Weekly Ocean News

Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK TEN: 2-6 April 2012

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week a tropical depression formed over the waters of the South China Sea, ultimately intensifying to become Typhoon Pakhar, the first typhoon of 2012 in in the western North Pacific Ocean basin. This weak category 1 typhoon (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) weakened to a tropical storm as it traveled westward toward the coast of southern Vietnam over this past weekend. Satellite images and additional information on Typhoon Pakhar can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
NASA's Hurricane Twitter is highly popular -- During the month of March 2012, NASA's Hurricane Twitter social media page surpassed 200,000 subscribers, a mark that few other NASA Twitter accounts have reached. This page posts daily updates on current tropical cyclones including images and videos. [NASA Hurricane/Tropical Cyclones Mission]
Taxpayers benefit from NOAA's coast mapping program -- A recent independent socioeconomic study indicates that for every dollar the American taxpayer spends on NOAA's National Geodetic Survey Coastal Mapping Program results in more than $35 in benefits in terms of national security, maritime shipping and navigation and the geographical reference data needed to manage, develop, conserve and protect coastal resources. [NOAA News]
Surface salinity differences found between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans off North America -- An image shows surface salinity (salt concentration) over the western North Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific Oceans surrounding North America generated from a global ocean model run by the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center. The image shows that the western North Atlantic is saltier than the eastern North Pacific, with the salinity differences attributed to differences in the freshwater input and the evaporation from the ocean basins. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab]
Global surface ocean currents and temperature patterns in motion -- A high-resolution visualization was produced using NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory computational model that shows surface ocean currents with corresponding sea surface temperature data. This computational model called "Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II" (ECCO2) attempts to model ocean eddies that can affect the transport of heat and carbon in the world oceans. [NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio]
Review of global weather and climate for February 2012 and boreal winter -- Using preliminary data collected from the global network of surface weather stations, scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center have determined that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature for February 2012 ranked the 22nd highest for any February since global climate records began in 1880. They also noted that the combined land-ocean temperature for the three months of December 2011, January and February 2012 was also the 17th highest for this three-month Northern Hemisphere winter-Southern Hemisphere summer season. Furthermore, the average global ocean surface temperature for February was the twelfth highest on record and for the three-month season was the 15th highest. The global land surface temperature for February 2012 was 37th highest, while that of the December 2011-February 2012 was the 20th highest. The results indicate that the continuing La Niña event remained a factor. The areal coverage of Arctic sea ice during February 2012 was the fifth smallest February extent since satellite surveillance began in 1979, while the sea ice around Antarctica was the fifth largest. While the snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere for the three-month winter season was the 14th largest for the record that started in the late 1960s, the winter snow cover over North America was the fourth smallest. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
West Antarctic ice shelves are tearing apart -- Glaciologists from the University of Texas report that their analysis of nearly 40 years of satellite imagery indicates the ice shelves floating on the waters of the eastern Amundsen Sea Embayment are becoming more fractured and less able to hold the grounded ice in West Antarctica. They also note that the changes have been rapid during the last decade. [University of Texas]
Water scarcity in California's Bay-Delta necessitates action -- A report prepared by the National Research Council warns that with fresh water becoming more scarce in California's San Francisco Bay area, better planning is necessary that will necessitate trade-offs between maintaining a reliable water supply for human activity and the protection and rehabilitation of the Bay-Delta ecosystem. [National Academies News]
Oceans could have hidden carbon dioxide during last Ice Age -- Using newly developed isotope measurement techniques on ice core samples, scientists from Switzerland's University of Bern, France's University of Grenoble and Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have found that processes within the ocean have been responsible for sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the deep ocean during cold ice age periods over the last 800,000 years, including the last Ice Age at times around 20,000 years ago. Only at the end of the Ice Age, oceanic circulation transported the stored carbon dioxide to the surface where it was emitted into the atmosphere. [Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research]
Heat stress may help coral reefs survive changing climate -- An international team of scientists who recently conducted a study on the equatorial Pacific island nation of Kiribati conclude that coral that have survived heat stress in the past appear to be more likely to survive future warm events associated with changing climate. [University of British Columbia]
Coral reef declines in Caribbean predate warming oceans -- A research team from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other institutions using a novel excavation technique to reconstruction a timeline in the coral reefs in along the Caribbean side of the Panama Isthmus claims that land clearing and overfishing have caused damage to these reefs, predating the damage caused by warmer waters associated with anthropogenically forced changes in climate. [EurekAlert!]
Diverse ecosystems threatened by extreme weather -- Using mathematical simulations, researchers at Sweden's Linköping University report that species extinction in bio-diverse ecosystems including coral reefs and tropical rainforests would increase because of more extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts and excessive rainfall caused by increased global temperatures. [Linköping University]
An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Solving the Mystery of Seamount Ecosystems

The United States Commission on Ocean Policy reports that less than 5% of the ocean floor has been explored. This is beginning to change as scientists and engineers develop and apply new technologies to investigate deep ocean waters and the sea bottom (refer to Chapter 13 in your DataStreme Ocean textbook). Consider, for example, the effort to obtain a better understanding of seamount ecosystems.

A seamount is a submarine mountain of volcanic origin (now extinct) that rises more than 1000 m (3300 ft) above the ocean floor. Usually a seamount summit is 1000 to 2000 m (3300 to 6600 ft) below sea level. They occur as isolated peaks, chains (e.g., Emperor Seamounts in the North Pacific; New England chain in the North Atlantic), or clusters. The term "seamount" was first applied in 1936 to the Davidson Seamount located off the coast of Southern California. Scientists estimate that perhaps 30,000 dot the ocean floor with as many as two-thirds located on the Pacific Ocean bottom. However, fewer than one thousand seamounts have been named and only a handful of seamounts has received detailed scientific study.

In recent years, discovery of unique life forms on seamounts has spurred scientific interest in seamount ecosystems. Many nations, including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, are supporting scientific cruises to observe and collect specimens from seamount ecosystems. Seamount ecosystems are unusually productive and are home to unique species. Some seamount surveys have found that certain seamount species are endemic, that is, they live on only one seamount or a few nearby peaks. For example, up to one-third of all species living on some seamounts off New Caledonia are endemic while up to half of the invertebrates and fish on the Nazca seamount off Chile are endemic. In the northeast Pacific, large-scale eddies may transport larval fish from coastal environments to isolated seamounts located out at sea. Furthermore, some scientists argue that seamounts may function as stepping stones that allow for migration of species over lengthy periods--perhaps over millions of years. In addition, some seamounts may serve as aids to navigation for fish that migrate over long distances. For example, hammerhead sharks may use the magnetic field surrounding seamounts to find their way.

The recent effort to survey and explore seamount ecosystems has reached new urgency with the realization of the devastating impact of commercial fish trawlers on those ecosystems. In some cases, trawling has striped off most marine life (e.g., coral gardens) from the surface of seamounts leaving behind mostly bare rock. Typically, trawled seamounts have only half the biomass and considerably fewer species than undisturbed seamounts. Scientists anticipate that a better understanding of seamount ecosystems will help make the case for their conservation and inform the most effective strategies for their protection. Australia is one of the first nations to protect seamount ecosystems, establishing the Tasmanian Seamount Marine Reserve in 1999. The reserve covers 370 square km (140 square mi) and includes more than a dozen seamounts.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Seamounts are extinct submarine volcanoes that occur primarily in the [(Atlantic) (Pacific)(Southern)] Ocean.
Commercial fish trawling has [(little if any)(a devastating)] impact on seamount ecosystems.

Historical Events:

2 April 1513...Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon came ashore on the Florida coast near present-day St. Augustine and claimed the territory for the Spanish crown. He is reported to be the first known European to set foot in Florida. (The History Channel)
2 April 1958...One of the most destructive coastal storms in years battered New England (31 March-3 April). Some beaches between Portland, ME and Cape Cod, MA were eroded by approximately 50 ft. Miles of sea walls and bulkheads were either breached or demolished. Many beachfront cottages in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine were sandblasted. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
2 April 1926...Baden-Baden, a rotor ship invented by Anton Flettner left Hamburg, Germany on a transatlantic crossing, arriving in New York on 29 May 1926. The ship used two 9-ft diameter, 50-ft high cylinders, mounted vertically on the deck at the bow and the stern for propulsion, utilizing the aerodynamic power of the Magnus Effect, which builds air pressure behind a rotating cylinder. (Today in Science History)
3 April 1797...Captain Thomas Truxtun, USN, devised and issued the first known American signal book using numerary system, encompassing 10 numeral pennants, made of combinations of red, white, blue, and yellow bunting, with flags for repeaters. This signal book contained approximately 300 signals. Fog signals were made by gunfire. Night signals were made by lanterns and gunfire. (Naval Historical Center)
4 April 1581...The famous English navigator, Francis Drake, completed his circumnavigation of the world (1577 to 1580) and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. (Wikipedia).
6 April 1894...President Grover Cleveland authorized enforcement of the Paris Award concerning the preservation of fur seals in Alaska. (USCG Historian's Office)
6 April 1909...The American explorer, Commander Robert E. Peary, USN, along with assistant Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos reported reaching the geographic North Pole; however, navigational errors may have meant that they were a few miles away from the exact pole. (Naval Historical Center) (The History Channel)
6 April 1913...USRC Seneca, a derelict destroyer (whose mission was to locate and destroy abandoned wrecks that were still afloat and a menace to navigation), inaugurated the Revenue Cutter Service's participation in the International Ice Patrol. (USCG Historian's Office)
8-10 April 1958...A global 48-hr precipitation record was established at Aurere, La Reunion Island, when 97.1 in. of rain from a tropical cyclone fell on the Indian Ocean island. (The Weather Doctor)
8-14 April 1984...Intense Tropical Cyclone Kaimsy crossed and re-crossed the northern portion of Madagascar. Winds exceeding 112 mph destroyed 80 percent of Antseranana and Mahajanga. Rainfall from this system totaled 27.99 in. Eighty-two people were killed and 100,000 were made homeless. Damage was greater than 150 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)