News Release 26-Jun-2019 Is a great iron fertilization experiment already underway? University of South Florida (USF Innovation) ST. PETERSBURG, FL – It’s no secret that massive dust storms in the Saharan Desert occasionally shroud the North Atlantic Ocean with iron, but it turns out these natural blankets aren’t the only things to sneeze at. Iron…
More “settled science” of the carbon cycle~ctm Stanford study shows how hydrothermal vents fuel massive phytoplankton blooms — and possible hotspots for carbon storage Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Researchers at Stanford University say they have found an aquatic highway that lets nutrients from Earth’s belly sweep up to surface waters off…
ETH Zurich IMAGE: Phytoplankton boasts an amazing variety of forms and species. Credit: Meike Vogt und Jorge Martinez-Rey / ETH Zurich With some 10,000 to 20,000 different species in the world’s oceans, the diversity of phytoplankton (phyto from the Greek for plant) species is extremely rich. These phytoplankton form a key element of ocean ecosystems…
Kevin Kilty May 10, 2019 From Physics Today (April 2019 Issue, p. 19)1: The overturning of water in the North Atlantic depends on meridional overturning circulation (MOC) wherein warm surface waters in the tropical Atlantic move to higher latitudes losing heat and moisture to the atmosphere along the way. In the North Atlantic and Arctic…
Climate-driven changes in phytoplankton communities will intensify the blue and green regions of the world’s oceans From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate change is causing significant changes to phytoplankton in the world’s oceans, and a new MIT study finds that over the coming decades these changes will affect the ocean’s color, intensifying its blue…
Curtin researchers believe that ancient supercontinents formed and then fell apart through alternating cycles spanning hundreds of millions of years that involved superoceans being swallowed and the restructuring of the Earth’s mantle. The research, published in science journal Precambrian Research, found the supercontinents assembled and broke up through alternating processes of ‘introversion’ and ‘extroversion’. The latter process…
UN warns of rising levels of toxic brine as desalination plants meet growing water needs World’s ~16,000 desalination plants discharge 142 million cubic meters of brine daily — 50 percent more than previously estimated; Enough in a year to cover Florida under a foot (30.5 cm) of brine United Nations University – Institute for Water,…
From EurekAlert! Public Release: 14-Jan-2019 Upper-ocean warming is changing the global wave climate, making waves stronger The energy in ocean waves has been increasing as a consequence of climate change, according to a new study University of California – Santa Cruz Increasing wave energy with climate change means more challenges for coastal risk and adaptation.…
From NBCNEWS Dutch inventor Boyan Slat said he still believed his $360 million plan could work. The Ocean Cleanup device floating in a lagoon in Alameda, California, in August 2018.The Ocean Cleanup via EPA Jan. 4, 2019 / 4:24 AM EST By James Rainey An ambitious project to clean up a vast tide of ocean…
From EurekAlert! Public Release: 19-Dec-2018 The second largest whale in the world slows the build-up of CO2 in the sea The rise in the population of these animals off the coast of Catalonia has been studied in a research project led by the EDMAKTUB Association, in which the University of Extremadura is a participant University…