Atlantic in Biological News

Did the North Atlantic fisheries collapse due to fisheries-induced evolution?

The Atlantic cod has, for many centuries, sustained major fisheries on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the North American fisheries have now largely collapsed. A new paper in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE from scientists at the University of Iceland and Marine Research Ins...

Scientists Find new migratory patterns for Mediterranean and Western Atlantic bluefin tuna

New research into the life cycle of Atlantic bluefin tuna shows, for the first time, that Mediterranean and North American bluefin mix substantially as juveniles, but return to their place of birth to spawn. These new research findings have critical implications for how bluefin tuna are managed on...

Signals from the Atlantic salmon highway

For years scientists have struggled to understand the decline and slow recovery of Atlantic salmon, a once abundant and highly prized game and food fish native to New England rivers. Biologists agree that poor marine survival is affecting salmon in the U.S. and Canada, but specific causes are diff...

Isotope analysis reveals foraging area dichotomy for Atlantic leatherback turtles

The beaches of French Guiana constitute a major reproduction site for leatherback turtles. This sea turtle, although a protected species, is threatened by human activity: it ingests plastics, get accidentally caught in fishing nets, sees its egg-laying sites destroyed and its adults hunted illegal...

To save or savor? It's decision time for Atlantic bluefin tuna

Giant bluefin tuna are in trouble, primarily because the powerful muscles that propel their extensive ocean migrations come with an Achilles' heel: They're tasty. Prized by sushi lovers for their savory succulence and by fishermen for the incomparable price they command-one 607-pound fish fet...

'New continent' and species discovered in Atlantic study

A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a team of international researchers whose work will continue our understanding of life in the deepest oceans, and contribute to the global Census of Marine Life. Exploring life in the North Atlantic Ocean at various depths of 800 to 3,500 m...

Iron and biological production in the high-latitude North Atlantic

Southampton scientists have demonstrated an unexpected role of iron in regulating biological production in the high-latitude North Atlantic. Their findings have important implications for our understanding of ocean-climate interactions. Tiny plant-like organisms called phytoplankton dominate bi...

Pacific shellfish ready to invade Atlantic

As the Arctic Ocean warms this century, shellfish, snails and other animals from the Pacific Ocean will resume an invasion of the northern Atlantic that was interrupted by cooling conditions three million years ago, predict Geerat Vermeij, professor of geology at the University of California, Davi...

Brazil creates buffer zone around coral reefs off Atlantic coast

The Brazilian government has created an official buffer zone around the Abrolhos National Marine Park to protect the biologically richest coral reefs in the South Atlantic. The buffer zone, created by Brazil's Institute of Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA), encompasses nearly 95,000 squar...

How satellite tracking revealed the migratory mysteries of endangered Atlantic loggerhead turtles

Their journeys are among the longest in the animal kingdom and they have largely remained a mystery until now. An international team of scientists led by the University of Exeter have uncovered the migratory secrets of endangered loggerhead turtles in West Africa and the results could have huge imp...

Microbes hitchhike across Atlantic on desert dust

Bacteria and fungi, some with the potential to cause disease in plants or animals, may be finding their way from Africa to the Americas by hitchhiking on microscopic dust particles kicked up by storms in the Sahara, according to research presented today at the 106th General Meeting of the American ...

Tropical Atlantic cooling and African deforestation correlate to drought, report scientists

Against the backdrop of the Montreal Summit on global climate being held this week, an article on African droughts and monsoons, by a University of California, Santa Barbara scientist and others, which appears in the December issue of the journal Geology, underlines concern about the effects of glo...

FSU scientist warns North Atlantic right whale facing extinction

The North Atlantic right whale's future looks grim if the current mortality rates continue, according to Florida State University assistant professor of oceanography Douglas Nowacek and a group of fellow scientists from across the nation. They have co-authored a paper titled "North Atlantic Right...

AGU journal highlights -- Aug. 6, 2009

...ane and nitrous oxide in the surface waters of the atlantic Ocean, from 50 degrees North to 50 degrees South. ... reassessment using basin-wide observations in the atlantic Authors: T. S. Rhee: Center of Polar Climate S...ics could drive coastal current variability in the atlantic and Pacific oceans. The results could also have im...

'Shifting Sands' highlights past, present and future of Maryland coastal bays ecosystem

...ds: Environmental and Cultural Change in Maryland's Coastal Bays, a comprehensive look at the coastal lagoons and barrier islands making up Maryland's atlantic coastline. Published by IAN Press, Shifting Sands leads the reader through the history, setting, context and ecology of these waterways, their isla...

Scientists discover Amazon river is 11 million years old

...w research has large implications for our understanding of South American paleogeography and the evolution of aquatic organisms in Amazonia and on the atlantic coast. The origin of the Amazon river is a defining moment: a new ecosystem came into being at the same time as the uplifting Andes formed a geograp...

Coralline algae in the Mediterranean lost their tropical element between 5 and 7 million years ago

...re) to house coral reefs," Braga added. When Tropical Coral Reefs Became atlantic During the period studied by the scientists through the coralline algae ...cal biotas existed in the Messinian era. Moreover, most of them already had atlantic affinities and resembled the algae that still inhabits our coasts today", B...

All in sight

...ng it visible for humans: the brighter a spot, the warmer it is. The warm spout of a whale clearly stands out against the background of the cold North atlantic or Antarctic waters. Infrared thermography is already in use with great success, for example to examine the heat insulation of buildings. However, ...

NSF provides $3.4 million to study climatically important Agulhas Current

...vidence suggesting that changes in the amount of Agulhas water reaching the atlantic may have triggered the end of the last ice age." In addition, Beal believes...the Indian Ocean, which can be linked to other climate indices, such as the atlantic Meridional Overturning, and hopefully improve our predictive capabilities f...

Working to conserve endangered 'Playboy' bunnies

...sturbed. The project was a perfect thesis subject for Tursi, who earned a degree in Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Biotechnology from Florida atlantic University before enrolling at UCF. "Nature and conservation of wildlife have always been my passion, and I wanted to use my molecular and genetic ...

Dolphins get a lift from delta wing technology

...ng the flippers' efficiencies, the team found that the bottle nose dolphin's triangular flippers are the most efficient while the harbour porpoise and atlantic white-sided dolphin's fins were the least efficient. Commenting that environmental and performance factors probably play a significant role in the ...

When palm trees gave way to spruce trees

...nge, and pose problems for precisely dating their age, so we needed to look elsewhere." The "where" was in marine sediments entombed when the North atlantic Ocean was beginning to open, and lying now at the bottom of today's Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Sediment cores taken from there contained a record of anc...

Sediment yields climate record for past half-million years

...2-foot) sediment core drilled in 2005 in the North atlantic Ocean by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, gi...mpared their record of past climate from the North atlantic to a similar record taken from an ice core drilled... the two records, one from the bottom of the North atlantic Ocean and the other from Antarctica," he said. "Th...

NOAA awards $22.5 million to Harbor Branch/FAU and UNCW for new cooperative institute

...be headquartered at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida atlantic University in Fort Pierce, Florida, and co-managed by the University of Nor...OAA's priorities. "This is an important day for Harbor Branch, Florida atlantic University, our partners and the coastal ocean of the eastern seaboard," sa...

Disappearing act of world's second largest fish explained

...t basking sharks make ocean-scale migrations through tropical waters of the atlantic Ocean during the winter, traveling at depths of 200 to 1,000 meters. Their ...ature. "Coupled with recent genetic data, our finding indicates that the atlantic population and perhaps the world population are connected and may constit...

Admiral to discuss piracy on high seas at IEEE Homeland Security Conference

...s keynote address Monday 11 May at 8 a.m. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1970, Gurnon flew anti-submarine aircraft throughout the atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. He came to MMA in 1978 and became president nearly four years ago. MMA, one of six state maritime academies in the countr...

First jaguar photo taken at Smithsonian Research Station in Panama

...ro Colorado Island in Gatun Lakepart of the Panama Canalis only 25 miles from Panama City on the Pacific end of the canal and the city of Colon on the atlantic end. Most of Panama's more than 3 million people live in these two cities. Two of the world's great biological hotspots meet in this area, which conti...

Laughing hyenas, wailing levees, the sound of cheese and blaring bagpipes

...May 19. Abstract: http://asa.aip.org/web2/asa/abstracts/search.may09/asa333.html 12) ICELANDIC SAGA: RETURN OF THE RIGHT WHALE The North atlantic right whale, with only about 300-350 animals known to exist, used to inhabit the Cape Farewell Ground, which lies between southwest Iceland and Greenl...

International honor for University of East Anglia ocean researcher

...ch and the Springer journal Ocean Dynamics . Born in 1890, Georg Wst was an early pioneer of oceanography. He is best known for his studies of the atlantic Ocean which revealed the secrets of the deep ocean's stratification and circulation. In a separate honour, Prof Heywood has also recently been elec...

International climate change researchers meet, review latest findings

... climate and climate change. Ilana Wainer , a meteorologist at the Universade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, whose research includes modeling of the South atlantic Ocean and climate change. Guoxiong Wu , a meteorologist and member of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences who speci...

Stevens hosts 'Green Building: The Bottom Line,' April 8

...ncy generators, uninterruptible power systems and cooling and heat load estimations, among others. Dr. William Hyatt Gordon is president of Gordon atlantic Development Corp., a New York-based company that offers a range of services from pre-development and financial analysis, to project management, to sus...

Penn biologists demonstrate that size matters... in snail shells

...ined that a snail making its home in the northwest atlantic Ocean around Mount Desert Island, Me., has experie...een reported previously in Nucella lapillus , the atlantic dogwhelk, is that shell length increased at all 19... N. lapillus is an important member of the North atlantic marine ecosystems, and the results suggest that th...

Team IDs genesis of mass migrations

...Norway. Other collaborators are from MIT, Northeastern and the Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Off Georges Bank The researchers focused on atlantic herring off Georges Bank near Boston during the fall spawning season. They found that the formation and movement of large shoals of the fish constitut...

AGU journal highlights -- March 25, 2009

...ea temperature-atmospheric pressure links in North atlantic Feedback effects between the ocean and atmosphe... variation in atmospheric pressure above the North atlantic Ocean called the North atlantic Oscillation produce a three-part pattern (tripole...

Lohafex provides new insights on plankton ecology

... Punta Arenas, Chile, together with colleagues from five other countries. They carried out an ocean iron fertilization experiment in the south-western atlantic for arduous two and a half months in the notorious Roaring Forties. The scientists fertilized a 300 square kilometre patch of ocean inside the core of...

Gene decides whether coral relative will fuse or fight

...actinia symbiolongicarpus in the laboratory. (Cnidarians are most familiarly represented by corals, sea anemones and jellyfish.) Perhaps best known to atlantic basin and western Pacific beachcombers as the distinctive white fuzz growing on the top of hermit crab shells, Hydractinia have become a model for sci...

New tracking tags are providing fish-eye views of ways to manage depressed fisheries

...ms of the status of many wild marine fish populations." For example, the atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, which can garner more than $15,000 per fish, is managed as two separate stocks, one in the Eastern atlantic basin, with a breeding ground in the Mediterranean, and another in the west...

Right whale sedation enables disentanglement effort

...y, March 6, 2009, for the first time ever, a North atlantic right whale that had been severely entangled in fi...titution (WHOI), NOAA Fisheries, which manages the atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network based at the P...uccessfully employed this new technique." North atlantic right whales are frequently entangled in fixed fis...

Geoscientists discuss sea level rise, extreme storm events and more

...growth in the area, and this is reflected in the scheduled presentations. Another session also generating much interest covers the paleobiology of the atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, with talks on increasing growth rates in herbivores in Florida following a late Neogene extinction event, investigations of a...

A new view of oceanic phytoplankton

...nce varying levels of phosphorus stress. In regions where phosphorus stress is extreme, such as the area dubbed the Sargasso Sea in the central North atlantic Ocean, phospholipids were nearly nonexistent. By comparison, in the South Pacific Ocean, where sufficient phosphorus exists, there were large amounts...