It’s summertime and you’re sweating from the heat and humidity. You jump in the pool and feel a rush of relief as you suddenly feel cooler. The water might not be colder than the air, but it sure feels like it, and it does a great job of relieving you from the heat. We’re all familiar with this, but did you know it may also explain why whales are so big?

Almost 4 years ago, I began my PhD studies at Stanford University. I was interested in how changes in the environment impact biodiversity through time. I first decided to tackle the question of how transitions from land to water impact body size. Mammals are a well-studied group of animals, and they’ve made this transition multiple independent times. There’s also lots of data on their body size, of species in the modern and the fossil record, so they seemed like a great place to start to answer this question. The original goal was just to test whether aquatic mammals are bigger than we expect by chance, but I was really surprised by what we discovered about the drivers of their evolution.

We did (unsurprisingly) find that aquatic mammals are bigger than expected, but also noticed that, despite each group of aquatic mammals evolving from differently sized terrestrial ancestors, they all evolved to the same size of about 500 kg! Even stranger, we found that aquatic mammals are much more constrained in their body size than their terrestrial counterparts! This goes against almost all the reasons why people believe aquatic mammals are big. Once you’re in the water, the idea goes, you should be able to get as big as you want without being hindered by the limitations of gravity and food shortages. Rather, we found that aquatic mammals must get bigger.

After hitting the books, I was shocked that I was able to develop a simple mathematical model that explained the minimum, maximum, and average sizes that we were seeing in aquatic mammals. The minimum constraint in the model shows that these mammals need to produce more energy in their bodies and lose less of that energy, relatively speaking, to the water, to have any energy left over for reproduction and growth. Otters are the one exception to this trend: we’re thinking that this is because they only spend part of their lives in the water or are more efficient at conserving their body heat with their thick fur, although we haven’t been able to test either of those hypotheses yet.

Through developing the model, I also discovered that there’s a maximum limitation on size too. At a certain point, aquatic mammals just can’t eat enough food, no matter how much there is, to sustain larger sizes. For toothed mammals, it appears that this maximum is about the size of a sperm whale. However, baleen whales have figured out a way to eat more efficiently than their toothed cousins, in which they filter entire schools of krill at once from large gulps of water. This feeding strategy seems to allow them to exceed this maximum limit and achieve superwhale sizes.

Long story short, if you want to be a mammal and live in the water for your entire life, you need to get a lot bigger, but you also need to be careful, because you can’t get too much bigger. It’s a tricky balance that aquatic mammals have amazingly mastered at least three times! I’ll stick to my occasional dips in the pool, thank you very much!

The post So, You Want to Live in the Water? A Tale of Why Aquatic Mammals are So Big first appeared on Deep Sea News.

The individual was found in Japan’s Toyama Bay.  Interestingly, this is the sixteenth Giant Squid sighting in the last year in Toyoma Bay.  In some regards, this is not surprising.  Toyoma Bay serves as the head of a deep canyon axis. The Giant Squid is cosmopolitan in the world’s ocean but as Guerra et al. show the squid appears mostly in areas with submarine canyons that cut across the continental shelf. These canyons provide areas of high productivity including fishing grounds humans and squids alike often exploit.

Why the recent increase in sightings in Toyama Bay?  Seeing a Giant Squid in shallow water undoubtedly indicates the individual is sick or injured.  The Giant Squid’s blood is poor at oxygen transfer making them particularly vulnerable to lowered oxygen, warming, and acidification.  Heat speeds an animal’s metabolism.  Because of their energy requirements and oxygen needs, Giant squid must stick to cooler waters.  Indeed, it is hypothesized their global distribution in the oceans is limited by warm temperature barriers.  Guerra et al. also demonstrate that strandings of Giant Squid in Newfoundland were always associated with rises in ocean bottom temperature.

Nonetheless, the video of the squid, only the third, is the best quality and detail yet of a living Giant Squid.  The individual is probably still young, measuring 3.7 metres (about 12 feet) long, is small.  Most of known individuals of Giant Squids measure well above this.  Indeed, 50% of measured Giant Squids are above 7.5 meters in length, nearly double of the Toyoma Bay individual.

The post New Video of Giant Squid Surfaces first appeared on Deep Sea News.

I encourage you to post other graphs below as long as the meet my three criteria (reliable source, unspeculative connection, no projections) and you provide a source link.  Anything that does not meet this criteria will be deleted.  I will do a followup post with all of your suggestions. Also follow along on Twitter at #climategraphs

1. 2015 temperatures higher than warmest years on record

2. Current atmospheric carbon dioxide at highest in last 400,000 years

3. Direct measurements of carbon dioxide increases since 2005

4. Sea level increases since 1880

5. Arctic ice cover decreases since 1980

6. Increasing river discharge from melting snow packs into Arctic Ocean

7. Decreasing glacier mass from 1945-2014

8. Increasing sea surface temperatures since 1910

9.  Increasing heat content of the oceans since 1955

10.  Earlier last spring frost and later first fall frost from 1895-2014

11. Earlier blossoming of cherry trees in Washington, D.C.

12. Northward range shifts in British 6,669 plants

13. Northwards shifts center of abundance for North American birds from 1966 to 2014

14. Increases of thermal stress on Caribbean coral reefs

15. Increases in deaths classified as “Heat-Related” in the United States, 1979–2010

The post A Story of Climate Change Told In 15 Graphs first appeared on Deep Sea News.

This is not the ocean:

Indeed, even THIS is not the ocean:

Before you start thinking that the folks at DSN are losing their marbles, bear with me!  The truth is that none of these three all-too-familiar and quintessentially marine images reflects the actual reality of what most of the ocean is like.  Here’s why.  At their most basic, the above three images can be represented like this (respectively):

Our experience of the ocean is almost entirely defined by our interactions along its margins: along the coast, sitting the bottom or floating on the surface.  More often, it’s some combination of these, like a coral reef, which can be all three: coastal, benthic and also in reach of or transcending the surface at least some of the time.  In all of these marginal habitats, life is heavily influenced by the margin itself: benthic things have specific adaptations to interacting with the substrate, while pelagic things have adaptations for interacting with the surface, and so on.  In many of these places it’s sunny, it’s warm and there are lots of animals, at least relatively speaking.   The point of my post is that the rest of the ocean, an overwhelming majority in fact, looks like this:

That’s because the part of the oceans not included in coastal zones, on the bottom, or within sunlight’s reach of the surface make’s up about 94% of the volume of the ocean (and of course, the other 6% looks like this at night time, or 50% of the time!).  Average ocean depth is around 12,100 feet, with sunlight penetrating the top 650 feet or so.  The other 11,450 feet consists of pitch dark and perpetual blackness, with no margin or structure to disrupt the inky 3-dimensional void.  It’s also uniformly and numbingly cold; below the reach of sunlight it is about 4°C or 39°F everywhere in the world, regardless of whether you are off Greenland or Hawaii.  About the only thing that isn’t uniform throughout this habitat is pressure, which varies greatly with the depth of any given cube of water, but is generally a great deal more than any experienced along coasts or at the surface, although it must be said that bottom-dwelling communities in the deepest parts of the ocean experience the greatest pressures of all.

There are animals in the void too, of course, but they are sparse in the extreme and without extrinsic light and without any habitat structures they are foreign in form.  Often delicate and flimsy, diaphanous or gelatinous, they exist in a world without walls, floor or ceiling, without any structure at all to define the boundaries of their environment or even to serve as some spatial point of reference.  There are animals here that will not during their lifetime experience a solid surface, or even a fluid one such as the boundary where water meets air; they and their ancestors appear and disappear from the void, never alighting on anything.  To them, a wall might be as incomprehensible as a black hole is to us.  They are born, live out their life histories and die in a frigid, timeless, structureless void.

I’m not a religious guy, but the bible opens with a statement to the effect that “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep” and I can’t help but be struck that the world described by this passage, before God supposedly created light and began to shape the world, bears a striking resemblance to the vast majority of the oceans that exist today.  We think we know the oceans, but we don’t, not really, because the majority of the oceans are an icy black void inhabited by creatures as alien as any we can expect to find in that other unceasing void, the one we call space.

The post We don't know the ocean first appeared on Deep Sea News.

This is a guest post from Sizing Ocean Giants team member Leo Gaskins

1) Not the best cook? No worries, Greenland sharks won’t complain!

Forgot to thaw your frozen turkey? Have too many leftovers to fit in your fridge? Not so confident in your cooking skills? No worries. Your new Greenland shark friend won’t judge you!

Greenland sharks are some of the least picky eaters you’ll ever run into. They have been documented with many strange things in their stomachs, ranging from polar bears, horses, even a whole reindeer! In fact, this month, in Newfoundland, some people saved a Greenland shark that was choking on a moose.

Though these odd things have been discovered in their stomachs, their diet usually consists of fish. They are also known as the Sleeper shark, and have a lethargic cruising speed of .76 mph to match their nickname. As they lazily move around the ocean, they aren’t usually catching too many quickly moving organisms.  But lucky for you, in addition to fish, they also eat carrion, which are dead and decaying animals. So that Thanksgiving turkey you just cooked fits right into their typical menu. No need to cook them anything out of the ordinary!

2) Fearful of your heating bill this winter? Your shark friend doesn’t mind the cold!

Greenland sharks, as the name suggests, do in fact live near Greenland, in the sub-arctic latitudes, and are the only true sub-arctic shark, found in temperatures around 33 degrees Fahrenheit! In other words, even if they stayed outside the whole night, they would still be perfectly fine!

Greenland sharks are also surprisingly large, and can get up to around 20 feet, the same size as a Great White Shark. But contrary to what you might think, when animals get larger, they actually have to put in less energy to maintain a constant internal temperature. This phenomenon, called gigantothermy, boils down to some basic physics. Larger animals have a larger volume to surface area ratio than smaller animals. This means that relative to the rest of their body mass, there is less skin exposed to the water where heat can escape.

3) Looking for some compelling dinner conversation? Greenland sharks have plenty to tell!

Each Thanksgiving, along with the food and family, come the stories. My grandfather always has the most interesting ones, telling us about his childhood, his time in WWII as a medic, and what life was like in previous decades. At 88 years old, he has a wealth of knowledge and experience that makes each Thanksgiving story and family discussion interesting.

So why invite a Greenland shark? What would they have to bring to the table? Though not widely studied, Greenland sharks are believed to be the vertebrate with the longest lifespan, at over 200 years!

To give you perspective on how long 200 years really is, the United States as a nation is only 237 years old, the civil war was 150 years ago, and my family has gone through about eight generations since then. I can only imagine that these sharks would have incredibly compelling stories to tell, and be able to offer a unique voice in family discussions. In addition, even shark researchers know very little about the lives of the elusive Greenland sharks, so it would be interesting to understand more about what they do as they slowly cruise through the Arctic seas.

The post 3 Reasons Why You Should Invite a Greenland Shark to Thanksgiving Dinner first appeared on Deep Sea News.

But when I read Dr. M’s new (P ***ing NAS) paper last week, it hit me: I really should care. We all should. Its not about forcing to ourselves to waste time reading about topics or environments that aren’t relevant. All knowledge is essential–especially diverse knowledge, especially in today’s changing landscape of science.

How can energy limitation in the deep-sea be relevant to a parent trying to keep his/her kitchen germ-free? It’s all relevant, because in each case we’re trying to understand how complex communities function and change over time – regardless of whether a given ecosystem resides in the built environment or a natural setting.

Biology is heading towards integrated data – I study microbial genomics, but I should also be thinking about metabolism and temperature effects on the species I search for in environmental data. For us genomicists we’re so used to dealing with so little information. We just get (rather large) computer files listing lots and lots of DNA. The challenge for us is to relate those A’s, T’s, C’s and G’s back to something meaningful. But of course we don’t just want to look at DNA – we want a holistic understanding of ecosystem function. I want to know how one piece of DNA relates to a body size, how that body size relates to the type of food that pariticular species eats, and how all that interacts on a grand scale in an ecoysytem.

Often I feel like us genomicists have our hands tied – but we have a powerful tool in our pocket (that’s what she said) that can set us free in ways that no one else can experience. DNA is objective in ways that other types of data aren’t–taxonomy is subjective and decisions vary depending on the expert identifying a specimen. What if we could use parameters like temperature, depth and type of food input to predict what species will be there? Of course, that’s a lifelong obsession for researchers like Jack Gilbert (@gilbertjacka) and colleagues, and we’re steadily making progress towards these modeling goals. Some of the new microbial model papers are pretty badass.

To summarize the ongoing transformation in biology, I’ll bestow some eloquent foresight from Poole et al. 2012:

As researchers seek to go beyond function and understand the effects of global environmental changes on ecosystems [6], metagenomics will be essential. It has already helped to unlock the mechanisms for climate–carbon-cycle feedbacks [7] and, for simple microbial ecosystems, has illuminated the probable metabolic basis for key community interactions [8]. These examples underscore two crucial points. First, genomic knowledge is increasing the understanding of how simple organisms interact with their multicellular counterparts in an ecosystem context [9]. Second, the ability to zoom in on the functional roles of species within an ecological community [3] will make metagenomics indispensable for the future study of whole-ecosystem functioning.

And this data revolution isn’t simply relegated to basic research. In terms ecotoxicology and ecosystem monitoring, Van Aggelen et al 2010 note that:

Omic and bioinformatic tools offer sub­stantial promise for discovery of gene, pro­tein, and/or metabolite alterations indicative of the mode of action (MOA) of chemicals and improved understanding of mechanisms in prospective studies (Ankley et al. 2006). Knowing the MOA can reduce uncertain­ ties in chemical risk assessments, providing, for example, a basis for extrapolating effects across species (Benson and Di Giulio 2007).

Ideally, omics data would reflect both the MOA and deleterious outcome(s). To achieve this, the cascade of pathways asso­ciated with toxicity must be defined, from a molecular initiating event (e.g., receptor bind­ing) through subsequent biological alterations (reflected by omic and cellular changes) that culminate in a deleterious outcome (NRC 2007).

Thus, although gene expression is affected by many environmental factors, a subset of genes with altered expression can inform on stress responses.

The biology landscape (and earth’s climate) are changing and science must adapt. Scientific infrastructure and even researcher mindsets must change in order to accomodate a new order of thinking.

There is also a need to build capacity within academia, the private sector, and gov­ernment agencies to implement omic tools and to evaluate omics data, particularly with respect to biological and ecological significance. These institutions will require resources, support, and targeted training to bring scientists and deci­sion makers within their organizations to a point where these tools can be used effectively in regulatory decision making, especially in risk assessment. (Van Aggelen et al 2010)

The deep sea may face a perpetual energy recession, but in terms of scientific data we’re about to experience one hell of an economic boom.

References:

McClain CR, Allen AP, Tittensor DP, Rex MA. (2012) Energetics of life on the deep seafloor. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. Advance Access

Poole AM, Stouffer DB, Tylianakis JM. (2012) “Ecosystomics”: ecology by sequencer. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 27(6):309–10.

Van Aggelen G, Ankley GT, Baldwin WS, Bearden DW, Benson WH, Chipman JK, et al. (2010) Integrating omic technologies into aquatic ecological risk assessment and environmental monitoring: hurdles, achievements, and future outlook. Environ. Health Perspect. p. 1–5.

The post Capitalizing on recessions with economic booms of data first appeared on Deep Sea News.

And to end you day on a uber-depressing note, sure to give you at least some nightmares

Scientists studying Caribbean reefs say that 2010 may be the worst year ever for coral death there. Abnormally warm water since June appears to have dealt a blow to shallow and deep-sea corals that is likely to top the devastation of 2005, when 80% of corals were bleached and as many as 40% died in areas on the eastern side of the Caribbean.

And if that didn’t do it

“What is clear, though, is that the warmest 12-month period in the GISS analysis was reached in mid-2010.”

Want to help? Start helping to convince people the ocean is worth saving.

via NASA GISS: Research News: How Warm Was Summer 2010?. (Great read with fantastic maps)

via Caribbean Coral Die-Off Could Be Worst Ever.

The post Caribbean Coral Die-Off Could Be Worst Ever first appeared on Deep Sea News.

“We conclude that global temperature continued to rise rapidly in the past decade” and “there has been no reduction in the global warming trend of 0.15-0.20°C/decade that began in the late 1970s.”

The post 12-month running mean global temperature reached new high… first appeared on Deep Sea News.

At this year’s National Association for Biology Teachers conference, Steve Haddock from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, spoke on deep ocean habitats.   The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center sponsored the session on extreme environments and are now making all the videos available.  Steve’s excellent and visually impressive talk is above and demonstrates the wonder and beauty of the deep-sea pelagic zone.  Definitely a must watch for both information and entertainment.

And due to popular request we will be bringing back the TGIF.  Links for ocean related videos are always welcome.  Make suggestions in the comments below.

Text from Youtube on Steve’s Talk:

The deep ocean is the largest living space on Earth, abundant with diverse alien-looking life forms despite the fact that it is dark, cold, has limited resources and exerts high pressures. In response to these environmental challenges and unique ecological constraints, organisms have evolved a variety of forms and functions including transparent dome eye covers, cloaks of invisibility, and the ability to communicate by making bioluminescent light. Because there are few surfaces, morphologies have diversified in unconstrained manner resulting in 40-meter long jellies and diaphanous comb jellies that propel themselves with eyelash-like cilia. Many of these deep-sea species are not yet described, and current research involves understanding the diversity and relationships of these animals, as well as the genetic underpinnings of their unique bio-optical properties. Although they are obscure even to marine biologists and live in some of most unexplored habitats on the planet, these animals actually can occur as close as a few kilometers from a large city. This paradox underscores how much we have yet to learn about life on this planet.

The post Life in the Deep Sea: Only the Fragile Survive first appeared on Deep Sea News.

To understand the biogeography of the modern deep sea, we must examine the history of the ocean floor and the establishment of deep-sea fauna. The paleoceanography of the deep-sea is an account of intense fluctuations in temperature, oxygen, and circulation. In the past ~55mya, since the Eocene/Paleocene boundary, the deep sea cooled nearly 15˚C. A major cooling event is also evident in the Mid-Cenozoic at the Oligocene/Eocene boundary ~34 mya. Little is known of deep seafloor temperatures prior to 100 mya given the paucity of deep-sea sediments older than the Cretaceous. Apparent is there have been major shifts in deep ocean circulation driven by two different processes leading to density differences between water masses. In an excellent review on the implications of ocean circulation on the age of the deep-sea fauna, Horne (1999) contrasts two ocean types of the past, those dominated by thermohaline circulation (THC) driven by temperature-induced density differences at the poles resulting in cold deep water and halothermal circulation (HTC) driven by salinity-induced density differences in equatorial regions resulting in warm saline deep water. During HTC, circulation is reduced, as density differences tend not to be as great as during THC.

In addition to differences between deep-water temperature during THC and HTC, the two states differ greatly in oxygen concentrations. Due to poorer circulation and poorer ventilation, along with reduced carrying capacity for dissolved oxygen and increased oxygen demand of organisms resulting from higher temperatures, HTC states experience much lower oxygen concentrations than THC states often resulting in wide-spread deep-water anoxic events. Since the Oligocene/Eocene transition the deep sea has been dominated by THC conditions of high oxygen concentrations, a “two layered” ocean, and thermohaline circulation. Indeed, large-scale anoxic events have been absent since the Paleocene. However, prior to the Oligocene/Eocene in the HTC phase dating back to the Triassic, deep-water anoxia was frequent and often widespread.

I mention all of this because most of the recent dialogue on deep-sea faunal origins focuses on timing and effects of anoxic events. However, earlier workers in the late 19th century viewed the deep-sea as buffered against ongoing climate change and extinctions. This combined with early finds of “living fossils”, led many to believe the deep sea a fossil refuge comprised mainly of Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian relics. This “tenacious idea” is largely dispelled with findings that Paleozoic relics are rare, the presence of more primitive forms in shallow water, and evidence of recent and impressive radiations of some deep-sea fauna.

The remaining hypotheses about the origins include much of the rest of the Phanerozoic, with the exceptions of the Jurassic and Triassic. Most of these hypotheses center on “extinction and replacement” of the deep-sea fauna and thought to be triggered by severe anoxic events. Indeed, the idea of anoxic-triggered replacement has led to a new “tenacious idea”, the Mid-Cenozoic Replacement hypothesis. In this scenario, the deep-sea fauna is relatively contemporary dating back to the last major anoxic event at the Oligocene/Eocene boundary. However, several authors have questioned the ability of anoxic events to “reset” the deep-sea fauna.

Modern deep-sea faunas appear to actually represent a composite of clades with multiple originations throughout the Phanerozoic. For example, benthic deep-sea foraminifera genera represent 5% originating in the early Paleozoic, 45% from the pre-Cretaceous, and the remaining 50% from the Eocene. Whereas Asellota, dominating the deep-sea isopods, originated as late as the Jurassic with a subsequent and impressive deep-sea radiation, flabelliferan isopods conform to a relatively recent colonization in the Cenozoic. Bivalves and  gastropods are thought to originated in the late Ordovician, with known fossil assemblages dating to the Lower Cretaceous. In contrast deep-sea octopods, represent relatively recent origins dating back to 30 mya with a subsequent radiation at 15 mya. Similarly all modern deep-sea ostracods arose in the Oligocene and later. Holasteroid echinoids participated in at least four deep-sea invasions, three in the Late Cretaceous and one as early as the Miocene. The Late Cretaceous also gave rise to the stylaserid corals.

One final question remains. What is the site of invasion of shallow taxa into the deep sea? In general, the locations fall into the 1) Antarctic, 2) Mediterranean, and 3) multiple source locations. In the first two scenarios, locations of isothermal conduit is though to be key to migration.  In later, scenario shallow-water migration is thought to occur unimpeded and occurred globally. Evidence of the amazing pressure and temperature tolerances of embryos and larvae of marine invertebrates supports this idea supports the later. However, evidence exists that several clades did originate form Antarctic fauna , although there is also evidence that Antarctic fauna in parts derives from the deep sea.

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