Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives

Boaty McBoatface makes major climate change discovery on maiden outing

June 18, 2019 — Boaty McBoatface’s maiden outing has made a major discovery about how climate change is causing rising sea levels. Scientists say that data collected from the yellow submarines’s first expedition will help them build more accurate predictions in order to combat the problem.

The mission has uncovered a key process linking increasing Antarctic winds to higher sea temperatures, which in turn is fuelling increasing levels.

Researchers found that the increasing winds are cooling water on the bottom of the ocean, forcing it to travel faster, creating turbulance as it mixed with warmer waters above.

Experts said the mechanism has not been factored into current models for predicting the impact of increasing global temperatures on our oceans, meaning forecasts should be altered.

Boaty McBoatface – the publicly named robotic submersible carried on the research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough – took its first expedition in April 2017, studying the bottom of the Southern Ocean.

Read the full story at The Telegraph

University of Rhode Island to Join NOAA Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic

May 24, 2019 — The following was released by the University of Rhode Island:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) will join the Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Cooperative Institutes are NOAA-supported, non-federal organizations that have established outstanding research and education programs in one or more areas that are relevant to the NOAA mission. Cooperative Institutes’ expertise and facilities add significantly to NOAA’s capabilities, and their structure and legal framework facilitate rapid and efficient mobilization of those resources to meet NOAA’s programmatic needs.

CINAR will carry out innovative, multidisciplinary research that will help inform decisions for sustainable and beneficial management of the U.S. Northeast continental shelf ecosystem.

“The University of Rhode Island is pleased to have been selected among the eight leading research institutions to participate in the Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region, a critical ecosystem that extends from Maine to Virginia and encompasses the marine coastlines of 11 states, as well as Vermont and the Connecticut, Delaware, Hudson and Susquehanna river watersheds,” said URI President David M. Dooley. “URI brings great depth and breadth of expertise in ecosystem management to assist in advancing our understanding of climate change and the very real challenges we face for the future.”

“URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography is delighted to be part of CINAR,” said GSO Dean Bruce Corliss. “We look forward to continuing our support of NOAA’s efforts in fisheries and coastal resilience in the New England coastal ecosystem with our partners over the next five years.”

Read the full release here

NOAA names Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to host cooperative institute

May 20, 2019 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) selected Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to host NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR).

CINAR will carry out innovative, multidisciplinary research that will help inform decisions for sustainable and beneficial management of the U.S. Northeast continental shelf ecosystem.

“CINAR research seeks to provide a better understanding of the physical, biological, and chemical processes that enable forecasting conditions within the North Atlantic region as a tool for effective, ecosystem-based management and protected-species management,” said CINAR Director Don Anderson. “An important aspect of this approach includes interdisciplinary research to understand and forecast climate change, and the associated impacts to natural systems and communities.”

The partners working with WHOI include the University of Maine, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, University of Rhode Island, Rutgers University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Read the full story at the EurekAlert

College Students Head to Woods Hole for Summer of Science

May 17, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Sixteen students from colleges and universities around the country will arrive in Woods Hole on June 1 for the summer. All will be members of the 11th class of the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP), which was started in 2009.

PEP is a project of the Woods Hole Diversity Initiative, founded in 2004 by the six scientific institutions in Woods Hole to attract and retain a more diverse workforce, one that reflects the changing demographics of the nation and the world. This year PEP is also celebrating its 10th anniversary with a workshop and weekend of activities June 27-29.

“We’re starting our second decade this summer, and we’re really excited about the students who are coming to join us,” said George Liles, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s academic programs and PEP. “Once again, we have students coming from every corner of the country, from large research universities and small liberal arts colleges, and from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. PEP brings a diversity of talent that makes the Woods Hole community a better place to live and work.”

Each year PEP staff travel to campuses and conferences during the winter months to meet and talk with students from minority groups that are under-represented in marine and environmental sciences. The program recruits college juniors and seniors who have had some course work in those sciences, and provides housing, a food allowance, a stipend, and intensive mentoring and career-building opportunities.

PEP students earn four college credits from the program’s academic partner, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Students first complete a four-week course focused on global climate change, taught by research scientists from the Woods Hole science institutions. Then for the next six weeks they work on individual research projects under the guidance of a research mentor from one of the PEP member institutions, culminating in a public presentation of their research results on August 9.

Outside of their academic pursuits, students spend five days aboard the Sea Education Association sailing school vessel Corwith Cramer. At sea, students are both scientists and crew members, learning oceanographic research techniques, sail handling, and ship’s navigation. A variety of career and social activities are also offered, often in the company of other college students spending the summer at laboratories in the village.

Read the full release here

North Atlantic Ocean productivity has dropped 10 percent during Industrial era

May 7, 2019 — Virtually all marine life depends on the productivity of phytoplankton — microscopic organisms that work tirelessly at the ocean’s surface to absorb the carbon dioxide that gets dissolved into the upper ocean from the atmosphere.

Through photosynthesis, these microbes break down carbon dioxide into oxygen, some of which ultimately gets released back to the atmosphere, and organic carbon, which they store until they themselves are consumed. This plankton-derived carbon fuels the rest of the marine food web, from the tiniest shrimp to giant sea turtles and humpback whales.

Now, scientists at MIT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and elsewhere have found evidence that phytoplankton’s productivity is declining steadily in the North Atlantic, one of the world’s most productive marine basins.

In a paper appearing today in Nature, the researchers report that phytoplankton’s productivity in this important region has gone down around 10 percent since the mid-19th century and the start of the Industrial era. This decline coincides with steadily rising surface temperatures over the same period of time.

Matthew Osman, the paper’s lead author and a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences and the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, says there are indications that phytoplankton’s productivity may decline further as temperatures continue to rise as a result of human-induced climate change.

“It’s a significant enough decine that we should be concerned,” Osman says. “The amount of productivity in the oceans roughly scales with how much phytoplankton you have. So this translates to 10 percent of the marine food base in this region that’s been lost over the industrial era. If we have a growing population but a decreasing food base, at some point we’re likely going to feel the effects of that decline.”

Osman and his colleagues looked for trends in phytoplankton’s productivity using the molecular compound methanesulfonic acid, or MSA. When phytoplankton expand into large blooms, certain microbes emit dimethylsulfide, or DMS, an aerosol that is lofted into the atmosphere and eventually breaks down as either sulfate aerosol, or MSA, which is then deposited on sea or land surfaces by winds.

Read the full story at MIT News

Equinor to support New York Bight whales monitoring

April 10, 2019 — Offshore wind power developer Equinor Wind US is entering a joint project with conservationists and scientists to deploy two new acoustic buoys to expand detection and monitoring of whales in the New York Bight.

To be operated with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, the buoys will provide near real-time monitoring of species including sei, fin and humpback whales, and the extremely endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The buoys will become a broader network with a previously deployed acoustic buoy, funded by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation and the Flora Family Foundation, now on station about 22 miles off New York.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

WHOI Releases Report on Right Whale Threats, Solutions

April 1, 2019 — A new report has been released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution which details the major threats facing critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The population for the species is estimated to be just over 400 and has suffered in recent years from high mortality rates with very few births.

The report indicates the whales are most threatened by fishing gear entanglements, vessel strikes and noise pollution.

WHOI Marine Biologist Michael Moore, who was a co-author of the report, says there has been a dramatic shift in the number of deaths caused by entanglements over the last decade.

Before 2010, 45 percent of right whale deaths were due to vessel strikes with 35 percent attributed to entanglements. Since 2010, entanglements have resulted in about 85 percent of right whale deaths.

“The entanglement rate has gone up and become more severe,” Moore said. “It used to be the animals would get entangled and scarred up and then be able to wiggle out of it or get disentangled, but now the entanglement mortality rate has also increased.”

Whale researchers are also concerned with the non-lethal effects of getting caught in fishing gear.

“Eighty-plus percent of the species show entanglement scars and 25 percent of them get new scars every year,” Moore said. “So the majority don’t die but they do have sub-lethal impact and really it comes down to stress of being entangled and pulling the rope through the water and traps too if they are involved.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

WHOI Scientists Studying Phytoplankton to Improve Satellite Operations in Space

November 26, 2018 — WOODS HOLE, MASS. – Researchers from Woods Hole are working to improve the quality of data collected by satellites over 500 miles above the ocean.

The goal is to determine how microscopic algae, also known as phytoplankton, absorb and scatter light, and how the colors of the phytoplankton can be better identified and measured.

For the next three years, researchers from NOAA Fisheries and colleagues at the University of Rhode Island, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will look into the ocean to help improve the quality of data collected by satellites more than 500 miles above.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: New commission created to study ocean acidificaton

October 18, 2018 — David Ryan and Al Suprenant have a lot invested in their business.

The co-owners of Cape Cod Oyster Co. in Marstons Mills have eight full-time employees working 54 acres of ocean bottom on three sites; a 4,000-square-foot processing plant, two truck drivers, two bookkeepers, a fleet of refrigerated box trucks and five 28-foot vessels.

It takes careful planning, and a steady supply and demand for their product to keep it all rolling. They dread the reversals of fortune nature can dole out, such as occurred during a sudden onslaught of ocean acidification in the Pacific Northwest a decade ago that caused a 70 percent to 80 percent die-off of oyster larvae in Washington state hatcheries. One-quarter of the carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean, forming an acid that inhibits shell building, particularly in larvae. Since the beginning of the industrial era 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the ocean, 22 million tons per day, according to a Smithsonian report.

“The West Coast was taken completely by surprise,” Ryan said Tuesday.

Washington was the largest aquaculture industry in the country with over 3,000 jobs but half the state’s production and hundreds of employees had to be relocated to Hawaii to avoid the acidic water that was delivered to the coastline by a slow-moving current.

Avoiding that kind of surprise in Massachusetts — where the aquaculture industry produced $28 million of oysters and other shellfish in 2017 — and in Barnstable County — with 270 licensed growers who produced over $12 million worth of shellfish — is why Ryan and Suprenant supported state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Woods Hole, in their pursuit of legislation to create an Ocean Acidification Commission in the Bay State.

The commission is intended to foster research as well as legislative and other solutions to a problem often described as the evil twin of the global warming caused by climate change. On Tuesday, Cyr and Fernandes chose Cape Cod Oyster Co. headquarters to announce the official launch of the acidification commission, which was authorized under the latest state environmental bond bill this summer.

“This is a real challenge for our burgeoning aquaculture industry,” Cyr said, promising to leverage the power of state agencies, the wealth of research being done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, and the fishing industry to offset the effects of ocean acidification.

It’s not just aquaculture in state waters, but larger federal fisheries that are potentially in peril, including sea scallops and lobsters. Massachusetts harvested 29.2 million pounds of sea scallops in 2016 worth over $350 million. State lobstermen caught 17.7 million pounds of lobster worth $82 million.

The problem has not been well publicized because the effects occur out of sight, said Laurence Madin, WHOI vice president of research.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Scallop fishery may be imperiled by acidic seas

October 16, 2018 — Increasingly acidic seas pose a serious threat to the sea scallop fishery, a recent collaborative study by the University of Virginia, the Ocean Conservancy, the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) concluded.

“As levels of carbon dioxide increase in Earth’s atmosphere, the oceans become increasingly acidic — a condition that could reduce the sea scallop population by more than 50 percent in the next 100 years under a worst-case scenario,” the study states. Models from the study, which were published recently in the journal PLOS One, combine existing data with several factors that impact the fishery: “future climate change scenarios, ocean acidification impacts, fisheries management policies, and fuel costs for fishermen.” Those factors were modeled out into 256 different possibilities.

Oceans absorb vast quantities of carbon dioxide. Fossil fuel emissions exacerbate what the oceans take in, further acidifying the water. “That acidity can corrode the calcium carbonate shells that are made by shellfish like clams, oysters, and scallops, and even prevent their larvae from forming shells in the first place,” the study states.

“[The scallop fishery is] healthy and valuable today in part because it is very well managed,” says Scott Doney, a co-author from WHOI and the University of Virginia. “We also used the model to ask whether management approaches could offset the negative impacts of ocean acidification.”

It couldn’t. In every scenario, elevated carbon dioxide levels created acidiferous ocean water. The culprit, the study concluded, was “unabated carbon emissions.”

Read the full story at the MV Times