#marine plankton toxins

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Moray eel

Like barracuda, moray eels are large predators that are high up the food chain. And like barracuda, this means they sometimes accumulate the marine plankton toxins that cause the disease ciguatera in their own flesh, making them potentially deadly to eat. 

(Image credit: Antonio Camacho)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Yale Environment 360:

Across the world’s oceans, an invisible army of tiny organisms has a supersized impact on the planet. Plankton are at the base of the ocean food chain, feeding fish that feed billions of people. They are responsible for half of the world’s oxygen supply and half of our planet’s annual carbon sink. Miniscule but powerful, their presence can help or hinder ecosystems — by soaking up greenhouse gas, for example, or by spewing toxins. Where plankton live, how many there are, when they bloom and which species dominate each play a huge role in this delicate balance. And our changing climate is spurring a sea change in all of it.

“We’re headed into an ocean and, for that matter, a world that we’re not going to recognize because it’s changing so fundamentally,” says David Hutchins, a marine microbiologist at the University of Southern California, who has charted plankton’s future.

Climate change is hitting our oceans hard, making them warmer and more acidic, while radically altering currents. The outlook for plankton is mixed. Some studies report overall plankton numbers dropping, while others show them rising in some major ocean basins. As the planet warms, the diversity of the menagerie in many spots is increasing, says Clare Ostle, a marine biogeochemist at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. But certain species are losing out, she adds, including big juicy plankton thought to be important for food webs and carbon sequestration. And, in the long term, plankton numbers may plummet as climate change starves them of nutrients.

Scientists are now struggling to work out what the net effect will be. They have some new technologies at their disposal, including a new NASA satellite called PACE — for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem — launched this February. And some old ones, including a decades-old program that painstakingly trawls the ocean with filters to scoop up tiny creatures and count them by hand. Yet scientists say they are shocked by the size of our knowledge gaps. “I always find it surprising how little is known about plankton,” says Ostle.

The Ocean Stewardship Coalition this month released a “plankton manifesto” at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, highlighting how important plankton are alongside how little we know about them. “The planetary importance of plankton remains largely ignored,” the group writes, alongside a plea for more research, education, and discussion in international treaties about plankton’s plight.

[injoymalepics2]

Strength in Numbers” Theo Bosboom shows how mussels bind together to avoid being washed away from the shoreline. 

Theo likes to take images of species that aren’t usually considered beautiful or important, to highlight their unappreciated significance. He took this image from above with a probe lens – a long, thin, macro wide-angle lens. 

Mussels play an important role in creating dynamic ecosystems for other marine invertebrates such as crustaceans, worms and even small fish. They improve the water quality by filter-feeding, extracting plankton as well as bacteria and toxins, which prevents them from building up to dangerous levels.

Credit: Theo Bosboom / Wildlife Photographer of the Year Theo Bosboom

[androgynousbirdtale]

Siphonophores: The clonal colonies that can grow longer than a blue whale

There are around 175 species of siphonophore — creatures made up of clones that are found across Earth's oceans. (Image credit: Peter Leahy/Shutterstock

Name: Siphonophores (Siphonophora)

Where they live: All oceans

What they eat: Small crustaceans, copepods and fish

Why they're awesome: The largest animal on Earth is thought to be the blue whale, but these strange sea creatures can grow even longer — reaching up to 150 feet (46 meters) in length.

Siphonophores are unusual animals made up of individual organisms called "zooids," which each have a distinct function — despite being genetically identical.

There are around 175 species of siphonophores living in the deep sea throughout all of Earth’s oceans, although not every species is found in each ocean. Many siphonophores are long and string-like, but some, like the venomous Portuguese man o'war (Physalia physalis), resemble jellyfish.

Although a siphonophore may look like a single animal, it is actually a colony made up of individual organisms called "zooids," which each have a distinct function within the colony despite being genetically identical. Some catch prey and digest food, while others enable the colony to reproduce or swim. An individual zooid cannot survive on its own because they specialize in one function, so they rely on each other to form a "body."

A siphonophore develops from a single zoid that hatches from a fertilized egg. This first zooid develops growth zones, from which new zooids sprout — the siphonophore replicates itself asexually to create more and more zooids.

Siphonophores feed on a variety of small sea animals, including plankton, fish and small crustaceans. The species that use toxins to capture prey have zooids that contain tiny but deadly tentacles containing an incapacitating toxin. To hunt, they cast their net of tentacles to sting prey and immobilize it, before pulling the food into their mouths.

One example of siphonophore feeding was captured by marine biologists in western Australia in 2020. They discovered a 150-foot giant siphonophore (Praya dubia) in a "doom spiral," which traps unsuspecting prey.

Many siphonophores are also bioluminescent and generate light via a chemical reaction to attract prey. Although most species glow green or blue, one species of siphonophore belonging to the genus Erenna was the first marine invertebrate found to emit a red glow. Red bioluminescence is very rare because the short wavelengths of blue and green light travel longer distances in the sea — and are more evolutionarily helpful to marine animals.

According to a 2005 study published in Science journal by marine biologist Steven Haddock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, this red light may help to attract fish because they mistake it for the red glow that comes from algae in the stomachs of prey like copepods.

Siphonophores are often hunted sea turtles or large fish. However, some species can use their stinging tentacles to defend themselves against these predators. These creatures are also hunted by tiny, translucent crustaceans called phronima, or pram bugs, which chew their way into siphonophores to live inside them, often killing them in the process.

[kumaradhikaryofficial]

Avoid Plastics- Arise Cleanliness & Invite Happiness.

Stop Plastic Pollution.

If there is one type of waste problem, which is ubiquitous, it is Plastic Pollution. A few important facts about plastic pollution as per United Nations Environment Program (UNEP):

Since the early of 1950s, more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced. Only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled and about 12% has been incinerated. About 60% of that plastic has ended up in either a landfill or the natural environment.

About 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the world’s oceans every year. Rivers carry plastic waste from deep inland to the sea. This contributes to marine pollution. Rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra, Indus, Mekong, Yellow, Yangtze, Amur, Nile and Niger are some of the major rivers carrying plastic waste to oceanic environment.

Globally about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated every year. Half of all plastic produced worldwide is used only once and then trashed away. Most common examples of single-use plastics are cigarette butts, pkastic drinking bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic grocery bags, plastic lids, straws and stirrers, and foam take-away containers.

Plastic pollution has become an all-pervasive problem, with some scientists suggesting that it could serve as a geological indicator of the Anthropocene era!

Developed countries like the United States, Japan and many European countries produce significant amounts of plastic waste. Per capita annual plastic consumption in the USA is about 100 kg, in Europe it is around 65 kg and in China is around 40 kg. This is much higher than the global average of 28 kg of plastic use per person annually.

However, developed regions like European Union, Japan and the USA are relatively good at managing plastic waste. Developing countries like China, Vietnam, Indonesia etc. are fast growing. As consumptions boom, plastic waste generation also increases.

The most worrisome feature of plastic pollution is that it remains in the environment for countries. Most plastics are non-biodegradable. Over time, they slowly break down into smaller fragments known as ‘Microplastics’. These are extremely small plastic pieces that are less than 5mm in size. Microplastics can come from multiple sources and can be either primary microplastic or secondary microplastic.

Primary microplastics are tiny particles designed for commercial use. One example is of microbeads. These are very tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic that are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products, like cleansers and toothpaste.

Secondary microplastics are those which are formed from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces. The breakdown can take place due to the sun’s radiation or the action of ocean waves.

Plastic bags can block waterways and exacerbate natural disasters like flooding. For example, one of the reasons for the Mumbai flooding of 2019 was plastics clogging the drainage system of the city.

By clogging sewers, plastics provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes and pests. This was because plastic bags can increase the transmission of vector-borne diseases like malaria.

Plastic bags are often mistaken for food by turtles and dolphins. Marine organisms like dolphins, turtles, whales, and fishes can ingest them and high concentrations of plastic materials, have been found blocking the airways and stomachs of hundreds of species.

Microplastics are a bigger problem as it is easily ingestible by fish. This way, plastics eventually enter human food chains. Microplastics have been detected in marine organisms from plankton to whales, in commercial seafood, and even in drinking water.

Styrofoam products are generally used for making disposable plastic cutlery like glasses, cups etc, It contains carcinogenic chemicals like styrene and benzene. These, if ingested, can damage the nervous systems, lungs and reproductive organs. The toxins in styrofoam containers can leach into food and drinks.

Disposing of plastic waste by burning it, in open-air pits releases harmful gases like furan and dioxin.

BEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION

To tackle the plastic waste menace, the theme of UNEP’s World Environment Day 2018 was ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. World Environment Day 2018 was hosted by India. The objective was to build momentum to fight the plastic waste problem globally. Over here, India for the first time made a commitment that it will ban all single-use plastic by 2022. however, later at the United Nations Environment Assembly’s meeting (September 2019), this was revised and India committed to reducing plastic use by the year 2030.

Recommendations offered by the UNEP to policymakers to tackle plastic pollution were:

Government need to improve waste management practice. They may introduce financial incentives to change the habits of consumers, retailers and manufacturers.

Promote eco-friendly alternatives to plastics. Examples include biodegradable cutlery, and bamboo straws used in India.

Strong government policies are needed for encouraging a circular model of economy which places emphasis on reuse and recycling.

Educate consumers to enable voluntary plastic reduction strategies.

Successfully implement bans or levies on the use and sale of single-use plastics. Countries like Kenya, Botswana, Peru and Chile have already done that.

Later in September 2018, the UNEP along with European Union also launched the Global Plastics Platform to reduce plastic pollution. It is a network of member states to support countries and cities in establishing policies to reduce plastic pollution. Support will be provided for the transition to a more circular economy.

[climateangst]

The Ethics of Fishing

Week 11: Nov. 15

The oceans provide humans with a multitude of benefits, be that jobs, nutrition through food, or providing oxygen to breathe. Yet, humans are responsible for much of the loss and degradation of aquatic habitats facing the oceans today. Our oceans are at risk for major mass extinctions, due largely to human activity.

Coastal population growth and pollution are straining the world’s ocean systems. As populations grow on coastlines, so does the pollution which comes from their residents. Pollutants from industrial and urban areas are ingested by marine life. These toxins, in turn, make their way throughout the food webs, leaving the leading ocean predators to be full of substances like mercury. Plastics which make their way into the ocean also have harmful effects on marine life. Animals mistake this plastic for other organisms like plankton and eat it, sometimes killing them and other times making its way up the food chain.

People who live on coasts must take extra care into disposing of their waste properly. The aforementioned human offenses are largely preventable, it’ll just take an effort to ensure these materials aren’t ending up in our oceans. This includes being cautious around rivers and other water sources which feed our oceans.

Another human activity which is causing major detriment to the oceans is overfishing. In trying to keep up with the growing demand for marine products, fishing fleets have begun to overfish certain species and areas. Fish populations can be temporarily depleted as a result of this, and although their populations do recover, it can take upwards of two decades. When larger predatory species are less abundant, their typical prey is allowed to become bountiful, disrupting ocean ecosystems and food webs. 

A step towards mitigating this issue of overfishing is to regulate the fishing industry. Governments typically set quotas for species of fish and limit the seasons in which you’re allowed to fish. The key to ensuring these regulations are effective is their enforcement, which usually falls on local communities. As the fishing industry industrializes, small municipalities lose their power over massive commercial fishers, which can make it difficult to keep their regulations in place. 

Globally, governments offer subsidies to fishers, encouraging more fishing. By removing a large barrier to entry, this incentivizes many to begin fishing careers. These subsidies are responsible for the expansion of the fishing industry and, in turn, promotion of overfishing. There aren’t enough fish for all these fishers to catch sustainably. Rather than subsidizing all fishing, governments should consider switching to subsidize only sustainable methods of producing seafood. Aquaculture operations which raise plant-eating fish would greatly benefit from these subsidies, and it would encourage more to set up these “fish farms.” By replacing the wild-caught fish in our diets with these farmed plant-eating species, we can help reduce the effects of overfishing. 

I truly believe investing in aquaculture is the future of seafood if we are to continue to consume it at the rate we are. I don’t find it fair to call for a complete upheaval of seafood when it holds cultural significance to so many around the world, so we need a solution. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a federal U.S. agency who claims that, “expanding aquaculture is a way we can address our nation’s $13 billion commercial seafood trade deficit” (“Sustainable Seafood: Farmed Seafood”). Not only is there serious environmental benefit, but also economic gain to focusing efforts on aquaculture. Aquaculture is resource efficient, using less freshwater, less land, and emitting less greenhouse gasses than wild-caught fishing all while not contributing to overfishing of the oceans. 

Is it possible to continue to consume seafood globally in a sustainable manner?

“Sustainable Seafood: Farmed Seafood.” NOAA Fisheries, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/sustainable-seafood/farmed-seafood. 

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[thegameartist03]

okay! Big Taffy (aka the monster from Still Wakes the Deep) explanation. general game spoilers and spoilers for said monster ahead, as well as a half-baked dive into marine biology and deep sea creatures.

this isn’t a theory so much as an explanation, but i wanna say that Big Taffy is likely a very simple bare-minimum multicellular organism similar to Porifera (sponges) and Macroalgae (kelp, seaweed) in nature whose habitat was the deep sea. it forms a relatively simple albeit quite large structure, spiraling up and around wherever it can and using the oil rig as a base. it emits light. it’s also mostly red, with an added oilslick sheen (probably from the oil). this is all where the structure of Big Taffy is untouched by live organic matter from the humans onboard, cause when it touches humans something different happens.

at the bottom of the ocean, the red color would’ve helped it camouflage from predators since most animals in the deep sea can’t see red light, making it a popular color for prey. the light from photophores would have also served a very important purpose in luring in food.

bioluminescence is the widely used language of the deep, and can be used to both ward off predators and attract prey. i think the light that Big Taffy uses is in fact for attracting prey, and the response Big Taffy has when it comes into contact with organic matter is part of how it eats.

in the deep sea, food is scarce. for a simple (as in lacking a lot of complex cellular structures) animal or a form of algae, they don’t have sunlight or a lot of plankton to rely on for food, so, like deep sea coral with their giant grabby grabby polyps and predatory tunicates with their big honkin mouths, Big Taffy evolved to snatch live prey. and, as a rule of the deep sea, once you catch prey, you need to make sure it cannot escape. therefore, Big Taffy has some kind of toxin or chemical that causes prey’s flesh to bind to where it’s been caught.

this binding likely causes the prey’s cells to go into overdrive trying to fight off the toxin, but they don’t get much further than small growths (if that) as they’re enveloped by the Taffy and slowly drained of their nutrients and energy. for any organisms that only brush by the Taffy, they still get ‘infected’ as their body has an overreaction to the toxin that eventually causes the organism to get so twisted around (not blown up or blobby, just twisted around) that it can no longer move and is easy pickings for either the Taffy or another predator.

the reason that prey doesn’t go all blobby blobby fleshy bleh is because it’s the deep sea. the water pressure doesn’t allow for whatever hyperactive growth and mutation occurs to be more than a few small lumps. think of a blobfish in its natural habitat vs what it looks like on the surface. Big Taffy also isn’t that big in its environment, it’s definitely big, probably has deep sea gigantism applied to it, but i doubt it’s gonna be bigger than, say, some hydrothermal vents or kelp. the reason it gets so big and the reason the victims on Beira-D look like that is due to the lack of pressure compressing everything down and preventing such extreme growth.

fun fact, most oil doesn't come from dinosaurs but actually marine organisms that were buried. so, at some point hundreds of millions of years ago, Big Taffy got buried in a submarine landslide along with a bunch of other organisms. the organisms turned into oil, but Big Taffy was able to enter a dormant stage, likely as a natural response to the lack of food/space. this dormant stage lasted for the entire time up until when the Beria-D started drilling, upon which the drill hit Big Taffy.

from Big Taffy’s perspective, a predator is trying to eat it, so it uses the most reasonable defense it has: it envelops the drill. for an actual predator, this would put a bunch of toxin all over them and immobilize them, thus dealing with the threat. however, the drill is just a big hunk of metal, so Big Taffy keeps grabbing and yanking it around without success.

if the drill was then pulled back up (since it is above water iirc) Big Taffy is pulled with it, being subjected to rapid decompression and a sudden lack of pressure that causes it to continue lashing out and anchoring itself in the strange technology of the oil rig, reaching and reaching and absorbing organic matter unintentionally and overwhelming the rig as it reforms in this new environment as best it can without the size limits of the deep sea.

a friend of mine also suggested that in order to retain tension out of the water, it pumps itself full of the oil that surrounds it, giving it that oilslick sheen. this also probably contributes to its awful smell (iirc Caz describes it as 'rank' which as far as i know means it stinks bad)

as for why at the end there's all that stuff flying up around it, Big Taffy could get its red coloring from an abundance of iron. that could create some kind of magnetic effect that generates a vortex or something, idk.

TL;DR: Big Taffy is some kind of macroalgae or porifera-adjacent deep seafloor organism that uses bioluminescence and toxins to capture food by luring it in and enveloping it. this toxin causes an overreaction of the cells and rapid growth in the victim, hence the monsters. Big Taffy’s response to getting hit by a drill was that of prey trying to get rid of a predator, and its growth and consumption of the rig was just its defense and reaction to sudden decompression. it's just an ancient creature freaking out and getting freaky on an oil rig.

i may have figured out a good explanation for Big Taffy using my barebones knowledge of the deep sea and macroalgae. might post it later.

[montereybayaquarium]

This weekend blue our minds! Bioluminescent waves filled with light-producing plankton ignited the surfline through the night all around the Monterey Bay!

The light is produced by a type of plant-plankton known as dinoflagellates (the specific species involved in this bloom are being identified.)

Bioluminescence is relatively rare on land—fireflies or glow-in-the-dark mushrooms are some common examples—but it’s a staple in the ocean. Our colleagues at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute found that over 75% of species they’ve found in the deep sea in our backyard bioluminesce.

Bioluminescence has many purposes: Anglerfish use it to attract food in their lure, strawberry squid use it to disguise themselves—and many organisms, from worms and shrimp to jellies and dinoflagellates, use it as a defense mechanism!

When a dinoflagellate is shaken up, a light-emitting chemical reaction inside the plankter produces a blue flash that startles a would-be predator, limiting their effectiveness—imagine a strobe light going off with every bite of a sandwich!

On their own, each dinoflagellate is just one sparkle in the night. But when there is a big bloom of them—sometimes called “red tides”, though they’re not always red and have little to do with the tides—their collective trillions agitated in the waves produce the aquatic fireworks we’ve been experiencing recently.

When they’re this abundant, the dinoflagellates are able to create somewhat of a burglar alarm with their individual defensive spark. Animals swimming through the soup leave a trail of light breadcrumbs for larger predators to track through living night-vision seas.

Besides their beauty, some dinoflagellate blooms can be noxious to marine life and to people. Lingulodinium polyedra is able to produce toxins that accumulate in shellfish and affect their predators, and other dinoflagellates can produce soap-like substances that can harm seabirds and irritate humans that come in contact with them.

We’re not sure how long the waves will be luminescent—wind and waves and currents could soon dissipate the bloom, returning the beaches to their regular slumber. If you’re looking to see the luminescence, be advised! We’re still in a global pandemic: Respect beach closures, keep your distance from other groups and wear your mask.

The luminescent waves won’t look as blue as you see in the photos and in videos—as your eyes adjust to the dark, you’ll lose your color vision, so the waves will mostly look bright white. The darker the coast, the more pronounced the luminescence. For camera settings, keep it steady on a tripod, and take a longer exposure: 3 to 30 seconds, and you’ll see the blue!

Thanks everyone for reading this far—and thanks most of all to the dinoflagellates for putting on such a show! You blue us away!

[biorust-art]

And There Were Stars! OMG, that was a beautiful piece of writing! Your descriptions, that Din finds the waters are warm, the way he realizes the blue glow, and compares it to being among stars, the Armorer's response when he returns! It's beautiful! Also, the fact that the tiny little lifeforms release oxygen! That's actually one of the theories for how Earth got its oxygen -- cyanobacteria respiring oxygen in response to photosynthesis, known as the Great Oxygenation Event. (1/2)

I wonder, now, if the beskar might have some ferric iron through it, as cyanobacteria synthesized Fe(II) in water to Fe(III), and eventually these created banded iron deposits in rock. Maybe your glowing lifeforms might have a similar action? The implications are pretty interesting! But I'm off on a tangent, and I just want you to know how much this story meant to me and how much I loved it. Thank you so so much for writing it, you did an excellent job! (2/2)

Actually, one last note: while cyanobacteria are generally harmful to humans, I have heard stories of bioluminescent bacteria being involved in healing. One of these is a story of soldiers in the American Civil War, whose wounds glowed, but healed cleanly. While there are apparently no contemporary written reports of this, it's a fascinating idea. It leads me to wonder if the waters in the Mandalorian mines, as depicted in your story, would also have healing effects? Just a thought!

Ah!!! Thank you so much!! And I think you’ll be excited to learn that I am a Marine Science minor! So yes! I know about cyanobacteria <3 and I absolutely used my fic as an outlet for my love of marine plankton and the deep sea.

For the plankton in And There Were Stars, I combined attributes of cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates (some species which are Known for their bioluminescent qualities ((and others for the toxins they produce but that’s not relevant here))) and some other creatures to make my own special Star Wars plankton. In my head, I had it that the plankton ‘activated’ when Din went into the water due to the new movement (because in many creatures, bioluminescence is a self defense mechanism) and started to, essentially, feed off him (think dead skin cells) and thus they had the energy to produce oxygen and continue glowing. I also had it in my head that the entire cave system glowed due to chemical signals that essentially would wake up the entire colony in a few were ‘set off’

Oh and they would absolutely feed off of beskar in the walls, but since its not their limiting factor, they would stay in stasis until someone showed up. But in terms of iron in the walls, I’m not sure! I think beskar is an alloy and not a pure metal (in some sw sources, who knows if its cannon though) and one of those alloys might be iron!

I know about the civil war incident! It was called Angel’s Glow, and if I remember correctly, the Angel’s Glow essentially kept the wounds clean while they healed. There’s actually a podcast about it; Sawbones Link here -> Angel’s Glow | Maximum Fun

About the healing, I wanted the pilgrimage to focus around the idea ‘leap of faith’ and being connected to Mandalore, past present and future. The whole thing is very spiritual for Din. Extremely personal too, and something that can be interpreted by other people in other ways if they took the same journey. I think if the waters were healing it would add a practical aspect to the pilgrimage that would be too… materialistic almost. Like one wouldn’t understand the importance if one just came for the healing properties. So, no, no healing water. But I will say, the entire planet is essentially anoxic, so the discovery of an oxygen producing creature is… very promising for Mandalore’s future.

Thank you so much for your comment! <3 I LOVE geeking out and you’ve brighten (heh) up my day immensely!

[brostateexam]

Self-defense for sessile colonial marine organisms pt 1

While there are some marine tanks that are fish only, most marine aquarists seem to really enjoy keeping reef tanks, which is a fish tank that has fish and coral living together. I think if you don't have a fish tank, you may assume that the fish are the challenging ones, while the coral are basically as undemanding as an average plant: give them the right amount of light and nutrients, and they will be fine.

Generally speaking, this is true. (Most) coral get much of their nutrients from photosynthesis, or more properly from deriving energy from the symbiotic photosynthetic zooxannthellae that live in their bodies. Most will also feed on anything small enough that happens by, and in true marine biome fashion that is basically anything they can get in their mouth, so that can range from microscopic plankton to small fish and invertebrates. As sessile invertebrates, they are not super picky. They also absorb some of what they need from the water directly, typically stuff like calcium (for building a skeleton) and magnesium (used as a chemical means of inducing movement in some species).

All of this makes coral sound gentle and non-threatening and cuddly, at least as long as you're not plankton, and that really couldn't be further from the truth. Coral, generally speaking, are vicious little monsters that only coexist with other nearby corals due to mutually assured destruction. Some are more aggressive than others, but few are truly peaceful. We can start with those though.

"Peaceful" corals include xenia (left) and green star polyp (right), both pictured below.

These are hardy soft corals (meaning: they don't build a skeletal structure for themselves; they are wholly supported by water and are very squishy) that can tolerate a variety of water conditions and are very fast growing. For xenia, that and their ability to live in places other corals can't tolerate is their only real adaptation. Because of this hardiness, they also tend to be fast growing: if left to their own devices, they can outgrow and out-compete nearby corals for light and food. Since green star polyp corals are encrusting corals (meaning in this case that they actually grow a soft mat-like structure and then extend polyps out of it), they can actually take this one step further and grow up the base of other corals, slowly enfolding them until they are starved of light/food and die.

Rounding out the soft coral defense brigade, we have the tiny, colorful zoanthid/palyzoas (multiple colormorphs pictured above left; zoas and palys are v difficult to tell apart without genetic testing) and the majestic mushroom corals (above right). These have slightly higher demands than GSP or xenia, but not by much. They mostly want to be placed on a rock, where they will attach and chill out in perpetuity.

Zoas and palys are not encrusting in the sense that GSP is, but they are colonial, so they produce more and more heads via asexual reproduction, gradually radiating outward in all directions from an initial colony. They are small, colorful, and cute compared to most corals. They also continually produce and excrete an incredibly lethal vasoconstricting toxin called palytoxin to discourage animal predation, which works quite well. It seems to work on other corals, too, but this is less well studied. Presumably, there is a reason why corals don't get too close to zoas/palys, and that reason seems to be they are usually marinating in a fog of their own poison. This can be a real problem in an aquarium, being as it's a closed system and not, you know, the ocean, and the toxins can build up over time if not filtered out. I include a small amount of activated carbon in my chemical filtration to prevent this.

Mushroom coral, by comparison, are pretty harmless. They do seem to produce some kind of chemical that can inhibit growth for nearby coral, because few corals seem eager to get too close or grow near them, but by comparison they are much more like xenia. They are hardy and grow quickly. Each "head" of a mushroom coral will grow in a pattern that will look rather familiar to anyone who remembers old cell diagrams of mitosis:

Obviously, the internal stuff with the DNA and the division phases aren't correct, but speaking purely from a physical form perspective: this is how a mushroom coral do. Starts off round, gets bigger and bigger, then dimples right at its center point analogous to telophase above, then splits apart into two circles. The actual splitting phase seems to take about 1-3 hours, and usually it's hard to tell it even happened within a day of division. I have only bought two green mushrooms, and both are about to split, doubling my numbers. I have only bought one orange mushroom (before my recent arrivals) but currently have two after it split several months ago. Mushroom corals are interesting to me because in my opinion they also may exhibit allelopathy as both a defense mechanism and a means of propagation.

Allelopathy is when organisms use chemical means to prevent others of their same species from thriving. I have no proof of this, but I have noticed that mushroom corals, after a split, seem to have difficulty attaching to a rock too close to other mushroom corals. Partially, this is due to extent mechanical forces in their environment: it doesn't take much current to blow what is essentially the size and consistency of a floppy slice of zucchini away from its attached sister onto another rock or similar place, where it can anchor. What's curious to me, though, is most aquarists have to actually glue them in place if they want a mushroom garden similar to the zoa garden pictured above. Otherwise, if mushrooms are in crowded conditions, some number of them toward the outside of the colony will sometimes detach and float away. To me, this suggests that there is some kind of chemical signal being emitted from the mushrooms either for defense purposes or a stress response, which can trigger others of its kind to pull up stakes and move. I've looked, but I haven't been able to find any research into this, which is too bad, so all you have above is the speculation of someone who only took 100 level biology courses; don't take me too seriously.

In conclusion: even "peaceful" corals are not all that peaceful, and corals can absolutely kill you if you're not careful. Thanks for reading!

[rjzimmerman]

In the autumn of 2020, before it turned cold, during my hikes in the local prairies and forests I noticed a lot of discarded latex gloves and face masks. Not just one or two, but several on any hike. Not good. Why why why are people so damn lazy that they have to just toss off such stuff onto the forest or prairie floor? Is it so difficult to just jam it into your pocket or backpack and then discard it properly when you get home?

Nest of common coot (Fulica atra) partly built with face mask and glove. Auke-Florian Hiemstra.

First victim of COVID-19 litter, an American robin (Turdus migratorius) entangled in a face mask at Chilliwack, BC, Canada on the 10th of April 2020. Sandra Denisuk.

Excerpt from this story from Treehugger:

The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it the rise of a new kind of single-use plastic in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE), like disposable face masks and gloves.

As early as May of last year, environmentalists warned that these proliferating single-use items could cause a new wave of plastic pollution. Now, about a year after the World Health Organization first declared that COVID-19 had caused a global pandemic, two new studies are justifying those concerns.

The first, published on March 22 in Animal Biology, focuses on COVID litter’s impact on wildlife. It presents the first overview of how PPE is directly impacting animals by trapping or entangling them, or by being mistaken for food.

“We signal COVID-19 litter as a new threat to animal life as the materials designed to keep us safe are actually harming animals around us,” the study authors wrote.

The second, published March 30 by the charity Ocean Conservancy, emphasizes the scope of PPE pollution in the environment. The report found that volunteers with the organization’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) had collected more than 100,000 PPE items from coasts and waterways during the last six months of 2020.

“That number in itself is pretty staggering and we know that that’s really just kind of the tip of the iceberg,” ICC outreach manager Sarah Kollar told Treehugger.

The danger posed by PPE goes deeper than what the eye can see. Eighty-one percent of the Ocean Conservancy survey responders said that disposable face masks were the most commonly found form of PPE. These masks, Kollar explained, are a weave of polypropylene plastic and other polymers.

“Recent studies have found that those fibers can break down over time,” Kollar said. “Scientists are estimating that a single disposable face mask can release up to 173,000 of these microplastic fibers into the environment which, as we can all observe, would pose an immense threat .”

In other words, PPE risks joining the 15 to 51 trillion particles of microplastics estimated to be floating in the world’s oceans as of 2014. Scientists don’t yet know the impact of all these microplastics, but they know they are ingested by plankton, fish larvae, and filter feeders like oysters and scallops. These plastics may be toxic in their own right or accumulate toxins in the environment. The concern is that these toxins might work their way up the marine food web to larger animals and to humans. 

[dragons-live-here]

Maitotoxin:

(MTX)

• It’s a very potent marine toxin, formed by a kind of marine plankton.

• It’s one of the most lethal marine toxins, though slightly less lethal than batrachotoxin.

• MTX does not have any notable taste, texture or smell, and isn’t destroyed by high or low temperatures.

• It affects the flow of calcium ions through the cardiac muscle, and can cause heart failure.

• Symptoms can appear between 3 and 6 hours after consuming, though may appear around 30 hours after.

• Symptoms include nausea, abdominal pain, weakness, fatigue, insomnia and blurred vision.

• There is no specific antidote for MTX poisoning, though various medicines can be used to treat symptoms.

• It is recommended that people who have recovered from MTX poisoning avoid eating fish, or drinking alcohol, lest the symptoms from their poisoning return.

[mostly-history]

France and the Bay of Biscay (May 2013), from NASA's Terra satellite.

In springtime, phytoplankton blooms in the Bay of Biscay off the western coast of France.  The swirls in the water show the location of the plankton, as well as tracing the currents and eddies that mix them.

Phytoplankton (microscopic marine algae) are always present here, but the stronger sunlight of spring, and pulses of nutrient-rich sediments and fresh water flowing out from the land, encourage substantial blooms that can last from weeks to months.  Marine species, from zooplankton to whales, feed off these algae.  But some algae and plankton blooms can be dangerous – they can produce chemical toxins, or deplete the oxygen supply in the ocean and create “dead zones” that suffocate marine life.

Phytoplankton blooms occur every March and April, diminishing in May as ocean conditions change and surface nutrients run out.  Their colours mostly come from the pigments in the phytoplankton, which use chlorophyll for photosynthesis.  Some of the colour comes the minerals in the fine shells of these organisms.  For example, coccolithophores produce a calcite (limestone) shell that can give the water a milky appearance.

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Plastics can enter the food web at an unexpected point: larval fish as small the tip of a pencil.

Larval fish congregate in ocean slicks — ribbons of calm water that form naturally on the ocean’s surface — to feast on an abundance of prey. Prey-sized plastics also accumulate in these fish nurseries, outnumbering the fish 7-to-1 and ending up in the stomachs of many, researchers report online November 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This is perhaps the most vulnerable life stage of pelagic fish,” says Anela Choy, a biological oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., who wasn’t involved in the study. She has documented plastic accumulation in the deep sea (SN: 6/6/19), and says this new study raises important questions about the effects of plastic ingestion at such a fragile life stage.

The researchers set out to study larval fish, not plastics, says Jonathan Whitney, a marine ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Honolulu. After eggs hatch, tiny fish just a few millimeters in length spend their first days to weeks feeding and growing at the ocean surface before returning to their natural habitat. But “we know very little about where they go, what they eat, and how they find their way back home,” Whitney says.

Previous research has suggested that ocean slicks concentrate plankton and other nutrients, and might serve as tranquil nurseries for young fish, Whitney says. He and his colleagues decided to investigate ocean slicks just off the west coast of the island of Hawaii, where fish from a variety of ecosystems — open water, deeper sea and coral reefs — converge.

The researchers towed a specialized net inside and outside ocean slicks 100 times from 2016 to 2018 to sample larval fish diversity. But when the researchers inspected their hauls, they quickly realized their study wasn’t going to be just about fish.

A larval fish (flying fish, top; triggerfish, bottom) collected in an ocean slick off the coast of Hawaii Island. In this composite, they’re situated near plastic fragments they had ingested. A dime is shown for scale.

CREDIT: J. WHITNEY/NOAA FISHERIES

After manually picking through the catch, the researchers counted over 11,000 larval fish, including blennies and goatfish from coral reefs, mahi mahi and swordfish from open waters, and anglerfish from depths barely touched by light. “It shows how briefly interconnected these vastly different ecosystems are,” says coauthor Gareth Williams, a marine biologist at Bangor University in Anglesey, Wales.

The nets snagged eight times as many fish in ocean slicks than in adjacent waters, confirming the slicks’ role as an early fish nursery. But inside these slicks, the tiny swimmers were outnumbered by plastic 7–1. “We were shocked,” Whitney says. “A five-minute tow in what looks like crystal clear water can turn up 10,000 pieces of plastic.”

Of those fish large enough to be dissected, the researchers found that 8 percent had eaten prey-sized microplastics. “The vast majority of larval fish die before reaching adulthood,” so the poor diet comes at a time when the fish are already exceedingly vulnerable, Williams says.

Little is known about the consequences of larval fish ingesting plastic. But Jenni Brandon, an oceanographer at Applied Ocean Sciences who is based in San Diego, says it can’t be good for them. Plastic ingestion by adult fish has been linked to liver toxicity, tumors, malnutrition, behavioral problems and death. Without a fully developed liver that can filter toxins, these effects could be even worse in larval fish.

She says the study may even have underestimated the abundance of plastics in slicks. “They used a net that may have missed smaller fragments of plastics, so it could be even worse.”

Larval fish play a big role in the ocean food web. Seabirds skim them off the water’s surface, while larger fish, such as tuna, eat them from below. If larval fish ate plastic, the predators that eat them could accumulate potentially harmful levels of plastic themselves, the researchers say. Humans also eat some of those fish when full grown, such as mahi mahi, and their predators.

To Whitney, the study underlines how insidious plastics are in the environment. “Finding plastics in these little guys was honestly kind of an emotional hit,” he says. “Climate change is a huge punch to ocean fish. Overfishing another punch. And now, at their most vulnerable stages, there’s yet another human induced impact.”

[re-nise3kawan-blog]

Ocean Cucumber, A Marine Dog Starfish & Associated Organisms

Ocean Cucumber, a marine dog, in the shape of cucumber or perhaps sausage, associated with the particular starfish and the ocean urchin. There are more as compared to five-hundred species, seen in short and deep seas throughout the world. Based on species, gamat gold marine cucumbers range in total coming from concerning one inch to 6 feet (two.five to one hundred and eighty centimeters). A common North American and also European types is all about ten inches (25 centimeters) extended.

Sea cucumbers are generally African American, dark brown, or olive eco-friendly. They’ve uneven, wrinkled pores and skin, inlayed with bony contaminants. Some-sea cucumbers have tiny pipe feet along the amount of themselves. (Pipe toes are usually hollow, muscle forecasts that are found in locomotion.) These types which lack pipe toes creep concerning the sea floor simply by muscle motions of the body. A few marine gamat gold g  cucumbers cover in grassy beds and others hide in off-road as well as mud. On one side with the is a mouth surrounded by ten to be able to 30 food-gathering tentacles. The ocean cucumber feeds on tiny sea creatures as well as other organic matter.

Any time disrupted by an opponent like seafood or even a crab, the ocean cucumber will often eject long, tacky threads looking at the body to be able to entangle its enemy. Several varieties of sea cucumbers will, in such cases, strongly agreement their bodies as well as throw out there a large part of their internal organs. The internal organs include a toxin which is dangerous in order to bass as well as other marine creatures (however, not to humans). These types of organs re-grow in about six weeks.

The ocean cucumber is known as a foods goody and is also found in soups by many Oriental lenders. It will always be dehydrated after which bought from marketplaces, exactly where it is known as trepang as well as beche-de-mer.

That Echinoderms Take in Dirt?

Dirt isn’t something you’d probably at any time desire to eat. But it’s the perfect dinner for a lot of ocean cucumbers. Because these echinoderms burrow across the ocean bottom, these people available their mouths and also take in the dirt. The particular dirt movements through the marine cucumber’s entire body. As it will, tiny allergens associated with deceased microorganisms are separated out as well as used as food. The mud and the squander coming from digested meals continue on by means of and also venture out the other end with the sea cucumber’s body.

As opposed to some other echinoderms, many sea cucumbers have tube ft that seem to be like tentacles. These tentacles can be found around the dog’s mouth.

Sea cucumbers which consume off-road use their particular tentacles to be able to dig by means of and also drive mud within their bodies. Those who do not eat dirt utilize their particular tentacles capture plankton. Right after sea cucumbers capture meals this way, they things their tentacles within their lips. They clean foods allergens off in their jaws once they take their particular tentacles out.

How Can a lot Cucumber Protect By itself?

Whenever an ocean cucumber will be vulnerable, it may shoot sweaty posts from the squander gap. Enemies, such as fish and also crabs, get found within the posts. That is adequate to transmit most predators somewhere else to look for food. The sea cucumber can develop a fresh group of strings and try this strategy repeatedly.

A few ocean cucumbers can easily spew away their own intestinal methods and also develop it well once again. Researchers don’t believe money to be able to frighten possible predators, though. They will most likely do this to guard themselves coming from accumulating an excessive amount of waste within their bodies.

The water cucumber’s person is designed just like the vegetable it really is known as follows. The majority of the body is gentle as well as squishy. But under the skin layers, an ocean cucumber has spiny plates. They’re therefore small and significantly below the skin they can’t be seen.

Which usually Sea Cucumbers Are Also Called Sea Celery?

Some ocean cucumbers are normally referred to as sea apples. That is because they’re circular like celery instead of lengthy and slender like cucumbers. Many of these impressive echinoderms are simply close to coral reefs. Presently there, these kinds of vibrant colored ocean cucumbers make use of their own conduit toes in order to slowly and gradually examine concerning. When in risk, sea apples may pull their short tentacles back to their bodies with regard to safety.

Like every marine cucumber, sea celery has got holes within their body to be able to get rid of waste materials. However, not just about all echinoderms have these opportunities. A few sea celebrities and breakable stars usually do not. Scientists believe these games goog g echinoderms eliminate waste by means of their own pores and skin or perhaps conduit feet.

Marine cucumbers from the school Holothuroidea. A typical North American and also European varieties will be Cucumaria frondosa.

Source https://b17-vitamins.com/

[inaturalist]

A Sea Cucumber that’s an Apple? - Observation of the Week, 8/17/18

Our Observation of the Week is this Violet Sea Apple, seen off of Taiwan by huang_shu_chen!

You might have noticed that the number observations from Taiwan have been growing quite a bit (see chart below), showing off the incredible biodiversity of the island and its surroundings. Much of this growth has has been spurred by a community of both researchers and citizen scientists, one of whom is Cheng-Tao Lin (@mutolisp), the current top observer in Taiwan and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Resources at National Chiayi University. Prof. Lin has graciously translated the responses from this week’s observer, so I want to thank him and Shu-Chen for collaborating on this.

huang_shu_chen (whom I’ll refer to as Shu-Chen), is a diving volunteer for the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology in Keelung, Taiwan, and says “My partner and I (see below) do routine underwater work about coral reef restoration, patrol and investigation, and assist in recording species to create a marine diversity checklist. In addition to these routine tasks, I will also take photos of these beautiful marine creatures.”

The beautiful Violet Sea Apple you see above was taken by Shu-Chen during her first dive using an underwater camera with a flash, and she tells me

it is also the first time I saw such a fascinating and gorgeous sea cucumber, just the same as its name, “red apple”. It’s a pity that I did not meet its “flowering” state (when it stretches tentacles to catch plankton). If I had a chance to see its flower, I will upload it to iNat again!

As Shu-Chen says, these creatures are sea cucumbers, although we use a different vegetative term to describe them (apple) due to their more round shape than your standard sea cucumber. The “flowering” behavior she describes is how the creature catches plankton, by extending its frilly tentacles into the water. And like many other sea cucumbers, violet sea apples can expel parts of their sticky innards into the water when threatened, allowing a predator to concentrate on its entrails rather than the rest of its body. If that doesn’t work, they also have two tricks up their sleeves: they can release a toxin known as holothurin (a type of saponin) into the water, and they can also ingest water, allowing them to double in size and use currents and gravity to sweep them to a new home.

Shu-Chen (above) has recently joined iNaturalist, and says

my photos of nature were just silently stored in my own computer disks in the past, but since I learned about iNaturalist platform, and that observation data uploaded to iNaturalist would become part of GBIF data, I’m so glad that they could be used and studied by other people around the world...I also use iNaturalist to create species checklist at the place where I care and concern. It is really convenient to have iNaturalist to record nature observations, and it motivates me to collect more data.

- by Tony Iwane. 

- Why not take a gander at some of the great observations being made in Taiwan? Here are the faved ones. 

- Some Pearlfish will use the anus of a sea cucumber as a home and/or eat their gonads. This is true. 

- Sea cucumbers demonstrate some astonishing diversity, check out observations of them here!