Marine Biology News
Courtesy of Science Daily

Creating Cultured Pearls From The Queen Conch: Scientists Unlock Mystery In their natural form, conch pearls are among the rarest pearls in the world. For more than 25 years, all attempts at culturing pearls from the queen conch have been unsuccessful -- until now. For the first time, novel and proprietary seeding techniques to produce beaded and non-beaded high-quality cultured pearls from the queen conch have been developed by scientists. Publ.Date : Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST Calm Before The Spawn: Climate Change And Coral Spawning Biologists have explained why corals spawn for just a few nights in some places but elsewhere string out their love life over many months. A new study shows that corals spawn when regional wind fields are light. When it is calm, the eggs and sperm have the chance to unite before they are dispersed. Publ.Date : Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST North Atlantic Fish Populations Shifting As Ocean Temperatures Warm About half of 36 fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, many of them commercially valuable species, have been shifting northward over the last four decades, with some stocks nearly disappearing from US waters as they move farther offshore, according to a new study. Publ.Date : Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST Tags Reveal White Sharks Have Neighborhoods In The North Pacific A tracking study of white sharks in the northeastern Pacific Ocean shows they adhere to a rigid route of migration across the sea, returning to precisely the same spot along the California coast each time they come back, according to a team of researchers. Over time, this behavior has made the population in the northeastern Pacific genetically distinct from other white shark populations. Publ.Date : Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change Deep-sea ecosystems occupying 60 percent of the Earth's surface could be vulnerable to the effects of global warming, warn scientists. Publ.Date : Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST Data Point To Some Improvements In China's Environment A recent assessment finds some positive trends among indicators of biodiversity loss in China -- notably, growth in forest coverage and improvements in marine ecosystems. However, other indicators, such as the rate of discovery of invasive species, are worsening. Many animals are under growing threat. Publ.Date : Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST SMOS Satellite Successfully Launched: First-ever Satellite To Attempt To Measure Ocean Salinity From Space A rocket carrying the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite blasted off successfully today. SMOS is the first-ever satellite to attempt to measure ocean salinity from space. It will provide global maps of soil moisture over land and surface salinity over the ocean. Publ.Date : Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST Robot Fish Could Monitor Water Quality Nature inspires technology as an engineer and an ecologist have teamed to develop robots that use advanced materials to swim like fish to probe underwater environments. Robotic fish -- perhaps schools of them operating autonomously for months -- could give researchers far more precise data on aquatic conditions, deepening our knowledge of critical water supplies and habitats. Publ.Date : Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST Remotely Operated Vehicles And Satellite Tags Aid Turtle Studies Researchers are using a remotely operated vehicle and satellite-linked data loggers to learn more about turtle behavior in commercial fishing areas and to develop new ways to avoid catching turtles in fishing gear. This marks the first time an ROV has been used to follow turtles in the wild to learn about their behavior and how they interact with their habitat Publ.Date : Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EDT Why Do Animals, Especially Males, Have So Many Different Colors? Why do so many animal species -- including fish, birds and insects -- display such rich diversity in coloration and other traits? New research offers an answer. Publ.Date : Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT Dining Out In An Ocean Of Plastic: How Foraging Albatrosses Put Plastic On The Menu Marine biologists examined whether Laysan albatrosses nesting on Kure Atoll and Oahu, Hawaii, 2,150 km away, ingested different amounts of plastic by putting miniaturized tracking devices on birds to follow them at sea and examining their regurgitated stomach contents. Surprisingly, birds from Kure Atoll ingested almost ten times the amount of plastic compared to birds from Oahu. Publ.Date : Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EDT Fishery Impact Test Developed Researchers have developed an 'ecological risk assessment' a three-step method that considers targeted and incidentally caught species, as well as threatened, endangered and protected species. Ongoing research is further developing the method for habitats and ecological communities. Publ.Date : Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT What Are Coral Reef Services Worth? $130,000 To $1.2 Million Per Hectare, Per Year Experts have revealed jaw-dropping dollar values of the "ecosystem services" of biomes like forests and coral reefs -- including food, pollution treatment and climate regulation. Publ.Date : Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT Ocean Acidification May Contribute To Global Shellfish Decline Relatively minor increases in ocean acidity brought about by high levels of carbon dioxide have significant detrimental effects on the growth, development, and survival of hard clams, bay scallops, and Eastern oysters, according to researchers. Publ.Date : Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:00:00 EDT Novel Evolutionary Theory For The Explosion Of Life The Cambrian Explosion is widely regarded as one of the most relevant episodes in the history of life on Earth, when the vast majority of animal phyla first appear in the fossil record. However, the causes of its origin have been object of debate for decades. A novel theory formulates that the geologically induced increase on marine calcium, as a result of volcanic activity, might be the key for understanding this important stage in evolution. Publ.Date : Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EDT Whales Are Polite Conversationalists: Rhythms Can Be Spotted In Ocean's Chatter What do a West African drummer and a sperm whale have in common? According to some reports, they can both spot rhythms in the chatter of an ocean crowded with the calls of marine mammals -- a feat impossible for the untrained human ear. Publ.Date : Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EDT Scientists Map Fish Habitat And Movements At Gray's Reef Marine Sanctuary Two related research expeditions by NOAA scientists to track the habitat preferences and movements of fish at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary may help managers protect overfished species such as red snapper and grouper. Publ.Date : Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:00:00 EDT Boosting Coastal Economics With Crustacean Molting On Demand Researchers are close to unraveling intricate cellular pathways that control molting in blue crabs. The discoveries could revolutionize the soft-shell crab industry, generating new jobs and additional profits for the US fishing industry along the coastal Southeast. Publ.Date : Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT Marine Lab Team Seeks To Understand Coral Bleaching With technology similar to that used by physicians to perform magnetic resonance imaging scans, researchers are studying the metabolic activity of a pathogen shown to cause coral bleaching, a serious threat to undersea reef ecosystems worldwide. Publ.Date : Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:00:00 EDT Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Among Healthiest Coral Reefs In Gulf Of Mexico Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is among the healthiest coral reef ecosystems in the tropical Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, according to NOAA researchers. Their report offers insights into the coral and fish communities within the sanctuary based on data collected in 2006 and 2007. Publ.Date : Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 EDT Mantis Shrimp Eyes Could Show Way To Better DVD And CD players The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, according to a new study. Publ.Date : Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 EDT Finding The ASX200 For Marine Ecosystems Researchers are building the environmental equivalent of the ASX200 as a means of monitoring the health of Australian marine ecosystems. Publ.Date : Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EDT Salmon Migration Mystery Explored On Idaho's Clearwater River Temperature differences and slow-moving water at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers in Idaho might delay the migration of threatened fall Chinook salmon salmon and allow them to grow larger before reaching the Pacific Ocean. To find out if that's the case, a team of researchers is implanting young fish with acoustic and radio tags to track their movement and using hydrological sensors to measure water temperature and speed. Publ.Date : Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT Genome Of Microbe Silently Shaping Ecology Of Ocean Dead Zones Described The expansion of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) affects the processes by which carbon is captured and sequestered on the seafloor. Researchers describe the metagenome of an abundant but uncultivated microbe from a fjord on the coast of British Columbia, Canada that is silently helping to shape the ecology of OMZs worldwide. Publ.Date : Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EDT