#Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography

[mariacallous]

Because you’re a smooth-skinned mammal, no weather feels quite as oppressive as a humid heat wave. The more water vapor in the air, the less efficiently your sweat can evaporate and carry excess heat away from your skin. That’s why 90 degrees Fahrenheit in humid Miami can feel as bad as 110 in arid Phoenix. 

Climate change has supercharged this summer’s exceptionally brutal heat all around the world—heat waves are generally getting more frequent, more intense, and longer. But they are also getting more humid in some regions, which helps extend high temperatures through daytime peaks and into the night. Such relentless, sticky heat is not just uncomfortable, but sometimes deadly, especially for folks with health conditions like cardiovascular disease. 

One of the more counterintuitive effects of climate change is that a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor than a colder one. A lot of it, in fact: Each 1.8 degree Fahrenheit bump of warming adds 7 percent more moisture to the air. Overall, atmospheric water vapor is increasing by 1 to 2 percent per decade. That additional wetness is why we’re already seeing supersize downpours, like the flooding that devastated Vermont earlier this month. 

Water vapor is actually a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide or methane, responsible for about half of the planet-warming effect. (It's supposed to be up there, whereas humans have been pumping in way too much extra carbon.) More warming evaporates more water, which causes more warming—a climatic feedback loop. 

In landlocked areas, heat waves evaporate water from plants and soils. But humidity gets especially oppressive near the ocean, where water is more readily available. “Coastal regions in general are seeing more humid conditions as ocean temperatures warm,” says Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who studies humidity and heat waves. “Air sitting over a water body tends to be close to saturated. It has a lot of moisture in it—close to 100 percent relative humidity.”

Sea surface temperatures have been steadily climbing globally, as the oceans absorb something like 90 percent of the excess heat that humans are adding to the atmosphere. But since March, global sea surface temperatures have been skyrocketing above the norm. The North Atlantic, in particular, remains super hot, loading Europe’s air with extra humidity. 

The waters around Florida are also logging truly astonishing sea surface temperatures: On July 24, a buoy recorded a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit. “You have incredibly warm Gulf water that warms the atmosphere, which can then absorb more moisture. So it's kind of a feedback loop,” says Kent State University biometeorologist Scott Sheridan. “In a lot of the areas around the Mediterranean, where there's been really bad heat, and then in Florida and the Gulf Coast, those have been the really big driving factors for why the humidity is so high.” 

Accordingly, in Miami the heat index—a measurement that combines temperature and relative humidity—has been above 100 for over 40 days in a row, smashing the previous record of 32 days in 2020.

Meanwhile in California, Gershunov’s research has confirmed that heat waves are getting stickier. “It's not just more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting heat waves, like is the case all over the world with the warming climate,” says Gershunov. “Here, the heat waves are also changing flavor. They're becoming more expressed disproportionately in nighttime temperatures. It turns out it's because of humidity, and that's related to the warming of the ocean.”

If you’re in a desert and suffering days of 110-plus-degree heat, you can at least look forward to those temperatures coming down at night, as the landscape sheds built-up heat. But when it’s humid, the atmosphere stubbornly holds onto that heat. “With more and more humidity, more people will be impacted during the night. And I don’t think we’re ready at all for that,” says Tarik Benmarhnia, an environmental epidemiologist at the UC San Diego. “There's basically no break, no pause in the stress that heat is going to cause to humans.”

The more humid it gets, the harder it is for water to evaporate off the body and the less effective sweating becomes. “If that’s not effective, the only way is to have more and more exchange between the blood and the skin,” says Benmarhnia. “To do that, our body sends more blood, faster and faster.” 

That’s why skin flushes if it’s hot out—the body is trying to expel heat via the water in the blood. That means blood is diverted from vital organs to the skin, a sort of physiological panic that’s especially dangerous for people with cardiovascular disease. “But if it's not effective, we just waste a lot of energy, and our circulation system is going to be overwhelmed and lead to very severe complications,” says Benmarhnia. “This is the main cause of hospital admission and emergency department visits during a heat wave.” High heat is correlated with risk of heart attacks and strokes; indeed, heat kills more Americans each year than any other kind of disaster.

It can also potentially cause issues for babies developing in the womb. “For people who are pregnant, blood flow is also diverted from the placenta when the core body temperature increases,” says Rupa Basu, chief of the air and climate epidemiology section at the California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. “That also could provide less nutrients to the fetus, and sometimes, in more extreme cases, could cause preterm delivery.”

Getting more people access to air conditioning will go a long way in preventing heat-related deaths, since AC both reduces indoor temperatures and humidity. “Cooling centers” are a key tool—facilities where people who don’t have AC, or the unhoused population, can take refuge. But because high humidity extends scorching temperatures through the night, people often need that respite through the evening, when cooling centers are closed. 

City planners are increasingly turning to green spaces to lower temperatures in the first place. Vegetation “sweats,” which significantly cools the landscape. (Thanks to their lack of greenery, plus all that concrete and brick, urban areas can get way hotter than rural ones.) 

Adding vegetation can be helpful, says Edith de Guzman, an environmental researcher at UCLA—but it depends on how you deploy it. “In an arid environment, that's a very good thing, because you create basically an evaporative cooler,” says de Guzman, who is also the director and cofounder of the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative, a partnership of researchers who work with communities on cooling strategies. “But in a more humid environment or during a more humid heat wave, it's not necessarily good. You have a bit of a penalty for that.” 

Basically, sweating greenery adds more humidity to already humid air. And there are trade-offs based on the kind of plants you pick. Big trees have the additional benefit of providing a lot of shade, which makes people feel much cooler, regardless of the added humidity. Vast expanses of lawn are stupid for a number of reasons—they waste water and are awful for biodiversity—plus they provide extra humidity but not a bit of shade. 

As the world continues to rapidly warm, humidity will grow worse. But with the right infrastructure and social policies, people won’t have to suffer for it. “Any heat-related death is preventable,” says Benmarhnia. “There is no exception.”

[twatchesmall]

"Deep Sea Scepter: Yacht-Master's Precious Metal Navigation Revolution and the Code of Fluid Mechanics"

Under the spotlight of the Monaco Yacht Show, the platinum bezel of the Yacht-Master reflects the layers of the Mediterranean waves. This nautical watch, which was launched in 1992, redefined the physical boundaries of luxury sports replica watches with its original “two-way lubrication system”.

🌊 950 Platinum Bezel: The Ultimate Answer to Marine Corrosion The frosted platinum outer ring of the Yacht-Master uses Rolex's exclusive "Electroflux Metallurgy". 950 platinum and 0.3% ruthenium metal are fused in an inert gas to form a molecular structure that resists salt spray corrosion. According to tests by the French Institute of Oceanography, its resistance to seawater corrosion is 17 times higher than that of traditional platinum, while maintaining a matte texture. A single bezel needs to undergo 72 hours of manual polishing, and the surface error does not exceed 1.5 microns, which is equivalent to the deformation limit of red blood cells.

⚓ Bidirectional Rotational Damping System: A Micro-Experiment in Fluid Mechanics To solve the problem of accidental touching of the outer ring of the diving chronograph, Rolex engineers got inspiration from ship propellers. 108 micro hydraulic pistons are set at the bottom of the bezel and injected with fluorinated oil with a viscosity of 3500cSt. This “liquid brake system” requires a force of 0.3 Newton to rotate the outer ring, accurately simulating the feel of operating a rudder. The Hamburg Maritime Museum in Germany lists it as a "textbook-level design in microfluid mechanics."

🛥️ European Yachting Economics According to data from the Monaco Yacht Association, the wearing rate of Yacht-Master among owners of super yachts over 40 meters has reached 53%. Its rose gold rubber strap style is resistant to deck salt spray corrosion, making it an invisible uniform for Mediterranean captains. The titanium alloy deep dive version launched in 2023 uses aerospace grade 5 titanium for the case. It has a premium rate of 220% in the UK second-hand market and was rated as an "alternative safe-haven asset" by the Financial Times.

🇮🇹 Material revolution of rubber strap The Yacht-Master's Oysterflex rubber strap contains a titanium-nickel alloy memory metal sheet that can adjust the curvature according to the wrist temperature. The outer rubber layer is injected with boron nitride particles, which increases the resistance to UV aging by 4 times. Actual measured data from the Port of Genoa in Italy showed that after three years of continuous contact with seawater, the tensile strength of the strap only decreased by 2%, completely subverting the concept of material class for high-end watches.

[unilifeabroadcareersolution]

Build a Sustainable Career - Study Blue Economy in Italy

unilife abroad career solutions

As the global community shifts toward more environmentally conscious practices, the Sustainable Blue Economy has emerged as a vital area of study and innovation. This multidisciplinary field focuses on the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and ocean ecosystem health. For students and professionals aspiring to lead in marine sustainability, Italy offers a unique and strategic educational environment.

Understanding the Sustainable Blue Economy

The Sustainable Blue Economy is not just a concept—it's a movement toward creating balance between economic development and the protection of marine ecosystems. It promotes:

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture

Marine biodiversity conservation

Ocean-based renewable energy

Eco-friendly maritime transport

Sustainable coastal and marine tourism

Waste management and marine pollution reduction

This field combines elements of environmental science, economics, policy, marine biology, and technology, making it highly interdisciplinary and future-focused.

🇮🇹 Why Choose Italy for Studying Sustainable Blue Economy?

Italy stands at the heart of the Mediterranean—one of the world’s most ecologically diverse and geopolitically significant marine areas. With its extensive coastline, historic maritime heritage, and commitment to environmental sustainability, Italy is increasingly becoming a global hub for blue economy research and innovation.

Key Advantages:

Strategic Location: Italy's access to the Mediterranean makes it an ideal place to study real-time marine issues and solutions.

European Research Integration: As a member of the EU, Italy participates in major marine sustainability projects and receives substantial funding through programs like Horizon Europe and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

Interdisciplinary Programs: Italian universities offer integrated programs combining oceanography, marine technology, policy, and sustainability.

Practical Experience: Fieldwork, lab research, and partnerships with NGOs and international institutions provide hands-on learning.

Cultural and Academic Excellence: Italy’s education system emphasizes critical thinking, global perspectives, and cultural enrichment.

Leading Italian Institutions Offering Programs in Sustainable Blue Economy

University of Bologna

One of Europe’s oldest universities with strong programs in marine biology, environmental governance, and oceanography.

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Renowned for economics and sustainability studies; offers a Master's in Environmental Sciences with a focus on blue economy and coastal resource management.

University of Naples Federico II

Offers technical and applied sciences programs, particularly in marine ecosystems, renewable marine energy, and climate change resilience.

University of Trieste

Collaborates with marine research centers like OGS (National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics) for advanced marine research.

Career Opportunities in the Blue Economy Sector

Graduating with a degree in Sustainable Blue Economy opens up diverse career paths, including:

Environmental Consultant or Analyst

Marine Policy Advisor

Sustainability Officer in Maritime Industries

Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager

Research Scientist in Oceanography

Project Manager for Coastal Development

NGO/UN Project Associate

These roles exist in both the public and private sectors, including international organizations such as the European Commission, United Nations, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and marine innovation startups.

Contributing to Global Ocean Stewardship

The ocean is a life-support system for the planet. By choosing to study Sustainable Blue Economy, you're not just building a career—you’re becoming a change-maker in one of the most crucial environmental and economic movements of our time.

Italy, with its commitment to marine innovation, education, and policy leadership, is an exceptional destination for launching that journey.

Final Note: Is This the Right Path for You?

If you’re passionate about sustainability, love the ocean, and want a career that makes a tangible difference in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, studying Sustainable Blue Economy in Italy could be your calling.

Whether you're a recent graduate, a working professional seeking specialization, or an international student looking for a globally recognized program, Italy offers the perfect platform to dive deep—academically and professionally—into one of the most promising fields of the future.

Contact Us: 8428440444 - 8428444044

Mail Id: info@unilifeabroad.com

[sheltiechicago]

Surfing the Glow

Students surf the bright blue waves created by the bioluminescent bacteria from the red tide at Scripps Beach adjacent to UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In some areas such as the Mediterranean, the red tide Lingulodinium polyedra produces yessotoxin, a compound that acts as a neurotoxin, but San Diego populations do not produce yessotoxin, and there is no public health warning associated with the local San Diego red tide.

Photographer: Erik Jepsen

International Photography Awards

[jobrxiv]

M2 Masters Interns - modelling Earth's atmosphere microbiology, Marseille Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography 6-month M2 internship to develop and test theoretical models of the atmosphere to investigate the atmospheric microbial ecosystem. See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/mediterranean-institute-of-oceanography-27778-m2-masters-interns-modelling-earths-atmosphere-microbiology-marseille/?feed_id=86256 #bioenergetic_modelling #environmental_biology #microbiology #ScienceJobs #hiring #research

[evoldir]

Fwd: Graduate position: UValencia.EvolutionaryParasitology

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Graduate position: UValencia.EvolutionaryParasitology > Date: 22 September 2023 at 06:27:12 BST > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > We offer a 3+1 year PhD position in Ecological and Evolutionary > Parasitology starting December 1st. This is a predoctoral contract (FPI > fellowship) associated with the research project “Evolutionary and > ecological determinants of specialization: Disentangling the drivers of > host specificity in a fish-monogenean model” funded by the Ministry of > Science and Innovation of Spain. > > We seek a highly motivated graduate student interested in the ecology > and evolution of fish parasites to study the determinants of ecological > specialization. The research team is composed by faculty from four > different centers across Europe: The Cavanilles Institute of > Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (University of Valencia, Spain), > the Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls (Sorbonne Université, France), > the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (Croatia), and the Institute > of Parasitology (Biology Centre, Czechia). > > The successful candidate will be trained in molecular biology, > bioinformatics, microscopy and taxonomy of fish parasites. The results > of their research will help determine why and how some parasite species > become highly specialized in a single host species, as opposed to others > that readily infect a wider range of host species. The system under > study involves Mediterranean sparid fish and monogeneans of the genus > Lamellodiscus. > > The primary research activities will be based at the Cavanilles > Institute, situated in the Paterna-Burjassot campus. Additionally, as an > integral part of the PhD program, stays abroad and visits to our partner > laboratories will also be scheduled. > > We have a strong track record of accommodating both international and > local students, fostering a culture that values diversity and actively > promotes international applications. Please address any additional > enquiry to Juan Antonio Balbuena (j.a.balbuena@uv.es) or Ignasi Lucas > (joiglu@uv.es). > > > > Dr. Juan A. Balbuena > Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology > Computational Biology Lab > University of Valencia https://ift.tt/TAYMuOe > P.O. Box 22085 https://ift.tt/ys1Vuaf > 46071 Valencia, Spain https://ift.tt/VPFfUMZ > e-mail: j.a.balbuena@uv.es > tel. +34 963 543 658    fax +34 963 543 733 > > *NOTE!*For shipments by EXPRESS COURIER use the following street address: > C/ Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46980 Paterna (Valencia), Spain. > > > Juan Antonio Balbuena

[quotesfrommyreading]

Slime in the sea is not inherently unusual. “Mucus is everywhere,” says Michael Stachowitsch, a marine ecologist at the University of Vienna. “There’s no marine organism that doesn’t produce mucus, from the lowly snail to the slimy fish.” But in healthy waters, mucus doesn’t amass to epic proportions. The current sea-snot outbreak can be blamed on phytoplankton, a type of algae that produces the small bits of mucus that turn into flakes of marine snow. When these phytoplankton receive an infusion of imbalanced nutrients from fertilizer runoff or untreated wastewater, they make an overabundance of mucus. Beads of that mucus accumulate into stringers, which accumulate into clouds, which accumulate into the unending sheets now washing up on Turkey’s coast.

But pollution alone doesn’t explain the appearance of so much sea snot—or marine mucilage, to use the scientific term. This much slime buildup also requires specific weather conditions: hot and calm. In spring and summer, the sun heats up the top layer of seawater, leaving a layer of cool, denser water underneath. (Salinity also plays a role in the density gradient: Saltier water will sink beneath fresher water.) Because of this gradient, the mucus will sink until it starts to float; then it lingers. The longer it stays, the more it accumulates. And without strong winds or storms, nothing creates turbulence to churn the water and rip the mucus apart.

Bacteria trapped in the mucus will eventually start to eat and digest it, creating air bubbles that ultimately float the whole sheet of sea snot up to the surface. In the Adriatic Sea, the arm of the Mediterranean just east of the Italian peninsula, the floating mucus can dry and toughen in the sun. Seagulls are known to walk on it.

Mass outbreaks of sea snot have appeared dozens of times in the Adriatic over the past three centuries, probably because its geography and calm winds create the perfect conditions for large sheets to form. Sea snot has had big economic consequences there. “The main problems are fisheries and tourism,” Michele Giani, an oceanographer at the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, in Italy, told me. Boats cannot go to sea at all because mucus clogs up the seawater intake that cools the motor. “A motor can have a meltdown within a minute,” Stachowitsch said. Fishing nets become slimy and heavy. And tourists, of course, want nothing to do with the mess. It doesn’t help that as sea snot degrades on the surface, its smell can turn quite nasty too.

The first description of mare sporco, or “dirty sea,” in Italian dates back to 1729. But in the early 2000s, marine mucilage started breaking out pretty much every year, which scientists, in a 2009 paper, linked to climate change. (Huge swaths of marine mucilage have also turned up near Turkey at least once before, in 2007.) You might think of the snot as a symptom of “ocean flu,” says Antonio Pusceddu, a marine ecologist at the University of Cagliari, in Italy, who co-authored that paper: The snot’s appearance is a sign of deeper sickness in the sea, caused by climate change and pollution.

The link between marine mucilage on the surface and the clouds and stringers underwater became clear during the 1980s, when researchers diving in the Adriatic first observed the unusual masses. Scientists had missed this phenomenon earlier, Stachowitsch said, “because the instruments that were used to bring up water samples from the ocean were quite brutal, so they shook up the water,” destroying the mucus. Humans could see it only if they went down themselves, either with scuba gear or in submersibles. Gerhard Herndl, an oceanographer now at the University of Vienna, told me that while diving in the ’80s, he mistook the first cloud of mucus he ever saw for a shark. Until that moment, he had not known that sea snot could grow to such behemoth proportions.

The mucus floating underwater was fascinating—even beautiful—but what scientists saw on the seafloor was disturbing. They already knew that unsightly layers of the mucus could float to the surface. Now they discovered that they could also sink, covering corals, sponges, brittle stars, mollusks, and any other unlucky creatures on the seafloor, cutting them off from oxygen. “They’re literally smothered,” says Alice Alldredge, an oceanographer at UC Santa Barbara. “Sure, it’s uncomfortable for us as human beings to have all this gunk at the surface. But the bottom-dwelling organisms are going to die.” An ecosystem takes years to fully recover from such a mass mortality.

  —  Why Turkey's Coast Is Covered in Sea Snot

[coralmorphologic]

We are happy to announce the publication of a scientific paper analyzing the presence and potency of palytoxin (PLTX) in Palythoa spp. and Zoanthus spp. Zoantharians conducted by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography and Coral Biome in Marseilles, France. PLTX is one of the most potent toxins known on the planet. It is an extremely large and complex organic compound that has been described by biochemists as the ‘Mt. Everest of organic synthesis’. An organism that naturally produces large amounts of PLTX is of great importance for research scientists to better understand its pharmacology. PLTX has been found to have toxic effects on head and neck tumors, and therefore warrants further pharmaceutical investigation.

Initially, this compound was blue-prospected in Hawaii where native Hawaiian people used the the mucous of Palythoa found in a very specific (and taboo) tide pool (known as limu-make-o-Hana, the ‘seaweed of death of Hana’) to coat their spear points before battle. So taboo was this tide pool for outsiders, that when scientists sampled the Palythoa in 1961, they found their lab burned to the ground on the same day. A reminder to scientists to respect native wisdom, culture, and practices when performing science on other cultures’ land!

In this paper we found that an undescribed species (Palythoa aff. clavata) we sampled from PortMiami in 2012 was found to have five times the concentration of the notorious Hawaiian species Palythoa toxica. The experiment also tried to determine whether PLTX was produced by symbiotic microbial symbionts / zooxanthellae, or by the organism itself. Highest concentrations of PLTX were found within the tissue itself, and isolated cultures of zooxanthellae from these polyps failed to produce PLTX in the laboratory. This suggests, but does not confirm, that the Palythoa polyps themselves are producing this toxin. While the mechanism of its biosynthesis remains unknown, it highlights how Miami’s urban marine environs hold important scientific discoveries still waiting to be uncovered. Read the paper – ‘Symbiodiniaceae diversity and characterization of palytoxin in various zoantharians (Anthozoa, Hexacorallia)’ – here: Undescribed Soft Coral Native to Miami Produces High Quantities of Deadly Organic Compound Palytoxin

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Six months of summer may sound like a school child's fantasy, but it could be a very real, and very serious, impact of the climate crisis.

A study published in Geophysical Research Letters last month found that summer in the Northern Hemisphere could last nearly six months by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And this could spell "increased risks to humanity," the study authors warned.

"A hotter and longer summer will suffer more frequent and intensified high-temperature events – heatwaves and wildfires," Congwen Zhu of the State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather and Institute of Climate System at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, who was not involved with the study, said in an American Geophysical Union (AGU) press release.

"More often, I read some unseasonable weather reports, for example, false spring, or May snow, and the like," study lead author Yuping Guan, an oceanographer at the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told AGU.

So Guan's team looked at climate data from 1952 to 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere. They defined summer as when temperatures began to be 25 percent hotter than during the rest of the year, and winter as when temperatures were in the coldest 25 percent of the year. What they discovered is that seasons are already shifting:

The new study found that, on average, summer grew from 78 to 95 days between 1952 to 2011, while winter shrank from 76 to 73 days. Spring and autumn also contracted from 124 to 115 days, and 87 to 82 days, respectively. Accordingly, spring and summer began earlier, while autumn and winter started later. The Mediterranean region and the Tibetan Plateau experienced the greatest changes to their seasonal cycles.

"Summers are getting longer and hotter while winters shorter and warmer due to global warming," Guan summarized.

[eretzyisrael]

Climate change and variations of sea level have been affecting the planet and humanity for thousands of years. In a time when these changes are accelerated by the global warming process that has been affecting our planet, understanding what happened in the past and how communities have coped with it represents a crucial challenge. This is one of the main goals of a project carried out in cooperation between the UC San Diego’s Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA) and the University of Haifa’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, which has just been awarded a $1.3 million grant by the Koret Foundation, UC San Diego announced Friday.

The two institutions are partnering to explore the social effects of 10,000 years of climate change off of the Carmel coast.

“Our project is to find out about human adaptation to climate as well as political changes in connection to the sea beginning with the Neolithic period, or some 10,000 years ago, and ending more or less now,”  Assaf Yasur-Landau, head of the Recanati Institute, told The Jerusalem Post.

Yasur explained that their expeditions will focus on the area of ancient Dor, which features an underwater site from the Neolithic period and continued to be inhabited until the Byzantine period and even later in the Crusaders period.

“Our study concentrates on harbors: we have a harbor dating back to the Iron age used by the Phoenicians, one from the Hellenistic period from the time of the Hasmoneans and anchorages used in the Roman period, the Byzantine one and in the early Islamic period all the way to the Crusaders,” he said.

A specific characteristic of the joint project is that it will combine archaeological and environmental studies, as Thomas Levy, distinguished professor in the Department of Anthropology at UC San Diego and co-director of SCMA, told the Post, emphasizing how Israel’s coast offers the perfect setting for this endeavor.

“Israel is the land-bridge between the continent of Africa and southwest Asia, so from the earliest beginnings of the emerging of modern humans and even before that, people have been passing through this area,” he explained.

“This is an extremely rich locale to study how humans adapt to coastal environments, which are some of the most sensitive areas to issues of climate and environmental change. The waters of Israel along the Mediterranean are a wonderful paleo-environmental archive of the past,” Levy added. 

The professor also highlighted the opportunity offered by the cooperation with the University of Haifa.

“Here at UC San Diego, we only started marine archaeology in 2016, so we really wanted to acquire the tools of underwater excavation. The University of Haifa is one of the pioneers in the world in the field with over 50 years of experience. We thought they would be the perfect partner for us,” he pointed out, adding that while many marine archaeology centers focus on the excavation of shipwrecks, the SCMA is working to develop the ability to harness the latest tools of environmental science to study climate change in relation to social evolution.

“This is where we are bringing the strength of our institute of oceanography with our environmental approach to marine archaeology,” Levy said.

San Diego and Haifa have already been working together for the past two years, but the grant will give them the opportunity to organize a marine archaeology field school for undergraduate and graduate students for the next three summers, as well as some intensive fieldwork expeditions.

“We will be coming at least twice a year for the next three years; it is very exciting” the professor concluded.

“The Koret Foundation is thrilled to support this groundbreaking partnership between two world-class academic institutions as they make new discoveries to benefit all humankind,” Koret Foundation president Anita Friedman said in the release announcing the grant. “This partnership will further strengthen the bonds between the US and Israel, reinforcing the close ties between our two countries to respond to some of today’s most pressing environmental issues.

”The foundation describes itself as a private Bay Area-based institution “grounded in historical Jewish principles and traditions and dedicated to humanitarian values” and devoted “to elevating the quality of life in the Bay Area, and to strengthening the Jewish community in the US, Israel and around the world.”

[sciencespies]

New method reveals marine microbes' outsized role in carbon cycle

https://sciencespies.com/nature/new-method-reveals-marine-microbes-outsized-role-in-carbon-cycle/

New method reveals marine microbes' outsized role in carbon cycle

A new study led by researchers from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences suggests that a small fraction of marine microorganisms are responsible for most of the consumption of oxygen and release of carbon dioxide in the ocean. This surprising discovery, published in Nature, came from a new method that provides unprecedented insight into these organisms that help govern complex carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and ocean.

Thirteen researchers from Bigelow Laboratory, University of Vienna, Spanish Institute of Oceanography, and Purdue University co-authored the study that examined marine microbes called prokaryoplankton, a vast group of bacteria and archaea that constitute more than 90 percent of the cells in the ocean. The team found that less than three percent of prokaryoplankton cells accounted for up to a third of all oxygen consumed by the group.

“This has big implications for our understanding of how carbon cycles in the ocean work,” said co-lead author Jacob Munson-McGee, a postdoctoral scientist at Bigelow Laboratory. “If these processes are dominated by a small fraction of microbes, that is a major shift from how we currently think of this foundational ocean process.”

Prokaryoplankton use organic matter to generate energy through a process called cellular respiration, which consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. To estimate how much marine microbes respire, researchers have typically divided the sum of their respiration by the number of microbes. However, this approach does not account for the overwhelmingly diverse types of organisms that comprise marine prokaryoplankton, each of which may function differently. The new study sheds light on some of these differences and raises new questions.

“We see a thousandfold difference from one type of microbe to another,” said Senior Research Scientist Ramunas Stepanauskas, who led the project. “The confusing part is that the microbes that consume most of the oxygen and release most of the carbon dioxide are not the dominant ones in the oceans. Somehow the organisms that don’t respire much are more successful, and that’s quite puzzling.”

The team thinks that the most prolific prokaryoplankton may draw energy from sunlight, which would help explain their abundance in open ocean ecosystems.

To understand these single-celled organisms, the team developed a new method to link the functions and genetic codes of individual cells. An organism’s genes are the blueprint for what it is capable of — not necessarily what it does. By connecting a cell’s functions and genes, researchers gained insights into the microbes’ unique environmental roles.

The new method uses fluorescent probes to observe what prokaryoplankton are actually doing. Researchers applied a probe to the microbes that stained them based on their activity. The more they respired, the brighter they became. They then measured this fluorescent signal and used it to sort the cells for subsequent genetic analysis.

For the Nature study, the scientists applied the technique to prokaryoplankton from the Gulf of Maine, as well as several locations in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea.

“When I think about what this new method can do, it’s pretty exciting,” said Postdoctoral Scientist Melody Lindsay, who helped lead the development of the technique and is co-lead author of the new paper. “It allows us to ask detailed questions at an incredibly sensitive level. We can use it to see what single-celled organisms are capable of and even use it to explore life in understudied places like the deep sea or potentially on other planets.”

There are billions of prokaryoplankton cells in each gallon of seawater, representing millions of species in the ocean that have yet to be thoroughly studied. This research could help power computer models that need accurate information on the role of microorganisms in global carbon processes, including climate change.

“I’m constantly amazed by how diverse microbes are,” said Munson-McGee. “The scientific community has known for a while that microbes are incredibly genetically distinct, but we are just starting to scratch the surface of understanding the complexity of their actual functions. It’s another reminder of just how remarkable microbes are.”

#Nature

[doorsblacksea]

Black Sea focus in Copernicus Ocean State Report 2022

We are pleased to announce that a contribution from DOORS partner Hereon has been published in the 6th edition of the Copernicus Ocean State Report in the Journal of Operational Oceanography

Video: The 6th edition of the Copernicus Ocean State Report (OSR 6) © Copernicus Marine Service

The article, ‘Long-term interannual changes in extreme winds and waves in the Black Sea’ was written by Joanna Staneva, Marcel Ricker, Adem Akpınar, Arno Behrens, Rianne Giesen and Karina von Schuckmann (2022)

The report presents a concise look at the state of the ocean and of critical changes in the marine environment. It shows an ocean facing challenges on multiple fronts, from warming, to a melting Arctic, to increased occurrences of extreme events like the marine heatwaves in the Mediterranean Sea. It has been prepared by nearly 150 of experts from over 30 European institutions over the last 18 months.

You can read the full Black Sea Article on pages 64-72.

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#Monaco Museum of Oceanography. The Oceanographic Museum is a museum of marine sciences in Monaco-Ville, Monaco. It is home to the Mediterranean Science Commission. This building is part of the Oceanographic Institute, which is committed to sharing its knowledge of the oceans. Wikipedia Address: Avenue Saint-Martin, 98000 Monaco Established: 1910 Hours:  Open ⋅ Closes 5PM

[verschwoerer]

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima sent an unprecedented amount of radiation into the Pacific. But, before then, atomic bomb tests and radioactive waste were contaminating the sea — the effects are still being felt today.

Almost 1.2 million liters (320,000 gallons) of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant is to be released into the ocean. That's on the recommendation of the government's advisory panel some nine years after the nuclear disaster on Japan's east coast. The contaminated water has since been used to cool the destroyed reactor blocks to prevent further nuclear meltdowns. It is currently being stored in large tanks, but those are expected to be full by 2022.

Exactly how the water should be dealt with has become highly controversial in Japan, not least because the nuclear disaster caused extreme contamination off the coast of Fukushima. At the time, radioactive water flowed "directly into the sea, in quantities we have never seen before in the marine world," Sabine Charmasson from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) tells DW.

Radiation levels in the sea off Fukushima were millions of times higher than the government's limit of 100 becquerels. And still today, radioactive substances can be detected off the coast of Japan and in other parts of the Pacific. They've even been measured in very small quantities off the US west coast in concentrations "well below the harmful levels set by the World Health Organization," according to Vincent Rossi, an oceanographer at France's Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO).

https://www.dw.com/en/fukushima-how-the-ocean-became-a-dumping-ground-for-radioactive-waste/a-52710277

[jobrxiv]

Two-year Postdoc in Atmosphere Microbial Habitability Modelling. Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, Aix-Marseille University 2-year Postdoc vacancy in Atmosphere Habitability Modelling, Marseille, France. Bioenergetics & ecosystem modelling of the atmosphere. See the full job description on jobRxiv: https://jobrxiv.org/job/mediterranean-institute-of-oceanography-aix-marseille-university-27778-two-year-postdoc-in-atmosphere-microbial-habitability-modelling/?feed_id=72999 #astrobiology #bioenergetic_modelling #bioenergetics #biogeochemistry #habitability #ScienceJobs #hiring #research