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<ul class="summary-list"><li>In 2000, scientists spotted a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-inside-a-firefly-bioluminescence-science-light-cells-2020-8">bioluminescent</a> mollusk in the deep sea.</li><li>The animal was so unique that they had no idea what it was until they did genetic testing.</li></ul>It's been over 20 years since researchers were first dazzled by a strange, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/glow-in-the-dark-places-world-travel-photos-2019-5">glowing creature</a> with vibrant organs and a fringed tail floating in the waters near Monterey Bay, California. They had no idea what it was."It looks like it's something made up of a bunch of spare parts left over from other animals," Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute senior scientist Bruce Robison, who led the research, told Business Insider.It has a hood like a jellyfish and a "foot" like a snail, and it hunts prey like some anemones. But after genetic testing, scientists discovered that it wasn't any of these animals.It belongs to a new family of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rare-rainbow-sea-slug-found-uk-rock-pool-2023-5">sea slugs</a>. Researchers from the MBARI dubbed it Bathydevius caudactylus and recently published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063724001845?via%3Dihub">Deep Sea Research Part I</a>.Bathydevius is unlike any sea slug the scientists <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/underwater-photos-show-sea-creatures-fish-garbage-2020-1">had ever seen</a>.<h2 id="ad8232be-923d-42da-a5d7-54974a5945ce">A unique new species of sea slug</h2>Bathydevius typically lives thousands of feet below the surface, far from the coastal <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/these-tide-pools-in-hawaii-are-surrounded-by-lava-rocks-2016-8">tide pools</a> or kelp forests that many sea slugs prefer.It also captures its prey in an entirely different way. Usually, sea slugs use their rough tongues to scrape food off the seafloor. But this mysterious, bioluminescent mollusk uses its hood to snatch its food mid-swim. Researchers still aren't sure how these slow-moving sea slugs catch the speedy crustaceans they devour.These unusual features and behaviors are likely the result of its unique environment, deep below the surface in what's called the ocean's "midnight zone.""Almost every aspect of Bathydevius reflects an adaptation to this habitat: anatomy, physiology, reproduction, feeding, behavior; it's unique," Robison <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/12/science/mystery-mollusk-glowing-sea-slug/index.html">told CNN</a>.Since first spotting it in February 2000, scientists exploring the oceans with MBARI's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/deep-sea-coral-secret-garden-found-scientists-2018-5">remotely operated vehicles</a> have come across it over 150 times. It just kept popping up from Oregon to Southern California.At first, no one knew how to classify the strange sea slug. Recent improvements in underwater cameras allowed scientists to film its vibrant bioluminescent colors, and genetic analysis showed how distant it is from other sea slugs on the family tree."It is radically different" from its relatives, Robison said, both in how it looks and its genetic makeup.<h2 id="eb63ce1e-6463-423e-847b-6bafe49f8098">A sea slug in the midnight zone</h2><div type="image" title="A bioluminescence display of the sea slug Bathydevius caudactylus glowing green in dark water" height="1078" width="1603" msid="115345245" hostid="261" sizebytes="26452"></div>In addition to trapping prey, the slug's hood can snap shut and propel the animal away from danger. Predators might overlook the sea slug's transparent body or be startled <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/9-bioluminescent-beaches-around-the-world-2016-7">by its bioluminescence</a>."It kind of acts as a burglar alarm," Robison said.MBARI has been using ROVs since the late 1980s. It now uses cameras that can film bioluminescence in high resolution, allowing researchers to see how these and other luminescent creatures glow in the deep ocean.Every year, researchers uncover <a target="_blank" href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.929989/full">thousands</a> of new marine species, and ROVs have often given them a front-row seat to these <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seamount-new-species-schmidt-ocean-institute-expedition-marine-chile-2024-2">unknown creatures</a>.Scientists are only beginning to understand how marine life in the deep ocean affects everything from salmon to swordfish to seals, all the fish and mammals we consume or care about, Robison said."If we're going to live in harmony with the rest of this planet, we at least need to know fundamentally how it's put together and how it works," he said.

Scientists discovered the strangest sea slug in the ocean

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mars just scored another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-discovers-potential-alien-life-evidence-biosignature-perseverance-rover-mars-2024-7">point in favor of alien life</a>.</li><li>Scientists discovered signs of an ocean's worth of liquid water miles below Mars' surface.</li></ul>Mars is looking more and more like a place for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA to find the first signs of alien life</a>.Scientists discovered evidence of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/groundwater-pumping-causes-earth-rotational-pole-to-shift-study-finds-2023-7">reservoir of liquid water</a> seven to 13 miles below the Martian surface, lingering in the pores of the planet's crust.They believe there's enough to cover the entire planet with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-death-star-moon-mimas-may-have-a-secret-ocean-2022-1">an ocean</a> about one mile deep.The water, if it exists, is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7">too deep to access</a> in the foreseeable future. Still, it's another promising sign that Mars could one day yield the most disruptive discovery in human history — that of life beyond Earth.The discovery, announced Monday, comes just weeks after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">NASA's Perseverance rover</a> drilled a rock sample on Mars that could contain evidence of microbial life from a bygone era.<div type="image" title="gritty yellow ring with speckled solid rock sample inside" height="1400" width="1471" msid="112479167" hostid="261" sizebytes="125234"></div>Ancient remnants of long-extinct <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">alien life</a> are all NASA can hope for on the parched Martian surface. But any sizeable source of liquid water, like these potential underground reservoirs, is a place to check for active microbial life — even though water 10 miles underground would never see the light of day."It's certainly true on Earth — deep, deep mines host life, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seamount-new-species-schmidt-ocean-institute-expedition-marine-chile-2024-2">the bottom of the ocean hosts life</a>. We haven't found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life," Michael Manga, a co-author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/12/scientists-find-oceans-of-water-on-mars-its-just-too-deep-to-tap/">said</a> in a press release.<h2 id="aaa09a5d-96fd-42cc-8177-e2c4153862f8">Marsquakes helped NASA find water clues</h2>When <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-detects-big-mars-quakes-2021-9">NASA put a seismometer on Mars</a>, aboard its InSight lander, the goal was to peer into the planet's interior.<div type="image" title="mars brown planet with blue-black and white splotches in the black of space" height="1920" width="1920" msid="112479165" hostid="261" sizebytes="112220"></div>Though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-mission-ending-dust-power-crisis-2022-12">the InSight mission ended</a> in 2022, scientists are still sifting through all the data it collected in hopes of learning something new about Mars's depths.InSight's seismometer instrument <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-missing-big-mars-quakes-2021-4">measured Marsquake activity</a>, mapping seismic waves. As those waves move through the Martian interior, their timing and the direction they travel are influenced by the material they're traveling through deep underground.So, by measuring the waves, the scientists of the new study can tell what's underneath the planet's surface. It's similar to how the waves of an X-ray or CAT scan can reveal what's inside a human body.Manga and his colleagues used mathematical modeling to determine that a deep layer of fractured igneous rock, saturated with water, best explains InSight's data. Their findings were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409983121">published</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.<div type="image" title="illustration of a column cutout of mars planetary interior beneath the insight lander with a deep layer of cracked rock with water in the cracks" height="825" width="1000" msid="112479161" hostid="261" sizebytes="95798"></div><h2 id="a0164bcd-c556-4a64-a741-6c029fdf4ce2">A clue in a Mars mystery</h2>In addition to being downright fascinating and potentially overturning humanity's conception of Mars as a lifeless, dry red rock, the new findings may help solve one of the planet's greatest mysteries: where all the water went.Mars's surface was once lush with water. Heck, the Perseverance rover is exploring a basin that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">used to be a giant lake and river delta</a>.But the planet didn't have a strong magnetic field, like Earth's, to help it hold onto its atmosphere. As a result, the sun's radiation wore away what little protective layer of atmospheric gases existed, and the planet dried up.By about 3 billion years ago, all the water was gone. Some of it is still frozen in Mars's ice caps. Perhaps some simply vaporized in the harsh space environment. But scientists haven't really figured out where it all went.The new findings suggest some of the water seeped deep into the planet's crust.

Another point for life on Mars: Signs of liquid water discovered under the planet's surface

There are more than 500 species of <keyword id="19908382" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="sharks" source="keywords">sharks</keyword> in the world's <keyword id="20766142" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="oceans" source="keywords">oceans</keyword>, from the 7-inch dwarf lantern shark to whale sharks that can grow to over 35 feet long. They're found from polar waters to the equator, at the water's surface and miles deep, in the open ocean, along coasts, and even in some coastal rivers. With such diversity, it's no surprise that sharks serve many ecological functions. For example, the largest individuals of some big predatory species, such as tiger and white sharks, can have an oversized role in maintaining balances among species. They do this by feeding on prey and sometimes by just being present and scary enough that prey species change their habits and locations. In a newly published study by Florida International University, co-authored by Mike Heithaus and Simon Dedman, scientists surveyed decades of research on sharks' ecological roles and considered their future in oceans dominated by people. They found that because sharks play such diverse and sometimes important functions in maintaining healthy oceans, their current decline is an urgent problem. Since 1970, global populations of sharks and rays have decreased by more than 70%. "People are killing many types of sharks at unsustainable rates, mainly through overfishing. We see a need for nations to rethink where and how to conserve sharks for healthy oceans", the study noted. <h2>How sharks foster <keyword id="22651799" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="seagrasses" source="keywords">seagrasses</keyword></h2>Along the remote coast of Western Australia, more than two decades of work shows that the mere presence of tiger sharks shapes the entire seagrass <keyword id="20128076" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ecosystem" source="keywords">ecosystem</keyword> by changing where and how big grazers, such as sea turtles and sea cows, feed. Having tiger sharks nearby protects wide swaths of seagrass from being overgrazed, allowing it to grow into thick underwater meadows that provide habitat for juvenile fish and shellfish. These species are important food for other animals and for humans. In places where tiger sharks have declined and turtle populations have expanded, seagrasses are being overgrazed. In <keyword id="19969998" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bermuda" source="keywords">Bermuda</keyword>, for example, the exploding turtle population has led to an almost total collapse of seagrasses. White sharks produce some of the same effects. Along the California coast, where white shark numbers are increasing, otters are spending more time in the safety of protected inland waters and less time in the open waters of Monterey Bay. The otters prey on crabs, which in turn feed on grazing invertebrates such as sea slugs that clean algae from seagrasses. More otters means fewer crabs, more grazers and healthier seagrasses. <h2>Kelp forests and reefs</h2>Kelp forests are dense stands of large brown algae that grow in shallow zones near coasts. Along the U.S. West Coast, overhunting drove local populations of sea otters to extinction by the early 1900s. This caused huge kelp forest losses by allowing sea urchins - a favorite food of otters - to spread and consume kelp. Over the past 50 years, otter populations have rebounded with federal protection. But as white sharks expand their ranges northward, they are preventing otters from expanding their range because there aren't kelp forests for the otters to hide in. The otters will likely expand their ranges only once kelp forests become established. This complicates restoration efforts, since otters won't be removing enough urchins for kelp to become established. When sharks are present near <keyword id="19908075" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coral-reefs" source="keywords">coral reefs</keyword>, fish avoid the sharks by sticking close to the safety of the reef. This reduces grazing on seagrasses and algae across wide areas. There is still much to learn, however, about when, where and how sharks might be important for coral reef health. <h2>Food and nutrient sources</h2>Sharks can also be prey. Some, including large species like white sharks, are important food sources for some killer whale populations around the world. Smaller sharks, including blacktip sharks, can be key menu items for larger sharks, such as great hammerheads. As sharks consume prey in one place and excrete waste elsewhere, they move nutrients throughout the ocean. In the Pacific, for example, gray reef sharks move nitrogen from the offshore waters where they feed to the coral reefs where they spend their days, providing important fertilizer for ocean food webs. In Florida's coastal waters, young bull sharks feed during brief visits to the ocean, then return to safer, nearly freshwater rivers, where they spend most of their time and release nutrients in their waste. Sometimes, sharks' presence helps other fish. In the open ocean, sharks' rough scales make perfect scratching posts for fish to remove parasites. <h2>Protecting sharks' roles</h2>The study makes clear that sharks play diverse roles in maintaining healthy oceans, seeing important implications for shark <keyword id="19948448" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="conservation" source="keywords">conservation</keyword>. Step 1 would be to set goals beyond simply ensuring that there are sharks in the oceans and to target species that have key ecological roles. Within populations, it is important to protect certain types of individual sharks. For example, the largest tiger sharks are the ones that shape the behavior of turtles and sea cows, benefiting seagrass ecosystems. Intensive fishing worldwide makes it extremely challenging for large sharks that can live for decades or even centuries to survive and grow to ecologically important sizes. Working with local communities in coastal areas could build support for protecting these large ocean <keyword id="19930906" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="predators" source="keywords">predators</keyword>, much as conservationists are working on land to protect iconic predators such as wolves. Nations could build networks of large protected areas that forbid shark fishing, focusing on key areas where individual sharks may roam. Research shows that sharks benefit from creating protected areas, limiting shark catch outside these zones and restricting use of fishing gear that does the most harm to sharks, such as gill nets and longlines. With a clearer understanding of sharks' ecological value, the study hopes to see focused action at all levels to protect these essential animals.

Oceans without sharks would be far less healthy, finds new research

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The largest desalination plant in the US is in San Diego.</li><li>Experts have said the huge costs and ecological risks mean these plants might not work nationwide.</li></ul>In the early 1990s, San Diego was dying on the vine, starved of water in a series of yearslong <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-fueled-droughts-unearthing-unexpected-discoveries-2022-7">droughts</a>.The county, which relied almost entirely on imported water, had to cut back on 30% of its usage and was at risk of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-05-mn-67-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">losing 50%</a>. At the last minute, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-30-mn-722-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a miracle</a> saved San Diego — <a href="https://www.insider.com/California-weather-whiplash-floods-drought-getting-worse-atmospheric-rivers-2023-1">rain and snow in the desert</a> replenished aquifers, saving the city from intense cutbacks.But the water didn't extinguish the passion of San Diegans, who after finding themselves in this situation, rallied together to find a way to become more self-sufficient, Jeremy Crutchfield, the water-resources manager at the San Diego County Water Authority, told Insider.Enter the Claude "Bud" Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. It would become the largest facility for turning salt water into fresh water in the United States. Now, about <a href="https://www.carlsbaddesal.com/faqs.html#:~:text=The%20Plant%20produces%2050%20million,San%20Diego%20County's%20water%20supply." target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% of the county's water</a> comes from that plant.It's not the only way that San Diegans get their water, but it's another tool in their kit to make sure drought would never threaten them again, Crutchfield said. "We've proven here in San Diego that it works," he said. But San Diego got lucky. Water access is threatened across the US, from a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-western-states-disagree-colorado-river-cuts-proposal-borrowed-water-2023-2">six-way tug-of-war</a> on the fraying rope that is the Colorado River's water supply, to engineers' <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mississippi-river-dangerously-low-second-year-in-row-army-dredging-2023-9">24/7 efforts to prevent</a> salt water from seeping up the Mississippi River.But for other cities, desalination might not be the answer.<h2>What is desalination, and how is San Diego using it?</h2><div type="image" title="Located in San Diego County, CA, at the Encina Power Station, The Claude &quot;Bud&quot; Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the largest salt water desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere and provides 50 million gallons of desalinated seawater per day." height="2965" width="5930" msid="104779170" hostid="261" sizebytes="793966"></div>Desalination works by taking salty water and running it through a series of increasingly fine strainers to remove debris. It's then pushed through a membrane with tiny holes that capture the salt while fresh water flows through.The holes in the membrane are about<a href="https://ixwater.com/the-viability-of-desalination" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 0.1 micrometer in diameter</a> —<a href="https://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/nano-size" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 1,000 times thinner</a> than a sheet of paper.Just to push the water through such a small membrane, you need "a heck of a lot of electricity," Robert Glennon, a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona and the author of "Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It," told Insider.All that electricity <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-cars-grid-utility-bills-electricity-rates-cheaper-for-everyone-2022-12">costs a lot of money</a>.Each day, the plant generates 50 million gallons of fresh water for San Diego County, which over the course of a year amounts to between an estimated $49 million and $54 million in operations costs, a 2017 article in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324049504578545661598973132" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> said.The water-treatment facility in Orange County, California, which purifies highly treated sewer water into drinking water and serves a similar-sized population, costs about the same — $50 million — to operate each year. Except it generates about 3 ½ times more water than Carlsbad, meeting about <a href="https://www.ocwd.com/gwrs/frequently-asked-questions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">35%</a> of Orange County's water demands.Both plants cost between around $900 million to $1 billion to build.All together, desalination costs more money than most local governments are willing or able to spend on their own, Frank Ward, a professor of resource and welfare economics who studies water policy at New Mexico State University, told Insider.Ward said, "the grim specter of costs that always comes to bite us in the rear, doesn't it?"<h2>But when stars align </h2><h2><div type="image" title="A diagram explaining that desalination works by taking ocean water, running it through a filter, then using reverse osmosis to produce fresh water and waste." height="3839" width="4300" msid="104779172" hostid="261" sizebytes="182828"></div></h2>On its own, San Diego County probably wouldn't have had the funds to get the Carlsbad plant up and running, Crutchfield said.But there was enough public interest in water resources in the area at the time to get the attention of a private player — Poseidon Water LLC.In 1998, Poseidon agreed to front the funding, permitting, designing, constructing, and early operating costs, using company funds and<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/municipal-bonds"> public-activity bonds</a>. The company took on a huge amount of early risk, Michelle Peters, director of operations at Poseidon, told Insider. One of the reasons Poseidon got the plant approved was because it had found a location that made it easy to access water, which helped it sidestep backlash from local environmentalists.Normally, where a desalination plant gets its salt water from and where it dumps its wastewater is of major environmental concern. Sucking the water in means sucking any tiny or microbial life that could disrupt the ecological balance in with it.Then dumping dense, salty waste back can drastically change the ocean's salinity and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slaking-the-worlds-thirst-with-seawater-dumps-toxic-brine-in-oceans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suffocate marine life</a>, Michael Hanemann, a professor of water economics and policy at Arizona State University, said.<div type="image" title="A diagram explaining how the Carlsbad desalination plant works." height="413" width="700" msid="104779174" hostid="261" sizebytes="24622"></div>These concerns troubled Glennon enough that when he was asked to consult on a new desalination proposal in the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-05/panel-rejects-idea-of-filling-salton-sea-with-ocean-water" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Salton Sea in California</a>, he recommended against it. He remembered thinking, "What would we be doing, taking this virgin piece of beach, a functioning ecosystem, and completely degrading it?"But the Carlsbad plant was built next to a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/attacks-on-us-power-grids-increase-around-elections-experts-say-2023-9">power plant</a> conveniently located on the shoreline.The power plant used ocean water to cool its machinery — so the desalination plant could use that hot saltwater waste for its main supply. One person's trash is another's treasure, as they say.Since Carlsbad was using water that was being extracted anyway, it posed no additional threat to the ecosystem — at least on the front end. But it did have to address the back end.Peters said they developed a method of diluting the brine before sending it back to the shoreline by a discharge pond. In the eight years since it began running, the plant has kept salinity levels within regulations the <a href="https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ocean/desalination/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California Ocean Plan Amendments</a> has set, so in that regard, the method worked, Peters said.Moreover, dilution can be an effective way of managing environmental impact, Glennon said. <h2>The other options for saving water</h2><div type="image" title="A photograph of the rows and rows of reverse osmosis machines at the Carlsbad plant." height="3209" width="4278" msid="104779178" hostid="261" sizebytes="1443174"></div>Because of building and operations costs, plus their potential environmental and ecological toll, desalination plants might not be the saving grace to the country's water crisis that people might think, Glennon said. But they can be a backup plan."As an economist, in principle, there is a case for desal as a form of insurance against disruption of conventional surface-water supply," Hanemann said.But there are far easier methods to consider as the first line of defense against water shortages, such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/las-vegas-turn-away-companies-not-practicing-water-conservation-2023-9">conserving water</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/orange-county-purest-drinking-water-filtered-sewage-2019-10">recycling used water</a>, and manipulating the cost of water, Glennon said. When applied rigorously, these methods have been promising in the past.<div type="image" title="A photograph of a person getting water from a tap at a promotional event for the Bud Lewis desalination plant." height="2800" width="3733" msid="104779180" hostid="261" sizebytes="311284"></div>In 2019, Los Angeles <a href="https://lacitysan.org/san/faces/home/portal/s-lsh-wwd/s-lsh-wwd-cw/s-lsh-wwd-cw-rw?_afrLoop=14485714539863279&amp;_afrWindowMode=0&amp;_afrWindowId=null&amp;_adf.ctrl-state=kkeuczw2b_1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed recycling water</a> from sinks, showers, toilets, appliances, and machinery into its water supply. Recycling this source would make enough drinking water a year to equal the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-glennon-water-sewage-recycling-los-angeles-20190305-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seventh-largest river</a> in the United States, the Columbia River, Glennon said. With these easier options on the table, it's even more staggering that cities such as San Diego have pushed desalination efforts through.Peters recognized that her company's success in San Diego might be a rare occurrence.When it comes to using desalination in other cities across the country, she said, "I'm sure anything could be done. But whether that's the right call is going to be very dependent on where you're looking at."Roughly <a href="https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x-desalination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">200 desalination plants</a> are currently operating in the US and about <a href="https://www.wwdmag.com/water/article/10917779/desalination-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50 to 75</a> new projects are proposed each year in the country.

San Diego temporarily solved its water crisis by turning ocean water into fresh water. But desalination won't work everywhere.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The tech company Sea.AI is helping boats avoid collisions and unseen dangers at sea.</li><li>Its software uses thermal cameras and AI to identify objects in the ocean and alert sailors.</li></ul>Will Harris has been a professional ocean racer for over 10 years. The skipper, or boat captain, sails with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.team-malizia.com/">Team Malizia</a> and has spent more time away from land than the average person."The thing about being at sea, or one thing that's very challenging, is when you are in the middle of the ocean, you really are some of the most isolated humans at those moments," he said.Safety is a top priority for sailors. For decades, boats have relied on technology such as radar to detect major obstructions. But objects like garbage, debris, fishing boats, and buoys often aren't seen until <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-boats-competing-the-ocean-race-rammed-by-orcas-2023-6">a collision is imminent</a>.To avoid these obstacles during a race, Harris uses software from <a target="_blank" href="http://Sea.AI">Sea.AI</a>, a startup that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-artificial-intelligence-customer-experience-business-applications-2024-5">employs artificial-intelligence</a> detection and proprietary thermal cameras to give boats a better view of the ocean. Founded in 2019, the French company has been collecting data on over 10 million objects that radars cannot detect. Solenn Gouerou, the head of marketing communication at Sea.AI, told Business Insider that 500 vessels used its AI tech.Sea.AI's widest adoption has been in boat racing to evade collisions. "These are multimillion-pound boats," Harris said. If a collision occurs, he added, the race has to stop because it's "obviously very dangerous."<div type="image" title="Will Harris adjusting the sail of the J2 during a boat delivery." height="2384" width="4240" msid="111691318" hostid="261" sizebytes="304330"></div>Harris started using Sea.AI the same year it launched and has sailed over 100,000 miles with the tech. "We're really trying to use data to our advantage now because <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ai-extended-reality-disrupting-changing-technology-industry-2023-8">it's a technology race</a> for us," Harris said, adding that boats have several sensors that measure metrics like speed, depth, fuel, and the boat's infrastructure.The Malizia-Seaexplorer, the boat he cocaptains with Boris Herrmann, uses Sea.AI, which helped Team Malizia place second on May 6 during the first leg of the Transat CIC race from France to New York.<h2 id="a39fdd57-fd8b-4b02-83fb-54f5a00e9159">How the technology works</h2>Sea.AI's founder, Raphael Biancale, previously worked in the autonomous-car industry. When he got his first boat, he noticed that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-looking-for-drones-ai-tools-to-help-shipyards-2023-10">watercraft technology was lacking</a>. When he sailed at night, "he didn't have a proper system to help him see in front of the boat," Gouerou said.Sea.AI uses a large thermal camera that can attach to the front of a boat or on a mast to scan the water. Using thermal imaging and night vision, the software detects items that the naked eye would struggle to see.The camera's imaging can be accessed through an app or connected to a boat's multifunction-display system. When objects are detected, the software automatically sounds an alarm to give the skipper enough time to divert the ship's course.<div type="image" title="Boris Herrmann looks at the screens in the boat's cockpit." height="2384" width="4240" msid="111691316" hostid="261" sizebytes="609338"></div>Sea.AI's system then logs the object to help train the software to detect more types of obstructions. Harris said because sailors aren't always looking at the camera — "we're looking at the sails, we're sleeping, we're resting" — Sea.AI's alarm is a "really important" feature.Harris recalled avoiding a collision while his team was sailing "25 to 30 knots," or about 29 to 35 mph, near Gibraltar. He said they weren't monitoring the camera but heard an alert from Sea.AI notifying them of a fishing boat about 100 meters away: "We were probably 10 or 15 seconds away from crashing into it."<h2 id="dd41d159-9208-40a4-9447-07023d1e73be">Building a more well-rounded navigation system</h2>Sea.AI was developed to be used in conjunction with radar tech and an automatic identification system, a tracking system that allows boats to see each other's geographic position.The company's partnership with Garmin, a manufacturer of multifunction displays, has allowed Sea.AI to integrate more seamlessly into Garmin's software. The MFDs centralize information for sailors who are surveilling multiple systems that help a vessel operate."I was interested by the innovation that they put into the market because looking for floating objects was always a critical area," Andrea D'Amato, the business-development manager of the marine subset at Garmin International, said."Our display can be divided into two windows," D'Amato told BI. "For example, in one window you can be focused on the radar, and in the other window you can be focused on the Sea.AI features."<div type="image" title="Sea.AI screen detection" height="1365" width="2048" msid="111691323" hostid="261" sizebytes="77806"></div>Harris said he had the displays for Sea.AI, the automatic identification system, and the radar next to each other on his MFD. The radar and AIS displays <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-artificial-intelligence-autonomous-systems-help-shipping-sustainability-goals-2023-11">help with navigation</a>, and the Sea.AI display indicates where objects are relative to the boat's position. "It's telling us straight away which direction we need to look to see the object," he added.Romain Attanasio, a skipper for Fortinet-Best Western, recently used Sea.AI while transporting the boat across the Atlantic. He told BI that avoiding fishing boats, which are heavily present near shores, was one of his biggest navigational challenges, especially when entering and exiting ports.<div type="image" title="Romain Attanasio stands on the Fortinet-Best Western boat as he sails past the Statue of Liberty in New York City." height="2260" width="4024" msid="111691324" hostid="261" sizebytes="480012"></div>Attanasio said many fishermen don't use an AIS because "they don't want the other fishermen to know where the fish are," which makes it harder to see fishing boats' locations. Fishermen's nets, he added, are also invisible dangers since they create large concentrations of fish and rope just below the surface of the water — an area that is mostly invisible to AIS and radar tech but easier to monitor with Sea.AI's imaging.Sea.AI, automatic identification systems, and radar each have their benefits and disadvantages, Gouerou said. "Each sensor has its own capabilities," she said. "We are an optical sensor. So, for example, if there's really, really heavy rain, it's tricky for us."<h2 id="43a9fb36-8aaf-4a78-a8b2-dc7ed70e2df2">Expanding AI in the maritime industry</h2>Gouerou told BI that Sea.AI was expanding with the launch of Brain, its software-only machine-vision product that can identify objects in the ocean. Unlike Sea.AI's preceding software, which worked exclusively with the company's camera units, Brain is compatible with third-party thermal cameras. The goal, Gouerou said, is to reduce the cost of using Sea.AI's system by eliminating the need to purchase both the software and the cameras from Sea.AI.<div type="image" title="Malizia-Seaexplorer captain Boris Herrmann and his team leave Brooklyn marina to join the start of the New York Vendee sailing race, in Brooklyn, New York, on May 28, 2024." height="2095" width="4190" msid="111691321" hostid="261" sizebytes="403776"></div>The company also plans to enter other markets, such as cruising, commercial vessels, and ferries. Gouerou said Sea.AI recently conducted trials with search-and-rescue boats in France, the UK, and Germany.The future of Sea.AI will be building technology with an "automatic avoidance" capability to reduce the need for human intervention, Gouerou said. Harris' boat uses a prototype of this feature; it connects to the ship's steering system to help automatically avert collisions with small nearby objects. "It's still a work in progress, but it's definitely something that's going to be developed more and more in the future," he said.

An AI startup focused on maritime safety is helping sailors navigate the ocean and avoid collisions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Water leaking into the Earth may be wrapping the core in crystals, a study has suggested.</li><li>The study may help explain a weird area in the outer core that has long puzzled scientists.</li></ul>Water leaking from the surface of the Earth could be changing the outer rim of our planet's core and wrapping it in a layer of crystals, according to a study.The experimental research could help crack the mystery of an elusive part of our planet known as the "E-prime layer," an area in the Earth's<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earths-mysterious-core-is-a-lot-weirder-than-you-think-2023-9"> outer core</a> that has long baffled scientists.The research could also challenge the idea that the Earth's molten iron core is almost hermetically sealed, study author Dan Shim, a professor of Earth and Space exploration at Arizona State University, <a target="_blank" href="https://news.asu.edu/20231113-earths-surface-water-dives-deep-transforming-cores-outer-layer">said in a press release</a>."For years, it has been believed that material exchange between Earth's core and mantle is small. Yet, our recent high-pressure experiments reveal a different story," said Shim.The finding "points to a far more dynamic core-mantle interaction, suggesting substantial material exchange," he said.Another expert, however, said more evidence is needed to support this theory.<h2>We still don't know everything about our planet's insides</h2>The Earth's core is only about 1,800 miles under our feet, but it's more inaccessible than Mars.Intense pressures and high temperatures mean we can't go down there to see what's going on for ourselves.One way experts peer under our feet is by looking at how seismic waves are deflected by structures inside the Earth. And some of that data doesn't stack up with what we know about our planet.One of these mysteries is a zone on the outer rim of our Earth's iron core where seismic waves unexpectedly slow down.The zone, which measures between a few dozen to a few hundred miles in width, has tentatively been suggested to be a layer in its own right and was named E-prime.<h2>Water-logged minerals could spawn crystals around the core's rim</h2>Scientists haven't found a good explanation for that data yet, and that's important — understanding the Earth's core doesn't only help us decipher how our planet was formed and continues to evolve, but it could also shed clues on fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field.With their study, published in the peer-reviewed journal <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=5041ec4f38cc3cb91d6e2d9202453037b1c0be2db5746f9e2d2efcb3a3ecc026&amp;postID=6565b191bb2875d248be26e3&amp;postSlug=earths-core-may-be-coated-in-layer-of-crystals-study-2023-12&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41561-023-01324-x">Nature Geosciences</a> on November 13, Shim and his colleagues have put forward a new theory to explain the formation of the E-prime layer: that water leaking from the surface can reach the outside of the core and change its chemical composition.This water wouldn't seep into the Earth as a liquid. Instead, it would be carried by minerals that contain a lot of hydrogen and oxygen inside their chemical structure — these are called "hydrous" minerals.<div type="image" title="An artist's illustration shows transparent crystals emerging from a fiery substrate." height="370" width="370" msid="105762071" hostid="261" sizebytes="28676"></div>To support their hypothesis, the scientists simulated the high-pressure conditions of the outer core in the lab. They found that subjecting iron-silica alloys — which are thought to make up the core — to the hydrous mineral in these conditions generates hydrogen-rich and silica-poor elements, which would explain the bizarre seismic data around the E-prime layer.Meanwhile, the scientists believe the reaction would also spark silicate crystals. These would migrate toward the mantle, creating a dense layer of silica wrapping the core, per the press release."We found that when water reaches the core-mantle boundary, it reacts with silicon in the core, forming silica," said Shim in the press release.The idea is a tall order — scientists tend to think the core gets very little material from the mantle.If proven to be true, it could also rewrite what we know about how water moves around the insides of the Earth, and would have "profound implications for the geochemical cycles that connect the surface-water cycle with the deep metallic core," the scientists said in the press release.Jon Wade, Associate Professor of Planetary Materials at Oxford University, told Business Insider in an email the theory "requires further supporting evidence" to garner widespread approval, he said.There is some evidence that hydrous minerals can be sucked into the Earth — a 2014 study even suggested that there could be a reservoir of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/13/earth-may-have-underground-ocean-three-times-that-on-surface">water-rich minerals</a> three times bigger than the surface oceans stored about 400 miles under the Earth's crust.But it's not clear whether that process would bring water all the way to the core, and if it did, whether enough water would make it that far inside the Earth to trigger a reaction on a scale that could explain the E prime layer, said Wade."Even if there is a fair amount of water transported to the deep Earth, there are lots of places (3000km of mantle) to 'lose' water to before it makes it the core-mantle boundary," he said. "So, could it happen? Yes, maybe. Does it? Don't know, probably a very minor amount at best," he added.For him, a "more likely route" would be that hydrogen was encased in the core by a reaction with the core materials, but at the point of the Earth's formation, for instance."Other mechanisms may be at play that achieve the same result. It's all kind of speculative but interesting to think about!" he said.Shim agreed that it's not clear how much water can reach the E-prime layer, but said even a small amount of water could trigger enough chemical reaction to create crystals.He added that his calculations show that he can explain the E-prime layer "reasonably well" with a range of water transportation scenarios.

Earth's core may be coated in a layer of crystals created by water leaking from the surface: study

This article is part of "<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-5g-wireless-technology-shaping-our-world-2023-7">5G and Connectivity Playbook</a>," a series exploring some of our time's most important tech innovations.Nestled next to a park and tucked inside an inlet, Wahoo Bay boasts a half-acre of glistening, shallow water in Pompano Beach, Florida, home to tropical fish and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/protecting-ocean-key-slowing-climate-crisis-2023-1">endangered seagrass</a>.But below the surface, the mini marine sanctuary is also a test bed for underwater technology that may take researchers to literal new depths.Seven years ago, Wahoo Bay started as a vision for a snorkel park, but COVID-19 delayed its development. That delay "was a bit of a silver lining for us because it got us thinking more about creating an educational environment," said Rob Wyre, the chairman of Shipwreck Park, the nonprofit behind the Wahoo Bay project. The Wahoo Bay team was introduced to scientists from different universities who saw the marine area as a place of the right size and depths and with the right protections to assess <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-ocean-health-aquaculture-plastics-coral-reefs-sustainablity-2024-3">new underwater technologies</a>.IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to a network of connected devices and the technology that allows them to collect and share data. On land, this could look like a home security system sending an alert to your phone or a fitness tracker synced with an app that gives you real-time insights into your health. In the ocean, Underwater IoT could look like floating sensors, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-artificial-intelligence-autonomous-systems-help-shipping-sustainability-goals-2023-11">swarms of crewless vehicles</a>, or a tetherless, wireless robot. Interest in ocean IoT is increasing because of its potential scientific, military, commercial, and conservation applications.While only about <a target="_blank" href="https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/ocean-exploration/">5% of the ocean has been explored</a>, experts anticipate that underwater IoT, which can collect and share data from uncharted waters, could expand our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marine-biodiscovery-could-unlock-answers-health-climate-crises-2023-7">understanding of the unknown</a> and unlock the future of ocean conservation.<div type="image" title="Arial image of Wahoo Bay in Florida." height="1144" width="1440" msid="110974104" hostid="261" sizebytes="284090"></div><h2>Underwater IoT can be tricky</h2><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iot-devices-security-concerns-5g-networks-2023-11">Existing wireless technologies</a> aren't much help underwater because of how they work. On land, IoT devices connect through communications technologies like Bluetooth and WiFi that use radio waves at specific frequencies to transfer information. But standard IoT technologies are ineffective in the ocean because radio signals weaken underwater. Ocean IoT often uses a different type of signal to communicate: acoustic signals or waves.Waleed Akbar, a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, said that while developing underwater IoT is challenging, it's necessary. "We know more about the far side of the moon than we know about the ocean," Akbar said.Akbar said underwater IoT could do more than satisfy curiosity about what's below the water's surface. Because these devices can transmit data from unexplored areas, they could enable unprecedented <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6479338/">environmental monitoring</a>, such as measuring contaminants or observing coral reefs — providing information that's helpful in curbing the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-ocean-health-aquaculture-plastics-coral-reefs-sustainablity-2024-3">climate crisis</a>.<h2>Using acoustic energy to power new projects</h2>Akbar is part of an MIT <a target="_blank" href="https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/oceans-internet-of-things/overview/">research group</a> developing low-cost, low-power, batteryless IoT technologies to support underwater networks.For example, the group invented a battery-free <a target="_blank" href="https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/sk-batt-free-wirless-cam-2022-09-27/?autoplay=true">wireless underwater camera</a> powered by acoustic energy — it converts mechanical energy from sound waves into electrical energy, and it uses sound waves to transmit data. The camera could support marine-life discovery, submarine surveillance, and underwater monitoring, among other endeavors."In the water, there's no central entity like a router you can connect to," Akbar said. "So what we have is a base station, and then sensors can communicate with that using acoustic signals."But acoustic signaling has narrow bandwidth, long delays, and high costs. There's also the issue of energy consumption: Generally, preliminary underwater IoT devices have used batteries with limited capacity. Akbar told Business Insider that it's difficult to scale when technologies consume too much power."If you want to make sensors at a large scale, or you want to cover a large area like a chunk of the ocean, you want to make sure that these sensors are cost-effective," he said.Researchers have been working on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3926587/">underwater acoustic communication technologies</a> for over half a century. For example, in 1945, the US Navy developed an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nepa.navy.mil/Portals/20/Documents/Pacific%20Fleet/GOA/files/EIS/Final_EIS_2011/sections/GOA_FEIS_Appendix_H.pdf">underwater phone</a> that <a target="_blank" href="https://sites.dartmouth.edu/dujs/2012/03/11/the-underwater-propagation-of-sound-and-its-applications/">transmitted and received sound waves</a> instead of radio waves.More recently, scientists and engineers have started to leverage this technology to make underwater IoT a reality. Early projects include autonomous underwater vehicles that can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/dec/29/new-technologies-bring-marine-archaeology-treasures-to-light">spot ancient shipwrecks</a>, sensors that can help with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/6/2124">disaster forecasting</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mit.edu/~fadel/papers/VAB-paper.pdf">sensor networks</a> that can measure ocean temperatures.Today's underwater technology is often hindered by limited battery life and tethers to ships on the surface. Dimitris Pados, a professor at Florida Atlantic University and the director of the Center for Connected Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence, said that to monitor and model the ocean with the granularity necessary to understand how <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-impacts-to-last-millennia-ipcc-report-2021-8">climate change is influencing it</a>, researchers need to access parts of the ocean that existing tech can't reach."It's a field that's catching people's attention," Akbar said. "The technology is developing, and there is a growing awareness that we need to know more about what is happening to the ocean."<h2>A hotbed of ocean tech</h2>In late May, Wahoo Bay <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/cityofpompanobeach/reel/C7m7gHEO5-d/">hosted its inaugural field trip</a>. Fourth graders, equipped with swim masks and pool noodles, splashed above bright-yellow porkfish and silver pinfish. For many, it was their <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/underwater-sculpture-museum-grenada-photos-2024-1">first time snorkeling</a>. Pados said he expects Wahoo Bay will be home to many firsts and innovations.Through a partnership with Florida Atlantic University, professors, students, and others can bring new underwater technologies to the site — and more projects are in the works.<div type="image" title="Underwater camera installed against a pole in the ocean floor" height="1218" width="1392" msid="110974106" hostid="261" sizebytes="99834"></div>Pados told BI the team had installed water- and weather-monitoring systems and was working on AI-assisted fish-identification software that relies on a self-cleaning 360-degree <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-efforts-to-make-fishing-more-sustainable-2023-8">underwater camera</a>.More futuristic tech is in the pipeline, including an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-thermal-camera-technology-ocean-navigation-2024-6">underwater GPS</a> and a school of AI robotic fish. "You can imagine that, as long as they can connect with each other, it will be like having a moving network of underwater sensors you can direct to wherever you want," Pados said. "If everything goes well, they'll get outside the bay and into the ocean."Pados said that while Wahoo Bay is a testing ground, he and his team want to give visitors — whether they're elementary-school students on a field trip or curious Pompano Beach residents on a stroll — a firsthand look at the developing technology.Wyre said he hopes that when young people see the tech that Pados and his colleagues are working on, they'll walk away with new ideas."We've got to support the scientists of tomorrow," Wyre said. "We hope that when students see what's going on in the water of Wahoo Bay, they'll be inspired."

The ocean is still largely unexplored. Underwater tech could help illuminate its mysteries.

<ul><li>Ocean warming also connects energy, carbon, and water cycles, as it is a key component of the <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> system. </li><li>A warmer ocean leads to more intense storms, more deadly rainfall and flooding. </li><li>As humans emit greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, it causes the Earth to warm. </li></ul> A new comprehensive review of global ocean temperature data has allowed researchers to paint a clear picture of ocean warming since the 1950s, and predict future warming scenarios, according to a study released on Tuesday. Researchers found that the rate of warming in the upper 2,000 metres of the ocean in 2010 more than doubled that of 1960, and predicted that if actions were not taken, the rate of ocean warming would be four times larger than the current level by 2090, with dire consequences for all life on Earth, <keyword id="106387" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="xinhua-news-agency" source="Orion">Xinhua news agency</keyword> quoted the study published in Nature Reviews journal as saying. Authors from the University of Auckland, the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and research institutes from China, France, Australia and the UK, said that if the world succeeds in limiting global surface temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as per the Paris Agreement, the acceleration of ocean warming will stop at around 2030. As humans emit greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, it causes the Earth to warm. The vast majority of the heat ends up in the ocean. Therefore, to understand how fast the Earth's climate is changing, people must look to the ocean and track ocean heat content change. Ocean warming also connects energy, carbon, and water cycles, as it is a key component of the Earth system, according to the study. A warmer ocean brings tremendous consequences to the Earth. Not just to sea life but to the weather patterns across the planet and to the food chain. A warmer ocean leads to more intense storms, more deadly rainfall and flooding, and more powerful typhoons and hurricanes, it said. A consequence of warming is that parts of the planet will become drier, with more heat waves and droughts. Other parts will become wetter as rainfalls happen in bigger downbursts, according to the study. Coastal regions are increasingly vulnerable in association with rising sea levels, storm surges and adverse impacts on ecosystems, the study showed. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sports/news/t20-world-cup-sikandar-raza-bowlers-lead-zimbabwe-to-clinical-31-run-win-over-ireland/articleshow/94921708.cms">T20 World Cup: Sikandar Raza, bowlers lead Zimbabwe to clinical 31-run win over Ireland</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/railways-sets-new-record-in-scrap-sales-earns-rs-2582-cr-in-6-months/articleshow/94921491.cms">Railways sets new record in scrap sales, earns Rs 2,582 cr in 6 months</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/govt-seeks-data-on-vacancies-from-psus-roadmap-to-fill-them/articleshow/94916445.cms">Govt seeks data on vacancies from PSUs; roadmap to fill them</a>

Ocean warming rates to quadruple by 2090 if climate change not mitigated: study

<keyword id="18530965" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="southampton-southampton" source="Orion">Southampton Southampton</keyword>, Aug 25 (The Conversation) <keyword id="75770" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="coral-reefs" source="Orion">Coral reefs</keyword> thrive in parts of the world's oceans that are low in nutrients. This mystery has puzzled scientists for centuries and has become known as the "Darwin paradox of coral reefs". Our new study adds the missing piece of the puzzle. We found that many species of coral cultivate and feed on the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. This vegetarian diet allows the corals to tap into a large pool of nutrients that was previously considered unavailable to them. Stony corals are soft-bodied animals made up of many individual polyps that live together as a colony. They secrete limestone skeletons that form the foundation of reefs. The coral polyps acquire nutritious compounds rich in nitrogen and phosphorus by catching prey like zooplankton with their tentacles. Many coral animals are also dependent on a <keyword id="6527304" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="symbiosis" source="Orion">symbiosis</keyword> - a mutually beneficial relationship - with the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. These photosynthetic algae produce large amounts of carbon-rich compounds, such as sugars, and transfer them to the host coral to generate energy. However, as most photosynthetic products are deficient in nitrogen and phosphorous, they cannot sustain the growth of the animals. Our findings suggest that, while coral animals may survive brief periods of starvation by feeding on their symbionts, some coral reefs could face the risk of prolonged nutrient deficiency due to global warming. This is concerning. Coral reefs are important underwater ecosystems that provide a home and feeding ground for countless organisms, sustaining around 25% of the world's ocean biodiversity. Vegetarian diet The symbiotic algae living within the corals are very efficient at taking up dissolved inorganic nutrients, like nitrate and phosphate, from the surrounding seawater. Even in nutrient-poor areas of the ocean, these compounds are present in considerable amounts as excretion products of organisms, such as sponges, that live close by. Ocean currents can also transport these nutrients to reefs. The coral host, on the other hand, cannot absorb or use nitrate and phosphate directly. But, through a series of long-term laboratory experiments, we demonstrated that corals actually digest some of their symbiont population to access the nitrogen and phosphorus that these algae absorb from the water. To provide evidence that the nutrients accumulated by the growing coral tissue originated from the symbionts, we supplied the corals with a chemical form of nitrogen that can only be absorbed from the water by the symbionts, not by the coral host. This nutrient compound was marked by a technique called isotopic labelling, which uses nitrogen atoms that are heavier than normal. These "heavy" isotopes allowed us to track the movement of nitrogen between the partners of the symbiosis by ultrasensitive detection methods. With this method, we could unambiguously demonstrate that the nitrogen atoms that sustained the growth of the coral tissue were derived from the dissolved inorganic nutrients that were fed to their symbiont algae. Our data suggest that most species of symbiotic corals can supplement their nutrition through such a vegetarian diet. From the laboratory to the ocean Together with our colleagues, we also analysed corals growing around remote islands in the <keyword id="12350" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indian-ocean" source="Orion">Indian Ocean</keyword>, some with seabirds on them and some without. Our results show that corals have the potential to farm and feed on their symbiont algae in the wild too. The reefs around some of these islands are supplied with substantial amounts of nutrients that come from "guano" - the excrement of seabirds nesting on the islands. On some of the other islands, seabird colonies have been decimated by invasive rats. The reefs surrounding these islands receive fewer nutrients. We measured the growth of staghorn coral colonies both around islands with and without dense seabird populations and found that growth was more than twice as fast on reefs that were supplied with <keyword id="18530966" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="seabird-nutrients" source="Orion">seabird nutrients</keyword>. About half of the nitrogen molecules in the tissue of the coral animals from islands with seabirds could be traced back to uptake by the symbiont algae. Global warming could complicate matters In the future, some coral reefs could face a decrease in nutrient availability due to global warming. Research suggests that warming surface waters are less likely to receive nutrients from deeper water layers. The reduced water productivity could result in fewer nutrients for their symbionts and subsequently less food for the coral animals. Our study indicates that some coral reefs might become vulnerable to starvation as ocean temperatures warm. When we moved corals from water with ample nutrients to water with fewer nutrients, they continued to eat their symbiont algae. This behaviour allowed them to sustain their growth for a few weeks, even in the absence of feeding. But once they had exhausted their population of symbiotic algae, the coral underwent bleaching (referring to the white appearance of the corals with low symbiont numbers in their tissue), stopped growing - and in some cases eventually died. Our findings reveal that corals can not only acquire nitrogen and phosphorus by feeding on prey as other animals do. But, by eating parts of their symbiont stock, they can also efficiently tap into the pool of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus that is otherwise only accessible to plants. Through this process, symbiotic corals gain an advantage over other animals in environments that are low in nutrients, explaining their prominent role in the formation of reefs in nutrient-poor water. However, increasingly severe nutrient depletion will add a further threat to some coral reefs already experiencing bleaching caused by heat stress.(The Conversation) AMS AMS

How coral reefs turn vegetarian to thrive in oceans low in nutrients

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists say they observed a planet that may have an ocean-covered surface, the Guardian reported.</li><li>The observations were made using NASA's James Webb space telescope.</li></ul>Researchers say they have observed a <a target="_blank" href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7571/toi-270-d/">Neptune-like</a> planet that could be covered by a deep-water ocean, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/08/astronomers-detect-waterworld-with-a-boiling-ocean-in-deep-space?fbclid=IwAR05Ygwpv64-frgfibQcglp6qAZy2Gy55rZ-gvltUB3SeATacVWvt9zGXoA">the Guardian</a> reported.A team from the University of Cambridge in the UK said it had found evidence of water vapor and chemical signatures of carbon dioxide and methane on an exoplanet known as TOI-270 d, which is around 70 light years away.The team used NASA's James Webb space telescope to make observations of the planet, which has twice the radius of Earth and a mass of 4.78 Earths, per <a target="_blank" href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7571/toi-270-d/">NASA</a>.Nikku Madhusudhan, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Cambridge who led the research, told the Guardian, "the ocean could be upwards of 100 degrees [Celsius] or more," adding that with high atmospheric pressure, that ocean could still be liquid.But it was "not clear if it would be habitable," he said.The planet is also tidally locked, meaning one side is left in constant darkness while the other faces its star, per the report."The ocean would be extremely hot on the day side. The night side could potentially host habitable conditions," Madhusudhan added.A liquid ocean is the preferred premise set out in a paper published in the journal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2024/03/aa48238-23/aa48238-23.html">Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</a>.The paper also notes the lack of ammonia on TOI-270 d, which it said was "consistent with predictions for a Hycean world with a planet-wide ocean" under a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.However, a group of <a target="_blank" href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03325">Canadian researchers who also observed TOI-270 d have disputed the Cambridge team's claims.</a>While they detected the same chemicals in the planet's atmosphere, one of the researchers told the Guardian that they believed the temperature was "too warm for water to be liquid."Université de Montréal Professor Björn Benneke said that surface temperatures on the exoplanet could be around 4,000 degrees Celsius, or around 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit.He added that this meant any water would be in a supercritical state, where "it's almost like a thick, hot fluid."<div type="image" title="image of the colorful nebula in space" height="1307" width="1500" msid="108564372" hostid="261" sizebytes="160428"></div>The James Webb telescope has played a key role in advancing the search for habitable planets beyond Earth.The telescope intercepts infrared light and directs it to scientific instruments where it can be recorded.One of its main uses is to study the atmospheres of exoplanets to see whether they could support life.One key that scientists look for in a potentially habitable planet is the presence of liquid water.The area around a star where water can exist in a liquid state is called the "<a target="_blank" href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/faq/15/what-is-the-habitable-zone-or-goldilocks-zone/">habitable zone</a>" or "Goldilocks' zone." Planets in this zone are neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water.

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