What will climate change do to the oceans?

A talk by Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg on Climate Change Impacts on Ocean Ecosystems

in the 21st Century from the 2011 NCSE conference in Washington, DC "Our Changing Oceans"

From PlanetSave

Via SkepticalScience (“Getting skeptical about global warming skepticism”), we were pointed to this excellent talk on the impact climate change will have on the oceans.
(SkepticalScience is a great resource for debunking climate denier arguments.)

John Bruno, one of the participants, posted the discussion by his friend and colleague Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from a session the two of them organized on climate change impacts on ocean ecosystems at the NCSE Our Changing Oceans meeting a few weeks ago in Washington, DC.

Speakers:

• Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Coral Reef Ecosystems Lab, Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland
• Dr. Mary O’Connor Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology and Beatty Biodiversity Centre, University of British Columbia
• Dr. Steve Gaines, the dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, at UCSB
• John Bruno, Marine ecologist; Associate Professor, UNC Chapel Hill

Here’s the session summary:
Rapidly rising greenhouse gas concentrations are driving ocean systems toward conditions not seen for millions of years, with an associated risk of fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation.
Changes in biological function in the ocean caused by anthropogenic climate change go far beyond death, extinctions and habitat loss: fundamental processes are being altered, community assemblages are being reorganized and ecological surprises are likely.

Links :

• NPR’s Science Friday : Discussion including Gaines and Bruno on
• Download many of the papers referred to in the talks here

Jules Verne gets a Google doodle in honor of '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'

The illustration features golden portholes in the "Google" logo
and interactive instrumentation that lets you dive, dive, dive to the ocean floor.
(And, if you're precise with the red-knobbed joystick, you can navigate the scene downward
so all the portholes are simultaneously filled with colorful marine life

that approximates the world "Google.")

From TheWashingtonPost / WP

Get your sea legs ready.
Google's latest interactive logo, to go live on Tuesday, celebrates Jules Verne's 183rd birthday, and it may induce seasickness.

In honor of Verne's most famous novel, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," the logo has been transformed into the portholes of a submarine.
A driving panel allows the viewer to take on the vaunted role of Captian Nemo and dive the submarine to the depths of the digital ocean, where shipwrecks and a giant squid dwell.
The logo duplicates the swaying of the sea so accurately, wooziness may ensue.

Ironically, the first "Twenty Thousand Leagues..." featured no illustrations.
The tentacled adventures of Captain Nemo and the good ship Nautilus would receive appropriately eye-catching artwork, though, thanks to publisher-editor Pierre-Jules Hetzel.

Verne, born on Feb. 8, 1828 in Nantes, was known for his provocative science-fiction novels.
Happy 183rd, Monsieur Verne.
And to think: That age means you were dreaming up certain submarine functions before they were even a proper reality (reference to major scientific advancements -- such as the submarine, airplanes and the moon landing -- long before they existed in real life.)
In a league of your own, indeed.

The logo is already live in Australia, but should be up around the world by Tuesday morning.

Links :

• YouTube : "20.000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954) Trailer
  

Canada CHS update in the Marine GeoGarage

4099 SABLE ISLAND / ILE DE SABLE - WESTERN PORTION

26 charts have been updated (February 1st, 2011)

• 1221 POINTE DE MOISIE TO ILE DU GRAND CAOUI
• 1351A BASSIN DE CHAMBLY TO ILE SAINTE-THERESE
• 1351B ILE SAINTE-THERESE TO POINTE LA MEULE
• 1351C POINTE LA MEUILE TO POINTE NAYLOR
• 1351D POINTE NAYLOR TO LAKE CHAMPLAIN
• 1431 CANAL DE BEAUHARNOIS - LAC SAINT-LOUIS TO SAINT FRANCOIS
• 1509A RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES/ ILE BIZARD TO PONT-VIAU
• 1509B RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES PONT-VIAU TO ILE BOURDON
• 2042 WELLAND CANAL ST.CATHERINES TO PORT COLBORNE
• 3053A SHUSWAP LAKE CHASE TO ANGLEMONT
• 3053B SHUSWAP LAKE SALMON ARM TO SEYMOUR ARM
• 3477 BEDWELL HARBOUR TO GEORGESON PASSAGE
• 3481 APPROACHES TO VANCOUVER HARBOUR
• 3489A PATTULLO BRIDGE TO CRESCENT ISLAND
• 3489B PATTULLO BRIDGE TO CRESCENT ISLAND
• 3491 FRASER RIVER
• 3513 STRAIT OF GEORGIA NORTHERN PORTION
• 3646 PLANS BARKLEY SOUND
• 3948 GARDNER CANAL
• 4001 GULF OF MAINE TO STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE
• 4003 CAPE BRETON TO CAPE COD
• 4013 HALIFAX TO SYDNEY
• 4026 HARVE-SAINT-PIERRE AND CAP DES ROSIERS TO POINTE DES MONTS
• 4099 SABLE ISLAND / ILE DE SABLE - WESTERN PORTION
• 4227 COUNTRY HARBOUR TO SHIP HARBOUR
• 4233 CAPE CANSO TO COUNTRY ISLAND
• 4234 COUNTRY ISLAND TO BARREN ISLAND
• 4321 CAPE CANSO TO LISCOMB ISLAND
• 4468 ILE DU PETIT MECATINA TO ILES SAINTE-MARIE
• 4619 PRESQUE HARBOUR TO BAR HAVEN ISLAND AND PARADISE SOUND
• 4911 ENTREE ENTRANCE TO MIRAMICHI RIVER
• 4954 CHENAL DU HAVRE DE LA GRANDE ENTREE

So 692 charts (1647 including sub-charts) are available in the Canada CHS layer. (see coverage)

Note : don't forget to visit 'Notices to Mariners' published monthly and available from the Canadian Coast Guard both online or through a free hardcopy subscription service.
This essential publication provides the latest information on changes to the aids to navigation system, as well as updates from CHS regarding CHS charts and publications.
See also written Notices to Shipping and Navarea warnings : NOTSHIP

Crystal clear: how Vikings navigated on cloudy days

From LiveScience

Vikings might have navigated foggy seas using crystals to analyze light from the sky, a trick similar to what honeybees do to stay on course on cloudy days, researchers suggest.

Scientists are now planning experiments to see if they can replicate these practices.

The Vikings dominated the North Atlantic from 900 to 1200 by skillfully navigating across the open sea.
For instance, when the sun was out, archaeologists found the Vikings could have navigated with the aid of sundials — by tracking the sun's trajectory in the sky from east to west, they would've been able to locate north.

But how did the Vikings navigate when the sun was obscured by fog or clouds that could last for days along key parts of their sailing routes?
A controversial answer proposed by Danish archaeologist Thorkild Ramskou in 1967 was the use of mysterious crystals known in Viking sagas as sunstones.

To understand how sunstones might have worked, one first can think of all light waves as either rippling up and down, left and right, or at any angle in between, a property known as polarization.
Scientists conjectured that sunstones were naturally occurring crystals that served as polarizing filters — they blocked out all light except for that polarized in specific directions.
Although it's unclear what sunstones might have been made of, researchers suggest they could have been composed of cordierite, tourmaline or calcite, all common stones in Scandinavia.

The idea is that ancient mariners looked up through these sunstones on overcast days, when the entire sky looked equally bright.
Light making its way through a cloudy sky is often polarized — if the way the crystal was angled matched the polarization of this light, the sky would look brighter, but if not, it would look darker.
By rotating the sunstones to and fro, the sky would thus appear to periodically brighten and fade.
Then, by looking for the patch of sky that was brightest regardless of the clouds, Vikings could have identified where the sun was and then have used the sundial to figure out which direction was north.

For instance, in the Viking saga, "The Legend of Sigurd", it reads : "The weather was very cloudy, it was snowing. Holy Olaf, the king ... asked Sigurd to tell him where the sun was.
After Sigurd complied, he grabbed a sunstone, looked at the sky and saw from where the light came, from which he guessed the position of the invisible sun."

It turned out that Sigurd might have been right.

Scientists have found that honeybees, ants and other insects can use polarized light to navigate under cloudy skies as well, potentially lending this idea some weight.
However, these claims regarding Viking sunstones were never tested, and the concept has many supporters and skeptics, said biophysicist Gabor Horvath at Eotvos University in Hungary.

To see if Vikings actually could use sunstones for navigation, Horvath and his colleagues measured the patterns of polarized light seen in clear, partly cloudy, totally overcast and foggy skies while in Tunisia, Finland, Hungary and the high Arctic.
Their findings suggest the polarization of sunlight can in fact be detected through foggy and overcast skies.

"We found that up to 5 to 10 percent of the incoming light near the horizon is polarized," researcher Susanne Åkesson, an animal navigation specialist at Lund University in Sweden, told LiveScience.
"We now have demonstrated that the Vikings at least in theory could have used sunstones under overcast and foggy conditions to pinpoint the position of the sun."

The researchers are now planning experiments with students using potential sunstone crystals to see if they can in fact determine the sun's location on overcast days, Åkesson said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Jan. 31 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

Links :

• Wired : Vikings may have navigated using polarized skylight
• BBC : Vikings at sea
  

Wave of the week : "Jaws" big wave surfing in January

Jaws (20/01/2011), featuring: Ian Walsh, Tyler Larronde, Francisco Porcella, and others

From Wikipedia

"Jaws" (Pe'ahi) is the name given to a big wave surfing reef break on the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii. (position in the Marine GeoGarage)
It is located on the northern side of the island between mile markers 13 and 14 on the Hana highway and sits at the base of rolling sugar cane field hills.

The surf break, a deep water reef break, is called "Jaws" due to the size and ferocity of the waves. The waves at "Jaws" can reach heights of 120 ft (36.6 m) on the face of the wave, moving as fast as 30 mph (48.3 km/h).

The Jaws surf break is the home of tow-in surfing and has reached its worldwide watersports fame largely due to the frequent filming and photography of tow-in surfing legends performing there on enormous ocean waves breaking at the deep reef off the shore; famed big wave surfers such as tow-in surfing pioneers (also known as "The Strapped Crew"-for the rubber straps on their short surfboards to anchor their feet against the forces) notably Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama.

In order for the surf at "Jaws" to reach its extreme heights, many specific ocean and weather conditions must prevail concurrently.
Because ocean swells large enough to produce this kind of surf occur only during winter months, primarily between December and February, they typically coincide with very strong winds which have a large effect on the surf.
Other swells, particularly the small but powerful trade wind swells, can make the surf choppy and difficult to ride.

There are several other surf spots around the world that boast similar wave heights; however, "Jaws" is famous for its wave forming quality.
The reef and rocks at "Jaws" are shaped in a way that magnify incoming swell energy and produce clean and well defined right and left-directional waves with gigantic barreling (hollow, air-filled wave interior) sections.

Links :

• Mark Visser rides Jaws at night !
• TheSkiChannel : Chuck Patterson shreds fabled Hawaii big wave break Jaws on skis
• Vimeo : Laird Hamilton, Kai Lenny and Jason Polakow on Jaws /Jaws (Feb. 2010) with Reno Makani & Dave Stein
• YouTube : Big Wave Windsurfing at Jaws Jan. 20, 2011 /Jaws Jan. 2011 / Jaws 2009-2010 Biggest Peahi sessions in recent years