It Came From the Sea

What's up with all those feet washing up on shores in Washington and British Columbia?

Did you know it snows in the sea? It's mostly poop, and always nutritious. Sarah and Sam discuss the incredible importance of marine snow. Along the way, they muse about plankton, whale falls, and of course, bring it all back to climate change. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/plankton.html https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/ocean-life/phytoplankton/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFQ_fO2D7f0 https://oceantracks.org/library/general-ecology/energy-and-food-webs https://ocean.si.edu/ecosystems/deep-sea/marine-snow-staple-deep https://usa.oceana.org/blog/exploring-marine-snow-nutritious-and-vital-type-snowfall-deep-sea Vent fauna on whale remains. 1987. Nature. https://allyouneedisbiology.wordpress.com/tag/whale-fall-stages/ https://www.mbari.org/whale-falls-islands-of-abundance-and-diversity-in-the-deep-sea/ https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2019/10/18/whale-falls/ Pershing, A. J., Christendsen, L. B., Record, N. R., Sherwood, G. D., Stetson, P. B. 2010. The Impact of Whaling on the Ocean Carbon Cycle: Why Bigger Was Better. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012444

Sarah and Sam are back at it talking about Seaweed in the environment and as an environment. We're talking carbon sequestration, biofuels, and how otters help mitigate climate change while being some of the cutest gd things in the ocean. Resources Resources: https://oceana.org/marine-life/marine-science-and-ecosystems/kelp-forest https://www.keapbk.com/blogs/keap/the-great-carbon-sink-in-the-sea-geoengineering-seaweed-and-the-race-to-beat-climate-change https://theconversation.com/how-farming-giant-seaweed-can-feed-fish-and-fix-the-climate-81761 https://wsg.washington.edu/community-outreach/kelp-aquaculture/ https://c-can.info/reference/KelpingtheSeaFinal.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-69258-7 Duarte Carlos M., Wu Jiaping, Xiao Xi, Bruhn Annette, Krause-Jensen Dorte. 2017. Can Seaweed Farming Play a Role in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation? Frontiers in Marine Science V. 4 P100. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00100 https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/bioremediation-the-pollution-solution.html https://regenerationinternational.org/2018/05/16/what-is-biochar/ https://www.euronews.com/2020/02/17/could-seaweed-be-the-fuel-of-the-future https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/411734-is-seaweed-the-solution-to-sustainable-biofuel https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-our-energy-come-from-giant-seaweed-farms-in-the-ocean/ Aitken, J. B., & Senn, T. L. (1965). Seaweed Products as a Fertilizer and Soil Conditioner for Horticultural Crops. Botanica Marina, 8(1), 144–147. https://doi.org/10.1515/botm.1965.8.1.144 Battacharyya, D., Babgohari, M. Z., Rathor, P., & Prithiviraj, B. (2015). Seaweed extracts as biostimulants in horticulture. In Scientia Horticulturae. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2015.09.012 Innocenti, R. A., Feagin, R. A., & Huff, T. P. (2018). The role of Sargassum macroalgal wrack in reducing coastal erosion. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 214, 82–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2018.09.021 Hou, X., Feng, Z., Leip, A., Bojie, F., Hui ,Y., Yan ,C., Gao, S., Shang, Z., Ma, L. (2016). Spatial patterns of nitrogen runoff from Chinese paddy fields. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Volume 231, Pages 246-254, ISSN 0167-8809, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2016.07.001. Roberts, D. A., Paul, N. A., Cole, A. J., & de Nys, R. (2015). From waste water treatment to land management: Conversion of aquatic biomass to biochar for soil amelioration and the fortification of crops with essential trace elements. Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.04.016 Sangha, Jatinder & Kelloway, Stephen & Critchley, Alan & Prithiviraj, Balakrishnan. (2014). Seaweeds (Macroalgae) and Their Extracts as Contributors of Plant Productivity and Quality: The Current Status of Our Understanding. 10.1016/B978-0-12-408062-1.00007. Sharma, H. S. S., Fleming, C., Selby, C., Rao, J. R., & Martin, T. (2014). Plant biostimulants: A review on the processing of macroalgae and use of extracts for crop management to reduce abiotic and biotic stresses. Journal of Applied Phycology, Vol. 26, pp. 465–490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-013-0101-9 S.W. Mattner, D. Wite, D.A. Riches, I.J. Porter & T. Arioli (2013) The effect of kelp extract on seedling establishment of broccoli on contrasting soil types in southern Victoria, Australia, Biological Agriculture & Horticulture, 29:4, 258-270, DOI:10.1080/01448765.2013.830276

BREAKING NEWS FROM TWO WEEKS AGO: Where did all those Alaskan snow crabs go? Some say climate change, others say UFOs, can science ever really know? And what all these eels? We know they end up in European rivers as adults, but no one has ever seen two eels in the wild boning down UNTIL NOW. More at 11. References: https://www.livescience.com/billions-snow-crabs-vanish-from-bering-sea https://twitter.com/Unpop_Science/status/1581660268555251712 https://peer.org/alaska-red-king-crab-dethroned-by-scientific-fraud/ https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-track-eels-to-their-ocean-breeding-grounds-in-world-first https://www.livescience.com/47333-155-year-old-eel.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eel_life_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brantevik_Eel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_eel#Life_history https://www.embrc.eu/newsroom/news/ernst-johannes-schmidt-detective-solved-eel-question-little-bit-help-good-carlsberg https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ancient-mystery-of-european-eel-migration-unravelled-to-help-combat-decline-of-critically-endangered-species

Finishing out Ch. 1 of Dr. Naomi Oreskes 'Science on a Mission' we discuss how the petty rivalries and perceived slights of the previous episode would level up from workplace tension to matters of national security for Harald Sverdrup. Also, we find out Roger Revelle was a babe. Resources: Oreskes, Naomi. Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know About the Ocean. 2021. Chicago University Press. https://svenhedinfoundation.org/biography/sven-hedin-biography/