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Fertilizing The Ocean | Earth Wise

January 23, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There are a variety of schemes for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  Some require advanced and generally not-very-well developed technology.  Others, such as planting vast numbers of trees, are nature-based but are daunting with respect to the scale to which they need to take place in order to be truly effective.

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington have been examining the scientific evidence for seeding the oceans with iron-rich engineered fertilizer in order to feed phytoplankton.  Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that are a key part of the ocean ecosystem.

Phytoplankton take up carbon dioxide as they grow.  In nature, nutrients from the land end up in the ocean through rivers and from blowing dust.  These nutrients fertilize the plankton.  The idea is to augment these existing processes to increase the growth of phytoplankton.  As they eventually die, they sink deep into the ocean, taking the excess carbon with them.


The researchers argue that engineered nanoparticles could provide highly controlled nutrition that is specifically tuned for different ocean environments.  Surface coatings could help the particles attach to plankton.  Some could be engineered with light-absorbing properties, allowing plankton to consume and use more carbon dioxide.

Analysis of over 100 published studies showed that numerous non-toxic, abundant, and easy-to-create metal-oxygen materials could safely enhance plankton growth.  According to the researchers, the proposed fertilization would simply speed up a natural process that already sequesters carbon in a form that could remove it from the atmosphere for thousands of years.  They argue that given the current trends in the climate, time is of the essence for taking action.

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Fertilizing the Ocean to Store Carbon Dioxide

Photo, posted August 2, 2007, courtesy of Kevin McCarthy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Triple La Niña | Earth Wise

January 16, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

La Niña is an oceanic phenomenon consisting of cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropic Pacific.  It is essentially the opposite of the better-known El Niño.   These sea-surface phenomena affect weather across the globe.  As one oceanographer put it:  when the Pacific speaks, the whole world listens.

There is currently a La Niña underway, and it is the third consecutive northern hemisphere winter that has had one.  This so-called triple-dip event is rather rare.  The only other times they have been recorded over the past 70 years were in 1954-56, 1973-76, and 1998-2001.

La Niñas appear when strong easterly trade winds increase the upwelling of cooler water from the depths of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean near the equator.  This causes large-scale cooling of the ocean surface.  The cooler ocean surface modifies the moisture content of the atmosphere across the Pacific and can cause shifts in the path of jet streams that intensifies rainfall in some places and causes droughts in others.

These weather effects tend to include floods in northern Australia, Indonesia, and southeast Asia and, in contrast, drought in the American southwest.  In North America, cooler and stormier conditions often occur across the Pacific Northwest while the weather becomes warmer across the southern US and northern Mexico.

In the spring, the tropic Pacific essentially resets itself and starts building toward whatever condition will happen in the following winter, be it another La Niña or possibly an El Niño.   For the time being, forecasters expect the current La Niña to persist through February.

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La Niña Times Three

Photo, posted March 10, 2007, courtesy of Gail via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California Offshore Wind Auction | Earth Wise

January 10, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In December, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first auction for offshore wind energy leases on the West Coast.  The BOEM lease sale offered five lease areas covering 373,268 acres off the central and northern California coast.  The leased areas have the potential to produce over 4.6 gigawatts of wind energy, which is enough to power 1.5 million homes.

The auction drew competitive bids from five companies totaling over $750 million.  The winning bidders were RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, California North Floating, Equinor Wind, Central California Offshore Wind, and Invenergy California Offshore. 

RWE is a German company with subsidiaries across the globe.  California North Floating is an affiliate of the Danish developer Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.  Equinor Wind is a Norwegian company already heavily involved in offshore wind projects on the East Coast.  Central California Offshore Wind is managed by a joint venture between Spanish and French energy companies.   Invenergy is a privately held global developer and operator of renewable energy headquartered in Chicago.

The bidders will receive credits for participating in programs that support work force training programs for the floating offshore wind industry and/or the development of a US domestic supply chain for that industry. 

Offshore wind off the Pacific coast has enormous potential for enhancing the country’s energy future but represents a significant challenge because the deep ocean floors necessitate the use of floating wind technology as opposed to turbines that are affixed to the sea floor.

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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Winners of California Offshore Wind Energy Auction

Photo, posted December 30, 2013, courtesy of Derek Finch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Corals Saving Corals | Earth Wise

December 29, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, has found that under the right circumstances, disease-resistant corals can rescue corals that are more vulnerable to disease.

The researchers monitored a disease outbreak at a coral nursery in the Cayman Islands.  They tracked the presence of disease in 650 coral fragments in various arrangements over a period of five months.  They found that some corals are more resistant to disease just by being around other corals that are particularly resistant.  In general, when there are only corals of the same genetic makeup, they are more vulnerable to disease than corals that grow among a mixture of genotypes.  But beyond that, some vulnerable corals become more resistant to disease just by being around other corals that are particularly resistant.  Proximity to the resistant genotypes helped to protect the susceptible corals from the effects of disease.

These findings provide new evidence that genetic diversity can help reduce disease transmission among corals and furthermore, it is important to consider how corals are arranged in coral nurseries or in reef restoration projects.

The ability of resistant coral to help protect vulnerable individuals appears to be similar to how vaccinations work among humans.  Vaccinated individuals resist a disease, which effectively erects a barrier that weakens a disease’s ability to move through a population.

The researchers hope that the findings of this study will be integrated into coral nursery and reef restoration projects.  By intentionally arranging corals with mixtures of genotypes, it will help rebuild coral resilience and help those corals that are vulnerable to disease to thrive.

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Corals Saving Corals

Photo, posted December 30, 2014, courtesy of NOAA’s National Ocean Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Glacial Loss In The Swiss Alps | Earth Wise

December 14, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Record glacial loss in the Swiss Alps

In 2022, glaciers in the Swiss Alps melted more than in any year on record.   This is the latest piece of bad news for the country’s glaciers, which have lost more than half of their volume of ice since the 1930s.

The melting season for Switzerland’s snow and ice typically starts in May and ends in early October.  This year’s melting season caused glaciers in the Diablerets mountain group to thin by an average of 13 feet, which is 3 times the amount of thinning observed over the past decade.   The Tsanfleuron pass between two of the glaciers is now exposed as bare rock for the first time in several thousand years. Across Switzerland, glaciers lost about 6% of their remaining volume just this year.  The previous worst year for glaciers was 2003, when losses were nearly 4%. 

There was significant melting this year in part because of the small amount of snowfall over the winter.  That snow melted quickly, being sped up by the warming effect of dust from the Sahara Desert falling on the snow.  By early summer, there was no longer a protective blanket of snow on the glaciers, exposing them to summer heat.

The loss of glaciers is far more serious than the disappearance of aesthetically pleasing landscape features.   Glaciers act as reservoirs of water that persist through the summer months.  Melt from glaciers provides water to ecosystems and creates habitats for plants and animals.  Cold runoff from glaciers affects downstream water temperatures which have a major impact on insects, fish, and other creatures.  Globally, melting glaciers contribute more than 20% of the observed ongoing sea-level rise.

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Rocky Road for Swiss Glaciers

Photo, posted June 22, 2015, courtesy of Dennis Jarvis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Climate Change And Crabs | Earth Wise

November 8, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Climate change wreaking havoc on Arctic crab populations

Globally, there are more than 6,000 species of crabs.  In Alaska’s waters alone, there are 18 species, including 10 that are commercially fished.  The perils of crab fishing in this region, including freezing temperatures, turbulent seas, and raising full pots that can weigh well over a ton, have been highlighted for many years in the reality TV series Deadliest Catch.        

One of those commercially-fished species is the Alaska snow crab.  Alaska snow crabs are a cold-water species found off the coast of Alaska in the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. 

In October, officials in Alaska announced that the upcoming winter snow crab season would be canceled for the first time ever due to a sharp population decline. While the number of juvenile snow crabs was at record highs just a few years ago, approximately 90% of snow crabs mysteriously disappeared ahead of last season.  Officials also canceled the Bristol Bay red king crab harvest for similar reasons for the second year in a row.

The closures dealt a severe blow to crab fishers in the region.  According to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Alaska’s crab fishing industry is worth more than $200 million. 

The canceled seasons also raise questions about the role of climate change in the snow crab population crash. While the causes of the decline are still being researched, scientists suspect that warmer temperatures are responsible.  Temperatures in the Arctic region have warmed four times faster than the rest of the planet. 

As the climate continues to change, the warming waters around Alaska may become increasingly inhospitable to snow crabs and other species.   

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Alaska’s Bering snow crab, king crab seasons canceled

Alaska cancels snow crab season for first time after population collapses

Photo, posted November 16, 2010, courtesy of David Csepp / NOAA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tracking Small-Scale Fishers | Earth Wise

October 4, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

How to track small-scale fishers

About half of all global seafood is caught by artisanal fishers.  These are individuals who operate on a small scale – often on a subsistence level – and typically fish only a short distance from shore.  Over 85% of the estimated 2.5 million motorized fishing vessels in the world are less than 12 meters in length.  Compared with large-scale commercial fishing operations, these enterprises are very small.  However, they are essential to the food security and livelihoods of their communities.   Because of their sheer numbers, artisanal fishers are an important sector to monitor, manage, and advocate for.  They may be small-scale, but their importance and impact are huge.

Large ships make use of vessel tracking systems, which were originally conceived to prevent maritime collisions.  Over time, VTS technology has become useful for other purposes including monitoring fishing activity in sensitive marine areas and looking out for forced labor on the high seas.

Among small fishing vessels, only an estimated 0.4% are equipped with VTS technology.  So, a massive number of vessels accounting for a big part of the global catch cannot be monitored.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara surveyed hundreds of artisanal fishers in Indonesia and Mexico to see if they were willing to pay to participate in a VTS program, or participate for free, or be paid to participate.  Having the equipment would provide multiple benefits to the fishers including increased safety and better fisheries management.  Two-thirds of the survey participants said they were willing to pay for the technology.  The study is the first effort to explore the potential for encouraging wide adoption of VTS technology among artisanal fishers.

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Tracking Small-Scale Fishers

Photo, posted November 30, 2014, courtesy of Bernard Spragg via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar-Powered Desalination | Earth Wise

September 6, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Desalinating water using solar power

About two-thirds of humanity is affected by water shortages.  In the developing world, many areas with water shortages also lack dependable sources of electricity.  Given this situation, there is widespread research on using solar heat to desalinate seawater.  To date, many approaches to this face problems with fouling of equipment with salt buildup.  Tackling this issue has proven to add complexity and expense to solar desalination techniques.

A team of researchers from MIT and China has recently developed a solution to the problem of salt accumulation that is more efficient than previous methods and is less expensive as well.

Previous attempts at solar desalination have relied on some sort of wick to draw saline water through the device.  These wicks are vulnerable to salt accumulation and are difficult to clean.  The MIT-Chinese team has developed a wick-free system instead.  It is a layered system with dark material at the top to absorb the sun’s heat, and then a thin layer of water that sits above a perforated layer of plastic material.  That layer sits atop a deep reservoir of salty water such as a tank or pond.  The researchers determined the optimal size for the holes in the perforated plastic.

The 2.5 millimeter holes are large enough to allow for convective circulation between the warmer upper layer of water above the perforated layer and the colder reservoir below.  That circulation naturally draws the salt from the thin layer above down into the much larger body of water below.

The system utilizes low-cost, easy to use materials.  The next step is to scale up the devices into a size that has practical applications.  According to the team, just a one-square-meter system could provide a family’s daily needs for drinking water.

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Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination

Photo, posted February 13, 2017, courtesy of Jacob Vanderheyden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Some Good News For The Great Barrier Reef | Earth Wise

September 5, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

It seems like there has been nothing but dire news from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  Earlier this year, there was yet another mass bleaching event – the fourth in seven years and the first ever to strike during a cooler La Niña phase in the Pacific.  But this bleaching event was less severe than other recent ones, which makes it possible for parts of the reef to bounce back.

In particular, in the northern and central stretches of the reef, scientists have recorded the most extensive coral cover seen in 36 years of study.  In areas where coral cover has expanded, it is mostly fast-growing Acropora corals driving the growth.  That isn’t the best outcome, given that Acropora are particularly vulnerable to strong waves, highly susceptible to bleaching, and are the preferred target of crown-of-thorns starfish.

Those creatures are a major problem for the Great Barrier Reef.  In contrast to the upper stretches of the reef, the southern third actually saw coral cover drop from 38 to 34 percent over the course of the past year.  Scientists blame the decline on an outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish, which prey on corals.  The starfish grow faster and eat more in warmer, more acidic waters.   Carbon emissions are both raising ocean temperatures and turning waters more acidic.

The large increases in hard coral cover in the reef are certainly good news, but it is important to understand that they can be quickly negated by disturbance on reefs where Acropora corals predominate.  Warming temperatures and mass bleaching events continue to pose a critical threat to all reefs, especially when there are crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks and increasing frequency of tropical cyclones.

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Parts of Great Barrier Reef See Most Extensive Coral Cover In 36 Years

Photo, posted July 15, 2019, courtesy of Kenneth Lu via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Return Of The Fin Whale | Earth Wise

August 15, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Fin whales making a comeback

The fin whale is the second largest whale species and therefore the second largest creature on Earth.  They can grow to more than 80 feet in length.  From 1904 to 1976, there was massive industrial whaling in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.  During that period, whalers killed about 700,000 fin whales, reducing their population by 99%.  The species was nearly extinct.

In 1982, the International Whaling Commission voted to ban commercial whaling.  Since that time, fin whales started to make a comeback in their historical feeding grounds.

During a nine-week expedition in the waters around the Antarctic Peninsula, researchers encountered the largest gathering of fin whales ever documented.  About 150 fin whales were seen diving and lunging against the water’s surface.  It was a feeding frenzy triggered by large amounts of krill in the water.  The actions of the whales are known as a “whale pump” that drives the krill to the surface.  Not only does it provide huge amounts of food for the whales but also for other animals, including seabirds and seals.

Forty years after the commercial whaling ban, the number of fin whales has been increasing.  Large groups were observed in a 2013 survey.  Aerial surveys in 2018 and 2019 recorded 100 groups of fin whales, usually composed of a just a handful of individuals.  They did document eight large groups of up to 150 individuals.

Not all species of whales have rebounded so successfully since the whaling ban.  The rebound in fin whale population is not only good for the whales, but for the entire ecosystem in the Southern Ocean.  It is a glimmer of good news in a time of great challenges for global biodiversity and for marine life in particular.

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Once Facing Extinction, Massive Fin Whales Have Returned to Antarctic Waters

Photo, posted November 15, 2007, courtesy of Gregory Smith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Less Phytoplankton In The Gulf Of Maine | Earth Wise

July 20, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Gulf of Maine is changing

Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, are the base of the marine food web and also play a key role in removing carbon dioxide from the air.  They are eaten by primary consumers like zooplankton, small fish, and crustaceans. 

Phytoplankton, like land plants, absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use photosynthesis to grow.  Then they become a food source for other organisms and ultimately for people who depend upon marine ecosystems.   If phytoplankton productivity is disrupted, there can be adverse effects on regional fisheries and the communities that depend on them.

The Gulf of Maine is becoming warmer and saltier, because of ocean currents pushing warm water into the gulf from the Northwest Atlantic.  These temperature and salinity changes have led to a significant decrease in the productivity of phytoplankton.   According to a new paper from scientists at Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences in Maine, phytoplankton are about 65% less productive in the gulf than they were 20 years ago.

The study’s results come from the analysis of the Gulf of Maine North Atlantic Time Series, a 23-year sampling program of the temperature, salinity, chemical, biological, and optical measurements of the gulf.  The scientists refer to what they describe as a giant windmill effect happening in the North Atlantic, which is changing the circulation of water coming into the Gulf of Maine.  In the past, inflows from the North Atlantic brought water from the Labrador Current, which made the gulf cooler and fresher.  The new circulation is making the water warmer and saltier.

These changes have significant implications for higher marine species, fisheries, the lobster industry, and other activities in the states that border the Gulf of Maine.

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NASA-funded Study: Gulf of Maine’s Phytoplankton Productivity Down 65%

Photo, posted November 15, 2015, courtesy of Paul VanDerWerf via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Who Can Solve The Plastic Waste Problem? | Earth Wise

June 21, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Plastic packaging waste is a global problem.  It collects in the oceans, breaks down into microplastics, which are consumed by fish and in turn by people who eat the fish.  Only 14.5% of U.S. plastic waste is recycled.  Most of it ends up in landfills, where is remains undegraded for hundreds of years. 

A new international study explored the global patterns of plastic packaging waste.  The study found that three countries – the U.S., Brazil, and China – are the top suppliers of waste.  In terms of supply, the Americas generate 41% of the world’s production of plastic waste, Europe 24%, and Asia 21%.

That’s the plastics supply.  As far as the consumers actually creating waste are concerned, the Americas represent 36% of the world’s packaging consumption, Asia 26%, and Europe 23%.

Packaging high-protein food such as meat, fish, and dairy is a major contributor to the waste problem.  Plastic for this purpose is hard to replace and international exports exacerbate the problem, accounting for about 25% of plastic packaging waste.

International agreements typically focus on restrictions and fees on production.  But that mostly creates strong incentives to simply relocate polluting activities to developing countries, which is a zero-sum game.  There need to be incentives for consumers to reduce plastic use such as taxes on waste management, refunds on returning bottles, single-use plastic bans, and so on.

Who can solve the plastic waste problem?  Everyone along the supply chain as well as the final consumers have to be part of the solution for reducing plastic waste.

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Producers and consumers must share burden of global plastic packaging waste

Photo, posted March 29, 2022, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Life In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch | Earth Wise

June 14, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The world’s oceans contain five gyres, which are large systems of circular currents created by global wind patterns and the Earth’s rotation.   Gyres act like gigantic whirlpools.  Anything that floats into one of them eventually ends up in the center.   Ever since floating plastic waste started entering the ocean, it has poured into these gyres and created so-called garbage patches.  The largest of these is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located halfway between Hawaii and California.  According to the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, the Great Pacific Patch contains at least 79,000 tons of plastic.

A recent study has shown that the garbage patch is not just a place where drifting plastics aggregate; it is also a place where drifting animals aggregate.

It turns out that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is absolutely teeming with life, primarily small surface-dwelling animals that are collectively known as neuston.  A ship surveying the garbage patch found that in some places, there were nearly as many neuston as there are pieces of plastic.

Typical creatures in the patch are blue dragon nudibranchs, Portuguese man-o-wars, anemones, sea snails, blue buttons (which are related to jellyfish) and hydrozoans.  It appears that these creatures are reproducing within the garbage patch.  Little is actually known about the life history and ecology of these creatures, so that studying the garbage patch is offering valuable insights to scientists.

Two nonprofit organizations are working to remove floating plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Evidently, removing this existing pollution from the ocean is likely to have unexpected effects on the local ecosystem and is a source of at least some controversy.  One thing that isn’t controversial, however, is that we need to stop the flow of plastic into the ocean.

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The Ocean’s Biggest Garbage Pile Is Full of Floating Life

Photo, posted in April, 2012, courtesy of Steven Guerrisi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Shipping And The Endangered Whale Shark | Earth Wise

June 9, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Whale shark population continues to decline

Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world.  While they measure up to 60 feet long and weigh up to 15 tons – larger and heavier than a school bus – whale sharks are actually harmless.  They are a graceful, slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark.  They are found in marine environments around the world and play an important role in the marine food web and healthy ocean ecosystems.

Whale sharks are an endangered species.  According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, growing human pressures are putting whale sharks at an increased risk of extinction.  The numbers of these gentle giants have declined by more than 50% over the last 75 years despite many international protections.  Fishing bycatch, poaching, and collisions with ships are the main drivers of the population decline. 

According to new research from marine biologists from the Marine Biological Association and the University of Southampton in the U.K., lethal collisions between whale sharks and large ships are vastly underestimated, and could be the reason why populations are continuing to fall.  Whale sharks spend a large amount of time in surface waters in coastal regions, and the research team theorized that collisions with ships could be causing significant whale shark deaths. 

In the study, researchers tracked the global movements of both ships and whale sharks, and then mapped so-called hotspots where their movements overlapped.  The research team found that more than 90% of whale shark movements fell under the footprint of shipping activity.

While many conservation measures have been taken to protect whale sharks, no international regulations currently exist to protect them from ship collisions.  The researchers say it’s time for that to change. 

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Shipping poses significant threat to the endangered whale shark

Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus)

Global collision-risk hotspots of marine traffic and the world’s largest fish

Photo, posted July 8, 2010, courtesy of Marcel Ekker via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Atmospheric Plastic Polluting The Ocean | Earth Wise

June 8, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Winds carry plastic particles all around the world

According to estimates, by 2040 there will likely be nearly 90 million tons of plastic pollution entering the environment each year.  Particles of plastic have been found in virtually all parts of our planet including the land, the water, and even the air.  Tiny plastic particles have been found in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and at the tops of the highest mountains.

A new study has shown that winds can carry plastic particles over great distances and in fact can bring them from their point of origin to the most remote places in a matter of days.   As a result, micro- and nanoplastics can penetrate the most remote and otherwise largely untouched regions of the planet

How does plastic get into the atmosphere?  Particles produced by tires and brakes in road traffic or ones in the exhaust gases from industrial processes rise into the atmosphere, where they are transported by winds.  There is also evidence that a substantial number of these particles are transported by the marine environment.  Microplastic from the coastal zone finds its way into the ocean through beach sand.  A combination of sea spray, wind, and waves forms air bubbles in the water containing microplastic.  When the bubbles burst, the particles find their way into the atmosphere.

Understanding the interactions between the atmosphere and ocean is important because the atmosphere turns out to be a major mechanism in depositing substantial amounts of plastic into a broad range of ecosystems.

The impact of plastic particles on ecosystems is not well understood.  Neither is the effect of plastic particles in the air upon human health.  In a recent British study, microplastic was detected in the lungs of 11 out of 13 living human beings.

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Micro- and nanoplastic from the atmosphere is polluting the ocean

Photo, posted April 25, 2016, courtesy of Bo Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New York Bight Offshore Wind | Earth Wise

May 2, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Late in February, the U.S. completed the most successful offshore wind lease auction in history.  The auction for rights to develop offshore wind in the New York Bight brought in a record $4.37 billion from the companies bidding for them.

The New York Bight is an area of ocean off the coasts of New York and New Jersey that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has divided into six lease areas for offshore wind development.  It covers a total of 480,000 acres.  The more than $4 billion secured in the auction is more than three times the revenue received from all U.S. offshore oil and gas lease auctions over the past five years.

Five out of the six winning bids have European connections in the form of various partnerships.  Europe has a far more advanced offshore wind market than the U.S. with a total of 25 GW of installations as of 2020.  Winning bidders included participation by RWE from Germany, British-owned National Grid, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, among others.  Chicago-based Invenergy was the only American company without a European partner to have a winning bid.

The expected installed capacity for the 6 leased areas in the New York Bight is expected to be between 5.6 and 7 GW, enough to power 2 million homes.  The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said capacity could be even higher.

The successful action has set the tone and expectations for auctions to come.  BOEM has six more offshore wind auctions planned over the next three years.  Forthcoming auctions are for areas of the Carolinas, Northern and Central California, the Gulf of Mexico, the Central Atlantic, Oregon, and the Gulf of Maine.

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New York Bight: 5 takeaways from the record-breaking offshore wind auction

Photo, posted August 13, 2013, courtesy of Larry via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Offshore Wind | Earth Wise

April 21, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Floating offshore wind becoming a reality

According to a new report by the Global Wind Energy Council, floating offshore wind technology is on track to grow from a miniscule market to a substantial contribution to the world’s energy supply over the next decade.  Furthermore, the United States represents one of the countries with the greatest potential.

Wind power is stronger and steadier in the ocean than on land, so the use of offshore wind is rapidly expanding.  However, because most installations are based on fixed structures attached to the sea bottom, they cannot be installed in very deep or complex seabed locations.

Floating offshore wind is based on structures that are anchored to the seabed only by means of flexible anchors, chains, or steel cables.  Apart from making it feasible to place wind turbines in deeper and more distant locations, floating turbines and platforms can also be built and assembled on land and then towed to the offshore installation site.

The floating offshore wind industry is currently in a pre-commercial phase but has great potential.  Many offshore locations with great potential in terms of their wind resources are unsuitable for conventional installations either because of the depth of the seabed or its complex structure.  This is particularly true of the waters off the coasts of California, Oregon, and the Gulf Coast, which otherwise offer excellent wind resources.

There are many issues to deal with in expanding the use of floating offshore wind, including transporting the power to shore and the ability of the local power grids to handle the incoming power.  On the other hand, distantly placed floating offshore wind reduces environmental concerns and eliminates issues associated with the visual impact of wind farms for coastal residents.

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What’s the potential of floating offshore wind?

Photo, posted May 10, 2015, courtesy of Olin Gilbert via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Training Corals To Tolerate Heat | Earth Wise

April 19, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Conditioning corals to tolerate heat

When ocean water is too warm, corals expel the algae that lives in their tissues, which causes the coral to turn completely white.  This is called coral bleaching.   When this happens, the coral is not dead.  However, corals are dependent upon the symbiotic relationship with algae and if conditions don’t improve, they don’t let the algae back in and the corals will die.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, between 2014 and 2017, around 75% of the world’s tropical coral reefs experienced heat stress severe enough to trigger bleaching.  For 30% of the world’s reefs, the heat stress was enough to kill the coral.

According to new research by the University of Miami published in the journal Coral Reefs, corals subjected to a stressful regimen of very warm water in the laboratory came to be more tolerant of high temperatures, offering a potential tool for preserving ailing coral reefs.

In the study, some corals were kept in water at a constant temperature of 82 degrees while others saw water temperatures fluctuating between 82 degrees and 88 degrees.  After 90 days of this treatment, the corals exposed to variable temperatures were able to tolerate high heat for longer periods before bleaching.  This training regime is akin to an athlete preparing for a race.

The findings suggest a possible approach for restoring coral reefs.  Nursery-raised corals that are “trained” to tolerate heat could be planted onto reefs endangered by warming waters.  Reefs populated by corals with boosted stamina to heat stress could have a greater chance of surviving the warming waters of the oceans.

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Some Corals Can Be Conditioned to Tolerate Heat, Study Finds

Photo, posted December 16, 2015, courtesy of Big Cypress National Preserve via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Octopuses And Litter | Earth Wise

April 8, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Octopuses are using ocean trash

Octopuses are remarkably intelligent animals.  They have a larger brain for their body size than all other animals apart from birds and mammals.  They exhibit high-order cognitive behaviors including tool use and problem solving.  Some captive octopuses learned to shoot jets of water at aquarium light switches to turn them off.  Others have learned to unscrew jar lids to get at food.

A recent analysis of underwater imaging has shown that octopuses are increasingly using discarded bottles, cans, and other human-generated litter as shelter or as a place to lay eggs.

The research documented 24 species of octopus sheltering inside glass bottles, cans, and even an old battery.  Some buried themselves under a mixture of bottle caps and seashells.  Others even carried plastic items around while walking on just two tentacles to disguise themselves from predators.

The octopuses showed a preference for unbroken items and for darker or opaque containers.  Normally, octopuses make use of natural shelters such as seashells.  Whether they are making use of litter simply because there is so much of it around or because there is an increasing lack of natural items is not clear.

As with all other aspects of the growing problem of litter in the oceans, this new trend is not a good one.  Sheltering or laying eggs inside discarded tires, batteries, or plastic items has the potential to expose octopuses to heavy metals and other harmful chemicals.

Octopuses are intelligent and resourceful animals, and they will use whatever they have at their disposal to continue sheltering or moving around with protection from potential predators.

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Octopuses Have Learned to Make Use of Ocean Litter, Study Finds

Photo, posted May 13, 2014, courtesy of Elias Levy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

January Climate Report Card | Earth Wise

March 9, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A report card on the climate

The global climate is a complicated thing.  While overall trends are relatively straightforward to understand, the details can seem confusing.

January was the sixth-warmest January in the 143 years of global climate record keeping.  The global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.

Meanwhile, the United States had its coolest January since 2014, although the month still ranked nearly a degree above the long-term average across the nation.  This January was also the driest January in eight years and was one of the top- 15 driest Januarys on record.  That being said, there was the so-called Bomb Cyclone late in the month that dumped 1-2 feet of snow and brought blizzard conditions along the eastern seaboard and set a one-day snowfall record in Boston.

Global conditions and regional and local conditions can be very different.  In the big picture, January was the 46th consecutive January and the 445th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average.

And while the US had a fairly cool January, South America saw its second-warmest January on record, Asia had its fourth warmest, and Oceania had its seventh warmest.

Apart from temperatures, Antarctic sea ice coverage was the second smallest January extent in 44 years.  Arctic ice was 208,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average, although it was the largest since 2009.

Even as the global climate warms, local and regional climate conditions will continue to have unique and variable characteristics over the course of time.  Every time there’s a bout of cold weather, it isn’t time to stop being concerned about climate change.

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Web Links

January 2022 was Earth’s 6th warmest on record

Photo, posted January 6, 2013, courtesy of Christopher Michel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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