Oceanography News
Courtesy of Science Daily

Are The Alps Growing Or Shrinking? The Alps are growing just as quickly in height as they are shrinking. This paradoxical result comes from a new study by a group of German and Swiss geoscientists. Due to glaciers and rivers, about exactly the same amount of material is eroded from the slopes of the Alps as is regenerated from the deep Earth's crust. The climatic cycles of the glacial period in Europe over the past 2.5 million years have accelerated this erosion process. Publ.Date : Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 EST Past Climate Of Northern Antarctic Peninsular Informs Global Warming Debate The seriousness of current global warming is underlined by a reconstruction of climate at Maxwell Bay in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula over approximately the last 14,000 years, which appears to show that the current warming and widespread loss of glacial ice are unprecedented. Publ.Date : Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST Changing Arctic Affecting Air, Ocean, And Everything In Between Despite the fact that summer 2009 had more sea ice than in 2007 or 2008, scientists are seeing drastic changes in the region from just five years ago and at rates faster than anticipated. Publ.Date : Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST Seafloor Fossils Provide Clues On Climate Change Deep under the sea, a fossil the size of a sand grain is nestled among a billion of its closest dead relatives. Known as foraminifera, these complex little shells of calcium carbonate can tell you the sea level, temperature, and ocean conditions of Earth millions of years ago. That is, if you know what to look for. Publ.Date : Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 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 African Desert Rift Confirmed As New Ocean In The Making In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial. Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world's oceans. Publ.Date : Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST Mapping Nutrient Distributions Over The Atlantic Ocean Large-scale distributions of two important nutrient pools -- dissolved organic nitrogen and dissolved organic phosphorus have been systematically mapped for the first time over the Atlantic Ocean in a new study. The findings have important implications for understanding nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles and the biological carbon pump in the Atlantic Ocean. Publ.Date : Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 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 Iron Controls Patterns Of Nitrogen Fixation In The Atlantic Scientists have discovered that interactions between iron supply, transported through the atmosphere from deserts, and large-scale oceanic circulation control the availability of a crucial nutrient, nitrogen, in the Atlantic. Their findings have potentially important implications for understanding global climate, both past and future. Publ.Date : Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 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 First Detailed Documentation Of Tsunami Erosion For the first time, a group of scientists working in the Kuril Islands off the east coast of Russia has documented the scope of tsunami-caused erosion and found that a wave can carry away far more sand and dirt than it deposits. Publ.Date : Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EDT Underwater Exploration Of The Casablanca Seamount In October, the hydraulic benthic interactive sampler HyBIS made 10 dives over the Casablanca Seamount, a four-kilometer high seamount located some 300 miles west of Morocco. Publ.Date : Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT Soil Moisture And Ocean Salinity Satellite Ready For Launch A new European Earth observation satellite will be launched in the early hours of Monday November 2 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite will measure moisture levels in the Earth's soils and the saltiness of the world's oceans from space for the very first time. Publ.Date : Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:00:00 EDT North Carolina Sea Levels Rising Three Times Faster Than In Previous 500 Years, Study Finds An international team of environmental scientists has shown that sea-level rise in North Carolina is accelerating, a jump that appears to have occurred during a time of industrial change. Publ.Date : Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:00:00 EDT Underwater Exploration: Autosub6000 Dives To Depth Of 3.5 Miles The United Kingdom's deepest diving Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Autosub6000, has been put through its paces during an extremely successful engineering trials cruise on the RRS Discovery, Sept. 27 to Oct. 17, 2009. Publ.Date : Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EDT Saving Sand: South Carolina Beaches Become A Model For Preservation While most people head to Myrtle Beach for vacation, a group of scientists have been hitting the famous South Carolina beach for years to figure out how to keep the sand from washing away. Their work is a model for beach preservation that can apply elsewhere. Publ.Date : Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:00:00 EDT Experimental Harmful Algal Bloom Forecast Bulletin For Lake Erie Predicting harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in the Great Lakes is now a reality as NOAA announces an experimental HAB forecast system in Lake Erie. HABs produce toxins that may pose a significant risk to human and animal health through water recreation and may form scum that are unsightly and odorous to beach visitors, impacting the coastal economy. Publ.Date : Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:00:00 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 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 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 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 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 Geologist Analyzes Earliest Shell-covered Fossil Animals The fossil remains of some of the first animals with shells, ocean-dwelling creatures that measure a few centimeters in length and date to about 520 million years ago, provide a window on evolution at this time, according to scientists. Their research indicates that these animals were larger than previously thought. Publ.Date : Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:00:00 EDT Shark Teeth Provide Key To North Sea’s Climatic Past A team of German and British scientists have used fossilised shark teeth to reconstruct the climate of the North Sea during the Palaeogene period, between 40 and 60 million years ago. The results suggest that the North Sea was for a brief period isolated from surrounding oceans, resulting in surface-water freshening and a significant reduction in the diversity of life. Publ.Date : Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT