Thursday, March 25, 2010

Humboldt Bay, Nor Cal Pacific events


Humboldt Bay / Kuala Walu Wiki current mariculture Bay conditions
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HUMBOLDT BAY SYMPOSIUM
DATE: APRIL 22-24, 2010
VENUE: WHARFINGER BUILDING, EUREKA, CA
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CeNCOOS HSU Abstract on Humboldt Bay mariculture, chlorophyll & oysters
abstract

Chlorophyll Levels in the Bay F. J. Shaughnessy
1; G. B. Crawford1 1. Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, United States.
A variety of ocean observation platforms exist in Humboldt Bay and the outer northern coast of California. Part of this system, now operated by CeNCOOS, includes fixed instrument packages in Humboldt Bay containing a variety of basic water quality sensors including chlorophyll fluorometers. The first such system was deployed in the bay in 2003. Oyster growers in the bay, who account for 60-70% of California’s oyster production, immediately started using the near real time chlorophyll data to make decisions about when to plant out and harvest the bivalves. The growers have since indicated they would also like to be able to predict the availability of food (i.e. phytoplankton) in the bay in order to improve their business decisions. This presentation focuses on the development of a statistical model for predicting bay chlorophyll...

Poster on Nor Cal coast huge persistent clockwise eddy, effect of temp & tide: http://www.cencoos.org/documents/about/OceanSci_poster_2010_sm.pdf

CeNCOOS
Central & Northern California Coastal Observing System
(Govt. funded)
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April 26 - Freediving Apnea Scandi discussion group in Dahab Egypt
http://www.deeperblue.com/newsfull.php/2244
The current programme being proposed include the following presentations:

* Bubbles and DCS in deep diving
* Eating or fasting before maximal apnea
* Effects of dry apnea training on protective responses
* Warm up – or not before maximal apnea
* SaO2 recovery and pulmonary oedema
* Mental training and diving performance
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May 26 - DHA celebration in London, including seafood heritage.

Omega 3 fish oils (DHA) are essential to human diet, they are most plentiful at the shores.

For information on the DHA conference, request a pdf here.
To register online: go here

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Sea otters sleep on their backs while floating on the water surface.

Northern elephant seals sleep on their backs while sinking down into the depths.

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Biol Lett. 2010 Apr 23;6(2):163-6. Epub 2009 Oct 28.
Three-dimensional resting behaviour of northern elephant seals: drifting like a falling leaf.

Mitani Y, Andrews RD, Sato K, Kato A, Naito Y, Costa DP.

National Institute of Polar Research, 10-3, Midorikawa, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8518, Japan. yo_mitani@fsc.hokudai.ac.jp

During their long migrations through the Pacific, northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, never haul out on land and they rarely spend more than a few minutes at a time at the surface. They are almost constantly making repetitive, deep dives, raising the question of when do they rest? One type of dive, the drift dive, characterized by a time-depth profile with a phase of lower than average descent speed is believed to be a resting dive. To examine the behaviour of seals during drift dives, we measured body position and three-dimensional diving paths of six juvenile seals. We found that seals rolled over and sank on their backs during the drift phase, wobbling periodically so that they resembled a falling leaf. This enabled seals to drastically slow their descent rate, possibly so that negatively buoyant seals can rest without ending up in the abyss. This reduces the work required to return to the surface to breath, and allows them time to rest, process food or possibly sleep during the descent phase of these dives where they are probably less susceptible to predation.

PMID: 19864274 [PubMed - in process]
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Small World Indah Center

Re. Jenny
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The Big 5 Ideas of Science

Biological evolution via natural selection of genetic permutation
Geological plate tectonic continental drift and seafloor spreading
Atomic model of matter - nuclear/electromagnetic mass energy
Periodic table of chemical elements - tetrahedral form of table
Big bang origin of universe - big beats

(relativity, ico-octet structure, gravity as surface area?)


Plate tectonic theory explains the processes that have shaped Earth in terms of plates (large movable segments of the lithosphere) and their movement, including continental drift, seafloor spreading, seismic and volcanic activity, and the structures of Earth's crust to provide a unifying model of Earth's evolution.

The subducting slab contains many hydrous minerals, which release their water on heating during subduction under the continental plate margin; this water then causes the mantle to melt, producing volcanism. Examples of this are the Andes mountain range in South America and the Japanese island arc.

Driving forces of plate motion

Tectonic plates are able to move because of the relative density of oceanic lithosphere and the relative weakness of the asthenosphere. Dissipation of heat from the mantle is acknowledged to be the original source of energy driving plate tectonics. The current view, although it is still a matter of some debate, is that excess density of the oceanic lithosphere sinking in subduction zones is the most powerful source of plate motion. When it forms at mid-ocean ridges, the oceanic lithosphere is initially less dense than the underlying asthenosphere, but it becomes denser with age, as it conductively cools and thickens. The greater density of old lithosphere relative to the underlying asthenosphere allows it to sink into the deep mantle at subduction zones, providing most of the driving force for plate motions. The weakness of the asthenosphere allows the tectonic plates to move easily towards a subduction zone.[22] Although subduction is believed to be the strongest force driving plate motions, it cannot be the only force since there are plates such as the North American Plate which are moving, yet are nowhere being subducted. The same is true for the enormous Eurasian Plate. The sources of plate motion are a matter of intensive research and discussion among earth scientists. wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinent_cycle

Strange that they claim Plate Tectonic Theory explains, yet, they they can't explain how or why plates actually move.

Supercontinental ice house & green house cycles

There are two types of global earth climates: Icehouse and Greenhouse. Icehouse is characterized by frequent continental glaciations and severe desert environments. We are now in the icehouse phase, moving towards Greenhouse. Greenhouse is characterized by warm climates. Both reflect the supercontinent cycle.

* Icehouse Climate
o Continents moving together
o Sea level low due to lack of seafloor production
o Climate cooler, arid
o Associated with Aragonite seas
o Formation of Supercontinents

* Greenhouse Climate
o Continents dispersed
o Sea level high
o High level of sea floor spreading
o Relatively large amounts of CO2 production at oceanic rifting zones
o Climate warm and humid
o Associated with Calcite seas

Periods of Icehouse Climate: Much of Neoproterozoic, Late Paleozoic, Late Cenozoic.

Periods of Greenhouse Climate: Early Paleozoic, Mesozoic-Early Cenozoic.
[edit] Relation to evolution

The principal mechanism for evolution is natural selection among diverse populations. As genetic drift occurs more frequently in small populations, diversity is an observed consequence of isolation. Less isolation, and thus less diversification, occurs when the continents are all together, producing both one continent and one ocean with one coast. In Latest Neoproterozoic to Early Paleozoic times, when the tremendous proliferation of diverse metazoa occurred, isolation of marine environments resulted from the breakup of Pannotia.

An arrangement of N-S continents and oceans leads to much more diversity and isolation than E-W oceans and continents. This forms zones that are separated by water or land and that merge into climatically different zones along communication routes to the north and south. Formation of similar tracts of continents and ocean basins, only oriented E-W would lead to much less isolation, diversification, and slower evolution. Through the Cenozoic, isolation has been maximized by an arrangement of N-S ocean basins and continents.

Diversity, as measured by the number of families, follows the supercontinent cycle very well.

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