We start, however, with one of the big stories in the popular press over the last few weeks, the latest estimate of the total number of species on the planet. To be pedantic we should perhaps say eukaryotic species, though the term ‘species’ is not very easy to apply to prokaryotes…

Marine science

Let me count the ways: 8.7 million (±1.3 million) eukaryotic species globally, of which approx. 2.2 million (±0.18 million) are marine – 91% of species in the ocean still await description…
Mora C, Tittensor DP, Adl S, Simpson AGB, Worm B (2011) How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biol 9(8): e1001127. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127

Photos reveal benthic habitat dynamics: A unique series of underwater photographs taken over a period to 25 years has allowed scientists to look at how communities of sponges and anthozoans change over time. These species are surprisingly long-lived with just over 3% of the combined population dying each year, a rate approximately balanced by influx of new individuals. The low turn-over suggests that these communities are very susceptible to human disturbance.
Teixidó N, Garrabou J, Harmelin J-G (2011) Low Dynamics, High Longevity and Persistence of Sessile Structural Species Dwelling on Mediterranean Coralligenous Outcrops. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23744. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023744

As wide as it is tall? Vertical variations in communities on rocky shores are well known, and are driven by stresses due to predator access and exposure. Longitudinal differences in community structure along a rocky shore are also common, but less well understood. Possibilities include propagule retention on the shoreline, foundation species effects, and physical influences.
Valdivia N, Scrosati RA, Molis M, Knox AS (2011) Variation in Community Structure across Vertical Intertidal Stress Gradients: How Does It Compare with Horizontal Variation at Different Scales? PLoS ONE 6(8): e24062. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024062

Fish mussel in: The presence of sub-tidal reefs greatly increases predation on mussels. The reefs act as a low-water refuge for predatory fish, which forage over the mussel bed at high water.
Rilov G, Schiel DR (2011) Community Regulation: The Relative Importance of Recruitment and Predation Intensity of an Intertidal Community Dominant in a Seascape Context. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23958. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023958

Rumbling shrimp: Male shrimps make rumbling noises in turbid waters, almost certainly to communicate territory and attract mates. The behaviour is specific to wild habitats, perhaps because visibility is poor, or distances between shrimps are greater, so visual communication systems don’t work. ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011)

Green tunicates: Studies indicate that the photosymbiont blue-green algae living within tunicates in the Bahamas are usually structured by the ascidian host, but can also be dominated by location effects.
López-Legentil S, Song B, Bosch M, Pawlik JR, Turon X (2011) Cyanobacterial Diversity and a New Acaryochloris-Like Symbiont from Bahamian Sea-Squirts. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23938. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023938

Heal yourself: Corals have the same basic pattern of wound healing as mammals.
Palmer CV, Traylor-Knowles NG, Willis BL, Bythell JC (2011) Corals Use Similar Immune Cells and Wound-Healing Processes as Those of Higher Organisms. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23992. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023992

Global bug-map: The first attempt to bring together information about bacterial communities in the marine ecosystem shows it to be diverse!
Zinger L, Amaral-Zettler LA, Fuhrman JA, Horner-Devine MC, Huse SM, et al. (2011) Global Patterns of Bacterial Beta-Diversity in Seafloor and Seawater Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24570. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024570

To CO₂ you will return: The Alphaproteobacteria are the most abundant heterotrphs in the ocean. They are equipped with a tiny genome that specialises in converting single carbon compounds – such as methanol and formic acid – into carbon dioxide, and are a vital mechanism for the return of dissolved organic carbon from the ocean to the atmosphere as CO₂.
Sun J, Steindler L, Thrash JC, Halsey KH, Smith DP, et al. (2011) One Carbon Metabolism in SAR11 Pelagic Marine Bacteria. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23973. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023973

Conservation

Tough reef: Reefs around the Indo-Pacific island of Moorea have recovered after several major disturbances. In each instance, after the reef has damaged the numbers of herbivorous fish has increased rapidly, ensuring that macro-algae do not get chance to dominate the ecosystem. The herbivore population is recruited from the lagoon emphasising the importance of the link between the two in forming a stable reef ecosystem.
Adam TC, Schmitt RJ, Holbrook SJ, Brooks AJ, Edmunds PJ, et al. (2011) Herbivory, Connectivity, and Ecosystem Resilience: Response of a Coral Reef to a Large-Scale Perturbation. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23717. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023717

Comb stopped by fresh water: Studies in the Baltic suggest that the invasive comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi is unable to form a sustainable population at salinities less than 15ppt.
Jaspers C, Møller LF, Kiørboe T (2011) Salinity Gradient of the Baltic Sea Limits the Reproduction and Population Expansion of the Newly Invaded Comb Jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi. PLoS ONE 6(8): e24065. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024065

1000 years whale watching: Review of Portuguese historical sources on cetacean sitings.
Brito C, Sousa A (2011) The Environmental History of Cetaceans in Portugal: Ten Centuries of Whale and Dolphin Records. PLoS ONE 6(9): e23951. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023951

4%: The area of the world’s oceans that would need to be converted into reserves to protect ‘the vast majority’ of marine mammals. ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2011)

Fisheries and exploitation

These are not the fish we are looking for: Genetic markers indicate that sales of Chilean Sea Bass are often not Chilean Sea Bass, and much of the catch was not from certified sustainable fishing grounds. About 15% of the fish analysed was bogus, raising questions about tracability in the certification scheme. ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2011)

Deep sea fish in trouble: Report indicates that almost none of the current deep-sea fisheries are sustainable. ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011)

Fine-grained management may increase sustainable yields: Managing fish stocks geographically at the individual species level could increase sustainable catches by 25%.
Hamilton SL, Wilson JR, Ben-Horin T, Caselle JE (2011) Utilizing Spatial Demographic and Life History Variation to Optimize Sustainable Yield of a Temperate Sex-Changing Fish. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24580. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024580

SELTRA-trawl: reduces by-catch of cod in langustine fisheries. ScienceDaily (Aug. 29, 2011)

Hake today, hake tomorrow: Despite fisheries pressure northern European hake stocks have stood up pretty well, this appears to be due to warmer waters encouraging the survival of juvenile stages. ScienceDaily (Aug. 24, 2011)

Salmon in trouble: A new study indicates that the decline in wild salmon stocks are due to a number of factors acting in concert.
Otero J, Jensen AJ, L’Abée-Lund JH, Stenseth NC, Storvik GO, et al. (2011) Quantifying the Ocean, Freshwater and Human Effects on Year-to-Year Variability of One-Sea-Winter Atlantic Salmon Angled in Multiple Norwegian Rivers. PLoS ONE 6(8): e24005. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024005

Farming offshore: Blue fin tuna farmed off-shore suffer less from parasites.
Kirchhoff NT, Rough KM, Nowak BF (2011) Moving Cages Further Offshore: Effects on Southern Bluefin Tuna, T. maccoyii, Parasites, Health and Performance. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23705. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023705

Gouge out their eyes: Apparently tiger shrimp mature faster if their eyes are ‘ablated’. This study is looking for alternatives, but it sheds light on a rather disturbing and unpleasant practice…
Uawisetwathana U, Leelatanawit R, Klanchui A, Prommoon J, Klinbunga S, et al. (2011) Insights into Eyestalk Ablation Mechanism to Induce Ovarian Maturation in the Black Tiger Shrimp. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24427. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024427

Kelp farm? Further studies indicate that large-scale kelp farming may provide useful amounts of fuel. ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2011)

Fast fuel: Yeast allows sugars in seaweed to be quickly converted into biofuels: ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2011)

Climate change

A clam’s take on climate change: Clams can live for 100 years, and they lay down a record of the environment they are growing in in their shells. Just like tree-rings, they can be used to plot past climates. Results indicate that climate variations seen in the tropical Pacific have been strongly connected with those in the Antarctic for the last 50 million years. The good news from this is that the Pacific oscillations (El Niño) have persisted through past warm periods, so will probably continue through the current warming phase. ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2011)

Unstable sea-levels: Bahamian corals indicate tha sea-levels have varied considerably over the last warm inter-glacial:. ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2011)

King crabs on the march: Another report about king crabs finding their way into Antarctic waters, which have warmed up enough for them to thrive. ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2011)

Shipwrecks as climatic time capsules: The biological communities on WW2 shipwreck sites off the North American coast have been recorded to provide a baseline for monitoring climatic changes. ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2011)

Suitable for all ages; children must be supervised by a responsible adult. Meet at the top of the Jetty next to the Lifeboat Station @6:15pm – map reference SD 232648.

What to bring?

Must haves -

• Wellies, sandals or other shoes that you don’t mind getting wet and probably a little muddy;
• The same applies to your clothes; also bring some warmer clothes – the shore is exposed so can feel chillier than places on shore.

Optional extras -

• A towel and a change of clothes just in case may be a good idea;
• Shallow trays or a bucket to put creatures in to study (but be sure to put them back carefully exactly where you find them!);
• A net;
• A camera – but be aware that sea water and cameras do not mix well, if you bring a camera and have a waterproof housing then please use it and in any case take extreme care on the shore not to drop (or even put) your camera into water;
• A torch – preferrably a waterproof one, or another good option would be a head torch (sunset is @8:10pm, dusk 8:45pm).

Anything that you bring or wear will be at your own risk.

If anyone wants to car share please let me know and I will try to arrange to meet at the westbound layby on the A65 about half a mile east of junction 36 of the M6 – map ref SD 541821. But note that timing will be a little tight for some of us to get away from work and get to the meeting point in time and that I will NOT do this unless it is requested and I can arrange to leave in time to get to Roa Island.

Contact: Lewis Bambury

Tel: 01524 414318
Mob: 07798 707318

Marine science

Simple eel: World’s most primitive eel found off Palau. ScienceDaily (Aug. 17, 2011)

Soft coral builds strong reefs: Research suggests that soft corals contribute directly to hard reef formation, with microscopic sclerites from the soft corals forming a significant proportion of the hard reef structure. ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2011)

Beach life: How do physical, chemical and biological factors on a beach influence the community that lives there? Simple bivariate relationships are not very useful in describing beach communities, but this can be done when a larger number of variables, taking into account all three primary factors, is considered.
Ortega Cisneros K, Smit AJ, Laudien J, Schoeman DS (2011) Complex, Dynamic Combination of Physical, Chemical and Nutritional Variables Controls Spatio-Temporal Variation of Sandy Beach Community Structure. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23724. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023724

Filling in the gaps: Modelling real movement based on telemetry tracking of the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) in the Bering Sea.
Hanks EM, Hooten MB, Johnson DS, Sterling JT (2011) Velocity-Based Movement Modeling for Individual and Population Level Inference. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22795. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022795

Lost city: Models of the dispersal of chitons found in deep sea habitats suggests that there are additional populations, as yet undiscovered.
Yearsley JM, Sigwart JD (2011) Larval Transport Modeling of Deep-Sea Invertebrates Can Aid the Search for Undiscovered Populations. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23063. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023063

Pinning down parasitic copepods: Morphology and diversity of the Monstrilloida. Their life cycle consists of a planktonic stage which locates its molluscan or polychaete host before changing into a parasitic juvenile phase, with two feeding appendages that penetrate into the host’s tissues. These break off when the animal matures, giving a free-swimming adult.
Suárez-Morales E (2011) Diversity of the Monstrilloida (Crustacea: Copepoda). PLoS ONE 6(8): e22915. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022915

Flu season: Infection of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) appears to be cyclical, high disease rates can effect the entire marine food-chain through the release of macro- and micronutrients from dead cells. ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2011)

Not on speaking terms: Genetic analysis shows that there are three sub-populations of the coral Pocillopora damicornis between the Gulf of Pnama and that of Chiriqui. The populations are may be diverging due to restricted transport of larvae in the region.
Combosch DJ, Vollmer SV (2011) Population Genetics of an Ecosystem-Defining Reef Coral Pocillopora damicornis in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. PLoS ONE 6(8): e21200. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021200

DNA trail: DNA persists at detectable levels in freshwater aquatic systems for up to a month after the species in question is no longer present.
Dejean T, Valentini A, Duparc A, Pellier-Cuit S, Pompanon F, et al. (2011) Persistence of Environmental DNA in Freshwater Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23398. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023398

Fast fingerprinting: A quicker way to identify marine microbial communities?
Coll-Lladó M, Acinas SG, Pujades C, Pedrós-Alió C (2011) Transcriptome Fingerprinting Analysis: An Approach to Explore Gene Expression Patterns in Marine Microbial Communities. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22950. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022950

Conservation

Economy or environment? Debate in the US steps up as environmental agencies face cuts. Marine Conservation News, August 08, 2011

Human pathogen attacks coral: The pathogen Serratia marcescens has been associated with disease in elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata).
Sutherland KP, Shaban S, Joyner JL, Porter JW, Lipp EK (2011) Human Pathogen Shown to Cause Disease in the Threatened Eklhorn Coral Acropora palmata. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23468. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023468

Global map of coral stress: Combining all of the stresses faced by corals into a single map showing where stress is most severe, but also indicating how stress factors other than climate change might be reduced to improve the chance of coral survival.
Maina J, McClanahan TR, Venus V, Ateweberhan M, Madin J (2011) Global Gradients of Coral Exposure to Environmental Stresses and Implications for Local Management. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23064. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023064

Fish recovery: The Cabo Pulmo National Park, a no take zone created in 1995, saw a 460% increase in fish biomass up to 2009. This is the largest increase seen in any protected area, and reflects strong community leadership and local environmental effects. Economic benefits through tourism suggest that these community managed schemes are a viable option.
Aburto-Oropeza O, Erisman B, Galland GR, Mascareñas-Osorio I, Sala E, et al. (2011) Large Recovery of Fish Biomass in a No-Take Marine Reserve. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23601. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023601

Corals in cold waters: Recent warm years have resulted in bleaching of of many corals, now researchers have found that some corals are equally susceptible to unexpected cold temperatures. An unseasonal cold snap in early 2010, when water temperatures in the upper Florida Keys dropped below 18°C for two weeks resulted in devastation of the reef building corals there.
Lirman D, Schopmeyer S, Manzello D, Gramer LJ, Precht WF, et al. (2011) Severe 2010 Cold-Water Event Caused Unprecedented Mortality to Corals of the Florida Reef Tract and Reversed Previous Survivorship Patterns. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23047. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023047

Scent of death: It may be possible to control the spread of sea lampreys in the Great Lakes with chemicals that mimic those given off by their dead bretheren. ScienceDaily (Aug. 6, 2011)

Fisheries and exploitation

Coral reef fish flee fishermen: Species normally caught by spear-gun display faster flight reactions than other fish.
Januchowski-Hartley FA, Graham NAJ, Feary DA, Morove T, Cinner JE (2011) Fear of Fishers: Human Predation Explains Behavioral Changes in Coral Reef Fishes. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22761. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022761

Fair wind farm: The impact on birds from North Sea wind farms is less than feared, whilst the structures and their footings provide a new habitat for a range of organisms, increasing diversity. ScienceDaily (Aug. 8, 2011)

Flexing antimicrobial mussels: Myticin C – an anti-microbial agent identified in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis is shown to protect against some viral infections.
Balseiro P, Falcó A, Romero A, Dios S, Martínez-López A, et al. (2011) Mytilus galloprovincialis Myticin C: A Chemotactic Molecule with Antiviral Activity and Immunoregulatory Properties. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23140. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023140

Oyster wall: Ozster banks can help to protect shorelines from errosion.
Scyphers SB, Powers SP, Heck KL Jr, Byron D (2011) Oyster Reefs as Natural Breakwaters Mitigate Shoreline Loss and Facilitate Fisheries. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22396. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022396

Pollution

Nitrogen spreadsheet: The cost benefit analysis of adding nitrogen in agriculture: Reduced usage in Europe and the US alongside increased yields suggest that simple models need to be developed for global use, so that farmers can see clearly what the optimum amount of fertiliser use is. This will reduce the cost of fertiliser to the farmer, and minimise environmental damage.
Good AG, Beatty PH (2011) Fertilizing Nature: A Tragedy of Excess in the Commons. PLoS Biol 9(8): e1001124. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001124

Climate change

Mackerel movement: Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus) stocks on the Eastern coast of the US have moved 255km northeastward and into shallower waters in response to climate change. ScienceDaily (Aug. 15, 2011)

How fast can you change? Measuring the ability of invertebrate larvae to respond to increased marine acidity.
Sunday JM, Crim RN, Harley CDG, Hart MW (2011) Quantifying Rates of Evolutionary Adaptation in Response to Ocean Acidification. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22881. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022881

Fizzy oysters: How changes to carbonate chemistry due to increased concentrations of carbon dioxide effect the embryonic growth of the pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas).
Gazeau F, Gattuso J-P, Greaves M, Elderfield H, Peene J, et al. (2011) Effect of Carbonate Chemistry Alteration on the Early Embryonic Development of the Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas). PLoS ONE 6(8): e23010. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023010

Climate killer: Models of fish populations in the Great Lakes (fresh water) indicate that climate change is a greater threat than invasive species.
Sharma S, Vander Zanden MJ, Magnuson JJ, Lyons J (2011) Comparing Climate Change and Species Invasions as Drivers of Coldwater Fish Population Extirpations. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22906. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022906

Can you do without snails? It looks like ocean acidification will lead to a reduced the harvest of marine molluscs such as mussels and oysters. This may lead to deprivation in many nations – those identified in the report include Senegal, Madagascar, Gambia, Mozambique and Haiti. Via EurekaAlert! 2nd Aug 2011

Marine science

The shark with a hump: What is the similarity between a shark and a camel? Apparently their immune B-cell based adaptive immune systems are an example of convergent evolution. This adaptation is only found in cartilaginous fish and camelids, and is thought to be related to high urea concentrations in shark’s blood, and extreme adaptation to arid climates in camels. Both conditions result in higher than usual electrolyte concentrations in the blood stream, where the B-cells work, and the adaptation results in an antigen binding protein that is better able to cope under these conditions.
Flajnik MF, Deschacht N, Muyldermans S (2011) A Case Of Convergence: Why Did a Simple Alternative to Canonical Antibodies Arise in Sharks and Camels? PLoS Biol 9(8): e1001120. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001120

Pliers or fingers? The bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops sp.) generally hunts for prey using echo-location, and can even use this technique to find buried fish, but occasionally it puts a basket sponge over its nose and probes the sediment directly instead of using echo-location. This work shows that dolphins only use tools when the substrate is mixed, so it is hard to spot buried food, or when they are hunting for prey other than bony fish. The absence of a swim-bladder makes prey more difficult to spot by echo-location.
Patterson EM, Mann J (2011) The Ecological Conditions That Favor Tool Use and Innovation in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops sp.). PLoS ONE 6(7): e22243. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022243

Cape crèche: What are the crietria that make undersea promontories and capes such attractive places for fish to spawn? Previously it was thought that the presence of currents that sweep the young out to sea was the important factor. This study shows the contrary, with most spawning sites being associated with stable eddies that keep the young fish close to the shore.
Karnauskas M, Chérubin LM, Paris CB (2011) Adaptive Significance of the Formation of Multi-Species Fish Spawning Aggregations near Submerged Capes. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22067. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022067

Buzzing lobsters: Usually crustacea make a noise by rubbing limbs together, in a similar manner grass hoppers, here, however, we find that some lobsters are able to make a buzzing sound by vibrating their carapaces. Fewer than 5% of the lobsters tested made the noise, but at 118 decibels it is an effective deterrent to (small) hungry fish… by Zen at NeuroDojo, July 15, 2011

Light keeps starvation at bay: The sea-slug Elysia clarki is capable of keeping chloroplasts taken from its algal food viable in its digestive system for considerable periods of time. This means that the slug can generate a proportion of its food photosynthetically, and this ability in turn delays its response to starvation conditions for several weeks, until the photosynthetic chloroplasts degrade below a useful level.
Middlebrooks ML, Pierce SK, Bell SS (2011) Foraging Behavior under Starvation Conditions Is Altered via Photosynthesis by the Marine Gastropod, Elysia clarki. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22162. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022162

What jumbo had for lunch: Isotopic analysis has been used to track foraging patterns in jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas). Taking several samples along the gladius (main body of the squid) follows the foraging back through the life of the squid. The isotope patterns show periods of eating on the move during migration, and patterns where food sources are more stable. Several habitats may be being exploited by the squid during their lifespan.
Lorrain A, Argüelles J, Alegre A, Bertrand A, Munaron J-M, et al. (2011) Sequential Isotopic Signature Along Gladius Highlights Contrasted Individual Foraging Strategies of Jumbo Squid (Dosidicus gigas). PLoS ONE 6(7): e22194. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022194

Programming snails: Simple programs can duplicate the self-aggregation behaviour of littorinid snails (which group together to protect against dessication) – if they are living on simple artificial surfaces. Real rock surfaces with nooks and cranies permit a wider range of behaviour that is less impacted by hot dry days…
Stafford R, Williams GA, Davies MS (2011) Robustness of Self-Organised Systems to Changes in Behaviour: An Example from Real and Simulated Self-Organised Snail Aggregations. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22743. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022743

Gingerbread house: Shrimps that make their homes in sponges are not, it appears, innocent squatters, but are adapted to eating their abode…
Ďuriš Z, Horká I, Juračka PJ, Petrusek A, Sandford F (2011) These Squatters Are Not Innocent: The Evidence of Parasitism in Sponge-Inhabiting Shrimps. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21987. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021987

The rocks make the worm: The tubeworm Riftia pachyptila is one of the hallmark species of deep hydrothermal vents. This study shows that they are quite genetically diverse, and may be quite strongly adapted to their specific geochemical niche.
Robidart JC, Roque A, Song P, Girguis PR (2011) Linking Hydrothermal Geochemistry to Organismal Physiology: Physiological Versatility in Riftia pachyptila from Sedimented and Basalt-hosted Vents. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21692. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021692

Conservative worms: 12% of the polychaet worms identified in Canadian waters are thought to inhabit three oceans – Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific, based on morphological criteria. This genetic barcoding study of cytochrome COI shows that despite appearances there are large differences in genetics between Pacific and Arctic/Atlantic populations. The study suggests that there are a number of cryptic species lurking amongst those previously identified.
Carr CM, Hardy SM, Brown TM, Macdonald TA, Hebert PDN (2011) A Tri-Oceanic Perspective: DNA Barcoding Reveals Geographic Structure and Cryptic Diversity in Canadian Polychaetes. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22232. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022232

Life on kelp: This study from Sydney Harbour (Australia) indicates that epiphytes such as bryozoans are strongly influenced by what the kelp they are growing on is growing on in turn. Man-made substrates, such as pilings increased the density of the introduced species Membranipora membranacea, possibly as these structures provided shade which indirectly influeces the population of predatory urchins…
Marzinelli EM, Underwood AJ, Coleman RA (2011) Modified Habitats Influence Kelp Epibiota via Direct and Indirect Effects. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21936. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021936

The startled anemone: Individual beadlet anemones exhibit ‘personality’ in the way they respond to being startled.
Briffa M, Greenaway J (2011) High In Situ Repeatability of Behaviour Indicates Animal Personality in the Beadlet Anemone Actinia equina (Cnidaria). PLoS ONE 6(7): e21963. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021963

The written world: A report of the global biodiversity of sea-pens (Pennatulacea) [of the approximately 200 species only two are common in the shallow waters around the UK coastline].
Williams GC (2011) The Global Diversity of Sea Pens (Cnidaria: Octocorallia: Pennatulacea). PLoS ONE 6(7): e22747. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022747

Harpooned! A detailed investigation of the structure and genetics of the nematocyst in the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis.
Zenkert C, Takahashi T, Diesner M-O, Özbek S (2011) Morphological and Molecular Analysis of the Nematostella vectensis Cnidom. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22725. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022725

How do you do that? A strategy for analysing the differences in gene expression between sessile (polyp) and motile (medusoid) phases in the cnidarian Nanomia bijuga.
Siebert S, Robinson MD, Tintori SC, Goetz F, Helm RR, et al. (2011) Differential Gene Expression in the Siphonophore Nanomia bijuga (Cnidaria) Assessed with Multiple Next-Generation Sequencing Workflows. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22953. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022953

Seagrass food web: The food-web structure of seagrass habitats studied on the Canadian Atlantic coast were found to change with human impacts, such eutrophication. The authors conclude that the spatial scale of the analysis is critical for determining results, with point studies often being dominated by local factors that obscure statistically significant regional effects.
Coll M, Schmidt A, Romanuk T, Lotze HK (2011) Food-Web Structure of Seagrass Communities across Different Spatial Scales and Human Impacts. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22591. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022591

Bloom populations: We know now that phytoplankton species are not homogeneous. This study shows that even single blooms may be contributed to by several sub-populations. During a long-lived bloom in the Gulf of Maine (US, 2005) the dominant sub-population changed over time.
Erdner DL, Richlen M, McCauley LAR, Anderson DM (2011) Diversity and Dynamics of a Widespread Bloom of the Toxic Dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22965. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022965

Moored PCR: A moored sensor in Monterey Bay (US) monitored genes and gene products from a wide range of organisms for 28 days. The sensor allows gene abundances to be assessed autonomously, underwater in near real-time and referenced against prevailing chemical, physical and bulk biological conditions.
Preston CM, Harris A, Ryan JP, Roman B, Marin R III, et al. (2011) Underwater Application of Quantitative PCR on an Ocean Mooring. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22522. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022522

Conservation

Managing coastal infrastructure: Man made structures dominate much of our coastline, and their management and maintenance is associated with the loss of species such as mussels and oysters, that normally dominate hard substrates, and their replacement with opportunistic species such as biofilms and seaweeds. Much of the problem is associated with sediment disturbance, which can effect a much wider area than that associated with the work itself. This paper suggests that the impact can be lessened by carrying out maintenance work at times of the year when dominant species are quiescent.
Airoldi L, Bulleri F (2011) Anthropogenic Disturbance Can Determine the Magnitude of Opportunistic Species Responses on Marine Urban Infrastructures. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22985. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022985

Dolphin count: It is claimed that aerial survey of cetaceans in the new Pelagos Sanctuary in the Mediterranean provides robust estimates of population levels.
Panigada S, Lauriano G, Burt L, Pierantonio N, Donovan G (2011) Monitoring Winter and Summer Abundance of Cetaceans in the Pelagos Sanctuary (Northwestern Mediterranean Sea) Through Aerial Surveys. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22878. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022878

Deep impact: What are likely to be the consequences of mans impact on the deep sea? – This paper tries to identify ecosystems particularly at risk from exploitation, including cold-water corals and seamount communities.
Ramirez-Llodra E, Tyler PA, Baker MC, Bergstad OA, Clark MR, et al. (2011) Man and the Last Great Wilderness: Human Impact on the Deep Sea. PLoS ONE 6(8): e22588. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022588

Shark society: Genetic studies on the scalloped hammerhead shark, Sphyrna lewini, were used to estimate the genetic structure of the population. The study indicated that most populations expanded rapidly between 90,000 and 140,000 years ago, and that the sharks now live in small, nearly isolated communities. The current population is estimated to be between 2 and 3 orders of magnitude (100-1000x) smaller than in the past. The start of the decline in numbers may predate human predation. Studies were based on 221 individuals caught by fishermen.
Nance HA, Klimley P, Galván-Magaña F, Martínez-Ortíz J, Marko PB (2011) Demographic Processes Underlying Subtle Patterns of Population Structure in the Scalloped Hammerhead Shark, Sphyrna lewini. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21459. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021459

Fisheries and exploitation

Cod to be back: After nearly 30 years cod have finally started to return to the Grand Banks and Eastern Scotia shelf off Canada. Stocks are still weak but the fishing ban appears to have worked, partially reversing the effect of fisheries that had forced many commercial species to local extinction in the 1970′s. ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011)

Fish, plankton and birds in the North Sea: Clupeids like the herring are postulated to control a large part of the North Sea ecosystem because they are the intermediate between plankton and higher trophic levels, such as seabirds and seals. Herring populations are found to directly influence that of overwintering seabirds. Fishing pressures, which have historically switched between cod and herring, therefore have a major impact on the entire ecosystem.
Fauchald P, Skov H, Skern-Mauritzen M, Johns D, Tveraa T (2011) Wasp-Waist Interactions in the North Sea Ecosystem. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22729. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022729

Cost-benefit for no-take zones: No-take zones have an immediate and negative impact on fishermen, so it is important to demonstrate that they do regenerate fish stocks, and lead to long-term sustainability. Benjamin Jones July 19, 2011, Marine Conservation News

Cleaner needed: The hagfish is facing increasing pressure from some fisheries, despite that fact that its recycling activities are beneficial for other, more commercially valuable, species such as cod and flounder. Benjamin Jones July 30, 2011, Marine Conservation News

Energetics and survival: Pacific bluefin tuna seem to live life on the edge, with wild populations having very small reserves to deal with starvation. Wild fish grow more slowly than cultivated fish larely because they live at lower average water temperatures, rather than due to a difference in diet.
Jusup M, Klanjscek T, Matsuda H, Kooijman SALM (2011) A Full Lifecycle Bioenergetic Model for Bluefin Tuna. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21903. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021903

Biofuels from the oceans: Early thoughts on farming seaweed in coastal waters. Benjamin Jones in Marine Conservation News, July 15, 2011

I remember: Fishermen’s recollections of the numbers of top predators (dolphins and sharks) they used to see when fishing indicates that there has been a significant decline in sightings over the last 60 years. This decline correlates with the decline in commercial fish stocks they were preying on.
Maynou F, Sbrana M, Sartor P, Maravelias C, Kavadas S, et al. (2011) Estimating Trends of Population Decline in Long-Lived Marine Species in the Mediterranean Sea Based on Fishers’ Perceptions. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21818. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021818

Pollution

No acute effects on nearshore fisheries: Comparisons of numbers of fish larvae caught within seagrass nurseries after the Deepwater Horizon accident and those in previous years indicate that the spill has had no acute ffect on fish stocks within the effected areas. Many species in fact showed a larger population than seen in previous years, with no change in species mix following the spill. The reason for this better-than-expected result is not clear, but concern for these fisheries now moves to whether there is any chronic effect of the spill.
Fodrie FJ, Heck KL Jr (2011) Response of Coastal Fishes to the Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21609. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021609

Climate change

Weedy plankton: Increased CO₂ levels result in thinner calcite skeletons in coccolithophorids. ScienceDaily (Aug. 3, 2011)

Acid bait: A study on the brown dottyback (Pseudochromis fuscus) shows that Ocean acidification may reduce how readily fish can detect prey in the water by impairing their sense of smell.
Cripps IL, Munday PL, McCormick MI (2011) Ocean Acidification Affects Prey Detection by a Predatory Reef Fish. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22736. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022736

Ice-shelf collapse triggers community change: Collapses of the Larsen ice shelf in 1995 and 2002 have changed benthic conditions for nematodes living in the underlying sediments. The loss of ice has resulted in a greater influx of food during the summer phytoplankton bloom, and a corresponding change in the types and numbers of nematodes living in these areas.
Hauquier F, Ingels J, Gutt J, Raes M, Vanreusel A (2011) Characterisation of the Nematode Community of a Low-Activity Cold Seep in the Recently Ice-Shelf Free Larsen B Area, Eastern Antarctic Peninsula. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22240. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022240

Below is a quick breakdown table of the life recorded, for a full species list see our survey page:

Marine science

The all seeing-eye: Instead of having eyes, sea urchins are able to detect light with receptors located at the tips of their tube-feet. The authors speculate that the feet may act like an enormous compound eye, that lets the urchin see in all directions around their body. ScienceDaily (June 30, 2011)

A net of air: Some nice photos and an explanation of how humpback whales use bubble nets to entrap prey. ScienceDaily (June 27, 2011)

A global map of sea-squirts: Looking at the defining characteristics of tunicates, and providing some guides to systematic classification. Currently there are about 3000 species recognised, over half of them discovered since 1950. The hotspot for diversity is Australia, with 717 species, the UK fares comparatively poorly with only 58. [These figures have not been normalised for comparison, but I think Australia would still stand out. There is a lot of information here for anyone with an interest in these distant cousins.]
Shenkar N, Swalla BJ (2011) Global Diversity of Ascidiacea. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20657. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020657

Free swimming tunicates sequenced. This group of 72 known species, called thaliaceans, which includes salps. ScienceDaily (July 1, 2011)

Lectins quick to change: The fastest evolving parts of hard coral genome code for leptins, proteins that recognise sugars. The authors hypothesise that they may be important for recognising their algal symbionts.
Iguchi A, Shinzato C, Forêt S, Miller DJ (2011) Identification of Fast-Evolving Genes in the Scleractinian Coral Acropora Using Comparative EST Analysis. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20140. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020140

Software trained to spot species: Software agents can be trained to report the likely diversity of underwater communities from bathymetric LiDAR data obtained from aircraft. Information can be gained even from turbid waters.
Collin A, Archambault P, Long B (2011) Predicting Species Diversity of Benthic Communities within Turbid Nearshore Using Full-Waveform Bathymetric LiDAR and Machine Learners. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21265. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021265

I know an old lady who swallowed a lion… Groupers as potential bio-control agents for lionfish.
Mumby PJ, Harborne AR, Brumbaugh DR (2011) Grouper as a Natural Biocontrol of Invasive Lionfish. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21510. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021510

There’s an oyster outside my pearl! The genes that allow oysters to make their shells by biomineralisation have been identified.
Fang D, Xu G, Hu Y, Pan C, Xie L, et al. (2011) Identification of Genes Directly Involved in Shell Formation and Their Functions in Pearl Oyster, Pinctada fucata. PLoS ONE 6(7): e21860. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021860

Dinoflagelates vs diatoms: In most of the world’s oceans diatoms win hands down, and the main spring bloom consists almost entirely of these microscopic plants [I was really pleased when I picked out my first dinoflagelate under the microscope!]. In the Baltic, however, dinoflagelates are often the major component of the bloom. This paper hypothesises that this occurs due to the sequence of early spring events, including proliferation under melting spring ice, that get the dinoflagellates off to a quick start, allowing them to compete more effectively.
Klais R, Tamminen T, Kremp A, Spilling K, Olli K (2011) Decadal-Scale Changes of Dinoflagellates and Diatoms in the Anomalous Baltic Sea Spring Bloom. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21567. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021567

Kelp warning: Injured Laminaria digitata may warn their neighbours to expect predators by releasing chemicals into the surrounding seawater.
Thomas F, Cosse A, Goulitquer S, Raimund S, Morin P, et al. (2011) Waterborne Signaling Primes the Expression of Elicitor-Induced Genes and Buffers the Oxidative Responses in the Brown Alga Laminaria digitata. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21475. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021475

Bugs and phosphorus: How do bacterial communities interact with phosphorus, a common agricultural pollutant that is increasingly important in causing eutrophication in estuarine and coastal waters? This paper starts to define how different forms of phospherous and microbial communities interact.
Sinkko H, Lukkari K, Jama AS, Sihvonen LM, Sivonen K, et al. (2011) Phosphorus Chemistry and Bacterial Community Composition Interact in Brackish Sediments Receiving Agricultural Discharges. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21555. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021555

Biofilms on coral – the first 100 hrs: A study of the early stages of biofilm formation on artificial coralss shows that bacteria are selected from the water column, and this process is dependent upon the physicao-chemical nature of the coral surface.
Sweet MJ, Croquer A, Bythell JC (2011) Development of Bacterial Biofilms on Artificial Corals in Comparison to Surface-Associated Microbes of Hard Corals. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21195. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021195

TOPP program reports: A ten year program to follow predators in the Pacific is published in Nature. ScienceDaily (June 23, 2011)

Conservation

The end of the world: An IPSO meeting at the University of Oxford predicts globally significant ocean extinction event. 21st June 2011

Tourism to save sharks: Apparently there are now more than 300 eco-tour operators offering shark tours, potentially making the shark an important part of the local economy. The study estimates that each shark is worth $73 per day alive as a tourist attraction, vs $50 one off payment for a dead shark’s fin. [Lets hope the sums work out in practice.]ScienceDaily (June 29, 2011)

Whale on right track for recovery: The southern right whale has re-entered New Zealand waters for the first time after being hunted to local extinction there a century ago. ScienceDaily (June 27, 2011)

300: A research cruise sponsored by Margaret and Will Hearst may have discovered as many as 300 new species during a cruise of the Philippines. ScienceDaily (June 26, 2011)

Clean bill of health: Removing cleaner fish from a reef is associated with reduced stock health, and possibly recruitment.
Waldie PA, Blomberg SP, Cheney KL, Goldizen AW, Grutter AS (2011) Long-Term Effects of the Cleaner Fish Labroides dimidiatus on Coral Reef Fish Communities. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21201. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021201

Fisheries and exploitation

Discards ban boost: Banning discards will both promote fish stocks and increase fishermen’s incomes, according to a new report by the University of York. ScienceDaily (June 22, 2011)

Where have you been? Isotopic analysis helps trace where salmon from British rivers lived when they were at sea. ScienceDaily (June 24, 2011)

Living faster and dying younger: A comparison of modern fish catches with the bones form archaeological sites shows the effect of over-fishing off the coast of Kenya. ScienceDaily (June 25, 2011)

Harvesting kelp for biofuels: July would be the best month for harvesting kelp in Welsh waters, as this matches the peak in sugar concentration in the plant. [While the authors correctly say that switching terrestrial farming from food to fuel would cause starvation for many, the broader impact of farming kelp in the coastal environment really needs to be considered carefully before this proposal can be taken seriously. We have, after all, never tried to farm seaweed in any significant quantity before...]. ScienceDaily (July 3, 2011)

A happy sole: The problem with culturing Solea solea is its slow and variable growth, here growth rate is associated with feeding consistency, swimming activity in the tank, and boldness during behavioral tests.
Mas-Muñoz J, Komen H, Schneider O, Visch SW, Schrama JW (2011) Feeding Behaviour, Swimming Activity and Boldness Explain Variation in Feed Intake and Growth of Sole (Solea solea) Reared in Captivity. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21393. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021393

Scope for adaption: Sockeye salmon face increasing pressure from temperature rises, with a 2°C rise forcing the optimal migration time ahead by ten days. This paper asks what level of genetic mutability is required to preserve natural populations.
Reed TE, Schindler DE, Hague MJ, Patterson DA, Meir E, et al. (2011) Time to Evolve? Potential Evolutionary Responses of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon to Climate Change and Effects on Persistence. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20380. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020380

Pollution

9%: The percentage of fish with ingested plastic in their intestines. ScienceDaily (July 1, 2011)

Archives for the Deepwater Horizon accident have been consolidated on the NOAA website into two main sub-sections providing an overview of the response to the incident:
Assessment and restoration – news, project suggestions and assessments.
Seafood safety – monitoring data, effects of dispersant and archive of closures (via Deep Sea News, June 28th, 2011)

Climate change

Proton pumps in phytoplankton: Coccolithophores are an integral part of the CO^{2 regulation, converting massive amounts of the stuff into calcite, which is precipitated as limestone when they die. They produce calcite as coccoliths – intricate protective scales – but to do this they need to pump out the excess acid the process generates in their cytoplasm. Understanding this process will help us evaluate the likely impact of acean acidification (review article)
Taylor AR, Chrachri A, Wheeler G, Goddard H, Brownlee C (2011) A Voltage-Gated H+ Channel Underlying pH Homeostasis in Calcifying Coccolithophores. PLoS Biol 9(6): e1001085. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001085}

Plankton on the move: Neodenticula seminae is a phytoplankton common in the northern Pacific Ocean, but only recently found in the Atlantic. The 1999 survey found the plankton in the Labrador Sea, where it is thought to have arrived after travelling on a pulse of warm water formed due to changes in circulation patterns caused by global warming. Marine Conservation News June 27, 2011 (also reported in Science Daily 29th June 2011)

Ocean acidification: A series of posts by Jennifer Langston in Sightline Daily.

Marine science

Promiscuity on the beach: The intertidal zone is one of the most pronounced ecological gradients on the planet, and is usually visibly banded with specialised communities living in zones down from the extreme high water mark. Despite this many species on the beach are able to hybridise, a policy which might cost them their unique adaptations. This study looks at different species of the brown seaweed Fucus, and concludes that it is just the presence of the extreme gradient in exposure that keeps the species morphologically distinct.
Zardi GI, Nicastro KR, Canovas F, Ferreira Costa J, Serrão EA, et al. (2011) Adaptive Traits Are Maintained on Steep Selective Gradients despite Gene Flow and Hybridization in the Intertidal Zone. PLoS ONE 6(6): e19402. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019402

Ironing in the differences: The addition of iron salts to oceanic waters low in nutrients is known to encourage algal growth, and artificial addition of iron has been suggested as a means to encourage carbon dioxide uptake by phytoplankton. In this survey areas of naturally enriched oceanic waters are compared with adjacent low-iron areas. High iron concentrations correlated with higher benthic biomass, and a different species composition. THese areas were also found to be less homogeneous than their low iron counterparts.
Wolff GA, Billett DSM, Bett BJ, Holtvoeth J, FitzGeorge-Balfour T, et al. (2011) The Effects of Natural Iron Fertilisation on Deep-Sea Ecology: The Crozet Plateau, Southern Indian Ocean. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20697. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020697

Lean on me: Hydroids can form symbiotic relationships with corals, in which they rely on the coral’s skeleton for support and protection. This necessitates some specific adaptations in the hydroid that permit it to penetrate to the host’s skeleton, but also permit it to release itself from this, so it does not become overgrown.
Pantos O, Hoegh-Guldberg O (2011) Shared Skeletal Support in a Coral-Hydroid Symbiosis. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20946. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020946

Sub-sea stereo: Dolphins can generate two sound beams simultaneously. The beams are projected in different directions, and are thought to help the dolphin locate objects more precisely. ScienceDaily (June 8, 2011)

Oily weight-belt: Copepods are the prey of many fish in surface waters, so they like to hypernate in deep water during the winter, when their own algal food is scarce. This raises a problem for them in adapting their buoyancy, and it appears that they do this be having reserves of omega-3 oils, which undergo a phase change to a dense butter under pressure. This means that the tiny animals are neutrally buoyant both in surface and deep waters, and don’t have to swim to maintain depth. ScienceDaily (June 13, 2011)

Too fast for crabs: The green crab (Carcinus maenas) is less able to locate food in fast water currents, and spends longer eating the food it does catch. It is thought that the current both carries scent cues away, making it harder for the crab to find food, but also imposes a physical impediment to the crab’s getting about.
Robinson EM, Smee DL, Trussell GC (2011) Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) Foraging Efficiency Reduced by Fast Flows. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21025. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021025

Quick change: Rock hinds (Epinephelus adscensionis, Gulf of Mexico) seem similar to our cuckoo Wrasse, with the dominant female in a group becoming male if the existing male is removed. Both sexes of rock hind, however, can display temporary markings to defend territory. In addition the males can also show a distinctive ‘tuxedo’ pattern, with a yellow tail and black and white body. Most of the time, however, both males and females adopt a camoflaged pattern.
Kline RJ, Khan IA, Holt GJ (2011) Behavior, Color Change and Time for Sexual Inversion in the Protogynous Grouper (Epinephelus adscensionis). PLoS ONE 6(5): e19576. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019576

Don’t bite your clients! Male cleaner fish beat up spouses who get greedy and take a nip out of their clients. [Social and sexual make-up of cleaner fish is again similar to our cuckoo Wrasse, with a single dominant male and a harem of up to 16 females, the largest female will change sex if the dominant male is removed] ScienceDaily (June 16, 2011)

How sponges grow glass: Sponges split ointo two families, depending upon whether they have calcareous or silica-based spines, which form a skeleton. The sponge Suberites domuncula – commonly found on the shells inhabited by hermit crabs – starts growing a silica spicule within a cell. The first structure is an internal canal, down which the cell inserts silicasomes. Pores in the silicasomes allow the access of aquaporin, which initiates hardening of the bio-silicate.
Wang X, Wiens M, Schröder HC, Schloßmacher U, Pisignano D, et al. (2011) Evagination of Cells Controls Bio-Silica Formation and Maturation during Spicule Formation in Sponges. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20523. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020523

Jellies impact marine food web: Jellyfish are in direct competition for plankton with fish, but have now been shown to have a secondary impact on marine bacteria. Soluble organic material from jellyfish tends to be used by bacteria for respiration, rather than recycling vital trace nutrients. As a consequence jellyfish short-circuit the marine food web, resulting in any carbon dioxide that is absorbed by photosynthesis being quickly dumped back into the atmosphere. ScienceDaily (June 6, 2011)

Richer at the edges? The boundaries between different biological landscapes (ecotones) provide both opportunities and threats – species living close to an edge may be more exposed to predators, or the area may encourage species mixing and greater diversity. This study looks at how the diversity of gastropods changed at the boundaries between reefs and seagrass (Posidonia and Amphibolis) beds. [In this instance there appears to be no edge effect, with species richenss and biomass both quickly converging on the values expected for the bulk reef or seagrass ecosystem with no peak or trough at the interface.]
Tuya F, Vanderklift MA, Wernberg T, Thomsen MS (2011) Gradients in the Number of Species at Reef-Seagrass Ecotones Explained by Gradients in Abundance. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20190. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020190

Larder raid: GPS-dataloggers attached to adult Peruvian pelicans Pelecanus thagus confirm that they forage at night.
Zavalaga CB, Dell’Omo G, Becciu P, Yoda K (2011) Patterns of GPS Tracks Suggest Nocturnal Foraging by Incubating Peruvian Pelicans (Pelecanus thagus). PLoS ONE 6(5): e19966. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019966

A coral’s cholesterol count: Corals contian a mix of lipid types which can be split into two classes – storage (an energy reserve) and structural (used to build cells – e.g. cholesterol). This study finds that the balance between these is determined by the requirements of both the coral and their symbiont algae Symbiodinium.
Cooper TF, Lai M, Ulstrup KE, Saunders SM, Flematti GR, et al. (2011) Symbiodinium Genotypic and Environmental Controls on Lipids in Reef Building Corals. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20434. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020434

Too salty? One of the genes responsible for sensing how salty the environment is has been identified in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp..
Liang C, Zhang X, Chi X, Guan X, Li Y, et al. (2011) Serine/Threonine Protein Kinase SpkG Is a Candidate for High Salt Resistance in the Unicellular Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. PLoS ONE 6(5): e18718. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018718

Don’t go eating that yellow snow: The organic particulates that rain down from the productive surface waters into the oceans deeps have been, rather poetically, referred to as ‘marine snow’. For the full health warning read Hannah Waters in Culturing Science, August 19, 2010

Microbes in the Gulf of Maine: A survey of everything from viruses to phytoplankton in this area estimates a minimum abundance of cell-based microbes as 1.7×10²⁵ organisms. This may equate to a species richness of between 10⁵ to 10⁶ taxa.
Li WKW, Andersen RA, Gifford DJ, Incze LS, Martin JL, et al. (2011) Planktonic Microbes in the Gulf of Maine Area. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20981. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020981

Invertebrate vaccination: It looks like some invertebrates can be primed against disease, though the mechanism remains unclear.
Pope EC, Powell A, Roberts EC, Shields RJ, Wardle R, et al. (2011) Enhanced Cellular Immunity in Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) after ‘Vaccination’. PLoS ONE 6(6): e20960. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020960

DNA barcoding delimits species: Fast barcoding techniques prove robust enough to pick out species of bivalve in Chinese waters.
Chen J, Li Q, Kong L, Yu H (2011) How DNA Barcodes Complement Taxonomy and Explore Species Diversity: The Case Study of a Poorly Understood Marine Fauna. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21326. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021326

Conservation

A bad place to live? A study that looks into how the local environment influences disease in corals. The underlying associations between disease prevalence and 14 different predictor variables (biotic and abiotic) are reported.
Aeby GS, Williams GJ, Franklin EC, Kenyon J, Cox EF, et al. (2011) Patterns of Coral Disease across the Hawaiian Archipelago: Relating Disease to Environment. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20370. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020370

Marlin don’t like being tagged: [Tagging is a vital part of our studies into the lives of the larger marine organisms, it allows us to fill in gaps in our understanding of their life-cycles and behaviour. It also allows us to see which areas of the sea they make most use of, and so plan conservation strategies. This only works if the animal being tagged continues to behave normally, however...]
Sippel T, Holdsworth J, Dennis T, Montgomery J (2011) Investigating Behaviour and Population Dynamics of Striped Marlin (Kajikia audax) from the Southwest Pacific Ocean with Satellite Tags. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21087. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021087

Eels don’t like being tagged either.
Methling C, Tudorache C, Skov PV, Steffensen JF (2011) Pop Up Satellite Tags Impair Swimming Performance and Energetics of the European Eel (Anguilla anguilla). PLoS ONE 6(6): e20797. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020797

Boning up: Scientists now know a little more about the bone fish resident in Caribbean waters, with observations of pre-spawning aggregations of fish in deeper water than previously suspected for the species. ScienceDaily (June 7, 2011)

Eel today, gone tomorrow: The European eel in Sweden is now thought to be critically endangered, having collapsed to a few percent of its population only 50 years ago. mnagement policies in place are thought to be too lenient with local fisheries to permit it to survive. ScienceDaily (June 7, 2011)

Stranded statistics: Genetic barcoding of carcasses from dolphin strandings may not accurately reflect the genetic makeup of the population as a whole, so care must be taken with inferrences based on this data. [contrast with below]
Bilgmann K, Möller LM, Harcourt RG, Kemper CM, Beheregaray LB (2011) The Use of Carcasses for the Analysis of Cetacean Population Genetic Structure: A Comparative Study in Two Dolphin Species. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20103. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020103

Stranding stats reflect population: Keeping a track of stranded cetaceans may be a cheap and reliable way of following what is happening to the population a a whole. [Contrast with above] ScienceDaily (June 8, 2011)

Where are the marine reserves? Reserves established a decade ago have allowed fish populations to recover, so how come so little of the marine system is protected? Bruce Barcott in Environment 360, 16 Jun 2011

Deep Sea Conservation Coalition: Is calling for the United Nations General Assembly to secure a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling and protect deep-water species that are often slow growing and very susceptible to over fishing.

Evolve away from that: The ability of corals to survive in a rapidly changing marine ecosystem – threatened by climate change, pollution and exploitation – may depend upon how quickly they can evolve. This paper is a preliminary study of the plasticity of genomes of Acropora millepora and Acropora palmata.
Voolstra CR, Sunagawa S, Matz MV, Bayer T, Aranda M, et al. (2011) Rapid Evolution of Coral Proteins Responsible for Interaction with the Environment. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20392. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020392

Antarctic diversity: South Georgia is in a unique location, in the middle of the Antarctic circum-polar current, and south of the polar front. The shelf around South Georgia has now been reported to be the most diverse marine area in the Southern Ocean. The species in the area have not been recorded very often, and many may be rare. In addition, a large number are thought to be close to the edge of their range, and may find it hard to cope with climate change.
Hogg OT, Barnes DKA, Griffiths HJ (2011) Highly Diverse, Poorly Studied and Uniquely Threatened by Climate Change: An Assessment of Marine Biodiversity on South Georgia’s Continental Shelf. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19795. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019795

Little skate (Leucoraja erinacea) genome workshop: Dr Bik in Deep Sea News, May 28th, 2011

Fish predictor: A model combining seabottom topography (roughness, curvature, slope etc.) and geography (distance to shore or shelf, water depth) has proven successful in predicting the habitat ranges of three reef fish species. The dominant factor in predicting the range of fish was the distance to shore (or shelf), followed by the tortuosity/complexity (slope of slope) of the surface.
Pittman SJ, Brown KA (2011) Multi-Scale Approach for Predicting Fish Species Distributions across Coral Reef Seascapes. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20583. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020583

Disease transfer: A study on the US Pacific coast finds evidence that diseases associated with terrestrial animals are finding their way aquatic populations is being found after post mortems of marine mammals. ScienceDaily (May 25, 2011)

Fisheries and exploitation

Just how much have our fisheries declined in the last century? The map published by the Guardian shows estimated fish stocks for 1900 and 2000 in the North Atlantic. There is a reference to original work published by Christensen et al. in Fish and Fisheries, 2003, 4, 1-24.

Fisheries activty on the Great Barrier Reef: Study showing how fisheries activity has changed since 1990, with increases in the areas protected from trawl fisheries. [The number of boats, and days spent fishing declined, but the catch per boat or day spent fishing increased].
Grech A, Coles R (2011) Interactions between a Trawl Fishery and Spatial Closures for Biodiversity Conservation in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21094. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0021094

Madagascar! More than the penguins will go hungry as fish stocks have been plundered by unregulated local fisheries and European fishing fleets during a period of prolonged political unrest. Two thirds of the Madagascan population face hunger. ScienceDaily (June 17, 2011)

Are fisheries subsidies bad for everyone? A hindcasting model reviewing how the subsidies system in the North Sea have influenced fisheries profits and ecological stability. The suggestion here is that subsidies had a negative impact on both marine biomass and fisheries profitability.
Heymans JJ, Mackinson S, Sumaila UR, Dyck A, Little A (2011) The Impact of Subsidies on the Ecological Sustainability and Future Profits from North Sea Fisheries. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20239. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020239

Abalone in trouble: Fisheries for the Northern Abalone in British Columbia (Canada) were closed in 1990 to allow stocks to recover, but so-far to very little effect, largely due to poaching. Recent studies, however, show that increases in CO2 will further undermine this species. ScienceDaily (May 26, 2011)

Fraudulent fish finder: The European Commissions Joint Research Centre claims that a battery of new technicques based on molecular technologies (genetics, genomics, chemistry and forensics) can answer questions of species and provenance, advances are necessary to police illegal fisheries. ScienceDaily (May 28, 2011)

Pollution

Nuclear cruise: Scientific expedition to follow the effects of leaked radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Dr Bik in Deep Sea News, June 6th, 2011.

Sunscreen threat to marine life? Studies on the fresh water water flea Daphnia magna show that nanoparticulate titanium dioxide (used as the active ingredient of most sunscreens) is toxic, but quickly associates into larger, less toxic, particles in water. Prolonged exposure of daphnia to concentrations of 2 mg/L resulted in the build up of coating on the animals, and resulted in moulting problems and high mortality for the water fleas.
Dabrunz A, Duester L, Prasse C, Seitz F, Rosenfeldt R, et al. (2011) Biological Surface Coating and Molting Inhibition as Mechanisms of TiO2 Nanoparticle Toxicity in Daphnia magna. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20112. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020112

Legal litmus test: Perpetrators of local acidification in coastal waters can be brought to book, concludes Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions. ScienceDaily (May 26, 2011)

Did bugs pig out? It has been reported that the hydrocarbons released during the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico were consumed by bacteria in the water colum within 120 days. This model is based on low oxygen concentrations monitored in the Gulf after the spill. Other scientists are less convinced by the inferencee, citing that there is a lot of uncertainly in the measurements. Methane in particular is thought to be very hard to digest. ScienceDaily (May 29, 2011)

Record dead zone predicted: Flooding of the Mississippi river this spring has swept large amounts of nutrients into the Gulf of Mexico, and a record dead zone is predicted as a consequence. (June 14, 2011) More on the deadzone: Graphs and stuff. ScienceDaily (June 14, 2011)

Climate change

Danger low oxygen! It looks like marine eutrophication may be very sensitive to climate change. Low oxygen water masses are created as bacteria decompose algae sinking through the water column. Usually they occur at some depth, where the water is cold, so bacterial growth is inhibited. Increased temperature reduces oxygen solubility on seawater and increases deep water temperatures. As a result these is less O₂ to go round, and it is used up more efficiently. The result is likely to be significant increases in the size of oceanic dead zones, where higher plants and animals are unable to survive. ScienceDaily (June 18, 2011)

Ocean acidification impairs hearing in clownfish. ScienceDaily (June 4, 2011)

Sea-ice and plankton: The copepod Calanus gracialis is well adapted to its arctic environment. It stores an enourmous amount of fat in its body (compared to its body mass), to survive during the arctic winter. Each spring as the ice melts it releases phytoplankton which are preyed upon by Calanus, who use the bounty to reproduce. Later, as the ice melts entirely there is a new phytoplankton bloom, which feeds the young Calanus, and sets them up for the long winter. This is a lifecycle that is closely timed to the seasons, and may be badly disrupted by climate changes. As Calanus is a vital food source for a wide range of species, from cod to whales, this may have far-reaching consequences. ScienceDaily (June 6, 2011)

Coral calcification: To understand how corals will respond to ocean acidification it would be useful to know how they go about producing thair calcified tissues. This study is the first to be able to image corals reducing the acidity (increasing the pH) of the seawater adjacent to their calicoblastic epithelium – the area of skin that is creating the calcified material. The reduced acidity in this volume of water makes carbonate minerals less soluble, so easier to precipitate as a skeleton.
Venn A, Tambutté E, Holcomb M, Allemand D, Tambutté S (2011) Live Tissue Imaging Shows Reef Corals Elevate pH under Their Calcifying Tissue Relative to Seawater. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20013. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020013

CO₂ seeps associated with reduced biodiversity: Natural volcanic CO₂ seeps in Papua New Guinea show how our oceans may become as a result of our fossil fuel economy. The study reports reductions in biodiversity and recruitment on the reef as pH declined from 8.1 to 7.8, and predicts that reef development would cease at a pH below 7.7. ScienceDaily (May 29, 2011)

Sponges in hot water.
Cebrian E, Uriz MJ, Garrabou J, Ballesteros E (2011) Sponge Mass Mortalities in a Warming Mediterranean Sea: Are Cyanobacteria-Harboring Species Worse Off? PLoS ONE 6(6): e20211. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020211

In conservation we look at attempts to model population dynamics across a patchwork of marine reserves. This kind of understanding is essential for planning effective reserves, as if reserves are too small, or the gaps between them are too large, then they will not protect all of the species within them from over exploitation. This section ends with a look at how well displaced populations survive – as aliens in the Med or the Caribbean, or displaced benthic faunal communities.

Fisheries has an interesting couple of articles on cod fishing in the Baltic – I had full access to the PLoS 1 journal article, and that appeared to say that fisheries, seals and cod could co-habit, though there would be problems. The ScienceDaily headline is a lot more strident, in saying that seals will be the financial ruin of small fishermen. Otherwise there is a paper drawing our attention to the possibility that fisheries and climate may not be independent variables. If this is that case it will make modelling fish stock that bit more challenging…

In fact there is a second link between fisheries and climate change this issue, with news that slow growing fish in the Tasman Sea are being adversely effected by temperature rise – the Tasman Sea has increased in temperature by 2°C in the last 60 years. Thankfully the Weddel Sea has only warmed by 0.6°C, but this still represents an enormous amount of heat entering the Southern Oceans from our warming climate. To ensure there is no silver lining in this issue, we learn that bacteria are the true rain makers.

Marine science

Another World: A selection of marine life photographs by Alexander Semenov on Photography Served. Absolutely stunning!

The manga of marine life: Some of the interesting life-history tricks of jellyfish By Kevin Zelnio in Deep Sea News, May 22nd, 2011.

Solving cryptic clues: They look alike, they eat the same things, they use the same ecological niches – but they are different species. Molecular biology is turning up increasing numbers of these cryptic species in the marine ecosystem. More surprisingly cryptics often cohabit, with apparently stable populations in the same region. Generally competitive systems don’t work out, as one species tends to dominate, and the other disappears. The model here, however, shows that even for species with identical competitive fitness (β), and invader can gain a foothold by reducing its investment in sex. A lone invader isn’t interested in the locals, so will put all of its effort into growth. Only when enough invaders appear will they start to mate, and be competing on the same playing field as the dominant population. Under these circumstances two populations can co-exist. This model relies on mating signals being species-specific. The authors also claim that diapause costs can also lead to stable two species populations.
Montero-Pau J, Serra M (2011) Life-Cycle Switching and Coexistence of Species with No Niche Differentiation. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20314. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020314

Impossible dives: Emperor penguins can dive for 20 minutes beneath the Antarctic ice without needing to surface for air. This study shows how oxygen is used up in the three stores – lungs, blood and muscle – to enable the bird to achieve this phenomenal endurance. ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011)

The seal’s whiskers: The whiskers of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) are so sensitive that they can pick up the wake of a swimming fish 35 seconds after it has passed by, and work out its size and shape from this information! ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011)

Decapod diversity: The decapods include many of of the most commonly encountered, and most commercially valuable, crustacean species – crabs, lobsters, langoustines and crayfish. Despite this, their genetic diversity, particularly at a regional level, is almost completely unexplored. In this study cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) regions of over 100 species are sequenced (<500 individuals). The COI region is present in all mitochondria - from plants and animals - and is commonly used for identifying organisms, and working out how related they are to each other. The study showed that the COI sequence can normally be used to identify species within decapoda. Further it provides some interesting insights into how diverse each family within the decapoda are.
Matzen da Silva J, Creer S, dos Santos A, Costa AC, Cunha MR, et al. (2011) Systematic and Evolutionary Insights Derived from mtDNA COI Barcode Diversity in the Decapoda (Crustacea: Malacostraca). PLoS ONE 6(5): e19449. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019449

Worms in the pit: A study of nematode populations in channels leading into the Porcupine Seabight, off the SW tip of Ireland. The study looks at which factors influence the nematode population structure.
Ingels J, Tchesunov AV, Vanreusel A (2011) Meiofauna in the Gollum Channels and the Whittard Canyon, Celtic Margin—How Local Environmental Conditions Shape Nematode Structure and Function. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20094. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020094

Remipede review: Since its discovery in 1981, a total of 24 species have now been included within the class Remipedia – segmented crustaceans that tend to live in caves, and are superficially similar to centipedes…
Neiber MT, Hartke TR, Stemme T, Bergmann A, Rust J, et al. (2011) Global Biodiversity and Phylogenetic Evaluation of Remipedia (Crustacea). PLoS ONE 6(5): e19627. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019627

Species of sea lettuce: Sea lettuces are not easy to identify, as they are quite plastic, adopting different forms in response to environmental conditions. This study attempts to identify a free-floating bloom of Ulva that occurred in the Yellow sea in 2008. The study provides some key information that may assist with future identifications (see discussion section). In particular it suggests that branching is a key characteristic differentiating between U. prolifera (branched) and U. linza (unbranched).
Hiraoka M, Ichihara K, Zhu W, Ma J, Shimada S (2011) Culture and Hybridization Experiments on an Ulva Clade Including the Qingdao Strain Blooming in the Yellow Sea. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19371. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019371
Hot iron: Geothermal vents release ecologically important amounts of iron into the oceans in the form of stable sulphide nano-particles. The particles form a stable suspension allowing the iron to be transported considerable distances from its source. ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011)

Watching kelp from space: Free Landsat 5 images were used to map kelp growth on the Californian coast, and see how this changed with sea conditions. ScienceDaily (May 18, 2011)

Urea cycle in diatoms: It appears that diatoms (single celled plants) are able to produce urea, a trick previously though to be restricted to animals. Diatoms may use this ability to keep hold of nitrogen and carbon, enabling them to survive in nutrient poor waters. ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011)

Mussels change genes with the seasons: The cells of most animals contain a copy of the complete genome, but most of the instructions are switched off at any one time (these genes are ‘not expressed’). This paper looks at gene expression in the digestive system and gonads of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, and how this changes through the year.
Banni M, Negri A, Mignone F, Boussetta H, Viarengo A, et al. (2011) Gene Expression Rhythms in the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lam.) across an Annual Cycle. PLoS ONE 6(5): e18904. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018904

The coral clock: Four molecular clock genes have been discovered in the stony coral Favia fragum. Corals are known to have a diurnal rhythm, as well as being able to track the lunar cycle, which helps them organise mass spawning events. The clocks identified control diurnal responses, but not lunar spawning cycles.
Hoadley KD, Szmant AM, Pyott SJ (2011) Circadian Clock Gene Expression in the Coral Favia fragum over Diel and Lunar Reproductive Cycles. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19755. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019755

Genome reconstructed from single cell: Sophisticated sorting techniques have allowed scientists to pick out individual single celled animals for genetic analysis. This, and similar work reported previously, will allow us a glimpse of the private lives of cells. ScienceDaily (May 8, 2011)

Shining a light on bacteria: The bacterium Pelagibacter ubique may be one of the smallest living organisms on the planet, but in the summer they make up to 50% of the total number of living cells in the oceans! Its primary role appears to be recycling carbon, making this available to phytoplankton, and so is an essential contributor to oxygen production and the carbon cycle… Pelagibacter produce pigments that enable them to use sunlight to drive proton pumps, but this ability seemed to offer no advantage to the organism. This paper shows that they have a role in protecting Pelagibacter under conditions of carbon starvation, when it can use sunlight to maintain cellular function without depleting its carbon reserves. [We tend to think of organisms as being plants or animals - with this half way house towards photosynthesis, micro-organisms again challenge our pre-conceptions!]
Steindler L, Schwalbach MS, Smith DP, Chan F, Giovannoni SJ (2011) Energy Starved Candidatus Pelagibacter Ubique Substitutes Light-Mediated ATP Production for Endogenous Carbon Respiration. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19725. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019725

The life and times of the coelocanth, a review. Deep Sea News, May 16th, 2011

Moving story: Trace fossils indicate that algal mats may have produced enough oxygen in shallow waters to allow small multicellular animals to graze within them up to 555 million years ago. ScienceDaily (May 15, 2011)

Bugs in gear: how bacteria shift gears for their flagella, allowing them to stop and change direction. [Flagellae are also common amongst many single celled phytoplankton, such as the dynoflagellates, so this is a pretty fundamental discovery about motion at this scale]. There is also a brief review of this paper.
Minamino T, Imada K, Kinoshita M, Nakamura S, Morimoto YV, et al. (2011) Structural Insight into the Rotational Switching Mechanism of the Bacterial Flagellar Motor. PLoS Biol 9(5): e1000616. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000616

Dilithium has nothing to do with it: The powerhouse of the eukaryotic cell is the mitochondrion. This is derived from a free-living bacterium that took up an endosymbiont role about 1.5 billion years ago. The process of inclusion within the cell has required a number of fundamental changes in both symbiont and host. Amongst these was the loss of much of hte genetic material of the symbiont, making it reliant on the host for basic raw materials. In this paper the mechanism by which proteins are imported into the mitochondrion is elucidated in the filamentous brown algae Ectocarpus.
Delage L, Leblanc C, Nyvall Collén P, Gschloessl B, Oudot M-P, et al. (2011) In Silico Survey of the Mitochondrial Protein Uptake and Maturation Systems in the Brown Alga Ectocarpus siliculosus. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19540. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019540

Conservation

How your reserves connect: This model attempts to work out how organisms move between a network of reserves, focussing on two transport mechanisms – larval dispersal, and adult movement. It makes some interesting predictions on how these parameters interact with the size of the reserves to result in sustainable populations, or population collapse.
Grüss A, Kaplan DM, Hart DR (2011) Relative Impacts of Adult Movement, Larval Dispersal and Harvester Movement on the Effectiveness of Reserve Networks. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19960. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019960

How connected are your reserves? This study, of genetic structure of populations in a series of marine parks along the coast of New South Wales (Australia), shows that connectivity between populations of marine organisms is very dependent upon the nature of the organism concerned.
Coleman MA, Chambers J, Knott NA, Malcolm HA, Harasti D, et al. (2011) Connectivity within and among a Network of Temperate Marine Reserves. PLoS ONE 6(5): e20168. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020168

The drifters: A lot of marine species spend a period of their lives drifting in the plankton, the amount of time reef fish spend in this stage does not, however, correspond to their eventual geographic distribution. Researchers suggest that the larvae have a minimum drifting period that allows them to reach all of the available reef habitats. [A longer time spent drifting may reflect a need to be larger to capture a habitat on the reef?]. ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011)

A richness of mammals: A model estimating current biodiversity of marine mammals, based on their observed climatic range, and attempting to predict future biodiversity in response to climate change. Current biodiversity estimates were checked against records of cetacean sightings.
Kaschner K, Tittensor DP, Ready J, Gerrodette T, Worm B (2011) Current and Future Patterns of Global Marine Mammal Biodiversity. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19653. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019653

Stranded at land: Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) mass strandings are rare in the Mediterranean, six events having occurred on the Adriatic coast of Italy since 1555. On the occasion of December 2009, it appears that that the whales mistook their direction, though seismic surveys may have contributed to their confusion.
Mazzariol S, Di Guardo G, Petrella A, Marsili L, Fossi CM, et al. (2011) Sometimes Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) Cannot Find Their Way Back to the High Seas: A Multidisciplinary Study on a Mass Stranding. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19417. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019417

Turtle’s star turn: Using satellite tracking systems to follow olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) from Mayumba National Park, Nyanga Province, Gabon, Africa. System allowed researchers to map activity of these turtles in the region.
Maxwell SM, Breed GA, Nickel BA, Makanga-Bahouna J, Pemo-Makaya E, et al. (2011) Using Satellite Tracking to Optimize Protection of Long-Lived Marine Species: Olive Ridley Sea Turtle Conservation in Central Africa. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19905. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019905

Taming the lion: Lionfish of the species Pterois volitans and Pterois miles have invaded the Western Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. This has prompted studies on how they might be removed from the area, ni case they cause damage to the pre-existing ecology. Calculations suggest that they would redover very quickly from a partial removal, and a sustained take of between 35 and 65% of the population would be required to eradicate them.
Barbour AB, Allen MS, Frazer TK, Sherman KD (2011) Evaluating the Potential Efficacy of Invasive Lionfish (Pterois volitans) Removals. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19666. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019666

Aliens in the Med: Over 900 alien species have now been recorded in the Mediterranean Sea, and they are occurring in such numbers that the food chain is changing to accommodate them. ScienceDaily (May 23, 2011)

Climate change in the laboratory: A series of international experiments in which benthic communities were relocated, to simulate climate change. Subsequently the rate at which the displaced community changed – usually back to its original community structure – was measured. The rate, and hence the robustness of the displaced community, is found to depend upon both the number of species in teh community and its functional richness in terms of the range of body sizes, growth forms, trophic levels and modularity.
Wahl M, Link H, Alexandridis N, Thomason JC, Cifuentes M, et al. (2011) Re-Structuring of Marine Communities Exposed to Environmental Change: A Global Study on the Interactive Effects of Species and Functional Richness. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19514. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019514

Fisheries and exploitation

Cod sealed out? Models of the Baltic Sea have been used to try and work out how cod stocks will change as a result of changes in exploitation levels and salinity. The predictions indicate that seals have a far lower impact on cod recovery than either exploitation or salinity, and that a sustained recovery in both seal populations and cod is possible, though not easy to achieve.
MacKenzie BR, Eero M, Ojaveer H (2011) Could Seals Prevent Cod Recovery in the Baltic Sea? PLoS ONE 6(5): e18998. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018998
Science Daily runs the headlines that protecting seals will destroy small fishing businesses based on Swedish research. ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011)

Three generations in captivity: The Marine Culture facilities in Mazarrón have succeeded in rearing three generations of Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda) in captivity. ScienceDaily (May 20, 2011)

Fisheries and climate linked: Studies of the Mediterranean hake (Merluccius merluccius) fisheries show that the annual catch of fish oscillates in step with the climate. In contrast, when fisheries were not over-exploited, no oscillation in fish stock is observed. The problem is that fisheries concentrate on a sector of the fish population (the largest and fittest fish), the loss of which makes the entire population less able to survive in a dynamic environment. This indicates that the impact of fisheries and that of climate are linked, and cannot be studied separately. ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011)

Useful cyanobacteria: The genetic code of blue green algae Lyngbya spp. is being decyphered, it appears that many sub-species are not as useful as first thought, though the entire family should still unlock a pharmaceutical treasure house. ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011)

How good is that fish? An automated mechanism for measuring the amounts of astaxanthin – a natural pigment that consumers associate with fresh fillets of rainbow trout – has been developed.
Dissing BS, Nielsen ME, Ersbøll BK, Frosch S (2011) Multispectral Imaging for Determination of Astaxanthin Concentration in Salmonids. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19032. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019032

Pollution

Shit takes over: Nitrogen run-off is a serious component of coastal pollution, leading to eutrophication and mass die-offs. Over recent years improvements to agricultural practices in the Caribbean have resulted in this reducing in importance relative to nitrogen from sewage water. ScienceDaily (May 17, 2011)

Yuk, I’m sick! Biomarkers indicating poisoning by hydrocarbons are being found in haddock and Cod caught in the open North Sea. The source of the hydrocarbons is probably oil production.
Balk L, Hylland K, Hansson T, Berntssen MHG, Beyer J, et al. (2011) Biomarkers in Natural Fish Populations Indicate Adverse Biological Effects of Offshore Oil Production. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19735. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019735

Whales and dolphins soak it up: Persistent organic pollutants are bi-products of human industrial activity. They are concentrated up the food chain, and are found at quite high levels in whales and dolphins. This study shows that the levels of pollution found in these animals is dependent upon where they forage – with those living closer to human habitation picking up a bigger dose. ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011)

Are modern organophosphorous pesticides safe? A molecular level investigation of how these interact in mussels.
Canesi L, Negri A, Barmo C, Banni M, Gallo G, et al. (2011) The Organophosphate Chlorpyrifos Interferes with the Responses to 17ß-Estradiol in the Digestive Gland of the Marine Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19803. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019803

Extinction loop-holes: 39 species on the IUCN Red List, and so in imminent danger of extinction, have ranges that intersect the DeepWater Horizon incident area in the Gulf of Mexico, but are not protected by the Endangered Species Act. ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011)

One thing leads to another: Coral larvae (Acropora spp.) that are already stressed by pollution (here Cu concentration) suffer worse when they are also subjected to elevated water temperatures. Survival of larvae is plotted against temperature and Cu concentration.
Negri AP, Hoogenboom MO (2011) Water Contamination Reduces the Tolerance of Coral Larvae to Thermal Stress. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19703. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019703

Climate change

Inshore fisheries decline: Increased water temperatures are hitting the growth of long-lived species on the Australian and New Zealand coasts. Water temperatures in the Tasman Sea have increased by 2°C over the last 60 years – one of the most rapid increases in temperature seen in the World. ScienceDaily (May 20, 2011)

Deadzone: Greenhouse oceans in the Late Cretaceous Period are associated with massive marine die-offs. ScienceDaily (May 17, 2011)

Polarstern reports full ahead on global warming: A seven month research cruise by the Polarstern maintaining and monitoring sensors in the Weddell Sea finds a 0.6°C average temperature rise through the entire water column over the last 25 years. This might not seem like much, but given the size of the body of water and its heat capacity… ScienceDaily (May 19, 2011)

A softspot for hard corals: One of the curious things about calcium carbonate is that it becomes more soluble with depth, leading to ‘saturation horizons’ – depths below which the carbonates dissolve [calcite is less soluble than aragonite, so has a deeper horizon depth]. As ocean acidification proceedes it is feared that calcified deepwater scleractinian corals will find it harder to survive at depth, as they will be unable to build their calcareous skeletons.
Miller KJ, Rowden AA, Williams A, Häussermann V (2011) Out of Their Depth? Isolated Deep Populations of the Cosmopolitan Coral Desmophyllum dianthus May Be Highly Vulnerable to Environmental Change. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19004. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019004

Plunk-plunk-fizz: Atomic force microscopy watches whils coccolithophorids dissolve at the acidities predicted for our future oceans. Coccolithophorids are small phytoplankton which are responsible for absorbing a lot of our excess carbon dioxide to make their intricate carbonate shells. ScienceDaily (May 10, 2011)

Icebergs help oceans absorb CO₂: Studies of life on the undersides of ice-bergs in the Southern Ocean indicate that these are where most carbon is fixed, rather than in the surrounding open water. ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011)

1000 year storm: Growth rings from coastal shrubs in the Mackenzie Delta (Northwest Territories) shows that the storm surge in 1999, when seawater inundated much of the coastal region, was unprecedented in the preceding millenium. ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011)

The biology of clouds: Clouds form when water droplets condense out of an atmosphere super-saturated with water. Experiments show, however, that these droplets only form spontaneously at such levels of super-saturation, that we would never be likely to see any clouds on Earth… In practice droplets need something to start them off. Above the oceans this is the chemical dimethyl sulphide (DMS), which is a by-product of bacterial activity decomposing plankton. ScienceDaily (May 12, 2011)

These including a fast run through the Creran Narrows, which Jo and I followed with a linked dive into an eddy pool by the North West shore, to get some better photos of the brittle star beds there, (it never ceases to amaze me how much colour there is in these beds, which appear from a distance to be rather unpleasant grey cob-webby places) before a rather hard swim back on the surface.

We also visited the wormery – where the serpulid reefs seem more substantial than ever – less substantial reefs are also to be found in the inner basin of Loch Creran.

Our final dive though was at Galanach, where I wanted to visit the sea-pen beds, with the intention of getting some better photos. As a rather nice bonus, however, I saw a large thorn-backed ray, which hung about long enough for me to get his mug-shot!

We also managed a small amount of microscopy, looking at a single plankton sample from Galanach. Unfortunately the phytoplankton have now disappeared (they formed a substantial component of the samples at Lochaline last month), though there is a large amount of zoo-plankton, with copepods and barnacle larvae (cyprids) as the major component.