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Categories: Biology: Marine, Geoscience: Earth Science
Published A detailed map of the microverse: Microbial niches
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What defines the habitat -- the ecological niche -- of a microorganism? It is a combination of environmental factors such as temperature, moisture, and nutrient content. But the exact contribution of each of these factors is difficult to predict. A research team has redefined microbial niches by determining which microorganisms live together.
Published Red tide warning system
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Current methods to monitor red tide are limited. Using AUTOHOLO, a new autonomous, submersible, 3D holographic microscope and imaging system, a study is the first to characterize red tide in the field and breaks new ground for monitoring harmful algal blooms.
Published Limiting warming to 2°C may avoid 80% of heat-related deaths in Middle East and North Africa
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Over 80% of predicted heat-related deaths in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by the end of the century could be prevented if global warming is limited to 2°C, according to a modelling study.
Published Warming Arctic draws marine predators northwards
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Marine predators have expanded their ranges into the Arctic waters over the last twenty years, driven by climate change and associated increases in productivity.
Published Ocean warming intensifies viral outbreaks within corals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A groundbreaking three-year study in the South Pacific has found evidence that ocean warming can trigger outbreaks of 'dinoflagellate-infecting RNA viruses' that attack symbiotic algae inside corals. Coral reef viruses have gained greater attention since being implicated in 2021 as a possible cause of stony coral tissue loss disease that has decimated Florida and Caribbean reefs for almost a decade.
Published Innovative method predicts the effects of climate change on cold-blooded animals
(via sciencedaily.com) In the face of a warming climate that is having a profound effect on global biodiversity and will change the distribution and abundance of many animals, a research team has developed a statistical model that improves estimates of habitat suitability and extinction probability for cold-blooded animals as temperatures climb.
Published Rising temperatures alter 'missing link' of microbial processes, putting northern peatlands at risk
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers show that rising temperatures in northern regions may damage peatlands: critical ecosystems for storing carbon from the atmosphere -- and could decouple vital processes in microbial support systems.
Published Path to net-zero carbon capture and storage may lead to ocean
(via sciencedaily.com) Engineering researchers have developed a novel way to capture carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the 'infinite sink' of the ocean. The approach uses an innovative copper-containing polymeric filter and essentially converts CO2 into sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) that can be released harmlessly into the ocean. This new hybrid material, or filter, is called DeCarbonHIX (i.e., decarbonization through hybrid ion exchange material). The research has demonstrated a 300 percent increase in the amount of carbon captured compared with existing direct air capture methods.
Published Ants took over the world by following flowering plants out of prehistoric forests
(via sciencedaily.com) Today, ants are pretty much everywhere. To learn more about how these insects conquered the world, scientists used a combination of fossils, DNA, and data on the habitat preferences of modern species to piece together how ants and plants have been evolving together over the past 60 million years. They found that when flowering plants spread out from forests, the ants followed, kicking off the evolution of the thousands of ant species alive today.
Published At the end of the dry season: CO2 pulses over Australia
(via sciencedaily.com) End-of-dry-season CO2 pulses recur each year in the atmosphere above the Australian continent, a discovery made by an international research team led by an environmental physicist. To investigate the carbon fluxes over Australia, the researchers studied atmospheric CO2 measurements. Their analyses show that CO2 emissions spike when heavy rain falls on dried-out soil, thus activating microorganisms in that soil.
Published Scientists discover hidden crab diversity among coral reefs
(via sciencedaily.com) The Indo-West Pacific is the largest marine ecosystem on Earth, but scientists who study its diversity have to contend with a problem so well-known it was remarked upon by Charles Darwin: related species in the IWP have similar appearances, making it difficult to assess just how many there are. A new study reveals that nearly identical crab species have one consistently distinguishing feature, which only evolves when their ranges overlap.
Published Deep ocean currents around Antarctica headed for collapse, study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Antarctic circulation could slow by more than 40 per cent over the next three decades, with significant implications for the oceans and the climate.
Published AI could set a new bar for designing hurricane-resistant buildings
(via sciencedaily.com) Being able to withstand hurricane-force winds is the key to a long life for many buildings on the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast of the U.S. Determining the right level of winds to design for is tricky business, but support from artificial intelligence may offer a simple solution.
Published Ancient giant amphibians swam like crocodiles 250 million years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Ancient 2m-long amphibians swam like crocodiles long before true crocodiles existed, according to a new study.
Published Earth prefers to serve life in XXS and XXL sizes
(via sciencedaily.com) Life comes in all shapes in sizes, but some sizes are more popular than others, new research has found. A survey of body sizes of all Earth's living organisms has uncovered an unexpected pattern. Contrary to what current theories can explain, our planet's biomass -- the material that makes up all living organisms -- is concentrated in organisms at either end of the size spectrum.
Published Most of world's salt marshes likely to be underwater by 2100, study concludes
(via sciencedaily.com) Salt marshes are some of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth. They play an outsized role in nitrogen cycling, act as carbon sinks, protect coastal development from storm surge, and provide critical habitats and nurseries for many fish, shellfish, and coastal birds. According to new research, more than 90 percent of the world's salt marshes are likely to be underwater by the end of the century. These findings come from a 50-year study of ecosystem changes in Great Sippewissett Marsh in Falmouth, Mass.
Published A reconstruction of prehistoric temperatures for some of the oldest archaeological sites in North America
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists often look to the past for clues about how Earth's landscapes might shift under a changing climate, and for insight into the migrations of human communities through time. A new study offers both by providing, for the first time, a reconstruction of prehistoric temperatures for some of the first known North American settlements.
Published Juvenile black rockfish affected by marine heat wave but not always for the worse, research shows
(via sciencedaily.com) Larvae produced by black rockfish, a linchpin of the West Coast commercial fishing industry for the past eight decades, fared better during two recent years of unusually high ocean temperatures than had been feared, new research finds.
Published Detecting coral biodiversity in seawater samples
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a method to measure coral biodiversity through extracting the environmental DNA (or eDNA) from a liter of surface seawater collected from above a reef. The method has been confirmed to work through observations made by scientific divers in the same areas of ocean. This has paved the way for large-scale comprehensive surveys of reef-building coral to take place and removes the reliance of direct observations made through scientific scuba diving or snorkeling.
Published How whale shark rhodopsin evolved to see, in the deep blue sea
(via sciencedaily.com) A group of researchers discovered that the rhodopsin -- a protein in the eye that detects light -- of whale sharks has changed to efficiently detect blue light, which penetrates deep-sea water easily. The amino acid substitutions -- one of which is counterintuitively associated with congenital stationary night blindness in humans -- aid in detecting the low levels of light in the deep-sea. Although these changes make the whale shark rhodopsin less thermally stable the deep-sea temperature, allows their rhodopsin to keep working. This suggests that the unique adaptation evolved to function in the low-light low-temperature environment where whale sharks live.