http://www.articlesafari.com/2010/10/dolphin-human-dna/

Seema Kumar, of Discovery Channel Online, writes that scientists have discovered that the genetic make-up of dolphins is amazingly similar to humans. They’re closer to us than cows, horses, or pigs, despite the fact that they live in the water.

“The extent of the genetic similarity came as a real surprise to us,” says David Busbee of Texas A&M University. He hopes his research will reveal how long ago humans and dolphins branched off the evolutionary tree. There’s been some speculation that dolphins and whales, who breathe air, may have returned to the water AFTER first evolving into land animals.

“Dolphins are marine mammals that swim in the ocean and it was astonishing to learn that we had more in common with the dolphin than with land mammals,” says geneticist Horst Hameister.

Busbee says, “If we can show that humans are similar to dolphins, and anything that endangers dolphins is an equal concern for humans, it may be easier to persuade governments to keep oceans clean.”

There are still many mysteries about the beings who share the earth with us. Humans and dolphins may have much more in common than people think, especially when it comes to genetics.

In a Sea Grant-funded project, Texas A&M University veterinarians are comparing human chromosomes to those of dolphins and are finding that the two share many similarities. The scientists hope to use these similarities to identify and map the genes of dolphins.

Genes are organized into segments along the length of a chromosome – a tightly wound spool of DNA. This spool is made up of two, complementary, single strands of DNA bound together. Every living thing has a characteristic number of chromosomes, and each chromosome carries different genes. Dolphins have 44 chromosomes, and humans have 46. Dr. David Busbee and his team applied human “paints,” fluorescently labeled pieces of human chromosomes, to dolphin chromosomes on microscope slides. Scientists broke open dolphin cells, releasing chromosomes onto slides. The dolphin chromosomes were then treated with labled human chromosome pieces, providing the opportunity for complementary DNA strands to match up.

When scientists examined the photos taken with a fluorescence microscope, they found dolphin chromosomes fluorescently tagged with the labeled, or “painted,” pieces of human chromosomes and concluded that dolphins hold many of the same chromosomes as humans. “We started looking at these and it became very obvious to us that every human chromosome had a corollary chromosome in the dolphin,” Busbee said. “We’ve found that the dolphin genome and the human genome basically are the same. It’s just that there’s a few chromosomal rearrangements that have changed the way the genetic material is put together.”

Dolphins have been viewed as somehow magical for millennia by humans. They’re one of the only animals that appear to play, leaping out of the water and doing tricks, and the bottlenose dolphin even seems to grin widely at everything. It was inevitable that such a remarkable animal also collected a remarkable mythology that extends through today.

The first documented culture that seems to have mythology associated with the dolphin was the Minoan, a seafaring people in the Mediterranean. They left few written records, but they did leave beautiful murals on the walls of their palaces, murals that show the importance of dolphins in their mythology.

Because they were strongly associated with Poseidon by the later Greeks, this probably explains why the sea god was so often surrounded by dolphins. In one myth about Poseidon, dolphin messengers were sent to bring him a nymph he loved, who he later married. As a reward, he set the dolphin in the sky as a constellation. And he was constantly accompanied by dolphins among other sea creatures.

This wasn’t the last time the Greeks associated dolphins with romance. Aphrodite is often depicted with dolphins, riding them or being accompanied by them. Later, the god Dionysus transformed the way dolphins were perceived in Greek literature. He was set upon while at sea by a band of pirates. Instead of simply destroying the sea raiders, he transformed them into a pod of dolphins, charging them to rescue any distressed sailors in the ocean.

Pirates transforming into dolphins. Drawing from an Etruscan Black Figure Hydria, 510-500 BC

Special thanks to Larry Lawhorn.

http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/sharks-are-in-trouble/399-loss-of-large-fish-on-coral-reefs.html

Special thanks to Doug Fenner & Coral-list

Science Now reports that NASA says this year so far is the hottest on record in the 131 years of record keeping.  Nearly 0.7 C hotter than the average from 1951 to 1980, and NOAA has found essentially the same thing using different data.  Nightime temperatures hit record highs in 37 states of the US this summer.  The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, has found near-record ice area loss so far this year in the Arctic Ocean, and expects the area to hit a record low this year.  Ice volume is at a record low, 10,000 cubic kilometers lower than the average of the last 30 years.  Ice volume is being lost at 17% per decade.  The open sea surface absorbs much more light energy than the white ice, trapping more heat. Since coral disease outbreaks have been reported following some bleaching events, I’d suggest people keep disease in mind for monitoring as well, if a bleaching event develops in their area.  The diseases can cause a significant proportion of the total mortality.

Doug Fenner, Coral-list 9/21/10

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/09/record-hot-summer-wreaks-havoc.html?etoc=&sms_ss=email

Record-breaking summer temperatures and the warmest year to date in 131 years are wreaking havoc on the global environment, say climate scientists.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, is about to report near-record loss of sea ice this summer, and modelers say total ice volume is at a record low. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has issued warnings about coral bleaching throughout the Caribbean, a problem exacerbated by high water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the first 8 months of 2010 is the warmest such January-to-August period in climate records stretching back 131 years. This period was nearly 0.7˚C warmer than the average temperature from 1951 to 1980. (NOAA announced roughly the same finding today, using many of the same temperature stations but a different analysis method.) Scorching summer temperatures set records across the United States, and nighttime temperatures hit record highs in 37 U.S. states this summer, the Natural Resources Defense Council will announce in a new report tomorrow.

Science has learned that NSIDC expects this summer to yield the third lowest area of ice “extent” in the Arctic. The ice has reached its yearly minimum, which generally occurs in September.

“Extent” means the area of icy water—essentially, areas with more than 15% of the surface covered with ice. The past 4 years have yielded the four smallest extents of sea ice in the Arctic, says NSIDC.

NSIDC climatologist Julienne Stroeve told ScienceNOW that warmer-than-average ocean temperatures were a factor in this summer’s sea-ice losses, but so are circulation patterns that push sea ice toward the pole, opening up water that can be warmed by the sun. In addition, she notes, “there’s a lot less of the old ice” in the Arctic due to its recent formation and relative thinness.

Arctic experts at the University of Washington use temperature, satellite, and weather data in a computer model to estimate the total volume of ice in the area. According to their model, the total ice volume in the Arctic is now at an all-time low, nearly 10,000 cubic kilometers less than the average of the past 30 years. “We think there is a lot of thin ice up there, but there’s little data to validate [that],” says Ron Lindsay of the University of Washington, Seattle. Overall, he says, the model suggests a stunning 17% loss of ice volume per decade.

A moderate El Niño event that began last year and ended earlier this summer has contributed to rising global ocean temperatures. El Niño periods, characterized by a redistribution of heat in the Pacific Ocean, lead to warming on the western and eastern sides of the Pacific and the western Atlantic. A very vigorous 1997–98 El Niño led to record-setting temperatures over the oceans and land. Even though this year’s warming due to El Niño is smaller, trends in ocean temperature have roughly matched 1997–98 thus far due to an overall warmer system. The trend is especially clear in waters near the equator.

The biggest immediate effect of warmer ocean temperatures in the tropics has been the extraordinary death of corals, as Science laid out 3 weeks ago:

Reefs on both sides of the Thai Peninsula were hit, with up to 100% of some coral species bleached, says James True, a coral biologist at Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand. He expects at least 80% of the most sensitive species to die. “A few inshore reefs got so badly damaged, they probably won’t ever come back to the way they were,” he says. Among surviving corals, “disease is rampant,” True says, with two to three times the usual incidence of necrotic lesions and growth anomalies. Similar reports of “quite extensive bleaching” have come from Vietnam and through the heart of the Coral Triangle in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Experts told Al Jazeera that up to 20% of the coral off the shore of Malaysia could die this fall. A dive instructor interviewed there said he had seen neither bleached coral nor 34˚C water in 6 years of working there. The Malaysian government has closed 13 sites to divers and snorkelers to try to mitigate the damage.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, according to a new bulletin put out by NOAA last week:

The NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) satellite coral bleaching monitoring shows sea surface temperatures continue to remain above average throughout the wider Caribbean region. Large areas of the southeastern Caribbean Sea are experiencing thermal stress capable of causing coral bleaching. The western Gulf of Mexico and the southern portion of the Bahamas have also experienced significant bleaching thermal stress. The CRW Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook … indicates that the high stress should continue to develop in the southern and southeast Caribbean until mid-October . Bleaching stress in the western Gulf of Mexico and southern Bahamas should dissipate quickly in the next couple of weeks.

A reprieve from the sweltering temperatures is coming, but it will only be temporary. Columbia University’s Richard Seager says the now-ended El Niño phase has been followed by a La Niña phase, which usually means cooler average global ocean and land temperatures. El Niño will eventually return. More importantly, as the planet’s average temperature warms, Seager says, the El Niño-La Niña cycles “cancel one another out.”

Desired (but not required) qualifications:
– MSc in Marine Science, Geology, Biology, or any physical
science.  Exceptional applicants without an MSc will also be considered.
– Experience in isotope biogeochemistry, organic chemistry, or
relevant coursework
– Tropical fieldwork experience or coral aquaculture experience
– The successful candidate must be accepted into the graduate program
in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University

The position starts in September 2011 and includes four years of
support.  Please submit applications electronically by following the
instructions at http://www.earthsciences.osu.edu/students_grad.php.
Indicate that you would like to study with Dr. Grottoli in your
application.  In addition, send a complete copy of your application
materials as a single .pdf file to Dr. Andrea G. Grottoli at
grottoli.1@osu.edu (Note: File should contain copy of your research
statement, a cover letter, resume, GRE scores, the names and contact
information of three references, and a list of relevant course with
grades).  Please indicate “Graduate student application” in the
subject line.  For more information on Dr. Grottoli’s research
program, please visit http://www.earthsciences.osu.edu/~grottoli.1.
Application deadline is 5 January 2011.  OSU is an equal
opportunity/affirmative action employer.
*******************************************************
Andrea G. Grottoli, Associate Professor
Ohio State University
School of Earth Sciences
125 South Oval Mall
Columbus, OH 43210

office:  614-292-5782
lab: 614-292-7415
cell: 215-990-9736
fax: 614-292-7688
email: grottoli.1@osu.edu

Grottoli webpage: www.earthsciences.osu.edu/~grottoli.1/
Fieldwork Micro-blog: www.twitter.com/CoralResearch
Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory (SIB Lab):
www.earthsciences.osu.edu/~grottoli.1/SIB_Lab.html
SES seminars: www.earthsciences.osu.edu/seminars.php

Office location: 329 Mendenhall Labs
*******************************************************

Special thanks to Coral-list

2010 WINTER COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT (December 20th- January 9th)

FIELD COURSE IN CORAL REEF ECOLOGY (Caribbean of Panama)
http://www.itec-edu.org/coral6.html

LOCATION:  The field courses will take place at the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC) Bocas del Toro Biological Station, Boca del Drago, Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, Panama: http://www.itec-edu.org/index.html

The Bocas del Toro (“mouths of the bull”) Biological Station is located on the north end of Isla Colón in an area known as Boca del Drago (“mouth of the dragon”). Isla Colón is the northern-most of five large islands and hundreds of smaller ones that form the Bocas del Toro Archipelago. Set in Almirante Bay on the Caribbean side of western Panama, this collection of islands is sometimes referred to as the “Galapagos of Central America”. This is because, after having been isolated for 10,000 years by geologic activity, each of the islands has evolved its own unique biota. Taking its name from Christopher Columbus who sailed into this region in 1502, Isla Colón is approximately 14 km long and 7 km wide. Isla Colón is composed primarily of limestone, and has a hilly topography supporting primary and secondary tropical rain forest. This island has a 5 km beach (Bluff Beach) on its east side, mangroves on its west side, and caves in the interior. Marine habitats include extensive turtle grass beds, hard and soft coral reefs, beaches, rocky intertidals, mangrove forests and estuaries.

Isla Colón has the highest human population in the archipelago, with most individuals living in the town of Bocas del Toro located on the far side of the island from our facility. Besides being biologically diverse, the region is also culturally diverse with a mix of Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and indigenous Ngöbe. Spanish is the official language but English is spoken. Many Ngöbe speak only their native dialect. There are only two roads on the island, both originating in the town of Bocas. One road travels along the eastern margin of the island to Bluff Beach and the other cuts through the island’s interior to Boca del Drago, where our facility is located.

INSTRUCTOR: Carlos Gustavo A. Ormond, Simon Fraser University; Conservation Science Institute; Coalición por los Tiburones (Shark Coalition), email: cormond@sfu.ca; Elizabeth McGinty (TA), University of Texas at Arlington, email: mcginty@uta.edu

COURSE LENGTH AND SCHEDULE: Winter field courses are three weeks in length (December 20th- January 9th).

TUITION: $1650 USD. Tuition fee includes all room and board, local transportation and a three-day field trip to the Boquete cloud forest on Panama’s mainland.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: November 20, 2010. Since registration is limited to 10 students, we recommend those interested to contact the Carlos in order for him to be aware of your application.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to promote the desire for not only discovery and advanced understanding of coral reef ecosystems from an integrated ecological perspective but also an appreciation and understanding of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) culture. In addition to learning coral reef ecosystem dynamics, organism identification, and experimental design, this course will also investigate human dimensions in coral reef ecosystems, both past and present. To compliment the course and for the pure enjoyment of learning a new language, students will be taught a “Spanish for Survival” at the beginning of the session.

By taking an integrated multidisciplinary approach, this course will demonstrate the importance of melding traditional approaches to understanding and investigating coral reef ecosystems with the human dimension. A large component of the course will involve field work, complimented by lectures and discussions on daily course readings. The course will require the completion of group assignments, as well as an individual research project that may be as much sociological as it is ecological in theory. Therefore, the course will not only be of interest to those of you in the natural sciences but also those of you from the social sciences.

General Topics
•        Spanish Language
•        Environmental History and Cultural Anthropology of Panama
•        Coral Reef Formation and Oceanography
•        Coral Reef Ecology
•        Sampling Methods
•        Research Design
•        Present State of Coral Reefs
•        Coral Reef Conservation issues
•        Human Rights and the Environment in Latin America
•        Global Environmental Governance

NOTE: Dive certification is not necessary to enroll in this course, but what is required is an attraction to the ocean and a comfort in being in it. All students will require snorkel equipment (mask and fins) and those with SCUBA certification are expected to bring their own BCD, regulator, and most importantly proof of certification. There is the possibility of renting dive equipment as well as receiving dive certification from the local dive shops. If this is something that interests you, please contact Carlos for more information.

COURSE CREDIT: Up to six units of credit will be granted for these courses. Credit must be arranged by the student through his/her academic advisor and university.  Contact ITEC for details.

CONTACT: Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC); 1023 SW 2nd Ave., Gainesville, FL 32601; phn: 352-367-9128, fax: 352-367-0610, email:itec@itec-edu.org., or Carlos Gustavo A. Ormond cormond@sfu.ca.  Please visit us on the web at www.itec-edu.org.  ITEC is a Non-profit (501c3) organization.

* Aunque esta clase está presentada en inglés, si sos hispanoparlante y estás interesado/a en tomar esta clase sobre los arrecifes de coral por favor comunícate conmigo, Carlos Gustavo A. Ormond
_______________________________________________

Special thanks to Coral-list