Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Oceanology International 2012, London
Call for Papers
Oceanology International is the global forum where industry, academia and government share knowledge and connect with marine technology and ocean science, improving their strategies for measuring, exploiting, protecting and operating in the world's oceans. As the premier event of its type, Oceanology International attracts more engineers, technical specialists and senior industry figures than any other marine science and ocean technology event in the world.
Marine Survey
Maritime Security
Navigation and Positioning
Ocean Observation and Forecasting
Offshore Renewables
Oil and Gas
The conference will comprise 6 one day sessions running throughout the event (two per day)
Conference Chairman: Professor Ralph Rayner
Session Chairs:
Marine Survey: Andy Hill, BP
Maritime Security: Rob Balloch, Sonardyne
Navigation and Positioning: Ed Danson, C & C Technologies
Ocean Observation and Forecasting: Zdenka Willis, NOAA
Oil and Gas: Colin Grant, BP
Offshore Renewables session is organised in association with Renewables UK
Absracts are invited on the following topic areas:
Marine Survey Maritime Security Navigation and Positioning Ocean Observation and Forecasting Offshore Renewables Oil and GasMore information here
Explanation for glowing seas suggested
Proposed bioluminescence mechanism: When a dinoflagellate is mechanically agitated, an electrical impulse travels around its vacuole membrane. This impulse opens up proton channels that allow protons to flow from the vacuole into the scintillons, where they activate light-emitting luciferase proteins. The result: A flash of light. Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
It has long been known that distinctive blue flashes -- a type of bioluminescence -- that are visible at night in some marine environments are caused by tiny, unicellular plankton known as dinoflagellates. However, a new study has, for the first time, detailed the potential mechanism for this bioluminesence.
A key aspect of the potential mechanism for bioluminescence in dinoflagellates proposed in the PNAS study involves voltage-gated proton channels--channels in membranes that can be opened or closed by chemical or electrical events.
J. Woodland Hastings, a member of the Smith and DeCoursey research team and an author of the PNAS article, suggested the presence of voltage-gated proton channels in dinoflagellates almost forty years ago. But the Smith and Decoursey team only recently confirmed them by the identification and subsequent testing of dinoflagellate genes that are similar to genes for voltage-gated proton channels that had previously been identified in humans, mice and sea squirts.
According to the study, here is how the light-generating process in dinoflagellates may work: As dinoflagellates float, mechanical stimulation generated by the movement of surrounding water sends electrical impulses around an internal compartment within the organism, called a vacuole--which holds an abundance of protons. (See accompanying illustration.) These electrical impulses open so-called voltage-sensitive proton channels that connect the vacuole to tiny pockets dotting the vacuole membrane, known as scintillons.
Once opened, the voltage-sensitive proton channels may funnel protons from the vacuole into the scintillons. Protons entering the scintillons then activate luciferase--a protein, which produces flashes of light, that is stored in scintillons. Flashes of light produced by resulting luciferase activation would be most visible during blooms of dinoflagellates.
This research illuminates the novel mechanisms underlying a beautiful natural phenomenon in our oceans, and enhances our understanding of dinoflagellates--some of which can produce toxins that are harmful to the environment.
Provided by National Science Foundation (news : web)
No simultaneous warming of Northern and Southern hemispheres as a result of climate change for 20,000 years
"What is happening today is unique from a historical geological perspective", he says.
Svante Björck has gone through the global climate archives, which are presented in a large number of research publications, and looked for evidence that any of the climate events that have occurred since the end of the last Ice Age 20 000 years ago could have generated similar effects on both the northern and southern hemispheres simultaneously.
It has not, however, been possible to verify this. Instead, he has found that when, for example, the temperature rises in one hemisphere, it falls or remains unchanged in the other.
"My study shows that, apart from the larger-scale developments, such as the general change into warm periods and ice ages, climate change has previously only produced similar effects on local or regional level", says Svante Björck.
As an example, let us take the last clear climate change, which took place between the years 1600 and 1900 and which many know as the Little Ice Age. Europe experienced some of its coldest centuries. While the extreme cold had serious consequences for agriculture, state economies and transport in the north, there is no evidence of corresponding simultaneous temperature changes and effects in the southern hemisphere.
The climate archives, in the form of core samples taken from marine and lake sediments and glacier ice, serve as a record of how temperature, precipitation and concentration of atmospheric gases and particles have varied over the course of history, and are full of similar examples.
Instead it is during 'calmer' climatic periods, when the climate system is influenced by external processes, that the researchers can see that the climate signals in the archives show similar trends in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
"This could be, for example, at the time of a meteorite crash, when an asteroid hits the earth or after a violent volcanic eruption when ash is spread across the globe. In these cases we can see similar effects around the world simultaneously", says Svante Björck.
Professor Björck draws parallels to today's situation. The levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are currently changing very rapidly. At the same time, global warming is occurring.
"As long as we don't find any evidence for earlier climate changes leading to similar simultaneous effects on a global scale, we must see today's global warming as an exception caused by human influence on the earth's carbon cycle", says Svante Björck, continuing:
"this is a good example of how geological knowledge can be used to understand our world. It offers perspectives on how the earth functions without our direct influence and thus how and to what extent human activity affects the system."
Svante Björck's results were published this summer in the scientific journal Climate Research.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
International Conference on Marine Ecosystem (Upcoming event, 2012)
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARINE ECOSYSTEM 2012
(INCOMES 2012)
(INCOMES 2012)
"Moving Toward Multi-Scientific Knowledge for Sustainable Future"
13-15 March 2012
Persada Johor International Convention Centre
Jointly organized by
Marine Ecosystem Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology, UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA
Friday, September 9, 2011
The Ocean Carbon Cycle at the time of change: Synthesis and Vulnerabilities, France
Agenda
The final programme is now available. The meeting starts on Wednesday morning 9AM and ends on Friday at noon (download agenda). More information here
ICES Annual Science Conference 2011
Global ocean ecosystem dynamics, integrated marine biogeochemistry and ecosystem research, China
Dates
Symposium: 22-24 November 2011
Training course: 25 November 2011
Symposium: 22-24 November 2011
Training course: 25 November 2011
Venue
East China Normal University
3663 Zhongshan Road North
Shanghai, China
East China Normal University
3663 Zhongshan Road North
Shanghai, China
Download flyer
More information here
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Workshop on seafloor imaging tools and applications (CHONe)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
VI SIMPOSIO LATINOAMERICANO SOBRE INVESTIGACIONES ANTÁRTICAS, PERÚ
“La Antártida en futuros escenarios globales”
Lima, Perú28 al 30 de setiembre del 2011
Más información en la página oficial del evento
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Water Cycle (Notes in spanish)
Los deshielos que se producen en los Andes Sudamericanos; Los Apalaches de Norteamérica; Los Alpes Europeos; Montañas Africanas como las Drakensberg y el Monte Kilimanjaro; El Himalaya y otros, pueden deberse a eventos cíclicos. Recordemos que la Edad de Hielo -en el Pleistoceno- terminó apenas 10 000 años atrás aproximadamente y en ése tiempo el hielo cubría casi el 30 % de la superficie de la tierra, desde entonces la tierra inició un muy lento, pero progresivo, calentamiento que llevó al clima y los océanos a una etapa que no es precisamente rara para nuestro planeta, porque existen evidencias paleoestratigráficas y paleoecológicas que consignan a El Niño (cuyo aumento en frecuencia e intensidad está asociado, según muchos, con el Calentamiento Global) como un evento que se ha presentado en múltiples oportunidades desde hace mucho tiempo atrás, situándose en el Mesozoico incluso (entre 200 y 135 millones de años atrás), en ésta Era la temperatura terrestre se mantenía alta, con intensas lluvias. Empero, el curso general del ciclo hidrológico nunca fue seriamente dañado por no existir el excesivo consumo y mal uso del elemento (visto desde una perspectiva humana). Más aún, el estado químico del agua debió permanecer más o menos estable y cuando sufrió alteraciones por polución tectónica o de otro origen tuvo los rangos adecuados de tiempo para reestablecerse.
Pero claro, desde La Primera Revolución Industrial (mitad del Siglo XVIII), el hombre ha tenido una progresiva y sistemática influencia en el estado del clima y los océanos. Hay suficiente evidencia para afirmar que el CG ha sido acelerado por la actividad industrial humana; pero, no hay sificiente evidencia que indique que sólo el ser humano haya provocado el CG, éste ha acelerado el evento,pero el curso natural igual se hubiera presentado porque el calentamiento de aire y océano no es algo nuevo en la Tierra y tampoco lo es el deterioro de la Capa de Ozono porque la emanación de HCl, F, CO, CO2, N, H2S, etc., por la actividad volcánica submarina y terrestre también afectaba esta capa natural del planeta.
En este contexto, el agua como recurso universal para la vida es, a la vez, el más afectado y el peor usado de todos los recursos, en general, los grandes establecimientos humanos se han formado sin tener una planificación en relación al agua, la explosión demográfica ha generado una necesidad de productos artificiales que han dañado seriamente (e irremediablemente en algunos puntos del planeta), los compuestos artificiales elavorados que actualmente fabrica el hombre son muy eficientes en este sentido, más aún porque son usados constantemente por millones de personas y en cualquier parte del planeta multiplicando los efectos dañinos.
El Calentamiento Global ha casi obligado a muchos científicos a generar ajustes en las fórmulas que permiten estimar impactos en el ecosistema Los últimos modelamientos propuestos para el Cambio Global (Kondratyev, 2003) toman en cuenta -de manera muy adecuada- ciclos biogeoquímicos, ciclos hidrológicos, climas, océanos, procesos demográficos y cambios antropogénicos.
___________________________________________________
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONCYTEC)
Foro Regional del Agua (Marzo 2005)
Artículo Resumen
Autor: Víctor Aramayo
Pero claro, desde La Primera Revolución Industrial (mitad del Siglo XVIII), el hombre ha tenido una progresiva y sistemática influencia en el estado del clima y los océanos. Hay suficiente evidencia para afirmar que el CG ha sido acelerado por la actividad industrial humana; pero, no hay sificiente evidencia que indique que sólo el ser humano haya provocado el CG, éste ha acelerado el evento,pero el curso natural igual se hubiera presentado porque el calentamiento de aire y océano no es algo nuevo en la Tierra y tampoco lo es el deterioro de la Capa de Ozono porque la emanación de HCl, F, CO, CO2, N, H2S, etc., por la actividad volcánica submarina y terrestre también afectaba esta capa natural del planeta.
En este contexto, el agua como recurso universal para la vida es, a la vez, el más afectado y el peor usado de todos los recursos, en general, los grandes establecimientos humanos se han formado sin tener una planificación en relación al agua, la explosión demográfica ha generado una necesidad de productos artificiales que han dañado seriamente (e irremediablemente en algunos puntos del planeta), los compuestos artificiales elavorados que actualmente fabrica el hombre son muy eficientes en este sentido, más aún porque son usados constantemente por millones de personas y en cualquier parte del planeta multiplicando los efectos dañinos.
El Calentamiento Global ha casi obligado a muchos científicos a generar ajustes en las fórmulas que permiten estimar impactos en el ecosistema Los últimos modelamientos propuestos para el Cambio Global (Kondratyev, 2003) toman en cuenta -de manera muy adecuada- ciclos biogeoquímicos, ciclos hidrológicos, climas, océanos, procesos demográficos y cambios antropogénicos.
___________________________________________________
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONCYTEC)
Foro Regional del Agua (Marzo 2005)
Artículo Resumen
Autor: Víctor Aramayo
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
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