Good to know

Watermelon, watermelon, good for the heart.

There are side effects, of course...

Whale poop

A friend of mine (well, maybe it was me) used to be fond of the expression "lower than whale shit." The idea, of course, was that, since whale feces had to sink to the bottom of the deep ocean it, you just couldn't get much lower than that.  Turns out that would be, well, wrong.

Truth is, whale poop doesn't necessarily sink.  In fact, a significant component of it floats at the surface of the ocean and has a real impact on the productivity of fisheries.  Joe Roman (University of Vermont) and James McCarthy (Harvard), publishing October 11 in PLoS One, have determined that deep-feeding whales actually carry nutrients back to the surface in a an "upward biological pump", rather than sending nutrients on a one-way trek to the abyss.  They estimate the the nutrient input of whale excrement to the Gulf of Maine is greater than that of all rivers combined.  Roman and McCarthy go on to suggest that, historically, whales likely played a very significant role in providing a nutrient base for fisheries and that the decline in whale abundance may be one of many factors that have led to declining productivity.

And, a little night music...

Trying to return, with a manageable schedule.  We'll see.  Moondoggies...

New meat-eater



Durrell's vontsira.  Credit:
Photo from Durrell Wildlife
Conservation Trust

 The world's newest carnivore has surfaced in Madagascar.  Researchers at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust have identified Durrell's vontsira (Salanoia durrelli), a small meat-eater belonging to a carnivore family known only from Madagascar.  The little guy weighs only about a pound, and immediately becomes not only the world's newest carnivore species, but one of its most endangered.  The mongoose-like animal was observed swimming in a lake in the Lac Alaotra marsh region.  After capture, it was determined to be distinct from the brown-tailed vontsira that is also found in the region.

Stealth predator

It's no secret that ctenophores, or comb jellies, are voracious predators on zooplankton.  They can make a serious dent in copepod densities, even though calanoid copepods aren't the easiest prey for most slow-moving predators.  This is because the copeods are highly attuned to the slighest motions of the water around them.  Ctenophores, however, have one-upped their crustacean prey.  The ctenophore Mnemiopsis uses tiny cilia within the oral lobes to produce a current of water that moves copepod prey very delicately into their gastrovascular cavity, before the copepods are aware that they're being consumed.  Here it is at PNAS.