Another plume

Researchers from USF have found what they believe to be a large, subsurface plume of oil. Six miles wide and as deep as 3,300 feet. This one is stretching toward the northwest, toward Mobile and Dauphin Island.

Grolar bears

A second hybrid bear has been killed on sea ice in the Northwest Territories. Tests have revealed that this one is a second-generation hybrid, the offspring of a female grizzly-polar bear hybrid and a male grizzly bear. It's believed that such hybrids will become more common as climate change forces grizzlies into more northern climates, and disappearing sea ice forces polar bears onto the mainland.

New species

Very cool stuff here. The Top 10 new species described in 2009 from the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State. Three new fish species - the psychedelic frogfish, the dracula minnow, and Omar's banded knifefish. Can't make this up.

Cladoceran fashions

Nice look at a morphological response to predation pressure in Daphnia in Swedish lakes. Water fleas studied in the lakes in the Orekilsalven River basin show two very different types of responses. In lakes in the upper reaches of the system, female Daphnia have relatively large bodies topped by a fairly small "cap" (an anterior extension of the carapace). Those found further down the river system show reduced body size, but a larger cap.

Hans Lord from the Department of Zoology at University of Gothenburg thinks that the different morphologies are an indication of the ostracods response to a widening suite of predators. The larger cap makes the cladocerns harder for invertebrate predators to manipulate. Smaller body size, on the other hand, makes the animals less visible to sight-feeding fish. The cap, being transparent, gives protection against invertebrate predators without making them more visible to fish.

Male Daphnia don't show the same morphology - no cap. This is likely due to different selective pressures. Males need to be able to find females and mate quickly. A big cap gets in the way.

In females, the large caps are a summertime phenomenon. This could be the result of different types of predatory pressures with changing seasons, or it may refect the greater viscosity of cold water. Can't swim through thick water wearing a big hat.

Fish o' the Day - Gulf sturgeon

Watched an episode of "River Monsters" this afternoon that I had DVR'd while I was at the coast. Jeremy, breathless as always, was tracking down a lake monster in Alaska. After eliminating other possibilities, he decided to travel to the Columbia River to catch a white sturgeon to prove the identify of the Alaskan beast. OK, Jeremy's an entertainer, not a scientist. Still, his mention of the jumping Gulf sturgeon suggested tonight's FOD. Gulf sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrhynchus desotoi, are appearing in increasing numbers as they migrate up Gulf Coast rivers. It's become enough of an issue that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently issued an advisory suggesting that boaters slow down on the Suwannee River to avoid collisions with airborne sturgeon.

The Gulf sturgeon was recognized as a subspecies about 50 years ago. It's virtually indistinguishable from the Atlantic sturgeon (A. oxyrhynchus oxyrhynchus) - apparently you have to dissect them and measure the spleen. Gulf sturgeon are listed as threatened, with critical habitat including Florida's Suwannee, Apalachicola, Choctawhatchee, and Escambia Rivers, as well as the Pascagoula and Pearl Rivers in Mississippi. They're big fish, reaching 8 feet and 200 pounds. Gulf sturgeon are anadramous, spending part of the year coastal marine habitats and returning to rivers in spawning migrations. While in the Gulf, sturgeon apparently remain over seagrass beds or shallow muddy bottoms near shore. In the spring, they move upriver, spawning near the headwaters, and then spend the summer months in deep river water or near spring mouths. rs, returning to estuarine or gulf waters during the coolest months of the year. Sub-adult fish also participate in this migration. During the warm summer months, gulf sturgeon congregate in the deeper sandy and rocky bottom areas of rivers as well as near the mouths of springs. Interestingly, they seem to do most, if not all, of their feeding during the winter months when they are in coastal habitats. There, they feed on a variety of benthic animals including mollusks, crustaceans, and worms.

The reasons for jumping are unclear, although it's speculated that it may allow individuals to maintain contact with another. It's also been suggested that it may allow them to rid themselves of ectoparasites.

A brief video of a jumping Suwannee sturgeon....

A double dip of night music...

...and another history lesson. Jackson Browne then, and now. Actually, I had his hair in the 70s. Not any more.



Pretty sure I've used that line, too. "Don't confront me with me my failures..."

Time stops for no man. Do it now.

Can it get any more desperate?

They say that lessons learned at great expense are learned best. This one should stick with us a while. What say you, Ms. Palin?

BP's last shot?




Thanks to Adam Zyglis at The Buffalo News

School lessons

Schools of fish, that is. A major problem with the development of "wind farms" for the harvesting of wind energy is the availability of space. Traditional horizontal-axis turbines have big propellors and must be spaced far apart to avoid interference. Newer vertical-axis turbines use a vertical rotor and more may be placed in a smaller array. Graduate students at the California Institute of Technology have determined that the placement of such vertical turbines in specific arrays may yield significantly higher energy gains by taking advantage of the manner in which air moves through the array. Their model - schools of fish. The vortices created by fish moving in a school can be used to understand how one turbine may influence those around it. The Cal Tech researchers believe that the application of these principles may result in a ten-fold increase in the wind energy that can be generated from a given area.

New strategy

Sit in the sun, warm up your body, and drive the ladies mad. Well, it works for damselflies. New research in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology indicates that damselflies with warmer bodies have greater mating success. Female preference for the hot guys is apparently driven by the prospect of a warmer territory in which to lay eggs, leading to greater reproductive success.