We have learned about the importance of the ocean currents in terms of a global heat engine. In recent years, much research has focused on how global warming may alter the ocean’s currents and thus further alter the global climate. Even Hollywood has made millions off the idea with The Day After Tomorrow!
Your task is to read this article AND this one carefully. Next, write a minimum 2 paragraph COMMENT in complete sentences with correct spelling and grammar, that answers the following:
- Summarize what the articles were about and how they compare & contrast.
- What do YOU think about what was discussed and explain why. SUPPORT your argument with specific examples or facts from the articles or other sources.
Only a few years ago, the coral reefs off the island of Bali in Indonesia were dying out. They were bleached by escalating temperatures, blaster by dynamite fishing, and poisoned by cyanide.
Thanks to a very unlikely remedy,electricity- they are making a comeback!
These days the coral thrives on dozens of metal structures submerged in the bay and fed by cables that send low-voltage electricity,which some conservationists would say is spurring the growth. The coral restoration project in Bali illustrates the creative ways scientists are trying to fight the ill-effects of global warming. By 1998 the reefs became victims of rising temperatures and idiotically aggressive fishing methods. Which included stunning fish with cyanide poisoning and scooping them up with nets, and dynamite fishing. So as you can imagine it keeps getting progressively worse all the time. Rod Salm, coral reef specialist with the Nature Conservancy, said while the method may be useful in bringing small areas of damaged coral back to life, it has very limited application in vast areas that are in need of immediate protection. ” The extent of bleaching… is just too big,” Salm said. ” the scale is enormous and the cost is prohibitive. “> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071204-AP-bali-electrified_2.html
I also looked into Rod Salm,seeing he was very involved with this particular cause in hopes for renewing what global warming has started to destroy.> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071204-AP-bali-electrified_2.html
Rod is involved with The Nature Conservancy,> http://www.nature.org/?src=logo where scientists work together amongst themselves and other organizations to help educate, and organize acts of conservation throughout the depths of our planet’s oceans. ” We have discovered wondrous things, including new species:at least two fishes, one mantis shrimp> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp , a potential new sea cumber, and possibly new corals. “
- What other aspects of global warming have affected the oceans around you?
- How did they make underwater electrocution possible?
- Are there ways to fish without doing damage to coral reefs?
In this article it says that after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished building a rock dam across the MR-GO at Bayou La Loutre last April nothing was the same in Shell Beach. The tide started doing unexpected things like running in the same direction whether its rising or falling. Frank Campo said “Used to be when you said ‘tide’s rising’ it meant the water was coming in from the lake, and when ‘tides’ falling, it was running out toward the Lake (Borgne), but that’s not the case anymore,” “Now, on a southwest wind, the water is always running out toward the channel and the lake, even if the level is rising or falling.”
That’s really weird. I never expected that building a dam would change the direction the tides going. In my opinion I think they should take this rock dam down because this could change the water environment around that area, and you never know this could cause a lot of damage in the future.
What do you think of this idea? Do you think they should take this down? If so why?
Recently, a nutritionist from James Cooks university, Dr. Tony Parker, believes he has a solution for the problem of a big cause of methane emissions. Methane is considered to be worse for the atmosphere than carbon dioxide is. Another thing to be considered, is that cows count for 20% of the methane emissions.
A study is going to be started, and they will see if cattle will be able to live off of a seaweed based diet. They believe that if the cows eat seaweed, their digestion will be improved, and the cows will produce less methane.
Not only will this reduce methane, but seaweed has been shown to be more healthy in general. Aquafarms use seaweed to clean their farms, and after they’re done, they have no use for the seaweed. With the “Reef and Beef” project, that seaweed will have a use other than just being thrown out. With seaweed being able to be sold for profit, this means that there will be more incentive for aquafarmers to use seaweed, which is more environmentally friendly, to clean their farms.
How might a change in diet such as this affect the quality of beef and other products collected from cattle?
Would this method of dealing with harmfuls emissions be considered a short term fix, or another step towards a permanent solution?
The southern blue fin tuna industry, which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Australia, could be heading for a major failure unless they figure out something to save them. The southern blue fin tuna is at an all-time low, below 10 percent of its original population size, and that means at any time it could collapse. On all the fish reports from Australia they all say that the blue fin tunas are over fished, mainly by the Japaneses. Over fishing them which dramatically affects Atlantic and Northwestern Pacific Ocean populations, other areas seem to keep a healthy mount of fish. japan’s total tuna catch was 3,605,000 tons in 2000, down about 5.7 percent from 3,823,000 tons in 1999, which you could imagine what its at right now. So basically they just need to slow down on this tuna slaying already jeeze! http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/16/2716201.htm
Q) I heard tunas and dolphins swim together is that true?
Q) How could humans help the tuna population grow again?
As of October 15, 2009, Jordan announced its intent to refill the Dead Sea with water from the Red Sea. According to this article, this is a worry because the water from the Red Sea could be damaging to the ecosystems of both bodies of water. Water levels in the Dead Sea, have been shrinking by more than 4 feet a year for the last 20 years because of water being extracted for drinking, agriculture and industry.
The government of Jordan plans to remove 10 billion cubic feet a year from the Red Sea so they can reroute most of it to a desalination plant. Here they can create clean drinking water and send the remaining salty wastewater to the Dead Sea. Despite environmentalists warning that mixing the two types of saltwater could produce algae blooms in the Dead Sea, while increased salinity in the Red Sea could damage their fish and coral life, Jordan plans to begin as soon as funding is arranged.
Do you think the possible damage to the two bodies of water is worth risking for clean drinking water?
What do you think are some other possible approaches for Jordan to take in order to acquire clean drinking water?
Photograph courtesy Institute for Ocean Conservation Science/Matthew D. Potenski
According to National Geographic (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081010-shark-virgin-birth-2.html) somehow, against what has always been believed, a female shark was able to fertilize her own egg WITHOUT A MALE SHARK and it was proved by DNA evidence!
This happened at the Virginia Beach Aquarium in Virgina Beach, VA. Why did I choose to write about this? Because it totally proved our normal belief system wrong. Most mammals/fish reproduce by normal sexual reproduction but this particular shark, a Blacktip Shark, is apparently capable of what is called heterogamy, or the use of both sexual and asexual reproduction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_Reproduction#Alternation_between_sexual_and_asexual_reproduction). On the wikipedia site, it states, “There are examples of parthenogenesis in the hammerhead and blacktip sharks. In both cases, the sharks had reached sexual maturity in captivity in the absence of males, and in both cases the offspring were shown to be genetically identical to the mothers.” This is what happened to this shark: she was in captivity for many years and when she reached sexual maturity, she had no male to reproduce with so she decided to do it herself (finally a fish that is a feminist). As a person who tends to be of a more feminist opinion, this article was very interesting to me. This event is transcendent in the world of science! An absolute anomaly!
Questions:
Has this ever happened before?
We all know that to create a fertilized child, you need a sperm and an egg. Does every one of these species of sharks (hammerhead and blacktip) have both sperm and egg or is it a freak thing?
For hundreds of years, sailors have told stories of the “milky seas” they encountered during their journeys. Now, two scientists in Florida believe that they may have finally solved the phenomena. Just like fireflies giving off light, the “milky seas” are caused by glowing bacteria. But how many bacteria does it take to light up the sea? Around four billion – trillion. According to bio-luminescence expert Steve Haddock, it’s like covering “the surface of the earth with a four-inch layer of sand and then count all the grains of sand in that layer, that’s the same number as the number of bacteria in the milky sea.” Unfortunately, the milky seas only last a few days, and it usually only occurs in the Indian Ocean, so scientists have not yet been able to get a boat out fast enough to be able to study the occurrence. Long thought to be folklore, the dilemma of the “milky seas” is now a bit more fact than fiction.
What causes this much of one type of bacteria to gather in one area?
Why does this happen more in the Indian Ocean than anywhere else in the world?
From: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112731816
For more than fifty years scientists have been using neurons from squid to study how messages are sent and received in the human brain. Squid neurons are used because they accurately resemble the human neuron except for the fact that the axons are much bigger and therefore easier to study. So big in fact that they have been nicknamed “giant neurons” and can be seen with the naked eye.
Just recently German researcher Henrik Alle has questioned this practice because of the enormous amount of energy used by one of these “giant neurons” to send messages. “I thought I cannot believe personally that nature would waste such energy,” states Alle. Logically, he reasons, as organisms become more complex they waste less energy in sending and receiving neural messages. Alle and his team performed a series of experiments that found that rats’ neurons use less than a third of the energy squid neurons use. This shows that using these neurons for neuroscience may no longer provide an accurate model.
Though the conveniently large size of the neurons closely resemble many aspects of a neuron in a human nervous system, the specific ways in which squid neurons use energy to transmit messages aren’t accurate substitutes for studying the nervous systems of more complex organisms. This seems funny to me that for fifty whole years scientists may have made false conclusions in neuroscience because they were studying a false representation of a human neuron. I wonder how research and experimenting techniques will have to change because of this discovery?
Click here for a few videos that demonstrate the kind of testing that was being done on squid neurons.
King salmon used to be a big role in the fishing industry, But this year a total ban on commercial fishing for king salmon on the river in Alaska has strained poor communities and stripped the prized Yukon fish off menus in the lower 48.
People have been saying that its not worth it and its too hard to support their family by commercial fishing. People still don’t know why the weak runs are coming. This has been going on for a few years now. What most likely to blame is changes in ocean conditions and it might be years before the salmon come in large numbers.
This affects Alaska by a lot because Alaska supplies about 40 states down in the lower 48 and is the biggest commercial fishing industry. almost all commercially caught king salmon were sold to buyers in Japan. But in 2004, Kwik’Pak began marketing the fish domestically, and for a few years fish-lovers in the lower 48 could find Yukon River kings at upscale restaurants and stores.
http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/business/03salmon.html&OQ=_rQ3D2&OP=33b63fc2Q2FwI8qwQ5EQ26Q3A0kQ26Q266EwEPP2wQ5DPwP3wq,0Wm800wP30B5!Q26mQ2AQ3F6!5
What’s causing these weak runs?
How could we fix this problem?