Deep Sea News

An article called “Science 2006” (SEED Magazine, November 2006) discusses a group called Science and Engineers for America that is making important headway in Washington. Please check it out. This kind of advocacy in Washington is mission critical.

Important federal agencies responsible for global ocean health and human welfare (e.g. NOAA and NASA) are currently sitting in budgetary limbo under a continuing resolution because Congress scheduled wartime funding first. It doesn’t seem fair to spend so much on governments overseas, and so little on our own.

Go welcome Aardvarckology Ardvoloyg Arrdvarkeology Aardvarchaeology. Try not to let the eating of our cephalopod brethren upset you.

Frank A. brought my attention to this video on Marie Tharpe at the New York Times.

Other scientists dismissed her work as “girl talk,” but she refused to back down — and changed the way we see the planet.

You can also read more about her here. In the words of the late James Brown, “This is a man’s world, this is a man’s world, But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.”

A big welcome to Attleboro High School’s AP Biology (I presume MA). There instructor, Mr. Lemire, linked to DSN from the course blog. Students please feel free to post comments and ask questions. Peter and I (and the other bloggers here at Sb) will be happy to answer your questions. For Peter and I, you may want to keep them ocean or biology related otherwise you will never know what kind of answer you wil get!

Urged by a reader and previous buzz, I finally managed to watch the Calamari Wrestler. The movie is an over-the-top satire of Rocky with a Star Wars twist finish. Fortunately it is much better than the festering heap of movie, Rocky XXXIV. The plot is the tale of a wrestler and son of a geisha, Kan-Ichi Iwata, reincarnated as a squid who fights for more than a wrestling title.

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The first new 25 Things at Sb! So grab a cup-o-joe and read on!

The extremes of the physical deep-sea environment (temperature, pressure, and lack of light, low food) are more than a challenge for deep-sea organisms. Unfortunately, there is one more-disturbance.

In ecology, hypotheses for how biodiversity is maintained generally fall into two categories, equilibrium and nonequilibrium. Equilibrium hypotheses typically focus on processes that promote partitioning of the environment that lowers species competition and coexistence (the competitive exclusion principle). These hypotheses assume competition will occur because the biological community is near carrying capacity (i.e. the number of individuals the environment can support). For nonequilibrium hypotheses, the focus shifts to disturbance and other processes that keep populations well below carrying capacity.

One of the earliest hypotheses to explain the presence of a great number of species in the deep sea was the equilibrium hypothesis of Sanders (1968). Sanders proposed the Stability-Time Hypothesis stating that deep-sea environments were physical stable, i.e. no disturbance, allowing for organisms to evolve toward specialization. These adaptations lead to organisms finely dividing the environment (i.e. narrow niche breadth). The hypothesis was largely bolstered by bottom photography of a monotonous mud seafloor and a perceived lack of oceanic disturbance. The current understanding of deep-sea environments was an environment buffered by 1000’s of meters of water from climate change and mass extinctions.

Our current understanding of deep-sea systems is much different and the Stability-Time Hypothesis has largely been abandoned.

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Dolphins & silly little monkeys…they’re smatter than you think. Actually…dolphins are dangerous and monkeys throw poo. Luckily, the latest addittion to Sb, Developing Intelligence, has a handle on intelligence. I guess I won’t expect too many posts on the GOP or “Intelligent” Design.

The BBC higlights a January expedition of Southampton Oceanographic Centre’s (SOC) ROV Isis to the Antarctic. The project is to explore the sediment and organisms of Marguerite Bay. SOC aquired Isis in 2003 from a colloboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). Isis is largely based on WHOI’s Jason II and has the typical equipment you would expect out of an ROV, high resolution cameras, manipulators arms, and various add tools for specific tasks.

Peter McGrath, one of the project’s founders, brought my attention to the Beagle Project. The goal is to build a replica of the Beagle and sail it in 2009 along Darwin and Fitzroy’s original route. The mission appears to be threefold: public outreach, education, and science. One of the scientific goals is a biological assessment of the changes since Darwin’s original observations. A blog is also kept for the project . Should be interesting to see how this project develops with the potential for education and research. My only criticism it that a project goal should be torment creationists at each port-of-call and chase them down with Beagle on the high seas.

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I love being out to sea, 2 months on a research vessel is heaven. I eagerly read about projects like Freedom Ship and Trilobis and await the days I can shed my terrestrial dwelling. I tried to convince my wife that we should live in an houseboat…we still live on land. With forward politics and Hydropolis and I may be moving to the middle east.

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