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Earliest butterflies and moths may have sipped sugary drops from trees.

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City-sized maps of terrain and life on the sea-floor have revealed that drifts of 'marine snow' on submarine hillsides act as a source of food to fuel a higher biomass of marine life on the hills than on the flatter plains surrounding hills.

This finding comes from research published today in Nature Scientific Reports by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), which may help improve understanding of how features, like hillside slopes and plateaus, add complexity to seafloor habitats and help drive the distribution of marine life.

Marine snow is a mixture of dead algal plankton, plankton poo and other biological debris that sinks through the ocean from the surface in greenish-white 'fluffy' clumps, like snow. This snow makes up the majority of the particulate organic matter that most deep-sea life relies on as a food source.

Potential links between the distribution of this marine snow, seafloor terrain and ecology have been difficult to resolve. The NOC's robot-sub, Autosub6000, used seafloor photographs to create the first landscape-scale map of marine snow patches in addition to a map of the abundance of life on the sea-floor (also known as biomass). These maps are similar to those found in Google Street View. The terrain types were mapped using acoustic sonar sensors on Autosub6000.

To create the photographic map, Autosub6000 was flown about three metres above the sea-floor after being launched from the royal research ship Discovery around the Porcupine Abyssal Plain - a deep ocean observatory in the Northeast Atlantic. It covered about 160 km of photographic survey track overall. Importantly, the marine snow cover was quantified using machine vision, where a computer algorithm automatically detected the location and coverage in digital images of this important food supply.

Comparing these maps of terrain, the snow-like food source and that of the distribution of life on the sea-floor illustrated there was up to a three-fold increase of biomass on elevated terrain. The greater accumulation of marine snow on submarine hills plays an important role in this increase in biomass, which was even found for areas elevated only a few tens of meters above the surrounding plain.

Dr Kirsty Morris from the NOC, the lead author of the study, said "the autonomy and automation technology we used allowed us to quantify a much larger area in a much quicker time than would have been possible by hand-measuring and counting each clump of marine snow".

These observations of spatial variation in relation to the terrain features are likely driven in part by changes in ocean bottom current speeds produced by the hilly terrain; this causes changes in the settling and drifting of marine snow.

Co-author, Dr Henry Ruhl from the NOC, said "this is a dramatic improvement in our ability to understand where life can be found underwater, made possible by a step change in the scale and resolution of the maps that Autosub6000 could create.

The finding from this study - that the increased availability of food on deep-sea hills is fuelling increased seafloor biomass - is important because there are approximately 25 million abyssal hills and seamounts - they are thought to be the most common landform on the planet."

This research was part of the NOC-led collaborative project "Autonomous Ecological Surveying of the Abyss" funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council, involving the universities of Glasgow and Liverpool. It forms part of the NOC's on-going research into marine ecosystems.

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City-sized maps of terrain and life on the sea-floor have revealed that drifts of 'marine snow' on submarine hillsides act as a source of food to fuel a higher biomass of marine life on the hills than on the flatter plains surrounding hills.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

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Boneworms on dead whales in Monterey Bay

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It sounds like a classic horror story-eyeless, mouthless worms lurk in the dark, settling onto dead animals and sending out green "roots" to devour their bones. In fact, such "boneworms" do exist in the deep sea.

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MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

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This is a guest post by Dr. Danna Staaf, a science writer with a PhD in marine biology from Stanford University. Her first book, Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods, chronicles the 500-million-year evolutionary journey of these fascinating animals. She also blogs at The Cephalopodiatrist.
Giant squid are the sea's best monsters, tentacles down. For evidence we need look no further than the logo of this very website. But did you know that our beloved Architeuthis descends from a venerable line of sea monsters-that Archy's ancestors, in fact, may have been the first animals ever to merit the name "monster"?

The phrase "prehistoric sea monster" might summon to mind an ichthyosaur or megalodon, but these are johnny-come-latelies to the underwater scene. Megalodon showed up a mere 23 million years ago. Ichthyosaurs evolved closer to 250 million years ago, which may seem pretty old (okay, it is) until you consider the age of the first cephalopod: 450 million years.

I'll admit that initially cephalopods were no monsters. Snail-like, they lived inside shells that measured a few centimeters at most. But these shells contained a remarkable evolutionary innovation: sealed-off chambers that could be drained of fluid and filled with buoyant gas.

This buoyancy freed cephalopods from the constraints of their heavy shells, allowing them to reach stupendous sizes. No matter how big the shell grew, its weight was automatically offset by more gas-filled chambers.

Endoceras giganteum, for example, grew up to 3.5 meters, longer than a basketball hoop is tall. It was the biggest animal the world had yet seen. I feel confident calling this 450-million-year-old beast one of the planet's first monsters.

But how did we get from Endoceras to Architeuthis? Is one a direct ancestor of the other, or are they distant cousins n-times-removed? And what became of that fantastic shell?

We need a family tree for Endoceras, Architeuthis, and everything in between-in other words, a cephalopod phylogeny. For over a century, scientists have been working to reconstruct such a phylogeny with evidence from fossils, embryos, DNA and more. I made an attempt to synthesize the most recent work into a single drawing, with lots of advice from paleontologists and the helping hand of an artist who polished my messy sketchwork (and put in those friendly eyes).

Endoceras was one of the Orthocerida, which you can find down in the Ordovician, in the lower right. Today's giant squid take pride of place-with their smaller siblings-top and center. As for the rest...

From Cambrian through Silurian times, cephalopods all wore their shells on the outside of their bodies, just like every other self-respecting mollusk. The nautiloids continued that decorous habit to the present day. Another externally-shelled group, the ammonoids, explored every bizarre baroque extreme of shell coiling and ornamentation before getting mass-extincted alongside the dinosaurs.

What remains are the coleoids-the only group of cephalopods in which evolution sheathed the shell, burying hard structure inside a soft body.

At first, this internal shell was still massive and still full of buoyant chambers, as in the early coleoid Hematites. But over time natural selection (carried out by hungry fish, for the most part) favored smaller, simpler shells.

Now, cuttlefish and ram's horn squid are the only modern coleoids to retain the hard calcium and buoyant chambers of their ancestors. The internal shells of octopuses have evolved into mere vestiges.

And squid? Well, the shell remnant of a squid has no chambers and no calcium. But it runs the full length of the body, from head to fin-tip, and it offers support to the powerful muscles that carry these modern monsters through the sea. Though unarmored, Architeuthis is most likely faster and far more agile than Endoceras could ever have dreamed of being.

So which one would you rather meet in a dark alley?

RR Helm is a postdoc studying sea anemones and jellyfish at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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This is a guest post by Dr. Danna Staaf, a science writer with a PhD in marine biology from Stanford University. Her first book, Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods, chronicles the 500-million-year evolutionary journey of these fascinating animals. She also blogs at The Cephalopodiatr

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Protectors of the Penguins | Hakai Magazine

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Meet the people who stand between the world's last wild populations of African penguins and extinction.

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The Oil Spill Cleanup Illusion | Hakai Magazine

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Why do we pretend to clean up oil spills in the ocean?

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Coal Mining's Environmental Impact | From The Ashes

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David Attenborough - Great Barrier Reef - 3/3 [HD]

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When David Attenborough first visited the Great Barrier Reef in 1957, he considered it the most spectacular place in the natural world, and he assumed that it would last forever. Since then the coral has been dying at an unprecedented rate.

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David Attenborough - Great Barrier Reef - 2/3 [HD]

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In this second episode, David Attenborough continues his exploration of the Great Barrier Reef, aboard the research vessel Alucia. He discovers the creatures that visit the reef every year, from birds to whales, some travelling thousands of kilometres to get there. Using the latest technology, David dives into the shark-infested waters of Osprey Reef in the Triton submersible.

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David Attenborough - Great Barrier Reef - 1/3 [HD]

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David Attenborough returns in this landmark series to his most magical place on earth, the Great Barrier Reef. In this first episode, David descends beneath the waves at night in the state-of-the-art Triton submersible, the first of its kind to visit the reef.

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An ambitious effort to save a diminutive porpoise called the vaquita has received the official clearance to move forward.

The vaquita ( Phocoena sinus) is found only in Mexico's Gulf of California, where there are just 30 of them left. On 3 April, the Mexican government announced that it would give US$3 million to the VaquitaCPR (conservation, protection and recovery) plan to save them. A further $1 million was donated on the same day by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The project, which will use dolphins specially trained by the US Navy to corral as many vaquitas as possible so they can be put into protective pens in their natural habitat, also got the green light to start from the Mexican government.

The funds have come too late for work to start in the next suitable window, in May; after that, the gulf gets too choppy. But conservationists hope to start when conditions improve again in October.

The vaquita population has crashed over the past two decades. The first dedicated survey, in 1997, revealed that there were 567 individuals in the gulf - but by 2015, this figure had plummeted to just 59. The latest estimate, from 2016, suggests approximately 30 vaquitas remain.

The alarming decline is largely down to the porpoises drowning in gill nets set to capture huge, bass-like fish called totoaba ( Totoaba macdonaldi). So in 2015, the Mexican government banned the use of gill nets for two years and offered compensation to fishers.

Black market

But with the totoaba's swim bladder fetching tens of thousands of dollars on the black market in China, the fishing has continued apace. "The price is just like drugs," says Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, a marine conservation biologist at the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change in Ensenada, Mexico, and chair of the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA). "As long as there's that amount of money, there's a market."

Conservationists fear that the vaquita will share the fate of the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji ( Lipotes vexillifer), whose probable extinction was discovered by a 2006 expedition. "We did not anticipate going out on that survey and not seeing a single baiji, and not hearing a single whistle," says Barbara Taylor, a conservation biologist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, and a member of CIRVA. "My resolve was stiffened not to repeat that with vaquita."

The first challenge will be to locate some vaquitas in the 2,000-plus square kilometres of the gulf where they are known to live. Previous acoustic data, which tracked the animals' sonar clicks will give an idea of their whereabouts, but vaquitas roam singly or in pairs, and are difficult to spot.

They also tend to swim away from motorized vessels, which is why two US Navy dolphins trained to echolocate porpoises have been enlisted. "The Navy dolphins can easily follow them along like golden retrievers and let us more easily keep track of where the animals are, to let the capture team have their best opportunity to be in the right place at the right time," says Taylor.

And once spotted, a vaquita must be safely captured and transported to the proposed holding site, north of San Felipe on the west coast of the gulf.

High risk

Several designs of holding pen are being tested. The first pens will be up to 10 metres in diameter and up to 3 metres deep, and will keep the vaquitas away from gill nets, says Rojas-Bracho. If the plans succeed, a more permanent facility will be built.

The scientists hope that the vaquitas will adjust to captivity and even breed in the pens.

Bold rescue operations have worked before: the last 27 California condors ( Gymnogyps californianus) were taken into captivity in the 1980s, and their numbers grew enough for some condors born in captivity to have been released back into the wild.

The vaquita team hopes to learn from these experiences, but much is uncertain. "No one has ever tried to catch vaquita to keep them alive," says Randall Wells at the Chicago Zoological Society in Illinois, and a member of the VaquitaCPR consortium. "There is so much of this that is being done for the first time. It's all high risk."

Others outside the project are hopeful. David Wildt, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington DC, thinks the rescue could work. He notes that it is a "huge challenge", adding that there is "nothing to be lost, and lots to be gained".

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Last-ditch attempt to save world's most endangered porpoise gets go-ahead

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An ambitious effort to save a diminutive porpoise called the vaquita has received the official clearance to move forward. The vaquita ( Phocoena sinus) is found only in Mexico's Gulf of California, where there are just 30 of them left.

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Stewart Brand: The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready?

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Throughout humankind's history, we've driven species after species extinct: the passenger pigeon, the Eastern cougar, the dodo ... But now, says Stewart Brand, we have the technology (and the biology) to bring back species that humanity wiped out. So -- should we? Which ones?

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George Monbiot: For more wonder, rewild the world

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Wolves were once native to the US' Yellowstone National Park -- until hunting wiped them out. But when, in 1995, the wolves began to come back (thanks to an aggressive management program), something interesting happened: the rest of the park began to find a new, more healthful balance.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

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The scyphomedusa Deepstaria is certainly odd, with its bag-like appearance, and bell that can open more than a meter wide. Speculation on the identity of a mystery blob has become a YouTube sensation, sparking heated and entertaining debates over its identity.

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Jelly | Live cam | Monterey Bay Aquarium

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Watch the Monterey Bay Aquariums live Jelly Cam and see our breathtaking sea nettles drift and pulse.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

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Trash in the deep sea: Bringing a hidden problem to light

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Using advanced technologies, such as remotely operated vehicles, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is helping to uncover the far-reaching presence of man-made debris in deep ocean ecosystems. Over the past 25 years, we have recorded evidence of debris up to 13,000 feet deep and 300 miles offshore from waters off of central and southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and the Gulf of California.

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Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante: Prends cinq minutes, et signe, copain.

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Read it in english here La pétition, à relayer et à signer, est là. Ça vaut le coup d'essayer, vous croyez pas ? Toutes les infos et tous les chiffres m'ont été fournis par l'association Bloom, rendez-vous sur leur site...

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

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The harp sponge: an extraordinary new species of carnivorous sponge

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In this video we describe a new species of carnivorous sponge, Chondrocladia lyra from the deep-sea off California. C. lyra is called the harp sponge because its basic structure, called a vane, is shaped like a harp or lyre. Each vane consists of a horizontal branch supporting several parallel, vertical branches.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

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First Time | National Geographic Extremely

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

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The pointy-nosed blue ratfish Hydrolagus trolli

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Video observations of Hydrolagus cf trolli, the pointy-nosed blue ratfish, from the Northeast Pacific ocean represent a range extension for the species and are the first ever of this animal alive, in its natural habitat. The species was originally described from specimens collected off New Caledonia in 2002.

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If you were a shrimp (the invertebrate kind), how would you defend yourself? Watch the new season of NOVA scienceNOW, airing every Wednesday this summer on PBS. Watch past episodes of the program, try out interactives, and more on our Web site: www.pbs.org/nova/sciencenow NOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston.

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Chaque jour, chaque minute, les filets des flottes de pêche industrielle font intrusion dans le monde sous-marin et détruisent des écosystèmes entiers. La plupart des espèces d'eau profonde grandissent lentement, vivent longtemps et se reproduisent tardivement au cours de leur vie, présentant généralement une faible productivité et mettant donc beaucoup de temps à se remettre des impacts de la pêche.

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Partage sur Facebook : http://on.fb.me/1EL4Sz5 Partage sur Twitter : http://bit.ly/1KxgdB7 L'homme, par ses activités mondialisées, transforme l'ensemble de l'équilibre planétaire. En bâtissant des villes, en ouvrant de nouvelles terres cultivables, en transformant ses cultures en industrie, nous modifions l'habitat de nombreuses espèce vivantes, végétales ou animales.

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Uploaded by mikhailrodionov on 2009-08-18.