Environmental News June 24 - July 8, 2015

Microplastics entering ocean food web through zooplankton
Date: June 29, 2015
By: Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Center
Tiny microscopic animals called zooplankton are ingesting plastic particles at an alarming rate, according to a new study. That could not only pose a risk to salmon but also spell trouble for the entire aquatic food web – from zooplankton to humpback whales.
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Seafloor hot springs a significant source of iron in the oceans
Date: July 8, 2015
By: University of Washington
A two-month voyage tracking a deep current flowing from one of the most active underwater volcanoes on Earth proves that iron released from hydrothermal vents travels thousands of miles, providing a significant source of iron to support life in the broader oceans.
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Surprising culinary preferences of an abyssal sea anemone
Date: July 2, 2015
By: National Oceanography Centre
The surprising culinary preferences of an abyssal sea anemone have been unveiled by a team of scientists. Observations such as these are vital to our overall understanding of earth, since the abyssal ocean floor makes up over 50% of the planet’s surface.
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Ocean algae will cope well in varying climates
Date: June 30, 2015
By: University of Edinburgh
Tiny marine algae that play a critical role in supporting life on Earth may be better equipped to deal with future climate change than previously expected, research shows.
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Exit dinosaurs, enter fishes
Date: June 30, 2015
By: University of California – San Diego
A pair of paleobiologists have determined that the world's most numerous and diverse vertebrates -- ray-finned fishes -- began their ecological dominance of the oceans 66 million years ago, aided by the mass extinction event that killed off dinosaurs.
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Nemo’s garden off of Italy offers hope for seabed crops
Date: July 1, 2015
By: AFP
In the homeland of pesto, a group of diving enthusiasts have come up with a way of growing basil beneath the sea that could revolutionize crop production in arid coastal areas around the world.
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Analyzing ocean mixing reveals insight on climate
Date: June 24, 2015
By: DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory
A computer model that clarifies the complex processes driving ocean mixing in the vast eddies that swirl across hundreds of miles of open ocean has been developed by researchers.
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First images of dolphin brain circuitry hint at how they sense sound
Date: July 7, 2015
By: Emory Health Sciences
A novel DTI technique used on the preserved brains of two dolphins that died after stranding shows that at least two areas of the dolphin brain are associated with the auditory system, unlike most mammals that primarily process sound in a single area
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Seafood supply altered by climate change
Date: July 1, 2015
By: University of Faculty of Science British Columbia
The global supply of seafood is set to change substantially and many people will not be able to enjoy the same quantity and dishes in the future due to climate change and ocean acidification, according to scientists.
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Location isn’t everything but timing is for certain spawning fish
Date: June 30, 2015
By: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
Each year, hundreds to thousands of fish aggregate at highly predictable times and locations to spawn, producing larvae that will spend at least a month in the plankton before settling to reef habitat. The larvae of some species of reef fish appear to survive better depending on the timing of when they were spawned, according to new research.

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