollination of crops. There are therefore important social and economic reasons for protecting them wherever possible.

The results of this study suggest that other biodiversity studies have underestimated the number of species required to maintain ecosystem services. Previous studies have suggested that multiple species are needed to provide ecosystem services over long periods of time or large areas.. They have also suggested that different species contribute to different ecosystem services, or that different species will be needed to maintain or enhance these services as the environment changes in future. However, these studies have not examined how many species are needed to maintain many different ecosystem functions under many different environmental conditions. This latest research is the first attempt to look at all of these variables in a single analysis, as described above.

To do so, the researchers looked at data from 17 separate biodiversity experiments examining a total of 147 species in grassland ecosystems in different years, places, future environmental change scenarios or across different ecosystem functions. Each time, place, ecosystem function or environmental change scenario was described as a separate ‘context’.

The researchers first looked at how many species contributed to a single ecosystem function in each context. They then looked at whether different species contributed to ecosystem services in different contexts, before quantifying how the number of species increased as more contexts were added to the analysis.

They found that, in a single context, around 27% of species promoted ecosystem services, and this remained constant regardless of how many species were present. When the researchers looked at whether different species contributed to ecosystem function in slightly different contexts (for instance, looking at the same function, place and change scenario, but changing the year), they found there was limited overlap between the groups of species that delivered the services. More species promoted ecosystem functioning as more contexts were considered. For example, more species were needed to promote different ecosystems services in multiple years than were needed to promote different ecosystems services in one year. As more contexts were added, the number of species contributing positively to ecosystem function also increased.

The findings suggest conservationists and others responsible for managing biodiversity need to protect as many of the species in an ecosystem as possible to maintain the supply of ecosystem services. In particular, the study revealed for the first time that almost every species (both common and rare) in an ecosystem contributed at least once to the functioning of that ecosystem and their contributions were context dependent, making it hard to predict the effects of losing even a single species.

Source: Isbell, F., Calcagno, V., Hector, A., et al (2011). High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services. Nature. 477: 199-202.

Contact: forest.isbell@gmail.com

Successful conservation policy needs monitoring and knowledge

New research has explored how well different governance systems can achieve desirable conservation outcomes. Results confirmed the importance of adaptive management, which relies on regular monitoring to enable ‘learning through doing’ to refine actions, and suggested that leadership using expert knowledge was also significant in successful governance.

With increasing policy concern about the degradation of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity, there have been a large number of different approaches to reduce the negative effects of human activity on nature. These approaches can vary widely, from community management regimes to state-run protected areas, and also involve a range of economic or social instruments, such as subsidies and taxes, as well as regulatory tools, such as restrictions on access or use. However, to date, there has been no systematic comparison of the effectiveness of these different approaches.

The study, conducted under the EU GEM-CON-BIO¹ and TESS projects², analysed 26 local/subnational and eight international conservation initiatives for three important outcomes: enhancing the delivery of ecosystem services, ensuring sustainable use of natural resources and maintaining biodiversity. The three outcomes were scored using expert judgement, whilst the governance system was described using data from questionnaires collecting ecological, economic and social information. Five main indicators were identified to describe the governance system: adaptive management; knowledge leadership, i.e. the frequency of consultation with a higher authority; use of regulatory tools; state/private management and the management priorities in terms of economic, social or ecological goals.

For all three conservation outcomes, adaptive management and knowledge leadership appeared to be important to success. The incorporation of monitoring and feedback into management practices has been proposed as a powerful tool by international agreements, as has the need to base policy on sound expert knowledge. The study supports the use of both these governance strategies in conservation policy. In comparison, state/private responsibility did not appear to be significant to conservation outcomes. This could be because its influence could be affected by factors that were not considered in the study, such as the duration of the conservation management.

Regulatory tools had a negative relationship with the provision of ecosystem services but related positively to conservation of biodiversity. This suggests that, in areas where conservation is to be promoted through ecosystem services, caution needs to be taken in the use of regulations. It also confirms the importance of using a dual approach that combines both protection using regulation for biodiversity and encouragement of the use of ecosystem services with economic incentives.

More generally, the finding that the three conservation outcomes were associated with different governance strategies implies that it is difficult to find one strategy that will successfully achieve all desirable outcomes. This means that often a joint or compromise set of strategies may be necessary.

The researchers highlight the limitations of a small sample, especially in terms of the number of international initiatives, and recommend implementing larger scale studies of different governance systems across countries, with refined assessments of socio-economic factors and environmental variables. Such work could help provide an evidence-base to establish governance strategies to reduce negative human effects on nature.

1. GEM-CON-BIO (Governance and ecosystems management for the conservation of biodiversity) was supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme.
2. TESS (Transactional environmental Support System) is supported by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme. 

Source: Kenward, R.E., Whittingham, M.J., Arampatzis, S. et al. (2011) Identifying governance strategies that effectively support ecosystem services, resource sustainability, and biodiversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108(13):5308-5312.

Contact: reke@ceh.ac.uk

Coral and mollusc responses to acidified oceans

Coral acidification. Credit: University of Texas

Coral and mollusc species with an outer layer of protective tissue are more able to withstand acidic seawater than some other species, according to a recent study. However, higher temperatures projected under climate change are likely to worsen the impact of ocean acidification on coral and molluscs, even affecting those that are otherwise resistant to higher levels of acidity.

The increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ are making the oceans more acidic. Seawater absorbs some of the CO₂ from the atmosphere, and it is thought that by 2100, this will increase the acidity of surface ocean waters by 0.3-0.5 pH units. Acidity reduces the amount of available carbonate used by some marine organisms, such as corals and molluscs, to form shells and skeletons out of calcium carbonate. Previous studies suggest different species of marine organisms that form shells and skeletons vary in their sensitivity to ocean acidification. It is thought that an outer layer of living tissue on these organisms protects the skeleton or shell from dissolving in more acidic seawater.

Partly funded under the EU MedSeA project¹, the researchers compared the rates at which they form shells and skeletons (a process known as calcification) and lost (a process known as dissolution) in samples of the corals Balanophyllia europaea (which has a protective outer layer of tissue) and Cladocora caespitose (which does not have a protective layer); and in samples of the molluscs Mytilus galloprovincialis (a mussel with an outer layer protecting the shell) and Patella caerulea, (a limpet with no protective layer).

Samples of the corals and molluscs were transplanted into water off the Island of Ischia in Italy. Volcanic activity from nearby Mount Vesuvius causes CO₂ to bubble up from the ocean floor, creating naturally occurring acidified seawater with a range of different pH conditions.

Currently, normal seawater is pH 8.1, but by 2100, it is projected to be 7.8 (lower pH denotes more acidity). In waters of pH 7.8 at the test site, corals and molluscs were able to continue calcifying, in some cases at faster than normal rates. However, as the water became more acidic, the rate at which shells and skeletons dissolved increased. How much dissolved depended on the amount of protective tissue covering the shells or skeletons.

Living molluscs and limpets transplanted to the acidic waters continued to calcify at pH 8.1 (normal seawater) and pH 7.4. Mussels were able to increase the rate of calcification even at pH 7.2. Limpets living in highly acidic areas of the sea (pH 6.5) were able to increase their rate of calcification, possibly in response to the higher rates of dissolution of the shells.

Both species of coral in the test area were able to continue calcifying, although this rate decreased by 30% at pH 7.4 for C. caespitose, in contrast to B. europaea, which exhibited an increased rate of calcification at higher levels of acidity. The corrosive action of the seawater was evident on C. caespitose, whereas B. europaea was unaffected and protected by an outer layer of tissue.

However, coral and molluscs were more susceptible to the effects of ocean acidification under higher temperatures. Under unusually high temperatures in September 2009, for example, B. europaea samples in water of pH 8.0 continued to calcify normally, but almost stopped at pH 7.4. A warming Mediterranean Sea is likely to worsen the impact of ocean acidification, affecting even those organisms that were resistant to higher levels of acidity.

1. MEDSEA (European Mediterranean Sea Acidification in a changing climate) is supported by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.

Source:Rodolfo-Metalpa, R., Houlbrèque, F., Tambutté, É. et al. (2011) Coral and mollusc resistance to ocean acidification adversely affected by warming. Nature Climate Change. 1:308-312.

Contact: riccardo@rodolfo-metalpa.com