Fisheries and climate change – the big two marine problems go head to head this week. I couldn’t work out where some stories belonged, so if you are interested in either, scan both columns! My research for a talk in November on the Gulf Oil Spill is getting interesting, with (more) claims of independent research getting elbowed out of the way of a good legal battle! Sour grapes, or serious accusations? First though, something wholesome from the scientific journals: Read the rest of this entry »
The oil spill continues to be important to the marine biology community, which is currently chewing over some of the first reports based on data obtained during the slick and in its immediate aftermath. There is still a lot else to consider – climate change is moving back up the agenda, with indications that we need to address this problem now. We will start, however, 2.5 billion years ago (the lengths I go to to find some good news…) Read the rest of this entry »
a broad clawed porcelain crab in the palm of a hand
Thanks to everyone who turned up to brave a rather windy Roa Island. Unfortunately the wind made it difficult to see into pools and the sea at the shore line, and the sky was overcast meaning little light for photography. However it didn’t rain (much) and I think everyone had an interesting time looking for critters with the tide out so far. I was really happy to see the two species of porcelain crab – broad clawed Porcellana platycheles and long clawed Pisidia longicornis – as these have been recorded here before and I have been looking for them at Roa without success. Unfortunately I left my survey sheets in the car at the car share point, but I think it was probably more enjoyable as an informal event anyway; if anyone has any lists/records of what they saw it would be really useful to have a copy to compare with past data.
A hermit crab sizes up a potential new home. It has a firm grip on this new shell, but does it already have an occupant?
The oldest data we have for Roa Island is a survey by Clare & Jones from 1968 and exercises like this walk highlight the rapidly changing landscape of scientific knowledge and naming of species. For instance, one find I have made preparing for the shore walk was the strawberry anenome Actinia fragacea; this species does not appear on the Clare & Jones survey, so is it a new species for this area? The answer is that we can’t tell – in 1968 the strawberry anenome was widely regarded as a colour form of the beadlet anenome Actinia equina, which does appear on the Clare & Jones list and so it could easily have been present. Despite having some excellent baseline data we have to be very careful how we compare our findings today back to it.
Lots in the press over that last week, with the start of the publication of a new PLoS 1 collection on marine biodiversity, one of the outcomes of the Census of Marine Life (2000-2010). In the conservation field we have encouraging support for marine reserves from US studies, though there is strong indication that multi-use reserves are not as efffective as might be hoped – strongly policed no-take zones are really the only option for allowing the recovery of many areas. Otherwise, we have a number of publications on hard corals – some good basic science for a change in ‘Life at Sea’, plus a look at how well corals establish at higher temperatures in our climate change section.
Marine biodiversity and biogeography: The release of a collection of articles from around the world, each article describes the physical, geological, chemical, and biological characteristics of a region of the worlds oceans. Current papers cover the Pacific, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Antarctic, a US overview, and South Africa. These publications follow on from a decade of work by the Census of Marine Life, that attempted to bring together a corpus of knowledge about the biodiversity of our oceans. PLoS ONE: Marine Biodiversity and Biogeography – Regional Comparisons of Global Issues
