Antarctica Could Lose Most of Its Penguins to Climate Change

Antarctica Could Lose Most of Its Penguins to Climate Change

Antarctica Could Lose Most of Its Penguins to Climate Change

Pre-Anoxia and Anoxia

How depressing....
Here's a video with what it looks like pre-anoxia and latter part of the video showing what it looks like within the anoxia event. Dated around August 2000 taken by a ROV around Cape Perpetua Reefs, 50m depth. Hearing, reading, and talking about are, one thing.... To actually see it, is another.

Related articles

• Massive volcanic eruptions + coal fires = the Great Dying (arstechnica.com)
• Plankton shed light on Earth's ancient atmosphere (news.bioscholar.com)
• Oceans may have poisoned early animals (sciencenews.org)

To Catch a Fallen Sea Angel

Amplify’d from www.scientificamerican.com

To Catch a Fallen Sea Angel: A mighty mollusk detects ocean acidification

By Kevin Zelnio Nov 5, 2010 10:05 AM

"What's more," snapped the Lorax. (His dander was up.) "Let me say a few words about Gluppity-Glupp. Your machine chugs on, day and night without stop making Gluppity-Glupp. Also Schloppity-Schlopp. And what do you do with this leftover goo?... I'll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man, you! "You're glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed! No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So I'm sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary. They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary."

“But now,” says the Once-ler, “Now that you’re here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, Its not.” – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded “the response of organisms to ocean acidification is poorly known and could cause further changes in the marine carbon cycle with consequences that are difficult to estimate” (Bindoff et al. 2007). In the intervening three years since its publication, ocean acidification has risen to become a major research area in marine science. While the oceans buffer the planet against rising CO2 concentrations, it does so a cost to its own chemistry.

In case you have yet to noticed the ocean is REALLY big, 1.3 billion cubic kilometers (312 million cubic miles) big in fact. The oceans hover near a pH around 8.1. Since the ocean is HUGE, it takes A LOT to move the pH up or down. At a pH of 8.1, the carbonate system is composed of 90% bicarbonate, 9% carbonate, and only 1% as dissolved CO2. While we put our Gluppity-Glupp and Schloppity-Schlopp into the atmosphere, the ocean does its best to buffer the planet by balancing its chemistry with the air. As a consequence the acid balance is tilted lower because while the concentration of each component of the carbonate system increases, the increase in hydrogen ions comes at a cost to carbonate ions, which is what marine calcifiers need to create shells (Doney et al. 2009).

iversity.

Limacina helicina - a pteropod mollusc - Image used with permission by Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska Fairbanks. More at Arctic Ocean Diversity. Read more at www.scientificamerican.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/epje

Typhoon Megi & Cloud Seeding?

Typhoon Megi...
The strongest cyclone in years to buffet the Philippines...
And yes it's now  pouring the proverbial "Cat's and Dog's" 
Outside form the typhoon this very moment as I write this.
Though it's only signal number one here in Manila.
I do really hope it doesn't flood again here though... that would really suck.
Releasing three overflowing dams at once is not good like they did Ondoy flood.
Just finished fixing up the house a few months ago from Ondoy flood too...
(I have my own picture with my own street sign...)


I never knew they did cloud seeding in the Philippines!
From Site:

"Angat Dam water level up 1.06 meters

While Angat Dam’s water level increased by more than a meter on Friday, the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) of the Department of Agriculture could not yet say if the cloud-seeding operations over the watershed in Bulacan caused the increase in the reservoir's level with just two out of 60 cloud-seeding sorties completed last Thursday.

As of 6 a.m. on Friday, Angat Dam's level increased by 1.06 meters from 158.60 meters last Thursday to 159.66 meters at present.

Although the current water level is still 20.34 meters short of the standard level of 180 meters, this has been the highest overnight increase since Angat Dam reached its all-time low water level last July 18 at 157.56 meters.

Engr. Rey Peregrino, BSWM’s Water Resources Management Division (WRMD) assistant chief, said the team is expected to conduct about 60 cloud-seeding sorties to induce rain over the watershed through the dispersal of a total of 100 sacks or 2,500 kilos of salt above seedable clouds.

Peregrino said the East Zone water concessionaire Manila Water Company, Inc., shouldered the expenses for the cloud-seeding operations amounting to P3.1 million.

“Our team finished two sorties on Thursday and was able to disperse 20 bags of salt over the clouds,” he said.

He explained that it took the BSWM team an hour to conduct one cloud-seeding sortie to spot enough seedable clouds to induce rains over the watershed.

Peregrino, however, could not yet confirm if the cloud-seeding operations had been a factor in the one-meter rise in Angat Dam’s level since rains in the upper portion of the watershed could also have contributed to the increase in the reservoir’s level.

He pointed out that the government spent about P25 million, including the present P3.1 million allocated by Manila Water for Angat Dam, for cloud-seeding operations nationwide to address the El Niño event this year.

During the 1997-1998 El Niño, cloud-seeding activities conducted nationwide by the BSWM amounted to P36.7 million."

[via: http://www.mb.com.ph]

Related articles

• Super Typhoon Megi slams Philippines (cnngo.com)
• "Super Typhoon Megi hits northern Philippines" and related posts (asianetindia.com)
• Typhoon Megi [Greg Laden's Blog] (scienceblogs.com)
• "Super Typhoon Megi Hits the Philippines - Strongest Typhoon at Landfall on Record" and related posts (the-environmentalist.org)

Tornado Tourists

Image via Wikipedia

Now that would be an interesting and fun vacation!

Amplify’d from munews.missouri.edu

COLUMBIA, Mo. ­­­– Instead of heading to the coast for vacation, people are traveling to Tornado Alley. The number of people registering to get a closer look at tornadoes is growing as vacationers trade in their beach towels for a ride with storm chasers.  Labeled “Tornado Tourists” by a University of Missouri research team, these travelers are searching for an experience beyond just thrills.

Carla Barbieri and Sonja Wilhelm Stanis, assistant professors in the School of Natural Resources Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, found that most of these travelers aren’t just looking for risk; rather, they are seeking a unique and unconventional opportunity to enjoy and learn about nature’s power and beauty.

“With the help of movies like Twister, storm-chasing has become an international phenomenon,” Barbieri said. “While more than half of the surveyed travelers lived in North America, 11 percent came from Australia and nearly a third traveled from Europe to get a close encounter with a tornado.”

Handling three to 10 tours per season, experienced meteorologists and trained storm chasers are serving as tour guides using sophisticated equipment to track the severe weather on the road. Typically costing between $3,000 and $5,000, not including food and hotels, the tours last one to two weeks as tour guides drive among tornado watch areas in a van.

The study found that most of the amateur storm chasers were happy with their experiences. One-third of the tourists experienced a tornado, while 50 percent spotted funnel clouds and more than 95 percent reported seeing a significant atmospheric event. Most respondents were so satisfied, they said they would take another tour and recommended tornado chasing to their friends.

“Tornado tourists were found to be primarily middle-aged, single, highly educated and wealthy,” Babieri said. Read more at munews.missouri.edu

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/9K5JLT

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tornado-chasing becomes vacation choice, MU researchers find (scienceblog.com)
• How did meteorologists determine whether a tornado touched down in New York City? (slate.com)
• Tornado Tourism Company Offers Thrilling "Vacations" (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)

What is a waterspout?

Image by lonnypaul via Flickr

What is a waterspout?

From Site:

Waterspouts fall into two categories: fair weather waterspouts and tornadic waterspouts.

Tornadic waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water, or move from land to water. They have the same characteristics as a land tornado. They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning.

Fair weather waterspouts usually form along the dark flat base of a line of developing cumulus clouds. This type of waterspout is generally not associated with thunderstorms. While tornadic waterspouts develop downward in a thunderstorm, a fair weather waterspout develops on the surface of the water and works its way upward. By the time the funnel is visible, a fair weather waterspout is near maturity. Fair weather waterspouts form in light wind conditions so they normally move very little.

If a waterspout moves onshore, the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, as some of them can cause significant damage and injuries to people. Typically, fair weather waterspouts dissipate rapidly when they make landfall, and rarely penetrate far inland.

For more information:

What is a waterspout?, NOAA's National Weather Center
Waterspout video, Ocean Today Kiosk network

[via: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov]

*I've always been so fascinated with waterspouts. Hope on day I get to see one.... from a distance that is.)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chaos as 'mini tornado' rips through Australian holiday town (telegraph.co.uk)
• Mysterious Volcano Lightning Creates Pretty Pictures (livescience.com)
• A "Rain of Fish" in Australia (neatorama.com)
• What is a tornado? (slideshare.net)
• Wild wild weather (mathewpacker.com)

Maelstroms & Myths & Scuba Diving

Image via Wikipedia

From Sites:
SALTSTRAUMEN
The worlds Strongest
You can find a cut in the rocks that look like it has been made by an ax . According to legend this cut was made by Olav Trygvason , the Viking chief that christened Norway. At that time the district was ruled by "Raudin Hin Rame" , a notorious Viking chief and sorcerer . When Olav Trygvason came Raudin started a storm that blew Tryvason's fleet out to sea again.
When ever Trygvason tried to sail through Saltstraumen the wind and the current were against him. He finally managed to get to Raudin Hin Rame by cutting his way through solid rock and there by creating Sundstraumen. Even after being defeated Raudin refused to let him self be christened , so Trygvason tortured him in order to convict him.
Though Trygvason forced an adder down his throat Raudin would not change his belief and therefor died when the adder made his way out.
[via: http://home.c2i.net]

OLD SOW
Old Sow is the largest natural whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere
Legend:
The name "Old Sow," some say, is due to a pig-like noise that the whirlpool makes when it is really churning. This explanation may be due to ancient folklore regarding ?pigs of the sea? (porpoises), or may simply be a myth resulting from the whirlpool’s current name. Old Sow does, however, make considerable noise when churning.

A more likely basis for the name, though, is corruption of the word "sough" (correctly pronounced "suff"), which has a couple of meanings: (1) a sucking noise, (2) a drain. Either of these definitions would apply to the whirlpool in question. People unfamiliar with the pronounciation of the written word "sough" might have assume that the pronunciation should be "sow," since the word’s ending is identical to many other words with an "ow"-sound ending, such as "plough" (pronounced "plow" and having the same meaning as "plow").
[via: http://www.oldsowwhirlpool.com/]

MESSINA STRAIT
Legend:
Messina Strait maelstrom is the fearsome "Charybdis" of Homeric legend. Ancient Greek sailors believed Charybdis to be a female sea monster who de­voured men and ships as they attempted to pass the rock of Scylla on what is now the Italian coast.

Homer put Odysseus between a rock and a hard place here, twixt Charybdis’ vortex and the hungry edges of the granite perch on which her co-demon, Scylla, waited across the channel. Scylla lived in a cave on the cliff face and yelped at passing sailors with what was described in Homer’s Odyssey as “the voice of a little bitch”, but she was “a horrible monster” with 12 dogs’ legs, a cat’s tail and six long necks, on the end of each “a horrendous head with three files of teeth, numerous and dense, full of black death”.

Quite a come-down from the gorgeous nymph she had once been. She had spurned Glaucus, a sea god, and he took his broken heart to the sorceress Circe. She fell in love with him, but getting nowhere, aimed her anger at Scylla. She laced Scylla’s bathing pool with a potion that turned her into a gargoyle. The heads of ferocious wolves sprang from her waist, and despite her best efforts to brush them off, she became a menace to all who came near. It was the heads that snapped up passing sailors. But by the time Aeneas’ fleet came through the strait after the fall of Troy, Scylla had been changed into the hazardous rock outcrop that still stands.
[via: http://dalihouse.blogsome.com]

CORRYVRECK
Third largest in the world
Legend:
A Scandinavian Prince, Breakan, fell in love with a Princess of the Island, whose father consented to the marriage, on condition that Breakan should show his skill and courage by anchoring his boat for three days and three nights in the whirlpool.

Breakan accepted the challenge and returned to Norway, where he had three cables made... one of hemp, one of wool and one from maidens' hair. The women of Norway willingly cut off their hair and plaited the rope. It was believed that the purity and innocence of the maidens would give the rope strength to stand the strain.

Breakan returned and anchored in the whirlpool. On the first day the hemp rope parted, but they survived the night. On the second day, the woollen rope parted in a strong wind, but they survived the night again.

On the last day they set the plaited cable of hair and all went well until a gale of wind broke the rope. The boat was sucked under by the currents and a surviving crewman and Breakan's dog dragged the body of Breakan ashore - he was buried in the King's Cave.
Legends [http://www.whirlpool-scotland.co.ukl]
Facts [http://www.whirlpool-scotland.co.uk]

*And should you be feeling adventurous and feeling the need to dive into a Maelstrom you can always dive the Corryvreckan Whirlpool for a one of a kind experience! Though I strongly advise against it.*
Diving Corryvreckan Whirlpool
[via: http://www.ukdiving.co.uk]

Map reveals species most at risk from climate change

From Site:
Threatened ecosystems, threatened economies

Disappearing animals may not seem so important compared with the threat of water shortages and lethal heat waves, but Vié points out how the welfare of biodiversity and humans is intrinsically linked. "If you lose coral reefs, hundreds of millions of people will be affected – they will have no food, no income from tourism."

He says one outcome of the mapping exercise could be to anticipate what regions are going to need humanitarian aid in future.
[via: http://environment.newscientist.com]

Climate change could devastate Philippines: NASA scientist

From Site:

Floodwaters submerge a street in Makati city in suburban Manila following heavy rain as tropical storm approaches northern Philippines, September 8.

Climate change could have a devastating impact on the Philippines, leading to widespread destruction of the country's flora and fauna and flooding the capital Manila, a NASA scientist warned here Friday.

The continued melting of Arctic ice caps, brought on by climate change, could cause sea levels to rise by seven metres (23 feet), said National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso.

He said the country's fish stocks would be depleted and many species of plant and animal life would die because of the change in ocean temperatures caused by climate change.

Comiso said the slow melting of the ice caps should be more than "just an item of curiosity" for Filipinos.

"The Philippines is a country that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change," Comiso said.
[via: http://news.yahoo.com]

Fully updated climate change book by Scripps researcher now available from AMS

EurekaAlert
From Site:
A comprehensive and up-to-date account of climate change science by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego climate scientist Richard Somerville is now available from the American Meteorological Society.
[via: http://www.eurekalert.org]

Bring on the Tequila!

A dash of lime - a new twist that may cut CO2 levels back to pre-industrial levels
From Site:
Adding lime to seawater to reverse CO2 in the atmosphere

Scientists say they have found a workable way of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater. And they think it has the potential to dramatically reverse CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere, reports Cath O'Driscoll in SCI's Chemistry & Industry magazine published today.

Shell is so impressed with the new approach that it is funding an investigation into its economic feasibility. 'We think it's a promising idea,' says Shell's Gilles Bertherin, a coordinator on the project. 'There are potentially huge environmental benefits from addressing climate change – and adding calcium hydroxide to seawater will also mitigate the effects of ocean acidification, so it should have a positive impact on the marine environment.'
[via: http://www.eurekalert.org]