Wanna know what you can expect from Brave Blue Words in 2011? As before, many of my posts will come from the science headlines. I love keeping up on the latest research, and starting this year I’ll even have Science delivered to my door (a special offer for non-members who register for the AAAS annual meeting before January 27, 2011). I’ve also come up with a long list of topics that I am itching to learn and write about. Here’s a partial list of what I have on deck…
Posts Tagged ‘marine organisms’
29 Dec
Brave Blue Word’s End of the Year Ocean Round-up 2010
2010 was a hard year for the oceans. The biggest disaster was, of course, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which raged on for a mind-boggling, stomach-curdling three months. While BP and the Feds are alternating between pointing fingers, and patting themselves on the back for saving the Gulf, the true impacts of the disaster [...]
17 Dec
Coming soon to a beach near you – the jellyfish blob
The meek shall inherit the Earth – at least the wet parts of it. The lowly jiggly jellyfish, those simple critters that are mostly water and stomach, may be the big winners in the high-stakes gamble we’re playing in the oceans on a global scale. Beautiful and bizarre, jellyfish are on the rise in many [...]
23 Nov
Riches Beyond Your Wildest Dreams: More on the Census of Marine life
I had planned to write a cool post about tides today, followed by one or more about tide pools, the intertidal zone, and other (possibly) related topics. I’d even thought of a clever title (which I won’t tell you in case you disagree with my wit). But then, as often happens, I was distracted by [...]
25 Oct
Where the rare is common and extreme is the norm
The U.S. Census was not the only enumeration completed this year. The Census of Marine Life, an unprecedented collaboration of 2,700 scientists from 81 countries culminated in 2010 after ten years, and more than 540 ocean expeditions. And the results are staggering. The Census documented a changing ocean, richer in diversity, more connected through distribution [...]
23 Jun
The sea is the lifeblood of the planet
I’m heading off to India on Sunday and currently in the midst of last-minute work and packing. I’ll blog about my trip, so stay tuned! For now, I’ll leave you with a revision of a speech I gave a number of years ago to the Independent World Commissions on the Oceans (IWCO) in 1997. The [...]
13 Nov
Altering the Abyss: Deep-Sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change
The abyssal plains, regions of the ocean below 2000 meters, cover 60% of the Earth’s surface. Scientists have long believed that the ecosystems located at these depths are relatively isolated and stable, immune to the dramatic changes rocking shallower ocean regions due to global warming. However, a recent paper* by Ken Smith, a marine ecologist [...]
20 Oct
Fishing For Answers: Connecting Ocean and Human Health
Walking home from an early appointment this morning, I considered what to write about for today’s blog post. An article about marine ecosystems and fisheries caught my eye yesterday. While intrigued, I was also reluctant – fisheries management is one subject that both interests and frustrates the hell out of me. I took one class [...]
3 Sep
Climate Change Impacts Oceans and Marine Life
Oceans cover 71% of the planet’s surface. They make up about 300 times more habitat (by volume) contribute 46% of global primary production and house far more biodiversity and biomass than terrestrial habitats. The oceans are also huge reservoirs for nutrients and gases, including CO2, and ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, impacting atmospheric [...]
