Shipworms and sustainable biofuel

Shipworms are the marine equivalent of termites and considered pests on wooden structures that are submerged in the sea. A relative of the clam, these animals burrow into and eat the wood. Bacteria inside their gills produce enzymes to help them digest wood.

Studying this bacteria may may allow economical conversion of plant biomass (i.e., non-food plants and wood wastes) into cellulosic ethanol, one of the holy grails in the quest for sustainable biofuels.

Shipworms will be one of the areas of focus of scientists in a $4million project to study Philippines marine molluscs for medical and biofuel applications. Molluscs are among the most diverse of marine animals and the Philippines has about 10,000 marine mollusc species, or about a fifth of all the known species.

The scientists will catalogue the species and make this information freely available on the Internet.

Another focus is bacteria isolated from gastropod molluscs, or snails, particularly the highly venomous cone snails. It is believed 700 compounds with potential medical uses can be found in each cone snail species.

Tbe grant is designed to ensure that the communities where the biological resources are found can benefit. At the same time, promoting scientific capacity and economic incentives for conservation and sustainable harvesting.

An estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of currently used drugs originate in natural products.

The full article "Discovering drugs, biofuels in tropical seas" is on EurekAlert 7 Oct 08;

Does electricity stimulate coral growth?

A Florida town is spending US$60,000 to try it out. One scientist's response to this was "There are no peer-reviewed papers that I'm aware of that really document that corals grow faster or better on it."

Lauderdale-by-the-sea will try electricity to stimulate coral growth off South Florida coast
Low voltage current to stimulate coral growth off our coast
David Fleshler, South Florida Sun-Sentinel 7 Oct 08;

The thunderclaps and lightning flashes of Victor Frankenstein's laboratory seem far removed from the sunshine, hotels and snorkelers of the South Florida coast.

But the town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is pursuing the dream of using electricity to help generate life.

The town plans to install a cluster of electrified artificial reefs off the beach and run a low-voltage current through steel frames to stimulate the growth of corals, creating habitat for fish, crabs and other marine creatures. Shaped like airplane hangars, the six undersea structures each would stretch 6 feet along the ocean floor. Two buoys with solar panels would deliver electricity through insulated cables.

Coral reefs, often called the rain forests of the ocean, have been battered by global warming, pollution, overfishing and ship groundings. Hoping to reinvigorate its reefs, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea has approved a $60,000 contract with Global Coral Reef Alliance of Cambridge, Mass., which has constructed electrified reefs in Mexico, Jamaica, Indonesia, the Maldives and other countries.

The electric current, too weak to harm swimmers or fish, draws dissolved calcium carbonate and other minerals from seawater, helping corals build their skeletons.

But some scientists aren't sure a jolt of electricity is what South Florida's reefs need.

"There are no peer-reviewed papers that I'm aware of that really document that corals grow faster or better on it," said Richard Dodge, executive director of the National Coral Reef Institute at Nova Southeastern University.

John McManus, director of the National Center for Coral Reef Research at the University of Miami, said there's no doubt steel frames will grow coral, if only because they provide a surface off the murky floor of the ocean. But while a mild electric current stimulates coral growth initially, he said it's unclear whether the benefit continues after the coral has thickened enough to block the current. Most important, he said, there have been no studies comparing electrified steel structures with identical structures without electricity.

"There's not much evidence to say it's worth putting the electricity through," he said. "It's probably not going to do any harm. It might do some good."

The town agreed to pursue the idea after being approached by Dan Clark, an environmental activist with the group Cry of the Water; Marc Furth, an underwater photographer and former town commissioner; and Thomas Goreau, head of the Global Coral Reef Alliance.

Goreau, who has a doctorate from Harvard, said in an e-mail that it would be premature to comment until the project obtains necessary permits for construction. He expressed concern that any discussion could generate opposition. He said neither of the two scientists who questioned the technology had seen any of the group's projects, making their comments "uninformed opinion."

Many of the group's reefs, known by the trade name Biorock, have thrived for years, surviving environmental stresses that kill other corals, says the group's Web site. When ocean temperatures rose in the Maldives in 1998, killing 95 percent of the natural reef corals, 80 percent of the Biorock reefs survived, according to the Web site.

Vice Mayor Jerome McIntee, the electrified reef's leading proponent, said the project was worth the $60,000 cost if it could restore the town's reefs, famous among divers for being easily reached from the beach.

"We need to take the initiative and start the rebirth of a natural resource that has been long overlooked," he said.

The town is seeking permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Once reef structures are installed, divers search the ocean floor for broken pieces of coral that is still living but likely to die, torn off by storms or boat groundings. They attach these corals to the electrified structure. Meanwhile, coral larvae settle on it and grow skeletons.

An electrified reef it would be the latest attempt to rely on technology to fix damage done to the region's natural assets. The Everglades restoration relies on a highly engineered system of diesel-powered pumps, artificial reservoirs and computer-controlled water management. Engineers have attempted to control beach erosion by installing underground sand pipes, and most recently, proposing a 49-foot pit to accumulate sand next to Port Everglades.

Still, scientists don't dismiss the possibility that electrified reefs work.

"I think the jury's probably still out," said Richard Dodge, of Nova's coral reef institute. "Just because it isn't well documented doesn't mean it's not happening."

2008 Global Red List: what about the un-cuddly creatures?

Some quick excerpts: One in four mammals are at risk of extinction. Marine mammals have it worse: one in three are at risk.

In the seas, entanglement in fishing nets emerges as the biggest factor, affecting 79% of marine mammals.

The 2008 list was for the first time that every known amphibian, mammal, and bird was assessed. But they only make up a tiny fraction of the world's wildlife.

Even if other plants and animals covered by the Red List are included, it means conservation decisions are made based on less than 4 per cent of the Earth's biodiversity.

What about the un-cuddly creatures?

"The status of the rest of the world's biodiversity is very poorly known".

"The problem is the size of some of these groups -- how do you assess a million plus beetles?"

One idea is to use something similar to a stock market index such as the Dow Jones.

"The disadvantage is you can't look at all individual species, but to address the bigger problems we have to understand things at an ecosystem, or habitat, level."

How many animals do we need to save to avert extinction?

Numbers aren't enough on the ERV blog explores this question.

Nicolas Entrup also discussed the numbers game for whales and dolphins on the BBC Green Room.

Is it worth trying to do something about this?

According to the report, 5 percent of threatened species have seen rebounds due to conservation efforts.

Why should we bother? Does it matter to humans if lifeforms go extinct?

For the first time, this year the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is monitoring biodiversity loss using the IUCN Red List Index.

"Species are harvested for food, medicines and fibres. They’re domesticated for agriculture and play an essential role in regulating local and global environments".

More links

• Summary of key findings of the Red List report media reports
• from the IUCN website: Press release; Red List segment of the IUCN website has high resolution photos and case studies on species and a 2 minute video B roll prepared by Arkive (www.arkive.org); IUCN Red List of threatened species

Another oil rig to park off Pulau Semakau

The Trident 9 oil rig is the latest to be parked off Pulau Semakau for maintenance.

Oil rig "Trident 9" off Pulau Semakau
from Port Marine Notice No. 187 of 2008 dated 6 Oct 08

With effect from 09 Oct 2008 to 19 Oct 2008. At West Jurong Anchorage, (see attached plan)

The works on the oil rig entail, commissioning works and replenishment of supplies. Hot work will also be carried out.

Four (4) anchors will be laid to hold the “TRIDENT 9” in position within the working area. Buoys are in position to mark the anchors. The safety boats will be in attendance during the entire period of stay of the “TRIDENT 9 ” within the working area.

Further enquiries relating to the project can be directed to Capt Lim Ewe Seng, Senior Shipwright Manager, at Tel 9047 8591 or email: eweseng.LIM@keppelfels.com.sg

What is going on in this area?

• Work on the "Essar Wildcat" oil rig work was supposed to be completed on 15 Oct.
• Work on the "Deep Driller 7" is supposed to be completed on 4 Oct.
• There is also a fish farm in the location.
• The area in yellow are the natural shores of Semakau: public walks are conducted here by the Raffles Museum and TeamSeagrass monitors the seagrasses in this area.
• Singapore's first coral nursery is also located in this area.

Dredging off East Coast and dumping at Labrador

Massive dredging off the East Coast and dumping next Labrador Nature Reserve and near Cyrene Reefs and the natural shores of Sentosa will go on until Apr 09.

Sand Mining at Area 1 and dumping at (i) Jurong Island LNG Project and (ii) Pasir Panjang Terminal Project working areas
From Port Marine Notice No. 186 of 2008 dated 6 Oct 08

This is a revision of Port Marine Notice No 140 of 2008. The working area at PPT has been revised and working period has been extended.

With effect from 10 Oct 2008 to 9 Apr 2009, 24 hours daily including Sundays and Public Holidays.

Dredging at Area 1, Eastern part of Singapore, within working area bounded by the
following co-ordinates

Point Latitude (N) Longitude (E)
1 1o 15.827' 103o 57.737'
2 1o 14.865' 103o 58.134'
3 1o 13.298' 103o 54.401'
4 1o 13.884' 103o 54.131'

There was no diagram of the dredging area attached to the MPA notice, but from google earth, the Lat and Long is located off the East Coast.

DUMPING AREA (Jurong Island LNG Project – Working Area C)

DUMPING AREA (Pasir Panjang Terminal Project – Working Area 7)

The reclamation works will involve dredging by Trailer-Suction-HopperDredger (TSHD) at Area 1. Area 1 extends from the Singapore Port Limit into the westbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) within the Singapore Strait.

All dredged materials will be dumped at Jurong Island LNG project and Pasir Panjang Terminal project.

Further enquiries relating to the project can be directed to the following Project Co-ordinators: Jurong Island project and Jurong Island LNG project: Mr. A. Muhaimin at Tel No: 98178572, email: muhaimin@pkdbh.com.sg; and Pasir Panjang Terminal project: Mr. Y. Abe at Tel No: 9664 8810, email: y.abe@mypenta.net.

The massive reclamation area is right next to Labrador Nature Reserve and near Cyrene Reefs and the natural shores of Sentosa.
In addition, other dredging and coastal works are also ongoing at the Pasir Panjang Terminal project.

How to justify a zoo or aquarium?

Some powerful thought-provoking issues on zoos (which includes aquariums), their role in conservation and how things need to change by Jeremy Leon Hance in "Zoos: Why a Revolution is Necessary to Justify Them" on mongabay.com.

Here's some excerpts:

The True Purpose of Zoos?
The zoo inflicts seemingly needless suffering to fellow creatures that we, as ethical (hopefully) animals, must not only supply a very good reason for this subjection, but also achieve it."

Zoo: The Educational Institution?
When a visitor reads about logging in Sumatra or the bush-meat problem in Congo, what can they really do but shrug their shoulders in wonder and drop a quarter in a donation bin? Zoos need to take these conservation issues and make them applicable.

To truly reach visitors, zoos should employ a variety of new educational strategies: signs in front of a cage are simply not enough.

Let the visitor know that the zoo does not exist solely for their needs, but as a research institute and base for overseas conservation. Allow them to comprehend that animals are not mere entertainment for humans, but a vital part of ecosystems around the world that the makes our earth as wondrous (and effective) as it is.

Zoos are also rarely thought of as a place of science or serious conservation. Visitors view zoos as a form of entertainment, something akin to a fluff movie, and most zoos have bought into that. Yet for the sake of the future, zoos need to rise above their self-belief and their public-perception that they are a carnival, something akin to a Disney movie or a theme park.

While our cultural fixation on entertainment and distraction is bad enough, it is a terrible thing when zoos place themselves in this category. To do so only perpetuates the idea that other species exist solely for our amusement and use (or abuse). Animals are true and real because they are not us. These species are not our slaves or property.

Visiting zoos now is like walking through a set of commercials: Even more ironic is the dubious, if not atrocious, environmental records of many of these corporations.

Ineffective Zoos Are Immoral
When confronted with a caged animal, let us say the beautiful snow leopard, my brain sometimes flashes to Edmund Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo, falsely imprisoned for fourteen years (incidentally about the lifespan of a snow leopard) that lead to madness and a desperate escape. Just because these are not humans in prison, does not mean that animals in the zoo do not 'feel' their confinement.

You and me and all of us are the reason these animals sits behind glass or bars; we are reason only a fraction of their habitat remains; we are the reason they have been driven to almost nothing; and may very well—sooner than we can imagine—be extinct and gone, forever flung from living.

What right do we have to this? And what right do zoos have to exist, if not to show us our illusion of mastery, our waste of creation, and our responsibility to make it right—as right as it can be?

Read the full article on mongabay.com.

Dinner from the drain: clams in Singapore's canals

Families dig for shellfish in Bedok canal, reports the New Paper today.
'We come here once a week, when the tide is low. It's a good way to spend time, and no need to spend money.'

'It's better than going to shopping centres, nothing to do'.

Is there anything to collect?

On a good day, each person can get up to 5kg of the bivavles, called 'lala'.

However, 'There are fewer lalas now. Last time, you could just scoop, and your basket would be half full. Now, you must find one by one, and feel for them in the sand.'

But it's dangerous to people for two reasons:

Drowning danger

IT may be fun, but it's dangerous. A spokesman for PUB, the national water agency, said canals are designed to move stormwater away quickly.

So, heavy rainwater from other parts of the drain network upstream may suddenly flow into a dry canal.

'This rapid surge of water within minutes can pose a danger to people who are in a canal,' said Mr Tan Nguan Sen, PUB's director of catchment and waterways.

'For this reason, the public are not allowed to enter any canals as they may not be able to get out of the canal in time when that happens.'

Eating the shellfish can make you ill

A spokesman from the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority said that such shellfish are 'high-risk' food.

'Certain seafoods are considered high risk as they are more likely to cause food-borne illness. They include raw or partially cooked oysters, cockles, clams and lalas. They tend to accumulate viruses and bacteria from the surrounding water.'

The Sponge Detective investigates

Mystery black blobs wash up on a San Diego shore. An earlier report describes these as "an unknown source that resembles a variety of shapes ranging anywhere from the back end of a turkey to the ventricles of a cow. If cows have ventricles it's what they'd look like. With orange starfish-like tops, and gelatinous, floaty, stinky, blobular, stink bombs, I mean, I don’t know. It's like nothing I've ever seen. And there's more than one."

Eventually identified as sponges, this results in an illuminating interview. With lots of interesting facts about sponges in general, their role in the habitat and what might have killed them.

The Sponge Detective: Questions for Keith Merkel
Rob Davis, Voice of San Diego 4 Oct 08;

When mysterious black blobs started washing up on Fiesta Island's shorelines, the city of San Diego turned to one man to figure out what they were: Keith Merkel, an ecologist who works as a consultant for the city. He's spent the last 20 years studying Mission Bay and the creatures that call the bay home. It didn't take Merkel long to figure out the blobs were sea sponges, which live on the bay floor. But the city has not yet discovered what caused them to die and wash ashore.

We sat down to talk with Merkel, principal ecologist for Merkel and Associates, about the mystery, what could be responsible and just how lively Mission Bay is beneath the surface.

What could explain the die-off in these sponges?
It's really unknown what's going on. Sponges die like anything else. The fact that they're ending up on the beach is not unique. But to be candid, we don't know why they're dying and whether or not this is a unique phenomenon or one to come in the future.

Is there a checklist of potential causes? Can you rule out a die-off of everything out there?
Not necessarily. If you look at the sponges as a community, there's two very dense organisms in Mission Bay -- there's eelgrass beds, the sea grass that covers most of the bottom of the bay, and then there's sponge communities. Beyond that, the organisms are fairly small, live in or on the sediments, they're not dense in distribution: sea stars and worms and clams. Most would not float to the surface if they died. And even if they did float to the surface, finding small organisms like that up on the beach is probably unlikely.

There could be something that's having an effect on the larger communities of the bay. My guess is that it's unique to the sponges. It could be a variety of different things.

Let's brainstorm some possibilities for what could be killing them: Some unique pollution runoff? A bottle of bleach or some kind of toxin?
It's very unlikely it's a runoff issue. The reason being that these sponges live on the bottom, offshore. The sponges are in depths of water that are seven to 12 feet deep. The bay is 2,000 acres. So a toxin discharge that would actually result in the level and extent of sponges washing up would be measured in thousands and thousands of gallons. It'd have to be very large. It's more likely that it's a naturally occurring-type thing.

You might pick up a phytoplankton toxin. It could be a disease, a fungus, something running through the population, or a parasite in the sponges. It could be silt. Sponges feed by bringing water through the sponge, so if you plug up all the pores, you effectively suffocate the sponge with fine sediment. The storm drain inputs right now are pretty low. You'd have to bring tank trucks in by the dozens to get this kind of an effect (from runoff).

The sponges don't have many enemies down there?
They're a positive thing for the bay. All they do is sit on the bottom and filter water all day long. They provide improved clarity. A lot of free swimming animals -- planktonic animals -- extrude mucus chains to feed. Those mucus strands are floating around in the water. In low circulation areas, you can accumulate just a string of particles on mucus strands floating around -- it's kind of an obnoxious look to it. Anything that sucks water through traps the particles and removes that. There's thousands and thousands of sponges down there cleaning the water all the time. Losses of sponges are a public nuisance, because they stink and they smell and they make the beaches unattractive. But it also is a question of whether we're losing something to the bay water quality -- and what's the magnitude of that.

Have you ever seen a die-off like this before?
I have not. You find dead or dying sponges in a sponge bed. Sponges are pretty hearty animals. I've never seen this magnitude.

That's in the last 20 years?
I did a survey of Mission Bay in 1988. Since that time I've done a lot of work in the bay, but I've never seen anything like this before.

Any population estimate for sponges in the bay? And also, the percentage or number that have died in the last two weeks?
I've not seen numbers of what's [died]. I would speculate that there are tens to hundreds of thousands of sponges on the bay floor. Many, many, many tons.

So we're not seeing a majority dying?
No. Yesterday some of the divers from here went out and collected some sponges from the beds. The sponges I received are all healthy, viable sponges. None of the sponges picked up show any necrotic condition. My belief is that what we're seeing is probably either from a localized area of the bed -- where many sponges in close proximity are getting affected similar to what you'd see with a virus, fungus or pathogen going through the population. There's nothing in the sponges collected that would suggest they're unhealthy.

You talked about the sponges' role in the food web. Are there things that rely on sponges for their existence as well?
There are very few things in the food web that aren't eaten by something. Sponges are consumed by small organisms as well. There are nudibranchs that feed on the sponges. By and large, eating a sponge is not a great use of your time. They're not particularly nutritious. Most of the sponge structure is made up of spicules -- glass, little jacks made out of glass. To consume sponges by larger animals is kind of like eating the glass of a window. It's real hard on the gut of an animal. Small animals can remove stuff around the spicules, but it's not a huge food supply in Mission Bay.

How lively of a marine environment is Mission Bay under the surface? Is there a lot going on beneath the surface?
Oh yeah. Mission Bay is one of the most interesting bays I work in. I do a lot of work with eelgrasses, the principal seagrass within bays and estuaries in California. Mission Bay historically has run about 50 percent cover of eelgrass on the bottom, making it the third largest eelgrass bed population in California -- behind San Diego and San Francisco bay. And it's has the greatest coverage. San Francisco Bay has about 1 percent coverage. Mission Bay is actually hugely beneficial in terms of eelgrass. It has a diverse community of fish. You get more oceanic communities by Quivera Basin. And up the northern wildlife preserve you have marsh communities. In my mind, it's one of the neatest bays around, because it has so many different characteristics to it.

Short Attention Span Science Theater

Got no time? Can't stand long-winded explanations? Microdocs is for you!

Thanks to a heads up from blogfish, check out these 2-4 minute microdocs on marine issues on Stanford University's website. It has quick videos, short notes on sustainability, species on coral reefs and solutions around the world.

Billed as "The Short Attention Span Science Theater on Ecological Sustainability", some topics include

Sustainability on coral reefs

• how reefs protect the land
  
• reefs & resorts
  
• the sea is green
  
• little fish
  
• crown-of-thorns
  
• how much reef do you need
  
• it really sucks being a tuna
  
• coral bleaching
  
• city vs village fishing
  
• big fish
  
• global warming

Species on coral reefs

• what is a coral
  
• 4 kinds of coral reef
  
• reef structure
  
• manta ray
  
• the solar powered clam
  
• life cycle of the conch

Solutions around the world

• research
  
• protecting reefs
  
• marine parks
  
• MPA

Each topic has lots of reference links too.

Check out microdocs for yourself.

Singapore's marine protected areas: where?

Does Singapore have these? Where are they?

WWF recently stated that Nations protect land better than seas, reminding that in 2004, the 191 governments that are parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity committed to ensuring that a least 10% of each of the world’s ecological regions are effectively conserved by 2010.

WWF noted that "While progress towards achieving the 10% protected area target has been better on land, marine areas remain especially poorly protected".

Singapore is a signatory to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Do we have marine protected areas?

A quick check on the World Database on Protected Areas, selecting Singapore, we get this listing:
Wow! We have one Marine Nature Area, two National Parks (these turn out to be Fort Canning Park and the Singapore Botanic Gardens...hmmm), and four Nature Reserves (Bukit Timah, Central Catchment, Labrador and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve). The ASEAN Heritage site is Sungei Buloh.

So where and what is our Marine Nature Area?More data on the area is vague.The designated Area doesn't show up on the map (which doesn't enlarge).

This site made extensive reference to MPA Global: a database on the world's marine protected areas. A quick check there reveals three sites listed for Singapore: Labrador, Sungei Buloh and the Southern Islands.Oddly, Labrador is listed as being designated an MPA in 1951. I thought it was designated the same time as Sungei buloh in 2001, see this media article on the ecologyasia website. And it's still not certain whether Labrador's Nature Reserve status covers the shores, more discussion on this on the wildfilms blog.

Under the 'regulations' tab, there is an ominous entry of 'no regulations'.Under the 'habitat' tab, mangroves and reefs are indicated as the major habitats.Under the 'spatial' tab, there is this rather sparse table without a map.OK, we got long and lat and google earth, so here is the magical location of our MPA.This is quite surprising.

In the Urban Redevelopment Authority's website on the Draft Master Plan 2008, these are the designated Nature Areas (NA) and Marine Nature Area (MNA) for this location.I'm not really sure what to make out from all this. Have got to go now to give the public talk at Sungei Buloh. Will ruminate on this further.

The Ig Nobels: Coke, strippers and the inevitable tangled mess of strings

Is Coke an effective spermicide? How does fertility of exotic dancers affect their earnings? And the intriguing mathematical proof that hair, string, or anything else of the kind, will inevitably become tangled in knots -- a process termed "spontaneous knotting of an agitated string."

The Ig Nobel is a spoof on the more serious Nobel Prize. Science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research organises the event (which has been going on for 18 years) in the hope that it will "make people laugh, and then make them think."

I particularly like that during the event, they had an eight-year-old girl tasked with stopping boring speeches. Excellent!

Strippers, armadillos inspire Ig Nobel winners
Mark Pratt, Associated Press Yahoo News 3 Oct 08;

Deborah Anderson had heard the urban legends about the contraceptive effectiveness of Coca-Cola products for years. So she and her colleagues decided to put the soft drink to the test. In the lab, that is.

For discovering that, yes indeed, Coke was a spermicide, Anderson and her team are among this year's winners of the Ig Nobel prize, the annual award given by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine to oddball but often surprisingly practical scientific achievements.

The ceremony at Harvard University, in which actual Nobel laureates bestow the awards, also honored a British psychologist who found foods that sound better taste better; a group of researchers who discovered exotic dancers make more money when they are at peak fertility; and a pair of Brazilian archaeologists who determined armadillos can change the course of history.

Anderson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University's School of Medicine, and her colleagues found that not only was Coca-Cola a spermicide, but that Diet Coke for some reason worked best. Their study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1985.

"We're thrilled to win an Ig Nobel, because the study was somewhat of a parody in the first place," Anderson said, adding she does not recommend using Coke for birth control purposes.

A group of Taiwanese doctors were honored for a similar study that found Coca-Cola and other soft drinks were not effective contraceptives. Anderson said the studies used different methodology.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman refused comment on the Ig Nobel awards.

Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely won an Ig Nobel for his study that found more expensive fake medicines work better than cheaper fake medicines.

"When you expect something to happen, your brain makes it happen," Ariely said.

Ariely spent three years in a hospital after suffering third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body. He noticed some burn patients who woke in the night in extreme pain often went right back to sleep after being given a shot. A nurse confided to him the injections were often just saline solution.

He says his work has implications for the way drugs are marketed. People often think generic medicine is inferior. But gussy it up a bit, change the name, make it appear more expensive, and maybe it will work better, he said.

Charles Spence's award-winning work also has to do with the way the mind functions. Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University in England, found that potato chips — "crisps" to the British — that sound crunchier taste better.

His findings have already been put to work at the world-famous Fat Duck Restaurant in England, where diners who purchase one seafood dish also get an iPod that plays ocean sounds as they eat.

Geoffrey Miller's work could affect the earning potential of exotic dancers everywhere.

Miller, an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, and his colleagues knew of prior studies that found women are more attractive to men when at peak fertility. So they took the work one step further — by studying earnings of exotic dancers.

In the 18 subjects Miller studied, average earnings were $250 for a five-hour shift. That jumped to $350 to $400 per five-hour shift when the women were their most fertile, he said.

"I have heard, anecdotally, that some lap dancers have scheduled shifts based on this research," he said.

Armadillos helped win an Ig Nobel for Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo, a professor of archaeology at the Universidade De Sao Paulo in Brazil, and a colleague earned.

Pesky armadillos, they found, can move artifacts in archaeological dig sites up, down and even laterally by several meters as they dig. Armadillos are burrowing mammals and prolific diggers. Their abodes can range from emergency burrows 20 inches deep, to more permanent homes reaching 20 feet deep, with networks of tunnels and multiple entrances, according to the Humane Society of the United States' Web site.

Araujo was thrilled to win. "There is no Nobel Prize for archaeology, so an Ig Nobel is a good thing," he said in an e-mail.

Dog fleas, string star in wacky science prizes
Yahoo News 3 Oct 08;

Scientists who unlocked the inner secrets of dog fleas, crisps and tangled string swept the tongue-in-cheek annual Ig Nobel Prizes on Thursday.

The awards, a light-hearted alternative to Scandinavia's Nobel Prizes for otherwise serious researchers, were presented at Harvard University in Massachussetts.

More than 1,000 people, including seven of the 10 laureates, attended a ceremony that in irreverent spirit also featured sword-swallowing, paper airplanes, and an eight-year-old girl tasked with stopping boring speeches.

Three French scientists from the Ecole National Veterinaire de Toulouse took the biology prize for establishing that fleas living on dogs jump further than those resident on cats -- 20 centimeters further, on average.

Potentially more controversial was the work of an Italian-British duo who won the nutrition prize for their study "Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips."

The ground-breaking study first published in the Journal of Sensory Studies involved "electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is," Ig Nobel organizers said.

The Ig event, produced by science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, honors the hair-brained efforts of a brainy profession in hope it can "make people laugh, and then make them think."

Winning an Ig is perhaps not every scientist's burning ambition. Winners even have to pay their own way to Harvard to accept the honor.

But after 18 years the event remains a hit among those who believe science needs a more popular image.

This year's physics Ig Nobel fell to US academics providing mathematical proof that hair, string, or anything else of the kind, will inevitably become tangled in knots -- a process termed "spontaneous knotting of an agitated string."

There was even more agitation over the chemistry prize, awarded jointly to rival teams -- one from the United States which determined Coca-Cola to be an effective spermicide and one from Taiwan which proved it is not.

Startling discoveries were also rewarded in the fields of peace, archaeology, medicine, cognitive science, economics and literature.

A team from the University of New Mexico, in the US south-west, ventured far from their desks for bizarre research that won the economics prize on the relationship between lap dancer's ovulatory cycles and earnings.

Meanwhile, the peace prize -- the most keenly watched in the real Nobel awards -- was awarded to the people of Switzlerland and their country's Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology "for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity."

Handing out awards was William Lipscomb, the genuine 1976 Nobel laureate for chemistry, also doubling Thursday, at the age of 89, as the hero in the "Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest."

The prizes themselves consist of dull plaques made up in keeping with the night's party theme -- redundancy.

"This Ig Nobel Prize is awarded in the year 2008 to an Ig Nobel Prize Winner, in recognition of the Ig Nobel Prize Winners' Ig Nobel Prize winning achievement," reads the plaque.

Previous prizes have been awarded to researchers who discovered that Viagra helps hamsters overcome jet-lag, studied how sheets wrinkle, and uncovered homosexual necrophiliac behaviour in the mallard duck.

Improbable Research publishes its magazine every two months and runs a blog on the website improbable.com, which also hosted a live webcast of Thursday's ceremony.

In a wry comment, the website noted that Americans were presented with two events -- back to back -- on Thursday "that might be surprisingly similar:" the wacky science event, then the televised debate between vice presidential candidates Joseph Biden and Sarah Palin.

More on the the Improbable Research blog Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Work on Sungei Punggol dam continues

Construction at Sungei Punggol and the Punggol Islands which began in Apr 08 continues until Apr 09.

This is part of the "$7.13m project to create reservoir park with man-made floating island by 2010". According to media reports "When ready, the floating island, which is about half the size of a football field, will also have a wetland - a natural habitat for fishes and birds."

"The S$7.13 million project is part of PUB's long-term initiative known as the Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (or ABC Waters) programme which aims to transform bodies of water into beautiful streams, rivers and lakes."

Dredging and Marine Construction Works at Sungei Punggol, Pulau Punggol Barat and Pulau Punggol Timor
From Port Marine Notice No. 185 of 2008 dated 2 Oct 08

This is a revision of Port Marine Notice No. 80 of 2008. The working period has been extended.

With effect from 15 Oct 08 to 14 Apr 09 at Sungei Punggol, Pulau Punggol Barat and Pulau Punggol Timor, within the working areas in plan attached.

Dredging of the riverbed and seabed of Sungei Punggol will be carried out by the grab dredger. Piling works, reinforced concrete structural works, ancillary works for construction of cofferdam for gate house construction, dam construction and riverbed protection will be carried out across the mouth of Sungei Punggol. Piers 6 and 5 (partial) of Marina Country Club will be temporarily removed to facilitate the project works. They will be re-instated on completion of project works. Further enquiries relating to the operation can be directed to Mr. T. Matsumoto, the project engineer at Tel. 9229 6195. (Email: t_matsumoto@shimzcivil.com.sg)

Related articles

• Punggol River set for big change
  Work starts on $7.13m project to create reservoir park with man-made island by 2010, Tania Tan, Straits Times 10 Mar 08.
• PUB calling for tender to build fruit-themed wetland
  Channel NewsAsia 24 Dec 07

Four Crown-of-thorns sea star species and not just one

Notorious as predators of hard corals, DNA analysis shows this sea star comprises four distinct species.

Different species could favour different habitats and have different reproductive and nutritional behaviours, and this in turn could dictate when and where Crown-of-thorns outbreaks occur. But further investigation is needed to see if this is the case.

It behooves me to clarify before plunging into the article that Crown-of-thorns are only devastating to reefs where there is a population explosion of them. In 'normal' situations, these sea stars do not cause massive damage. Scientists are still trying to better understand the causes of Crown-of-thorns outbreaks.

The notorious reputation of the Crown-of-thorns has led some people to believe that ALL sea stars are bad for the reefs. See this comment on the Me(w)andering blog. The Crown-of-thorns sea star has NOT been recorded for Singapore waters.

Coral-killing starfish turns out to be four species, not one
Yahoo News 30 Sep 08;

The crown-of-thorns starfish, a notorious threat to coral in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, comprises four species, not one, biologists reported on Tuesday.

The spiny predator, known by its Latin name of Acanthaster planci, has been a worsening peril to reefs for at least three decades, latching onto coral polyps and digesting them.

A paper published in the British journal Biology Letters said that most research on A. planci has been carried out on in the Pacific, triggered by devastating outbreaks of the pest on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

But DNA analysis of specimens recovered elsewhere shows the creature comprises four distinct species, it says.

They are found in the Red Sea, the Northern Indian Ocean and the Southern Indian Ocean as well as in the Pacific.

The surprise finding could have important consequences for reef conservation, say the authors.

Different species could favour different habitats and have different reproductive and nutritional behaviours, and this in turn could dictate when and where starfish outbreaks occur. But further investigation is needed to see if this is the case.

The paper is lead-authored by Gert Woerheide of the Georg-August University in Goettingen, western Germany.

Acid oceans will be noisier

More acidic oceans would allow sounds to travel up to 70% farther underwater. It will affect most of the "low frequency" sounds used by marine mammals in finding food and mates. It also includes many of the underwater sounds generated by industrial and military activity, as well as by boats and ships. Such human-generated underwater noise has increased dramatically over the last 50 years.

Singapore has huge shipping traffic. And we have dolphins in our waters, and ostensibly dugongs too.

The article also has some background about ocean acidification.

Cranking up the volume
Sounds travel farther underwater as world's oceans become more acidic
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute 29 Sep 08;

It is common knowledge that the world's oceans and atmosphere are warming as humans release more and more carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere. However, fewer people realize that the chemistry of the oceans is also changing—seawater is becoming more acidic as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere dissolves in the oceans. According to a paper to be published this week by marine chemists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, these changes in ocean temperature and chemistry will have an unexpected side effect—sounds will travel farther underwater.

Conservative projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that the chemistry of seawater could change by 0.3 pH units by 2050 (see below for background information on pH and ocean acidification). In the October 1, 2008 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, Keith Hester and his coauthors calculate that this change in ocean acidity would allow sounds to travel up to 70 percent farther underwater. This will increase the amount of background noise in the oceans and could affect the behavior of marine mammals.

Ocean chemists have known for decades that the absorption of sound in seawater changes with the chemistry of the water itself. As sound moves through seawater, it causes groups of atoms to vibrate, absorbing sounds at specific frequencies. This involves a variety of chemical interactions that are not completely understood. However the overall effect is strongly controlled by the acidity of the seawater. The bottom line is the more acidic the seawater, the less low- and mid-frequency sound it absorbs.

Thus, as the oceans become more acidic, sounds will travel farther underwater. According to Hester's calculations, such a change in chemistry will have the greatest effect on sounds below about 3,000 cycles per second (two and one half octaves above "middle C" on a piano).

This range of sounds includes most of the "low frequency" sounds used by marine mammals in finding food and mates. It also includes many of the underwater sounds generated by industrial and military activity, as well as by boats and ships. Such human-generated underwater noise has increased dramatically over the last 50 years, as human activities in the ocean have increased.

The MBARI researchers say that sound already may be traveling 10 percent farther in the oceans than it did a few hundred years ago. However, they predict that by 2050, under conservative projections of ocean acidification, sounds could travel as much as 70 percent farther in some ocean areas (particularly in the Atlantic Ocean). This could dramatically improve the ability of marine mammals to communicate over long distances. It could also increase the amount of background noise that they have to live with.

There are no long-term records of sound absorption over large ocean areas. However, the researchers cite a study off the coast of California that showed an increase in ocean noise between 1960 and 2000 that was not directly attributable to known factors such as ocean winds or ships.

Hester's research shows once again how human activities are affecting the Earth in far-reaching and unexpected ways. As the researchers put it in their paper, "The waters in the upper ocean are now undergoing an extraordinary transition in their fundamental chemical state at a rate not seen on Earth for millions of years, and the effects are being felt not only in biological impacts but also on basic geophysical properties, including ocean acoustics."

This research was supported by grants from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Ocean acidification: background information

Over the last century, cars, power plants, and a variety of human activities have released hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Earth's atmosphere. In analyzing the effects of this planet-wide chemistry experiment, scientists discovered that about half of this CO2 has been absorbed by the world's oceans. In the last five or ten years, chemical oceanographers have come to the conclusion that adding carbon dioxide to the oceans has caused them to be more acidic, just as adding carbon dioxide to water causes the resulting soda water to become more acidic.

Chemists measure acidity using pH units, with a scale that runs from 0 (the most acidic) to 14 (the least acidic, or most basic). Neutral tap water, for example, has a pH of about 7. For comparison, lemon juice has a pH of about 2 and the acid in your car battery might have a pH of 0.8. Seawater, on the other hand, is usually slightly basic, with a pH of about 8.1.

Marine chemists (including MBARI's Peter Brewer) estimate that the pH of the world's oceans has already dropped by about 0.1 pH units since the beginning of the industrial revolution, about 250 years ago. They further estimate that the pH of the ocean may drop by another 0.2 pH units (to 7.9) by the year 2050. This may not seem like much of a change, but it could have significant impacts on corals and other marine organisms whose body chemistry is adapted to millions of years of relatively constant chemical conditions.

New record seagrass for Singapore!

Shared on the latest Seagrass-Watch newsletter, Halophila decipiens is a new record for Singapore!
Another of our marine species that was probably overlooked. There's so much to discover about our shores if we pay more attention to them!

Also in the newsletter, more about the exploits of TeamSeagrass with a focus on Cyrene Reefs.

The newsletter is packed with information about seagrasses around the world, including Australia, Kuwait, the Maldvies and Papua in Indonesia. The work of TeamSeagrass in Singapore contributes to a global effort to understand and protect seagrasses everywhere.
There's also a whole section about sea cucumbers, those curious creatures we often encounter on our seagrass meadows too.

Download the PDF of the Seagrass-Watch newsletter to read the full articles!

To be a part of this effort in Singapore, simply join TeamSeagrass. More about how to join the Team.

Recovery from bleaching: best thing to do is leave the reef alone

Scientists studied an untouched reef that suffered more than 90% loss during a bleaching event due to warming in 1998. They found that it was "almost restored to pre-1998 values at most shallow sites".

The findings indicate corals are much better equipped to successfully rebound from warming induced coral bleaching events when they are not impact by humans.

The authors conclude: "If we want to preserve earth's corals in the face of possible further global warming -- about which we can really do nothing -- our focus should be on trying to reduce the many deleterious local effects of humanity on coral reef environments, about which we can do something ... but only if we really put our minds, mouths and money to it".

Central Indian Ocean Coral Recovery from 1998 Bleaching
CO2 Science 1 Oct 08;

Reference
Sheppard, C.R.C., Harris, A. and Sheppard, A.L.S. 2008. Archipelago-wide coral recovery patterns since 1998 in the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian Ocean. Marine Ecology Progress Series 362: 109-117.

Background
The "very remote" Chagos Archipelago spans an area of about 400 x 250 km in the central Indian Ocean and "mostly lacks reef fishing, shoreline construction, sediment disturbance, or local pollution," in the words of the authors, "which therefore do not confound recovery from the warming-induced mortality" that followed the 1998 bleaching event there, where "cover values of coral and soft coral on seaward slopes before 1998 totaled 50 to 95%, which declined in 1998 to an average of 12%, and even to zero between 0 and 5 m depth in some shallow areas."

What was done
Sheppard et al. measured the degree of coral recovery on seaward slopes of all five islanded atolls of the Chagos Archipelago from February to March of 2006.

What was learned
The three UK scientists report that "following very heavy coral mortality (mostly >90%) caused by the 1998 warming event, and despite two further sub-lethal bleaching events, the recovery of coral cover, colony numbers and juvenile recruitment has been good in many parts of the archipelago." In fact, they state that "in 2006, coral cover was almost restored to pre-1998 values at most shallow sites." Also, they report that "no shift was observed towards algal domination, or to assemblages dominated by Porites or faviids, as has been reported elsewhere."

What it means
Sheppard et al. write that "given that examples of reefs without local impacts are rare, these results illustrate the importance of reference sites such as this that lack local, direct effects," and as we have long contended, Sheppard et al.'s findings indicate that earth's corals are much better equipped to successfully rebound from thermal-induced coral bleaching events when they are not exposed to the direct deleterious localized effects of humanity, which make it much more difficult for corals to successfully recover from periodic exposure to dangerously high temperatures. Hence, it would seem to us that if we want to preserve earth's corals in the face of possible further global warming -- about which we can really do nothing -- our focus should be on trying to reduce the many deleterious local effects of humanity on coral reef environments, about which we can do something ... but only if we really put our minds, mouths and money to it.

Links to more recent articles about factors affecting the health of our seas

• Ocean "Dead Zones" Spread, Fish More at Risk - Study
  Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 1 Oct 08
• Pollution Slowly Killing World's Coral Reefs
  Jason Lange, PlanetArk 1 Oct 08;

Red Tide: DNA test developed to predict and prevent

'Red tide' or harmful algal blooms make seafood toxic. Climate change and rising pollution have resulted in increased outbreaks of red tide. And "aquaculture operations themselves are often the cause of algal blooms because of the large mass of concentrated waste products from cultured animals."

DNA Tests Could Help Predict, Prevent Harmful Algal Blooms
ScienceDaily 30 Sep 08;

A paper published in the current issue of the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, explains how a DNA test can be used to detect harmful algal blooms across the globe. The approach outlined could help reduce the economic impact on fisheries, recreational activities, and aquaculture sites, such as salmon and shellfish farms, and pearl oyster farms.

It could also help decrease the outbreaks of food poisoning due to contamination of seafood by the toxins some of these algae produce.

Senjie Lin, an Associate Professor of Molecular Ecology in the Department of Marine Sciences, at University of Connecticut, explains that the geographic extent, frequency, intensity, and economic impact of harmful algal blooms have increased dramatically in recent decades throughout the coastlines of the world. It is possible, he suggests, that this increase is partly due to greater awareness and better monitoring technology.

However, factors such as climate change and increasing levels of pollution are more likely to blame for algal bloom occurrences. Ironically, says Lin, aquaculture operations themselves are often the cause of algal blooms because of the large mass of concentrated waste products from cultured animals.

Algae include cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates, diatoms, raphidophytes, haptophytes, and various other species many of which produce potent toxins. Some, however, are hazardous simply because of the unusually high biomass they produce along a coastline, lake, or other body of water. It was recently estimated that annual economic losses due to algal blooms in the USA alone runs to tens of millions of dollars.

"To minimize economic and environmental impacts, an early warning detection system is needed," says Lin. He has reviewed the two molecular biology techniques that are most commonly used to detect harmful algae, with the putatively toxic dinoflagellate Pfiesteria piscicida as a case study.

Lin's paper provides practical information on the technical aspects of using biological markers - DNA or RNA - to detect the algae quickly and easily without the need for highly sophisticated methods or equipment. Crucial to success is the development of a portable device that could be used on board research vessels or fishing vessels equally as well.