It’s starting to feel like summer. Last week was Carnival on St Thomas, graduate students have finished defending their theses, and we’re getting ready for summer fieldwork. I’m looking forward to doing some cool projects, but man, it has been hot this past week. Reports have been saying that with the humidity it feels like 105 F, even though the temperature is only 86 F. And the water has been warming fast. Great for diving (let’s ditch those 5 mm wetsuits!) but as always, fingers crossed for no hurricanes and no bleaching. That’s life in the tropics!
The most-clicked link from the last edition was about the hole in the bottom of the ocean.
Let’s get on to the science!
Turning the Tide
Well-written popular articles in marine science
There are many concerns with deep-sea mining; one of them is the amount of sediment it is likely to stir up. Suspended sediment is to marine ecosystems like volcanic ash is to terrestrial ones: it is suffocating and smothering all at once, and difficult to remove. Regulatory authorities discussing how to manage mining activities are fighting through their own cloud of uncertainty as to how far sediment will spread and what kind of effects it will have on marine life. Different studies have estimated impacts from not farther than 300 meters to as far as 1000 kilometers away from the mining site.
Elham Shabahat, Hakai Magazine
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There are only 500 North Pacific Right Whales in the world. Dana Wright has studied these whales for a decade and has never seen one alive. She has to get creative in order to do her research, mainly by listening to their calls, with the goal of finding their calving grounds. If they succeed they can implement protections during this vulnerable period in their lives that will help this species recover.
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Many marine organisms reproduce on a lunar cycle— some by the new moon, some by the full. Scientists are illuminating this incredible lunar synchronization one biological pathway at a time. We’ve known about light-sensitive proteins for decades, but not how they trigger reproduction, until recently. Now we’re also getting to know how organisms keep internal time, and how microbes might play a role. Understanding these processes can help understand what’s going wrong when species reproduce out of synch, threatening their existence.
Virat Markandeya, Knowable Magazine
Some Science
Fresh discoveries and peer-reviewed papers
It’s well-known in the coral reef science community that these habitats provide natural coastline protection for storms. This effect, however, is difficult to quantify. A recent study managed to do it, using 3D models of reefs and models predicting wave impacts for various ocean conditions and states of reef health. The authors found that coral reefs in Mo’orea can absorb a shocking 77-91% of incoming wave energy. Coral cover in this area is threatened by predatory sea stars and cyclones, each of which could indirectly lead to increases in extreme flooding.
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As the world moves (too slowly) towards more renewable energy, offshore wind farms are popping up all over the place, and scientists are concerned about what this means for ocean life. One that I certainly did not consider until reading this piece was that larval cod are attracted to the low-frequency sounds emitted by wind turbines. Scientists in Norway determined that larval fish in their lab altered their default northwest orientation when these frequencies were played. They don’t know what will happen if larval cod settle in wind farms, but the current expectation is that it can’t be good.
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It feels like this has been all over my feeds the past few weeks, but just in case you haven’t seen it: gigantic patches of Sargassum seaweed are headed for the Caribbean and Gulf shores. Scientists estimate that last month more than 13 million tons of Sargassum were drifting in the Atlantic Ocean. I can testify to its prevalence: we get a lot of it here in St. Thomas. When we see it while we’re diving offshore, it’s mostly a cool habitat for small fishes, and a minor annoyance when it gets stuck in your hair. But on the beach, it STINKS.
Elena Shao, The New York Times
Fun and Fascinating
Thanks for reading! Remember to drink water, eat plants, and don’t be too salty.
If you’re reading this, I want to give you a special THANK YOU for supporting Submerged Science and for making it all the way to the end!
Til next time,
Sarah
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