Socioecology Research Today » oceans

Shakespeare’s Ocean: An Ecocritical Exploration

A. Cherson — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:02:54 +0000

William Shakespeare is “a poet who enjoins us to go to water” (200). Yet ecocritics have largely ignored his invitation, Dan Brayton argues, preferring landlocked green spaces—a condition known as “chlorophilia” (37)—over the salty substance that covers almost three-quarters of the Earth’s surface. Combating this “terrestrial bias” (18), along with “the mythology of the timeless ocean” that presumes inexhaustible oceanic spaces untouched by human activity (29), Brayton’s book plumbs Shakespeare’s “deeply interconnected” relationships between humans, oceans, and marine life (40). While this movement out to sea provides a much-needed perspective shift within early modern studies and ecocriticism at large—see also …

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isle/iss134

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Dissolution and Ocean Transport of Soil Bound Charcoal

A. Cherson — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:33:33 +0000

Biomass burning produces 40 to 250 million tons of charcoal per year worldwide. Much of this is preserved in soils and sediments for thousands of years. However, the estimated production rate of charcoal is significantly larger than that of decomposition, and researchers have calculated that a large fraction of the charcoal produced by fires is lost from the land through dissolution and transport to the oceans.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.340.6130.247-d

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Study shows oceans, below 700m, absorb much of global warming

A. Cherson — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:57:44 +0000

The addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere caused by fossil fuel burning and other anthropogenic activity has caused temperatures at the surface of Earth to increase significantly over the past century and a half, and rapidly during the interval from around 1975 until the early years of the 21st century. However, sea surface and surface-air temperatures have not risen over most of the past decade, encouraging some to question the continued reality of global warming, despite the fact that similar variability also can be seen in the instrumental records of the past century. The real question, then, is not whether climate warming has stopped, but where in the earth system the heat resides that would have caused the expected warming? Naturally, the first place to look is in the ocean, because that is where most of the heat taken up due to global warming is stored. Accordingly, Balmaseda et al. conducted a reanalysis of changes in the global ocean heat content from 1958 through 2009 and found that much of the warming has occurred below depths of 700 m, rather than in the surface ocean, and that much of that redistribution is due to changes in surface winds over that period. This helps to explain why air temperatures have not reflected this heating and shows that global warming is continuing, but out of our daily reach.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/grl.50382

Liquid Robotics Raises $45 million for autonomous ocean roving monitors

A. Cherson — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:40:18 +0000

Liquid Robotics is betting that autonomous vehicles will emerge as the best way to troll the oceans to gather data. The Silicon Valley-based company yesterday raised $45 million in a series E round to grow the company’s sales and services around what it calls “high-value ocean data services” in research, defense, and oil and gas exploration.Its Wave Glider marine robot, which resembles a stubby surfboard from below, can run for months to monitor ocean conditions, such as weather, current speed, and water temperature and salinity. Last December, it set a world record by completing a 9,000 nautical mile journal across the Pacific Ocean in a trip that lasted over a year. The company says it has over 150 deployed at sea.Its data-gathering sensors, GPS, and on-board computers are powered by two standard solar panels attached to the board’s surface. Its ability to propel itself is done by a series of fins attached to a cable about 20 feet below the board. As the waves move up and down, the fins flex back and forth and move the vehicle forward. Because it’s connected to a satellite network, it can be piloted remotely.The robots are used for taking marine data for researchers or to monitor locations, such as harbors, for security. Liquid Robotics has also found a willing audience of customers in the oil and gas industry to aid in offshore exploration. Last year, the company set up a joint venture with Schlumberger called Liquid Robotics Oil and Gas based in Houston, Texas.

Liquid Robotics Raises $45 million | MIT Technology Review

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Evidence for a persistent microbial seed bank throughout the global ocean

A. Cherson — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 14:41:48 +0000

Do bacterial taxa demonstrate clear endemism, like macroorganisms, or can one site’s bacterial community recapture the total phylogenetic diversity of the world’s oceans? Here we compare a deep bacterial community characterization from one site in the English Channel (L4-DeepSeq) with 356 datasets from the International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM) taken from around the globe (ranging from marine pelagic and sediment samples to sponge-associated environments). At the L4-DeepSeq site, increasing sequencing depth uncovers greater phylogenetic overlap with the global ICoMM data. This site contained 31.7–66.2% of operational taxonomic units identified in a given ICoMM biome. Extrapolation of this overlap suggests that 1.93 × 1011 sequences from the L4 site would capture all ICoMM bacterial phylogenetic diversity. Current technology trends suggest this limit may be attainable within 3 y. These results strongly suggest the marine biosphere maintains a previously undetected, persistent microbial seed bank.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1217767110

UK company pursues deep-sea bonanza in polymetallic nodules

A. Cherson — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:58:52 +0000

Polymetallic nodules form over thousands of years on the sea floor, through processes that are still not fully understood; most nodules range in size from the diameter of a golf ball to that of a large potato. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, various companies explored the possibility of harvesting them — but as metal prices fell, the prospect became economically unfeasible. In recent years, however, climbing prices and advances in deep-sea equipment such as remotely operated vehicles and flexible risers — pipes used to lift material — have revived interest. “It’s part of the art of the possible now,” says Miles Libbey, a former employee of Lockheed Martin US, and the founder of Seaminr, a seabed-mining consultancy in Urbanna, Virginia.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/495294a

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