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Categories: Ecology: Sea Life, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published How shifting climates may have shaped early elephants' trunks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have provided new insights into how ancestral elephants developed their dextrous trunks. A study of the evolution of longirostrine gomphotheres, an ancestor of the modern day elephant, suggests moving into open-land grazing helped develop their coiling and grasping trunks.
Published Fish ecologist's research indicates need to conserve iconic migratory snook in Mexico
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Biologists investigated the snook’s almost 400-mile migration up into the rainforest habitat of the Usumacinta River. They have found that the snook, which connect aquatic food webs and support fisheries, spawn and start their lives in coastal nursery habitats before moving into river habitats that offer an array of food resources.
Published Giant sea salt aerosols play major role in Hawai'i's coastal clouds, rain
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study from atmospheric scientists revealed that the coastline can produce up to five times the concentration of giant sea salt aerosols compared to the open ocean and that coastal clouds may contain more of these particles than clouds over the open ocean -- affecting cloud formation and rain around the Hawaiian Islands.
Published Scientists find both potential threats and promising resources in the thriving colonies of bacteria and fungi on ocean plastic trash
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have found both potential threats and promising resources in the thriving colonies of bacteria and fungi on plastic trash washed up on shores.
Published Deoxygenation levels similar to today's played a major role in marine extinctions during major past climate change event
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the most devastating extinction events in Earth's history. Their finding has implications for current day ecosystems -- and serves as a warning that marine environments are likely more fragile than apparent. New research, published today in leading international journal Nature Geosciences, suggests that oceanic anoxia played an important role in ecosystem disruption and extinctions in marine environments during the Triassic--Jurassic mass extinction, a major extinction event that occurred around 200 million years ago. Surprisingly however, the study shows that the global extent of euxinia (an extreme form of de-oxygenated conditions) was similar to the present day.
Published Was 'witchcraft' in the Devil's Church in Koli based on acoustic resonance? The crevice cave has a unique soundscape
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-metre-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil's Church in English. A new study investigates the acoustics of the Devil's Church and explores whether the acoustic properties of the cave could explain the beliefs associated with it, and why it was chosen as a place for activities and rituals involving sound.
Published Pioneering research method reveals bluefin tuna's fate
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Mediterranean spawning grounds of Bluefin tuna -- the largest tuna and one of the most powerful fish in the sea -- are under threat, due to rising sea temperatures. A pioneering research method to decode bluefin 'otoliths' (a stony tissue found in their ear) has determined the threshold sea temperature at which bluefin thrive to be 28 degrees Celsius.
Published Separating out signals recorded at the seafloor
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research shows that variations in pyrite sulfur isotopes may not represent the global processes that have made them such popular targets of analysis and interpretation. A new microanalysis approach helps to separate out signals that reveal the relative influence of microbes and that of local climate.
Published How shipwrecks are providing a refuge for marine life
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research has highlighted how the estimated 50,000 wrecks around the UK coastline are protecting the seabed, and the species inhabiting it, in areas still open to bottom-towed fishing.
Published Predicting the fate of shallow coastal ecosystems for the year 2100
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study of shallow-water ecosystems estimates that, by 2100, climate change and coastal land usage could result in significant shrinkage of coral habitats, tidal marshes, and mangroves, while macroalgal beds remain stable and seagrass meadows potentially expand.
Published Trilobites rise from the ashes to reveal ancient map
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ten newly discovered species of trilobites, hidden for 490 million years in a little-studied part of Thailand, could be the missing pieces in an intricate puzzle of ancient world geography.
Published Deep-sea mining and warming trigger stress in a midwater jellies
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The deep sea is home to one of the largest animal communities on earth which is increasingly exposed to environmental pressures. However, our knowledge of its inhabitants and their response to human-induced stressors is still limited. A new study now provides first insights into the stress response of a pelagic deep-sea jellyfish to ocean warming and sediment plumes caused by deep-sea mining.
Published AI finds formula on how to predict monster waves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using 700 years' worth of wave data from more than a billion waves, scientists have used artificial intelligence to find a formula for how to predict the occurrence of these maritime monsters. Long considered myth, freakishly large rogue waves are very real and can split apart ships and even damage oil rigs.
Published Protect delicate polar ecosystems by mapping biodiversity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Concerted action is required to mitigate the impact of warming on polar ecosystems and sustainably manage these unique habitats.
Published Innovative aquaculture system turns waste wood into nutritious seafood
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Innovative aquaculture system turns waste wood into nutritious seafood. Researchers hoping to rebrand a marine pest as a nutritious food have developed the world's first system of farming shipworms, which they have renamed 'Naked Clams'.
Published Half of tested caviar products from Europe are illegal, and some aren't even caviar
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Wild caviar, a pricey delicacy made from sturgeon eggs, has been illegal for decades since poaching brought the fish to the brink of extinction. Today, legal, internationally tradeable caviar can only come from farmed sturgeon, and there are strict regulations in place to help protect the species. However, by conducting genetic and isotope analyses on caviar samples from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine -- nations bordering the remaining wild sturgeon populations -- a team of sturgeon experts found evidence that these regulations are actively being broken. Their results show that half of the commercial caviar products they sampled are illegal, and some don't even contain any trace of sturgeon.
Published A deep-sea fish inspired researchers to develop supramolecular light-driven machinery
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Chemists have developed a bioinspired supramolecular approach to convert photo-switchable molecules from their stable state into metastable one with low-energy red light. Their work enables fast, highly selective, and efficient switching, providing new tools for energy storage, activation of drugs with light, and sensing applications.
Published Heat tolerant coral may trade fast growth for resilience
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Algae living within the soft tissue of coral supply much of the energy needed by their hosts, and some symbiotic algae help coral withstand warmer water better than others. Researchers have now found that there was a tradeoff for corals dominated by the thermally sensitive algae -- they have higher growth, but only in cooler water.
Published Like the phoenix, Australia's giant birds of prey rise again from limestone caves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Australia's only vulture, and a fearsome extinct eagle, are among the earliest recorded birds of prey from the Pleistocene period more than 50,000 years ago -- and now researchers are bringing them to 'life' again. Along with new scientific information, a bold new pictorial reconstruction of a newly named eagle and the only known Australian vulture will be unveiled at the World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves in South Australia's Limestone Coast this month.
Published Rediscovery of rare marine amoeba Rhabdamoeba marina
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have rediscovered and successfully cultivating Rhabdamoeba marina -- a rare marine amoeba that has only been reported in two cases in the past century. Using this culture strain, they performed a comprehensive analysis of its genetic sequence, revealing for the first time the phylogenetic position of this enigmatic amoeba, and proposed a novel taxonomic classification based on their research findings.