Saving Seafood

Changes to Earth’s ‘twilight zone’ could cripple the Ocean’s future

March 15, 2021 –Welcome to the Twilight Zone It’s a real place — but under the sea.

The mesopelagic zone, also known as the “twilight zone,” is a mysterious region of the ocean between 200 and 1,000 meters in depth. It’s sandwiched between the sunlit surface and pitch-dark deep ocean.

A new study shines a light on its formation over geologic time scales, revealing the process is intimately linked with global temperature.

Currently, this is a boon to the creatures that live there. But, as anthropogenic climate change heats up the ocean, this finding suggests the twilight zone and its integral role in the carbon cycle may be negatively affected.

This is bad news not just for the animals that live there, but for people too — a twilight zone in balance is essential for keeping billions of tons of carbon out of our planet’s atmosphere.

Read the full story at Inverse

NOAA selects UC San Diego to host new Cooperative Institute to Study Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Systems

June 3, 2020 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it selected the University of California San Diego to host the new Cooperative Institute for Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Systems (CIMEAS).

The cooperative institute, led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, will conduct collaborative, multidisciplinary research on climate, oceans, and ecosystems to better understand the coupled systems and assess the physical and biological state of the oceans. CIMEAS will advance regional, national, and global understanding of natural and human-caused impacts on ecosystems and the sustainable ways to strengthen our environmental and economic well-being.

“UC San Diego is the perfect home for CIMEAS,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “The university has long been at the forefront of interdisciplinary research to understand and protect the planet with research partners from across the globe. This new institute will help advance our scientific understanding of how our planet is changing and how we can conserve and manage our most precious resources.”

The selection of UC San Diego, made through an open competitive evaluation, comes with an award of up to $220 million over five years, with the potential for renewal for another five years based on successful performance.

Read the full story at SDNews.com