NationStates Jolt Archive

The sea and it's magnificence!

http://news.aol.com/article/stars-in-the-sea-ocean-census-finds-new/242313?icid=sphere_newsaol_inpage

WASHINGTON (Nov. 9) - A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life.
"We are still making discoveries," but researchers also are busy assembling data already collected into the big picture of life in the oceans, senior scientist Ron O'Dor said.
The fourth update of the census was released Sunday ahead of a meeting of hundreds of researchers that begins Tuesday in Valencia, Spain. More than 2,000 scientists from 82 nations are taking part in the project, which is to be completed in 2010.
A discovery that delights O'Dor is that many deep-ocean octopuses share an Antarctic origin. As the Antarctic got colder, ice increased and octopuses were forced into deeper water, he said in a telephone interview.
Salt and oxygen are concentrated in the deeper waters, he said. This dense water then flows out, carrying along the octopuses that have adapted to the new conditions, enabling them to spread to deep waters around the world.
Deep-water octopuses worldwide, he pointed out, lack the ink sack that allows their shallow-water cousins to shoot out a camouflage screen.
After all, if they live where it is dark, ink is unnecessary, said O'Dor, a Canadian member of the research team.
Patricia Miloslavich, a senior scientist from Venezuela, is pleased with newly discovered mollusks, from snails to cuttlefish to squids.
Once the census is complete, the plan is to publish three books: a popular survey of sea life, a second book with chapters for each working group and a third focusing on biodiversity.
O'Dor said also researchers are working with the online scientific journal PLoS ONE, which is open to anyone and thus would make the results readily available.
Scientists at this week's sessions will hear about the discovery of what the researchers call a brittle star city off the coast of New Zealand.

Thrilling, yes, but worrisome too. Why, because now that these incredible new creatures have been discovered or rediscovered, how long will they last? We humans are the worst enemies of nature. Will bringing these creatures' existence to light also produce their early demise? And what about the habits of known species as the great white shark. Will knowing these affect not only they're migrations but their mating?

Yes, just as land organisms are under threat from both human activity and ecological change, so to is the sea and its inhabitants. Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs around the world face bleaching due to ocean warming.

Ocean warming threatens many marine species but apparently, it also affects the oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

Here is information on the threat to the Great Barrier Reef:
http://www.reefed.edu.au/home/explorer/hot_topics/coral_bleaching

Yes, just as land organisms are under threat from both human activity and ecological change, so to is the sea and its inhabitants. Australia's Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs around the world face bleaching due to ocean warming.

Ocean warming threatens many marine species but apparently, it also affects the oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

Here is information on the threat to the Great Barrier Reef:
http://www.reefed.edu.au/home/explorer/hot_topics/coral_bleaching

2 great coral bleaching events already in the Great Barrier Reef, and just in 5 years?! Wow! That's horrible. Some of the GBR corals died on a level of 90%. That is indeed sad.

Extra salty water? Bloody hell :(

Extra salty water? Bloody hell :(

Yup, and one that carries octopi incapable of producing ink because, since these creatures live at such great depths, they don't need to camouflage themselves like shallow water octopi need to.

Yup, and one that carries octopi incapable of producing ink because, since these creatures live at such great depths, they don't need to camouflage themselves like shallow water octopi need to.
Surprisingly, I can read :tongue:

Surprisingly, I can read :tongue:

Well, we weren't sure... Oh, wait. That's right, you're not an American... :D

Surprisingly, I can read :tongue:

I thought the English couldn't read American. Odd!:p

I thought the English couldn't read American. Odd!:p
I took evening classes :p

I took evening classes :p

Bravo! I compare you to Rachmaninov!:D

Bravo! I compare you to Rachmaninov!:D
I compare myself more to Gerald Finzi.

I compare myself more to Gerald Finzi.

And I am Manuel de Falla?:wink:

But going back to the OP, it is worrisome to contemplate the destiny of these new creatures.

And I am Manuel de Falla?:wink:
I think everyone on NSG ought to have some virtuoso to compare themselves to. Ironically, of course.

I mean for starters, I'm nothing like as Jewish as Finzi.
But going back to the OP, it is worrisome to contemplate the destiny of these new creatures.
They'll all die within 20 years.

Meh, this doesn't really concern me (or at least doesn't concern me any more than I already was) because they would be facing these difficulties whether we knew about them or not.

Meh, this doesn't really concern me (or at least doesn't concern me any more than I already was) because they would be facing these difficulties whether we knew about them or not.

Pooh Bah, I thought you cared for the sea critters.:(

And what about the habits of known species as the great white shark. Will knowing these affect not only they're migrations but their mating?
Wait, what? Are there plans to distribute the results of this census among the marine predator community?

I doubt these animals are in any greater danger because humans know about them. Unless they turn about to have a gland that secretes crude oil, or just taste absolutely motherfucking delicious.

Wait, what? Are there plans to distribute the results of this census among the marine predator community?

I doubt these animals are in any greater danger because humans know about them. Unless they turn about to have a gland that secretes crude oil, or just taste absolutely motherfucking delicious.

Well, you know there are these people called poachers... yeah... and these are, technically, rare creatures...

Besides, the data will be compiled into an interactive ecyclopedia. Most surely there will be access to it through the internet when it's made available to the public. And the data collected in these investigations most likely will be included in this dictionary/encyclopedia.

Pooh Bah, I thought you cared for the sea critters.:(

I do, I just don't see how our knowledge of their existence is going to help or hurt them.

Well, you know there are these people called poachers... yeah... and these are, technically, rare creatures...

Besides, the data will be compiled into an interactive ecyclopedia. Most surely there will be access to it through the internet when it's made available to the public. And the data collected in these investigations most likely will be included in this dictionary/encyclopedia.
Animal species are wiped out just as, or perhaps more, often through ignorance as through malicious intent. Just because humans didn't know about deep sea octopi before now doesn't mean no one was capable of ruining their habitat by accident and wiping them out.
At least now, if they're destroyed, we knew they existed.

Animal species are wiped out just as, or perhaps more, often through ignorance as through malicious intent. Just because humans didn't know about deep sea octopi before now doesn't mean no one was capable of ruining their habitat by accident and wiping them out.
At least now, if they're destroyed, we knew they existed.

This, to me, seems like you would justify the disappearance of any of these species, by human hand be it accidentally or maliciously. Not knowing does not equate innocence.

Wait... WTF? I'm getting worked up for something that hasn't happened. *sigh* Canada is affecting me.

This, to me, seems like you would justify the disappearance of any of these species, by human hand be it accidentally or maliciously. Not knowing does not equate innocence.
I'm apparently not getting myself across. I mean to say, that destroying them would be quite bad, and that now that we know they're there we're less likely to accidentally wipe them out (as happened/happens to many species driven to extinction in the rain forest). There is an increased risk of them being purposefully hunted now, but I don't have the same concern for poaching as I would of someone destroying a habitat that no one knew was there in the first place. Most environmental disasters are the result of ignorance, not planned acts of destruction.
Besides which, at least under a poaching scenario, there is some reason or gain to the destruction. A species being driven extinct because some drilled an oil pipeline through what was assumed to be a barren patch of the seabed is just senseless.
Wait... WTF? I'm getting worked up for something that hasn't happened. *sigh* Canada is affecting me.
Bunch of goddamn ice-hugging, moose eaters.

I'm apparently not getting myself across. I mean to say, that destroying them would be quite bad, and that now that we know they're there we're less likely to accidentally wipe them out (as happened/happens to many species driven to extinction in the rain forest). There is an increased risk of them being purposefully hunted now, but I don't have the same concern for poaching as I would of someone destroying a habitat that no one knew was there in the first place. Most environmental disasters are the result of ignorance, not planned acts of destruction.
Besides which, at least under a poaching scenario, there is some reason or gain to the destruction. A species being driven extinct because some drilled an oil pipeline through what was assumed to be a barren patch of the seabed is just senseless.

I understand your point, Fiddy.

Bunch of goddamn ice-hugging, moose eaters.

Indeed sir!

I doubt these animals are in any greater danger because humans know about them. Unless they turn about to have a gland that secretes crude oil, or just taste absolutely motherfucking delicious.

Deep sea biota may be in the most danger. Mining is being considered, when we look at them with the wrond lights (not UV) they can die instantly, The currents move pollution from the surface to the bottom, fishing is constantly going deeper and deeper (think of orange roughy as a good example of overfished deap see fish) and CO2 being released changes ocean chemistry and chemoautotophs (primary producers by using chemicals not sunlight) are the only primary producers

These are all good reasons to see whats down their today instead of some time latter

Ocean warming threatens many marine species but apparently, it also affects the oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

A decent proportion of the anthropogenic CO2 has already been absorbed by the oceans. About 40% of it, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

But it's all in the upper ocean at this stage. The pH change (carbonic acid) which is affecting reefs etc won't get to the deep oceans for centuries.

To your point: yes, it's a feedback loop. Higher temperatures mean that less CO2 will be absorbed by the oceans, so it will stay in the atmosphere. Enough warming, and the oceans will start releasing CO2.