Deepest ever photos of marine biodiversity in Australian waters
Scientists from CSIRO, the California Institute of Technology, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute have surveyed to 3000 m in the new Tasman Fracture Zone Commonwealth Marine reserve. Hard corals were found as deep as 2300 m and soft corals as deep as they went.
Google diving into 3D mapping of oceans
Exploring the submarine world of canyons, mountains and valleys without getting your feet wet will soon be a reality. Famous for search engines and online mapping, Google has taken the plunge to create a new program; Google Ocean. A group of oceanography experts has been formed to advise Google on the creation of the three dimensional oceanographic map.
Biodiversity loss - it will make you sick
A new generation of antibiotics, new treatments for thinning bone disease and kidney failure, and new cancer treatments, may all stand to be lost unless the world acts to reverse the present alarming rate of marine and terrestrial biodiversity loss, according to a new book, Sustaining Life by Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein of the Harvard Medical School.
Biodiversity loss – it will make you poor
The World Biodiversity Summit was held in Bonn, Germany, from 19 to 30 May this year. During the 12 day meeting, international scientists, politicians and heads of state gathered to discuss the current unprecedented loss of biodiversity.
Australia’s marine biodiversity decline
A recently published report identifies significant, broad-scale threats to Australia’s marine biodiversity and proposes key directions for a cross-jurisdictional national approach to addressing these threats.
The Oceans – our last frontier
It is easy to become discouraged at how little we know about our Oceans. They form seventy-one percent of Earth’s area, consist of more than 95 percent of the Earth’s biosphere, but less than 5 percent have been surveyed. What chance do we have of understanding marine biodiversity? As it turns out, a lot better than even 10 years ago.
The power of genetics in marine biodiversity management
by Asta Audzijonyte, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, USA
The history of species and populations leaves traces in their genes. Analysis of genetic diversity therefore can provide information about the events that affected organisms tens, thousands or millions of years ago. Indeed, molecular analyses have revolutionised our view on the extent and age of Earth’s biodiversity (i.e. plants and animals are just a tiny fraction of the total biodiversity) and intra-specific dynamics.
Decapod Crustacea of the continental margin of SW and central Western Australia
Dr Gary C B Poore, Museum Victoria
The first comprehensive characterisation of decapod fauna of the continental margin of southwestern Australia has been undertaken by hub researchers Gary Poore, Anna McCallum and Joanne Taylor from Museum Victoria. The collection included approximately 6,083 specimens representing 524 provisional species. Overall, 175 species (33%) were new to science. The report includes data on taxonomy and distribution associated with each taxon identified. The material will be available for loan to crustacean taxonomists worldwide.
New Palaemonoid shrimps from NW Shelf
A small collection of 9 species of palaemonoid shrimp from the Australian North West Shelf has provided one new genus, Pseudoclimenes holthuisi, one new species, Apopontonia seticauda, and five species new to the Australian fauna.
CERF hub scientist wins best paper award
Tara Anderson (Geoscience Australia) and Mary Yoklavich (Southwest Fisheries Center, USA) won the 2007 Fishery Bulletin Best Paper Award for their article on multiscale habitat associations of deepwater demersal fishes off central California.
Improve dissemination of your research results so that they are both more usable for policymakers, and help to communicate understanding of environmental issues to the general public. The European Commission’s Science for Environment Policy has established a news alert service in order to reinforce the links between science and policy.
More info http://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/research_alert_en.htm
Profile - Matthew McArthur, Geoscience Australia
“I am excited to be involved in the CERF Surrogacy project and look forward to applying my skills generating data with accurate taxonomic information, functional information based on tested or observed behaviour and sufficient spatial coverage to test abiotic surrogates of diversity rigorously.”
Surveys - South-East coastal region of Tasmania
Neville Barrett, Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute, June 2008
One of the significant components of the hub Surrogacy project is examining the potential of high-resolution multibeam sonar bathymetry and backscatter data for defining seabed habitat features and the utility of these data as surrogates for patterns of biodiversity in coastal waters. Matching biological and multibeam sonar datasets are extremely rare in Tasmanian coastal waters. Therefore, targeted field studies were proposed within the CERF Hub to acquire closely matching datasets to test in detail whether there are useful surrogacy relationships between seabed physical characteristics and associated biological communities.
CERF Surrogates & Prediction workshop
Hugh Pederson and Vanessa Lucieer,
Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute
The final week in May saw the first meeting of all participants working in the Surrogates and Prediction projects of the CERF Marine Biodiversity Hub. The workshop was hosted by the Cleveland (QLD) branch of CSIRO with participants from CSIRO, the Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute (TAFI), Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Geoscience Australia (GA). The workshop brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines and experience including the postdocs working across the two projects.
Vanessa Lucieer, Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute
From 29 April to 2 May 2008, CERF hub researcher Vanessa Lucieer attended the 9th International GeoHab (Geological and Marine Habitat mapping) conference in Sitka, Alaska. Sixty-kilometre-an-hour horizontal rain welcomed the usual crowd of “Geohabbers” to Sitka airport, on a small reclaimed land strip in the Inner Passage. The remote location attracted 120 participants from 23 countries enabling an international update on research and ideas on marine habitat mapping projects. Vanessa presented a paper on ‘Assessing the robustness of a morphometric classification model’ which is related to her postdoctoral research in the Marine Hub. (This research describes a benthic morphometric classification model to produce a classification of the seafloor to identify features at multiple scales.)
