OCEANS - Cause of Epidemic Starfish Deaths Found

"Finding the culprit virus in starfish deaths, researchers look for environmental causes" PBS NewsHour 11/18/2014

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  For the past year-and-a-half, scientists have been trying to figure out what’s behind a mysterious disease that’s led to the death of millions of starfish.

Now they have figured out the culprit, a virus.   Sea star wasting syndrome has affected more than 20 species of West Coast starfish.   First detected in Washington State last year, it’s since spread, decimating populations from Mexico all the way to Alaska.

This story comes from Katie Campbell at KCTS9 in Seattle.  She reports for the public media project EarthFix.

KATIE CAMPBELL, KCTS9:  After months of research, scientists have identified the pathogen at the heart of the starfish wasting disease.   They say it’s different from all other known viruses infected marine organisms.  They have dubbed it sea star associated densovirus.

IAN HEWSON, Cornell University:  When you look on a scale of hundreds and hundreds of animals, as we did, it’s very clear that the virus is associated with symptomatic sea stars.

KATIE CAMPBELL:  Ian Hewson is a microbiologist at Cornell University.   He’s the lead author of the study.  And he says it’s rare to figure out what causes marine diseases.

IAN HEWSON:  In every drop of seawater, there’s 10 million viruses that basically we have had to sort through to try and find the virus that is responsible for this disease.

KATIE CAMPBELL:  Researchers collected tissue samples and analyzed them for all possible pathogens.  Once they had identified the leading candidate, they tested it by injecting the densovirus into healthy starfish in an aquarium.  Then they watched to see if the disease took hold.

IAN HEWSON:  When we inoculated them, they died within about a week to 14 days, whereas controls, which had received sort of viruses that had been destroyed by heat, did not become sick.   They remained healthy for — for weeks.

KATIE CAMPBELL:  What’s strange, Hewson says, is that West Coast starfish have been living with the virus for decades.   Researchers detected the densovirus in preserved starfish specimens from as far back as the 1940s.

IAN HEWSON:  It’s probably been sort of smoldering sort of at a low level for a very long time, and then eventually it becomes sort of an epidemic.

Something seems to have been the trigger to make this from some sort of benign infection into something that’s really widespread and affecting so many different species.

KATIE CAMPBELL:  Now that scientists have identified the virus, the next step for Hewson’s team is investigating what environmental factors might make starfish more susceptible to it.

NASA - Exploring Ocean Worlds

"NASA discussion in Hampton to explore ocean worlds" by The Associated Press, WAVY.com 11/3/2014

HAMPTON, Va. (AP) — A discussion at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton is exploring oceans at the edge of the solar system.

Officials say Kevin Hand from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will present “Ocean Worlds of the Outer Solar System” Tuesday afternoon.

He’ll present a similar program at the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton on Tuesday night.

Hand is the deputy chief scientist for solar system exploration at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Officials say at least five moons in the outer solar system may have liquid water oceans.  These oceans are considered good candidates for NASA’s search for life beyond Earth.

Hand will explain the science behind why researchers think they know these oceans exist, and what they know about the physical and chemical conditions on these worlds.

ARCTIC THAW - Melting Glaciers = More Navigable Water

Note that this is climate change in action.

"Unmapped Routes May Pose Dangers for Shipping Boom in Arctic Waters" PBS Newshour 9/17/2013

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SUMMARY:  Melting glaciers mean more water to explore and profit from in the Arctic, but it can also mean danger for mariners.  NewsHour producer April Brown reports that scientists from the NOAA who inform sailors how close they can get to the ice have not been able to keep up with the dramatic speed of climate change and new vessels.

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Next, we head north to the Arctic Sea.

Thanks to climate change, there are now new waters to discover there.  Melting ice has opened new routes for ships, and raised concerns about safety for maritime traffic in uncharted territory.

NewsHour’s April Brown reports part two of our series, Arctic Thaw.

APRIL BROWN:  The vivid blue glaciers in Prince William Sound captivate tourists from all over the world. But they are slowly shrinking.

CODY HANNA, Klondike Express Captain:  We're back here, you know, about five months out of the year every day, so we're watching these glaciers break off, move back, and we're seeing the change daily.

APRIL BROWN:  Cody Hanna captains the Klondike Express tour boat.  He says the melting glaciers create more navigable water.

CLIMATE CHANGE - Acidic Oceans vs Northwest Shellfish

"Trouble in the Water: Acidifying Oceans Hinder Health of Northwest Shellfish" PBS Newshour 12/7/2012

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SUMMARY: The world's oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide at an unprecedented rate and the resulting acidification is transforming marine ecosystems. Hari Sreenivasan reports on how ocean acidification is already affecting oysters and other shellfish in the U.S.

CLIMATE CHANGE - Coral Reefs and Ocean Acidity

"Endangered Coral Reefs Die as Ocean Temperatures Rise and Water Turns Acidic" PBS Newshour 12/5/2012

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SUMMARY: In addition to negative consequences caused by overfishing and pollution, coral reefs face another major existential threat: increased acidity from warming oceans. Hari Sreenivasan reports from Florida about the dire outlook for coral reefs, as well as efforts and research to try and save them.

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): Next: the decline of coral reefs and the connections with rising levels of carbon dioxide.

New reports this week show there were nearly 38 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted around the globe last year. That, among other things, is having a very real effect in places like the Florida Keys.

Hari Sreenivasan traveled there recently and filed this report for our series Coping With Climate Change.

SCIENCE - Under-Arctic Ecosystem Discovery

"Beneath Arctic ice, scientists find an ecosystem never imagined" by Pete Spotts, Christian Science Monitor 6/7/2012

Scientists have discovered a vast pea-soup-green bloom of tiny plant-like marine organisms under Arctic Ocean ice. The bloom represents an enormous, and until now, unknown reservoir of food for marine life in frigid waters at the top of the world.

These waters, in sum, appear to be far more biologically productive than previously believed.

"This wasn't just any phytoplankton bloom," says Kevin Arrigo, a Stanford University marine scientist and lead author of the study. "It was literally the most intense phytoplankton bloom I've ever seen in my 25 years of doing this type of research" in oceans around the world.

The scientists sampled only a relatively small section of ice above the Arctic basin's continental shelves last summer. But the findings suggest that, where the mix of nutrients and sunlight are right, other areas around the basin could be highly productive as well, the researchers say.