Deep Sea News

We’ve covered the MEG series by author Steve Alten in the past in the context of the original book being turned into a movie.  For a refresher…The main The protagonist is Jonas Taylor a Navy deep sea diver working in the Marianas Trench. And guess what..its ‘top-secret’. He sees a megalodon that kills his buddies. And guess what…no one believes him. The plot twist is Jonas gives up diving and becomes a paleontologist to prove “Meg’s” existence. And guess what…Meg wrecks havoc. More people die and eventually Meg is killed with a submarine.  That’s just the first book!  There have been two more since.  Now a 4th, MEG: Hell’s Aquarium is coming out this summer.  Variance Publishing has released the below trailer for the book.  Apparently book readings are not enough any more.  If nothing else the trailer is amusing. The publisher has a contest going on where you can when a signed copy of MEG 5 and potentially become a character in it.

Three Endoxocrinus maclearanus flank a purple sea fan with a snake star at 2000 ft depth in the Bahamas. Image courtesy Bioluminescence 2009 Expedition, NOAA/OER

If you didn’t get a chance to follow along with the Bioluminescence 2009 Expedition last week, you can catch up online at the NOAA Ocean Exploration expedition website. The image above is only one of a few dozen impressive photographs posted.

The purple sea fan is NOT the most amazing thing about this picture, actually, (you didn’t hear it from me). Nor can we say the three living fossil Endoxocrinus maclearanus sea lilies are most amazing , because the most amazing thing is that Dr. Chuck Messing announced his discovery of a new species  of crinoid on the WEB! In real time.

We are pleased to report the discovery of a new species (possibly a new genus) of stalked crinoid, or sea lily, belonging to a family previously unknown in the western Atlantic Ocean. The miniature palm-tree-like animal, a relative of sea stars and sea urchins, is a member of the crinoid family Phrynocrinidae, which includes only four other species known from the northeastern and southern Atlantic, the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. It differs from these, and from all other living crinoids…

That’s gusto, Dr. Messing. Kudos!!

It’s been eight days since Miriam posted at Double XX

This Wired piece on the 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs also made me want to smash some test tubes. It’s a stunningly inane list of animal adaptations that the author thinks are weird, uncontaminated by even the most basic knowledge of evolution.

And the eight days since reading the Wired piece, I have yet to become less irritated by it. Miriam goes on to state at least one problem…

It isn’t cool enough that a cow-like mammal has evolved into a denizen of the open sea? It isn’t neat that dolphins have evolved amazing echolocation, and that humpback whales use their air-breathing abilities to hunt? (Not to mention that only cetaceans—whales and dolphins—have blowholes. Other sea mammals, like seals and manatees, just stick their noses in the air.) Evolution is all about using the tools at hand, and if something works it’s good enough. Whales can’t evolve gills out of nothing, but they can move their nostril to the back of their head and be successful. Kangaroos can’t suddenly evolve a placenta, but being a marsupial works fine.

So as expressed by Miriam the post misses key concepts in evolutionary biology

• As Miriam states, future evolution is constrained by the past.  Once an organism starts down a genetic road, it can always veer off and take a slightly different direction, but don’t expect to make it to Tokyo on the road to Tulsa.
• Not all features of an organism are adaptive.  Some features are hitchhikers, remnants of the past no longer needed.
• One cannot examine singular features in isolation.  An organism should be examined in totality where organismal features represent a balance of environmental constraints.  For example, evolutionary miniaturization of organisms often results in loss of organs or organ systems.  Instead of saying “Gee is sure is stupid that that fish has no circulatory system”, one should be in awe that organism can lose an entire organ system, question why the organism would need to become small in the first place, and contemplate the evolutionary marvel of solving this problem by organ loss.
• On the same line of thought as the above, features themselves can represent a balance of selective pressures.  Back to organismal size again, my personal forte, size can represent a balance of  life history constraints, metabolic constraints, space availability, predator/prey relationships, and energetics (food foraging area, fasting potential, food availability).  Each of these may select for opposing sizes and the eventual size represents one solution to a complex evolutionary equation.
• Value judging an organism’s features is ridiculous in itself.  I personally find that “A few shark species have live births (instead of laying eggs). The Jaws juniors grow teeth in the womb. The first sibling or two to mature sometimes eat their siblings in utero.” to be an excellent, fascinating, and brilliant example of how to both reduce sibling rivalry for resources but increase your own energy consumption prebirth!

Guinness IS actually good for me! Not just a clever marketing scheme…Guinness is good for you! or Guinness for strength!… now there is scientific evidence! From the BBC:

The Wisconsin team tested the health-giving properties of stout against lager by giving it to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease. They found that those given the Guinness had reduced clotting activity in their blood, but not those given lager…The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that the most benefit they saw was from 24 fluid ounces of Guinness – just over a pint – taken at mealtimes…They believe that “antioxidant compounds” in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.

Lucky dogs! I know, I know but what does this have to do with the deep sea.  Well grab a pint, sing a shanty, and you will figure it out.  If you need something more tangible consider that my Ph.D. was in Boston, my first deep-sea meeting was in Galway, the deep-sea is black like a Guinness, several prominent Guinness ads feature sealife… coincidence? No, fate!

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which commissions research for the Defense Department, gave Electric Boat a truckload of money in 2006 to design a small submarine to transport people and cargo at 100 knots (about 115 miles an hour).  The program name…Underwater Express. Not the most imaginative name. I would have went with Rapid Death Squid or something like. Electric Boat is ready to unleash next year a quarter-scale model to be tested off the coast of Rhode Island or Kevin’s bathtub depending on availability.

So how does Electric Boat plan to obtain 100 knots?  Science Baby! When an object moves fast enough through water a gas bubble is created around itself and effectively eliminating any drag. This process called supercavitation allows an object to speed along at a much faster speed.  Toward the end of WW2 the Soviets had created a torpedo that utilizes supercavitation but scaling up to another sub is whole other bottle of vodka. Electric boat will demonstrate this concept in action with 8 ft diameter 100 ft length “model” in the spring of 2010 where the demonstration will include a 10 minute run at speeds up to 100 knots.

You can see what this process looks like modeled or around a designed foil and propeller below the fold.

In addition, the navy is exploring and developing submarine launched drones through its Irregular Warfare Office.  According to an interview with Rear Adm. Mark W. Kenny by Special Operations Technology reporter Scott Gourley, Ohio-class guided-missile subs are not outfitted with drones. In the interview Rear Adm. Kenny outlined a specific torpedo sized submarine drone called Sea Stalker.  Sea Stalker is over shoulder right now! “The [concept] is to launch these from submarines at night,” Kenny said. “They will transit to offshore, anchor, put their antennas out and begin collection. Ideally you would have a series of these … to cover different ports or hotbeds of terrorist activity. And then you would collate that information on board the ship.”

There is no reliable photographs of any these available yet, either artist renderings or mistaken identities.
(more…)

The blogger’s blogger, GrrlScientist from the blog Living the Scientific Life, is trying win a competition to get sent to Antarctica to blog about for the public. Having met Grrl and even co-chaired a session with her on Nature Blogging at the Science Online ‘09 conference, I can tell you first hand that is THE most qualified candidate for this position! If you aren’t following her blog already you are missing out on some of the most interesting posts on bird biology, ecology and behavior as well as New York city life and other natural history writing.

Please take time out of your day to read about her excitement for this opportunity, her 300 word personal essay for the competition and sign in and vote for her. She is in second place and I would personally love to read her writing on Antarctica! Signing in is painless and I have never recieved any junk mail from Quark Expeditions or anything else out of the ordinary. You will be doing not just her a favor but the public at large a favor by sending a qualified, excellent writer on an amazing opportunity for the sole purpose of relating the experience in words and pictures for YOU!

Daytime CTD cast by Coolskipper on Flickr, CC licensed image.

What do you think of when see the term “seawater”? Salty water? Perhaps fish-poo-covered-bacterial-ooze-slime-haven-so-salty-I-puke-in-my-snorkel-every-time-it-touches-my-tongue? Well, the definition of seawater has been limited by how we can measure it and what type of information that we wish to glean from knowing something about seawater.

For over 30 years now, researchers have defined seawater based solely upon its salinity. The problem is that salinity is measured by conductivity and this measurement assumes that the entire world’s oceans have the same salinity. It is well-known now that this is not true. For instance, deep sea water is more dense because it is colder and concentrated with more salt. In fact, this slight difference between deep sea water and surface water explains different behaviors of each body of water. Oceanographers can actually track the movement of water in ocean by mapping the changes in salinity over time for a body of water.

Over the course of the last few years. Dr. Frank Millero and colleague have created a new definition of seawater that takes into account the many advances in ocean thermodynamics over the last 30 years. If you are interested in the details of the new equations and more of the history you can check out this freely downloadable report (link opens a pdf) from the Australian environmental agency CSIRO. The interesting parts are summarized in this press release from CSIRO:

Salinity, comprising the salts washed from rocks, is measured using the conductivity of seawater – a technique which assumes that the composition of salt in seawater is the same in all the world’s oceans.

“The new approach, involving Absolute Salinity, takes into account the changes in the composition of seasalt between different ocean basins which, while small, are a factor of about 10 larger than the accuracy with which scientists can measure salinity at sea,” Dr McDougall says.

Until the new description of seawater is widely adopted, ocean models will continue to assume that the heat content of seawater is proportional to a particular temperature variable called “potential temperature”.

“The new description allows scientists to calculate the errors involved by using this approximation while also presenting a much more accurate measure of the heat content of seawater, namely Conservative Temperature,” Dr McDougall says.

“The difference is mostly less than 1ºC at the sea surface, but it is important to correct for these biases in ocean models.”

This will be an important correction for climate change change models. Even though we here at DSN think the deep sea is the most important habitat on the planet, much of the economical parts of the ocean (i.e. fishing industries, coral reef tourism, etc.) lie in surface waters which are more sensitive to smaller fluctuations in temperature. By taking into account heat capacity and potential temperature, climate change models will be better tweaked and will reflect a more accurate model of ocean processes into the larger picture.

Hat tip to Wild Shores of Singapore.

From our ol’ friend

Navy lore: Josephus Daniels (18 May 1862-15 January 1948) was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Among his reforms of the Navy were inaugurating the practice of making 100 Sailors from the Fleet eligible for entrance into the Naval Academy, the introduction of women into the service, and the abolishment of the officers’ wine mess. From that time on, the strongest drink aboard Navy ships could only be coffee and over the years, a cup of coffee became known as “a cup of Joe”

This Sunday, August 2nd, a major scientific expedition to study the issue of plastic accumulation in the North Pacific Gyre will depart San Diego. The whole venture is between Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the nonprofit Project Kaisei, SEAPLEX (Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition) but the cool part is that Miriam from the Oyster’s Garter and Double X is the PI of this project.  Or as she states “And I’m the PI. Eeeek.”

You can follow along with the SEAPLEX blog or SEAPLEX Tweets where they are “Seeking the Science of the Garbage Patch.” Miriam notes, “By following along with SEAPLEX, readers will be able to get an idea of what we are actually seeing and how scientists measure tiny things in the ocean.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderferret/ / CC BY 2.0

He was a squid from the wrong side of the ocean.  She, a mild mannered but inquisitive squash from a rural farm.  Theirs was a love that was forbidden.  What blossomed was more than love and the relationship eventually proved fruitful.  Hat tip to Urlesque for inspiration.