Plastic Pollution in the Oceans

            Being an environmental science major, I am interested in human impact on the environment and plastic pollution in the ocean is an increasing problem. Most people don’t realize how much plastic is in the ocean or the negative effects it has on animals and ocean systems.

            I want to start by discussing the background of how plastics enter the ocean and how they are further distributed throughout the ocean by currents, gyres, and other means. I also want to discuss how they break down, creating smaller particles and releasing chemicals that cause even more problems for the ocean. Then, I want to discuss how the plastics affect wildlife and provide pictures and examples of wildlife that have been harmed by plastic pollution. I plan to finish my presentation by providing examples of mitigation efforts that can be used to clean up or reduce further plastic pollution in the oceans. 

Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. M., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., & ... Reisser, J.
(2014). Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea. Plos ONE, 9(12), 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913. http://proxy.ashland.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=100185765&site=ehost-live

Tibbetts, J. H. (2015). Managing Marine Plastic Pollution. Environmental Health Perspectives, 123(4), A90-A93. doi:10.1289/ehp.123-A90. http://proxy.ashland.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=102123081&site=ehost-live

Kwon, B. G., Koizumi, K., Chung, S., Kodera, Y., Kim, J., & Saido, K. (2015). Global styrene oligomers monitoring as new chemical contamination from polystyrene plastic marine pollution. Journal Of Hazardous Materials, 300359-367. doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.07.039. http://proxy.ashland.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=111095981&site=ehost-live

http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html 
 http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/how-big-great-pacific-garbage-patch-science-vs-myth.html

 http://www.theoceancleanup.com/problem.html

Seabirds As Indicators

Using Seabirds as Measurement of Ecosystem Health

Seabirds, or marine birds, include over 300 species from 17 families. These birds have been able to adapt to marine environments for habitat, reproductive, and nutritional purposes. Seabirds rely predominantly on the marine ecosystem for nutrition thus any negative disruption in the system would reflect upon the birds. For this reason, scientists have been using and studying these seabirds to determine anthropogenic effects on the various marine systems to then be able to establish programs that include protection and restoration of both habitat and species. 

In South Florida, as well as coasts of Mexico, agriculture and industry are two of the main human activities that introduce the highest amounts of contamination to the marine system. There are certain byproducts from the various industrial processes which are toxic chemical agents and have been found within seabird embryos. The toxicity level in these embryos is being observed with hopes that they provide enough data to support the implementation of the protection and restoration programs. A very similar study was conducted in the Canadian Arctic, with the purpose to trace the contaminants being introduced into the ecosystem and provide information to the communities of the environmental impact their activities have and how to lessen that footprint. 

Using the three studies mentioned, I'd like to discuss how seabirds have successfully been used as indicators of marine ecosystem health, specifically when anthropogenic activities effect and disrupt the system. 

Links;

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/99921383/seabird-embryos-as-biomonitors-micronucleogenic-genotoxic-agents-potential-application-coasts-mexico

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16514485

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X14001010

http://www.wbu.com/chipperwoods/photos/seabirds.htm

Dolphin Vocalization

As I have been accepted into an internship program this summer in Florida to assist in caring for and training dolphins, I wanted to look into some of the behaviors of these amazing marine mammals. One that particularly interested me was the vocalization used by them for different situations.

In my research, I discovered that there are four typical sound types that dolphins emit, and they are whistles, clicks, burst pulsed sounds, and chirps. Whistles, burst pulsed sounds, and chirps are typically used for communication, while clicks are used for echolocation. Using these sound variations,  researchers can look at many different aspects of dolphin ecology and physiology. One study I came upon looked at whether or not there are metabolic costs of sound production in Tursiops truncatus, and it is the first study to provide empirical data on the subject. The researchers performed 14 experimental trials per dolphin on two adult males and took oxygen consumption measurements. They found that on average, the metabolic rates for each experimental trial were 1.2 times higher in the vocal period than the resting values.

Other studies I found discussed different aspects such as identifying echolocation targets using different learned sounds as labels for the objects. These sounds produced can also be used to identify members of a pod. Typically in these cases, the dolphins use what is referred to as a signature whistle, which can be used by researchers as well to identify the dolphins themselves as they each have unique vocal patterns.

In my presentation, I hope to hit on as many different aspects of dolphin vocalization as I can in my allotted time. There are many studies that have been done on this behavior, and I look forward to potentially seeing some different methods and data collection of this behavior being exhibited by my supervisors at my internship this summer. This area of marine biology dealing with marine mammals fascinates me, and I hope to share some more knowledge about these beloved creatures with the class.

http://www.dolphinear.com/dolphin-vocalizations.html

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/9/1624.long

http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/131/1/10.1121/1.3664074

Coral Reef Threats

photo credit: http://www.unknownworld.co/content/great-barrier-reef/

Coral reefs are a very important habitat in marine ecology and support thousands of organisms by creating homes, protection, and more. Coral reefs support increased biodiversity in our ocean. Many coral reefs have collapsed to a point of no return. Coral reefs have an extended number of factors that threaten its success. For my presentation, I will be discussing these threats and what is going on in research and politically to study and change the affects of them on coral reefs. 

Some of the threats on coral reefs have to do with ocean acidification, predators such as the Crown of Thorns starfish, pollution, over-fishing, invasive species, oil, gas, mineral exploration and extraction, and more. There is a long list of threats on coral reefs which makes it even harder to protect them because they can get targeted in multiple ways. Long term solutions are very tough to find for some of these threats. 

One reason why it is difficult to find solutions to coral reef threats are because of the continual change in the ecosystem due to acidification. For example, while trying to take care of an invasive species, we may not be able to help organisms who are also being affected by the pH changes in the water. 

I will be discussing as many threats as I can and what solutions are being proposed, are being used, and what we can do to help with this effort. Coral reefs bring a lot of good to marine life and also to our economy through fisheries and tourism. I will also touch on policies that may be in our near political future on CO2 emission and clean energy.

http://proxy.ashland.edu:2318/ehost/detail/detail?vid=17&sid=6330e763-5339-41e4-bf3d-ab624a4b152f%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4214&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=103381605&db=a9h

http://proxy.ashland.edu:2318/ehost/detail/detail?vid=18&sid=6330e763-5339-41e4-bf3d-ab624a4b152f%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4214&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=98773519&db=a9h

http://www.divetioman.com/download/COT%20Best%20Practice%20for%20Clean%20ups.pdf

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2007.00265.x/full

http://coralreef.noaa.gov/threats/

Seahorse Reproduction

      A few weeks ago, I made a post about reproductive strategies that are found and utilized within different species of marine seahorses. As abstract and weird as this sounds, it was actually quite fascinating to learn about. The average person probably has no idea how seahorses mate, let alone why it is unique. The male is the one who actually becomes 'pregnant.'
      Male and female seahorses will court for several days, and will take part in a dancing ritual. They will swim side by side at the same pace, so as to display that they are in sync with each other. The female will deposit the eggs into a pouch on the male's stomach region, where the eggs will brood for up to forty five days, or until the young emerge fully developed. This is why the male is considered to be the 'pregnant' one.
      While the eggs are still inside the male, the female will come and check on him almost daily. The males will become very aggressive to try and protect the young inside him, and will also puff out their stomach region, trying to increase their size to ward off potential predators and to also help protect the young. They will then be released into the water, and the males will leave them alone. At this point, the young are on their own to find food and protect themselves.
      Even though there are high numbers of young that are released by the male at the end of the brooding period, the survival rate is less than one percent, from the time they are released until the time when they reach sexual maturity. In this presentation, I would like to address all these points, as well as what happens physically within the body of the male seahorse itself.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.20626/epdf

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1013894804529

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-1112.2004.00429.x/full

Tardigrades

Tardigrades more commonly known as water bears are a phylum of animals known to survive the most extreme conditions on earth, even surviving the environment of outer space. For my presentation I plan to talk about what allows for them to survive is such extreme and varying habitats such as their DNA, physical capabilities, their age of existence and how they have evolved, how studying these species can help humans, and better map the history of evolution. I hope for others to take away a better knowledge of a tardigrade as well as fully understanding the amazement of this species diversity.

http://tardigrades.bio.unc.edu/tardigrades/

http://uncnews.unc.edu/2015/11/23/a-huge-chunk-of-a-tardigrades-genome-comes-from-foreign-dna/

http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/3/652.full

The Ocean's Predators 

  I posted a discussion post a couple of weeks ago about two of the major predators of the ocean, killer whales and sharks. The article discussed how killer whales have been known to prey on sharks. This post led me to the idea of researching the ocean's toughest marine predators and the animals they prey on. These predators include killer whales, sharks, polar bears, and seals. I think it's interesting that some of these predators actually prey on each other. 

      I would like to talk about the different parts of the ocean both the predators and their prey inhabit along with the predators' hunting strategies. For example, I found that great white sharks can actually detect movement from as far away as 820 feet. They also have a very keen sense of smell. Another interesting fact is that although polar bears are land mammals, they spend a lot of time in the ocean and are incredibly strong swimmers. 

       Another topic I stumbled upon during research is about grazers and predators and how they benefit both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The role that these predators play is actually very important in the survival of the ecosystem. I would discuss the trophic cascade and how when the keystone species is removed, it causes dramatic changes in the ecosystem. One example can be seen when sea otters are removed from an area, the sea urchins in that area overpopulate. The sea urchins graze on benthic algae in these environments, which disrupts the food web by leaving little food for other organisms. 

       

https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/10/22/killer-whales-the-apex-predator-of-the-ocean/

References: 

https://www.eaglewingtours.com/top-of-the-food-chain-5-deadly-marine-predators

http://animals.mom.me/top-animal-ocean-predators-3061.html

http://marinebio.org/oceans/grazers-predators/