Marine Conservation Society: Lancashire area group

In marine science this issue, most of our articles relate to how phisico-chemical environment influences the distribution of species. I particularly liked the way the bio-geographical history of the North Atlantic has been revealed through the mDNA of the rough periwinkle. Conservation issues cover cetaceans, coral and cod. Our first article in fisheries raises some questions about the sustainability of invertebrate fisheries. Finally, new estimates suggest that ocean currents (rather than biological activity) are more important in removing carbon from surface waters in the North Atlantic.

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We start this issue with a look at a new species of archaea – where we learn how difficult it is to find out anything specific about these organisms. We put phytoplankton on ice, and in ice, use them to make pretty patterns and find them hard to kill; unlike blue sharks, which just wind up dead by accident.

Our conservation section starts with a look at alien species and threat networks, and has news of a new marine protected area off Costa Rica, before links to some personal accounts of manatees and the sex life of groupers (amongst other subjects).

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We have the usual crop of articles involving DNA sequencing this issue – but I can offer you a link to Deep Sea News promising to demistify some of this – so that is where we start. DNA sequencing of a brown-tide algae helps to show how it can form these potentially harmful algal blooms. Our article on cryptic dolphins, however, uses isotope analysis to show that two sub-species are feeding on very different prey that they are finding in different locations. We pick up on isotope analysis again in pollution, where ⁷Be is used to track global pollution and rainfall – but no formal climate change section on this occasion…

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In this week’s science section the life history of the Nautilus is being revealed. It proves to be an animal with a long life span, and low fecundity, so in severe danger of becoming the once and future fossil, if it is placed under much pressure. On a more aggressive note, female squid select their males by proxy – encouraging them to fight it out amongst themselves for the privilege of passing on their genes.

A couple of videos this week in the fisheries and exploitation section. These come from the HMAP (History of Marine Animal Populations) project, which endeavours to quantify what the ocean food web looked like before we had such a dominant, and apparently disastrous, impact.

Finally in climate change we have a couple of reports showing how plankton can be used to monitor ocean circulation patterns – past and present.
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We start this issue with a look at the most ubiquitous species on the planet* – Prochlorococcus; a bluegreen algae (or photosynthesising bacterium if you want to be rude) that has adapted to life in the open ocean, but relies on other friendly bugs to do it. We also see the sequencing of the first crustacean genome; the child microscopist’s friend – the water flea!

In the conservation section we have news of more reports in the Census of Marine Life (CoML) series, covering South America, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Maine. While the Indian Ocean study suffers from a lack of core data, the US study provides a wealth of information, and a valuable insight into temperate marine ecosystems. We also have a nice paper looking at how penguins have fared since the 1970′s, when water temperatures changed in the southern Indian Ocean (but no formal climate change section this time).

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This issue we have tantalizing news of a new algal group – the rappemonads, which are reported to be common in both fresh and marine ecosystems, and goes to show the power of DNA based analysis. In conservation we have an article on seagrass in Northern Europe, which suggests that the eutrophication of coastal waters is an important factor. Seagrass (Zostra spp.) beds have largely disappeared from British waters, though I believe that disease has also been implicated here…

Finally, we end up in both hot and cold water in our section on climate change!

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I’d been asked to look for diatoms in Morecambe Bay, – the project was to help people understand life in the Bay, and marine life in general, so it was an opportunity to look at the base of the marine food-chain. I was a little worried about actually finding anything at this time of year – January and February are usually very quiet for phytoplankton, before the spring bloom starts. As a consequence I suggested we looked for epiphytic diatoms, ones that live on surfaces, rather than floating in the water column. In this search we were lucky, with every one of our samples having some diatoms in. This is perhaps the nicest micrograph, with a couple of free-swimming pennate diatoms. No-one is actualy sure how these small plants move, but they are most certainly capable of a fairly respectable pace under the microscope!

We have three articles on how fish sense their surroundings in marine science this issue – from electrosensory arrays of sharks and rays, which help them oreintate themeselves in the water column and hunt for food, to a sense of smell that warns fish about predator activity on the reef. We end in climate change with a paper from PLoS 1 about how changes in carbon dioxide levels effect gene regulation in marine snails…
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We’ve got a number of papers on different aspects of biodiversity in this issue, amongst these there is an estimate of global seafloor biomass (about 100 megatons), how plankton may form specialised regional sub-species, and how diversity decreases under climatic stress (on this occasion the cooling of the poles). We’ll start, however, with a nice bit of kit that looks quite buildable for anyone wanting to take a look underwater without having to dive…

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While bacteria, phytoplankton and sponges play an important part in this week’s scientific mix, there is still a place for some leviathans, with tales of whales both living and dead…
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