Category: Energy & Sustainability

The Summer One Third of the Great Barrier Reef Died

Researchers survey bleached corals in the shallow water in Cygnet Bay, Western Australia, during current bleaching event. Photo Credit: Chris Cornwall
Researchers survey bleached corals in the shallow water in Cygnet Bay, Western Australia, during current bleaching event. Photo Credit: Chris Cornwall

April marked the twelfth consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures. That’s an entire year of our planet, on land and in the sea, being hotter-than-ever-recorded since record keeping began in 1880. Such extraordinary warmth is affecting ecosystems globally, but perhaps the hardest hit are coral reefs, whose fundamental organisms are incredibly sensitive to the heat.

Earlier this year, authorities in Australia reported that the Great Barrier Reef was in the midst of its worst bleaching event ever. Surveys above and below the water estimated that over 90% of the reefs were affected by bleaching. Now, as the summer wanes down under, scientists are finally able to begin to assess the lasting damage caused by this event. Their findings are heartbreaking. Continue reading “The Summer One Third of the Great Barrier Reef Died”

Reef “Cat Scans” Reveal Another Way Acidification Speeds Erosion

Reefs are built by so much more than coral! Photo by
The stunning biodiversity of a “coral” reef. Photo by Laura D

Rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere are changing Earth’s climate at an unprecedented rate. Not only is our planet getting warmer on average—in the oceans, a chemical reaction spurred by dissolved CO2 is altering water chemistry, causing a decrease in pH. This effect of climate change, called ocean acidification, can dissolve the calcium carbonate foundations of coral reefs and other calcifying organisms, making it impossible to build and maintain healthy reefs. Luckily, recent studies on how corals react to lower pHs has given scientists hope that they may be more resilient than previously thought. However, to truly understand how reefs will respond to climate change, we have to look at more than just corals.

Reefs are complex ecosystems, the bases of which are comprised of so much more than corals. There are other species which act as calcifiers, adding to the carbonate foundation (such as crustose coralline algae). The contribution of these non-coral species to reef growth, called secondary accretion, helps shape the surface and guide the settlement of larval corals. There are also species that eat away at the reef, including many worms and sponges. These bioeroders can weaken reef structures until they crumble apart. Whether a reef grows or shrinks over time depends on the interplay between its corals, other reef-builders, and the burrowing organisms which eat their way through the reef’s carbonate foundation. Continue reading “Reef “Cat Scans” Reveal Another Way Acidification Speeds Erosion”

Another Reason To Act Now On Climate Change: Snakes

beware_rattlesnakes

Though scientists have been warning about the disastrous impacts that climate change will have on our planet for decades, we are now starting to feel those predictions manifest. As Eric Holthaus pointed out, the “worst nightmare” scenarios are already happening. Droughts, storms, fires, you name it—the world as we knew it is under siege. Heck, we just had the most abnormally hot month on record; February 2016 was 1.35 degrees Celsius warmer than the average, making it two-tenths of a degree more unusually warm than the previous record month: January 2016.

And as water supplies dwindle, rainforests burn, and corals bleach, we may have yet another thing to worry about: frickin’ snakes.

Continue reading “Another Reason To Act Now On Climate Change: Snakes”

Build it up or let it drown: future prospects for a disappearing nation

This is a guest post by Jamie M. Caldwell, PhD Candidate at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa with the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology and NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow. I invited her to write this post for her perspective on the ongoing discussions at COP21 in France, as she was in the Marshall Islands this past June to teach climate science to high school teachers.

For many people, the idea of setting up shop thousands of miles from anywhere on a remote Pacific island, surrounded by palm trees and crystal blue water, sounds like a dream come true. In reality however, life on many of these islands, especially the low elevation islands, is anything but paradise. While developed countries shouldn’t expect to feel the effects of climate change for another 20-30 years, low elevation islands sprinkled across the Pacific Ocean are feeling the effects of climate change today.
Jamie_1

“It’s not hard to imagine these islands underwater when you’re standing on a sliver of land with a seemingly never-ending blue ocean on both sides.”

Continue reading “Build it up or let it drown: future prospects for a disappearing nation”

Trading Turkey for Turkeyfish: A Holiday Proposal

If you live in the United States, then odds are that today, you’re eating turkey. It’s Thanksgiving — that’s what we Americans do. Some fifty million turkeys are consumed in the states every year on Thanksgiving, keeping with a centuries-old tradition started by the first Europeans to come to this land. But the land has changed since the pilgrims shot their first wild turkey; forests have been clear-cut, making way for agricultural fields and urban centers. Rivers have been dammed and diverted, and many of the beasts and birds that once dominated the landscape have been depleted or exterminated. Even the turkeys have changed — they’ve nearly doubled in size from selective breeding, with breasts so large that they cannot fly or mate, needing human hands to perform the act of insemination using a device ironically akin to a baster.

According to scientists at the University of Manchester, over 25 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions are produced to raise each chubby bird we consume. That means we pay for our Thanksgiving feast by releasing over 1.25 billion pounds of climate changing carbon dioxide into our already carbon-laden atmosphere.

But there is another way. Rather than turkey for your holiday feasts, consider instead the delicious flesh of the turkeyfish.

You won't even notice the difference. Ok, you'll notice. But turkeyfish is better for you and the environment! Images from Wikimedia users TheKosher and Food Republic.
You won’t even notice the difference. Ok, you’ll notice. But turkeyfish is better for you and the environment! Images from Wikimedia users TheKosher and Food Republic.

Continue reading “Trading Turkey for Turkeyfish: A Holiday Proposal”

More Bad News About The Lionfish Invasion (Happy Earth Day?)

Lionfish I helped catch off the coast of Beaufort, NC in 2013. Photo by Christie Wilcox.
Lionfish I helped catch off the coast of Beaufort, NC in 2013. Photo by Christie Wilcox

As I’ve described before, the Indo-Pacific lionfish in the Atlantic and Caribbean are quite possibly the worst marine invasion ever. These toxic predators have been eating their way around for the past few decades, driving down populations of native species and threatening already-struggling habitats. Now, a pair of papers released this month have more bad news: the lionfish are continuing to spread, and they may be eating the very last of critically endangered species.

Continue reading “More Bad News About The Lionfish Invasion (Happy Earth Day?)”

Science Triumphs in Oregon and Colorado: GMO Labeling Measures Fail

The midterm elections are over, and a number of significant changes lie ahead. Marijuana has taken several key steps towards legalization, more women than ever are in congress, and the Republican party has taken control of the senate—surely, it will be an interesting couple of years. But one thing hasn’t changed: GMO foods will not carry special labels, as the ballot measures in Colorado and Oregon followed suit with the failed propositions from California in 2012 and Washington in 2013.

GMO labeling initiatives in Oregon and Colorado fail to pass.
GMO labeling initiatives in Oregon and Colorado fail to pass.

Proposition 105 in Colorado failed splendidly, with close to 66% of the populace voting against the measure. Prop 92 in Oregon narrowly failed with less than 51% against. Many are up in arms about the failed measures on twitter, using hashtags like #monsatan and #nogmos. But No votes in both states are far from “losses” —they represent wins for science over the anti-GM initiative that is based solely in fear and propaganda. Continue reading “Science Triumphs in Oregon and Colorado: GMO Labeling Measures Fail”

Repost: Conversations With My Grandpa

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill. At the time, it was the biggest oil spill in US history.  As far as the cleanup is concerned, the Exxon spill is far from over. But Exxon isn’t the spill that weighs on American minds. I wrote the following post in June of 2010, when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform stole the title of the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. 21 years after Exxon, and BP proved that oil spills are still a big problem—four years after Deepwater Horizon, has anything really changed? 

Oil supplies the United States with approximately 40% of its energy needs. Billions upon billions of gallons are pumped out of our wells, brought in from other countries, and shipped around to refineries all over the states. 1.3 million gallons of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. Yes, it would be great if we never spilled a drop of oil. No matter how hard we may try, though, the fact is that nobody is perfect, and oil spills are an inevitable consequence of our widespread use of oil. The question is, once the oil is out there, how do we clean it up?

Nowehere is this issue more glaring than in the Gulf of Mexico right now, where 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil are spewing out of the remains of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig every day. The spill has enraged an entire nation. But perhaps my grandfather put it best, when I asked him what he thought about how BP and the US is responding to the spill.

“They’re friggin’ idiots.” Continue reading “Repost: Conversations With My Grandpa”

GCFI’s 2013 Lionfish Session: A Tale In Tweets (#storify #Lionfish2013 #GCFI)

GCFI_Logo_finalMissed out on this year’s Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute lionfish session? It’s ok! I got you!

Head over to my storify of the session to learn more!

Continue reading “GCFI’s 2013 Lionfish Session: A Tale In Tweets (#storify #Lionfish2013 #GCFI)”

Tuna | Observations

This week I’m in Miami for the first-ever ScienceOnline Oceans! I’ll be sharing my experience with you all soon, but to tide you over, here is my favorite ocean-themed post from my old blog, Observations of a Nerd

Mouse, my adorable cousin, showing off a bubble

“Christie! Christie!” My four-year old cousin tugs eagerly on my jacket. “I wanna see the fishes.”

“Ok, Tuna, we can go see the fish.”

My little cousin loves the word ‘tuna’. She says it all the time. Tuna, tuna, tuna. Everything is a tuna-face or a tuna-head. She doesn’t even like tuna (she doesn’t eat it), but she loves the sound of the word rolling off her tongue. Finally, her nanny threatened that if she kept saying ‘tuna,’ we’d have to start calling her it. My ever so adorable cousin’s response was, of course, “TUNA!” So now that’s her nickname. She’s Tuna.

Continue reading “Tuna | Observations”