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☆ Robots are helping restore lost seagrass meadows
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-09 | by ( Michelle Cohan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Winey is a robotics engineer with ReefGen, a company that’s working to repopulate lost seagrass habitats around the globe. Found on seabeds from Alaska to Australia, seagrass meadows are one of the most widespread coastal habitats on Earth. BORIS HORVAT/AFP via Getty Images“Once upon a time, there were about 18 million hectares of seagrass meadows on the planet, and we’ve lost between 30 and 40%,” says Chris Oakes, CEO of ReefGen. “Without the seagrass meadows, we’re going to see more coastal erosion, the loss of coral reefs, the loss of fish stocks, and degraded water quality,” he tells CNN. Robots for restorationSeagrass restoration projects often involve divers planting seeds or shoots on the ocean floor.

Persons: Nastasia Winey, BORIS HORVAT, we’ve, ”, Chris Oakes, Oakes, ReefGen, Tom Chi, ” Oakes, Cora, we’re, Joel Fodrie, ” Fodrie, “, ’ ” Organizations: Morehead City , North Carolina CNN, Grasshopper, Getty, CNN, Google, Grasshopper –, Grasshopper isn’t, University of North, UNC, Institute of Marine Sciences, UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, UNC's Institute of Marine Sciences Locations: Morehead City , North Carolina, seabeds, Alaska, Australia, AFP, Hawaii, Banks , North Carolina, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Wales, University of North Carolina, North Carolina, Banks

☆ Oceans absorb 90% of the heat from climate change — here's why record ocean temps are so harmful
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +22 min

"Over 90 percent of the excess energy on earth due to climate change is found in warmer oceans, some of it in surface oceans and some at depth." Put simply, the greenhouse gases serve to trap more heat, some of which is absorbed by the ocean," Kirtman told CNBC. In addition to the daily record on July 31, the monthly sea surface temperature for July was the hottest July on record, "by far," Copernicus said. CopernicusThese record sea surface temperatures arise from multiple factors, including the El Niño weather pattern, which is currently in effect. "These climate variations occur when sea surface temperature patterns of warming and cooling self-reinforce by changing patterns of winds and precipitation that deepen the sea surface temperature changes."

Persons: Baylor, Carlos E, Del Castillo, Castillo, Benjamin Kirtman, Kirtman, Copernicus, Gavin Schmidt, Kemper, Zeke Hausfather, Sarah Kapnick, Kapnick, Kempler, Hurricane Ian, Michael Lowry, Lowry, Rainer Froese, Daniel Pauly, Pauly, Vigfus, pollack, Sean Gallup, Lorenz Hauser, Hauser, Froese, Phanor Montoya, Javier, Carolyn Cole, Hans W, Paerl, Justin Sullivan, Christopher Gobler, Gobler, Gary Griggs, Kimberly McKenna, Angela Weiss, Griggs, it's, Judith Kildow, Kildow, It's Organizations: International, Baylor Fox, Kemper, Brown University, CNBC, Ecology Laboratory, NASA, University of Miami, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Fox, El, Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, heatwave, NOAA, Northern Hemisphere, Miami Herald, Tribune, Service, Getty, Helmholtz, Ocean Research, University of British Columbia's Institute, Fisheries, School of, Fishery Sciences, Restoration Foundation, Coral Restoration Foundation, Looe Key, Los Angeles Times, University of North, Chapel Hill's Institute of Marine Sciences, Berkeley Marina, San, Quality, Centers for Disease Control, Stony Brooke University's School of Marine, Atmospheric Sciences, University of California, Stockton University Coastal Research, Afp, Ocean Economics Locations: Florida, El, Pacific, Berkeley, Fort Myers, Hurricane, Germany, New York, Nova Scotia, Hofn, Hornafjordur, Iceland, Seattle, Alaska, Looe, University of North Carolina, San Francisco Bay, Berkeley , California, San Francisco, Europe, Santa Cruz, Atlantic City , New Jersey, Atlantic City, Antarctica, Greenland

☆ Elephant seals amaze scientists with their ability to sleep 1,200 feet deep under the ocean to avoid predators
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elephant seals drift downwards in a "sleep spiral" when deep diving in the ocean, a new study found. Sleeping while deep diving allows the seals to avoid predators, scientists believe. The seals fall into sleep during deep dives of up to 377 meters, which is around 1,235 feet, to avoid predators. "This is not light sleep but real paralytic, deep sleep that would have humans snoring. The recordings showed the diving seals going into a sleep stage known as "slow-wave sleep" before transitioning into REM sleep, which leads to a kind of "sleep spiral" or sleep paralysis, experts found.

☆ Elephant seals enter 'sleep spiral' during ocean dives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The researchers refer to this as a “sleep spiral.”The research marked the first time scientists recorded brain activity in free-ranging wild marine mammals, capturing data from 104 sleep dives. Then she attached them to 13 juvenile female elephant seals that are part of a colony at Año Nuevo State Park in Pescadero, California. In shallow waters, the elephant seals even reached the seafloor, where they would rest. During REM sleep, elephant seals enter a "sleep spiral." Elephant seals sleep the most along the coast and near their foraging grounds, and that data could be used to see how shipping traffic could affect the seals.

☆ Gondolas left stranded as Venice's canals run dry
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Claudio Lavanga | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Gondolas are pictured in the Grand Canal during a severe low tide in the lagoon city of Venice, Italy, March 17, 2022. "I have been a gondolier for 28 years, and I have never seen so many low tides at once," he added. "Low water levels in Venice are unheard of, especially at this time of the year," said Giovanni Cecconi, the president of the Venice Resilience Lab. "During low tides we could use the barriers to stop the water from getting out of the lagoon," he said. However, Claudio Scarpa, the director general of the Venetian Hoteliers Association, said the low tides did bring some benefits.

For more than 70 days this summer, a marine heatwave cooked the waters of the western Mediterranean. "We've been witnessing marine heatwaves during the last 20 years," said Garrabou, who's also coordinator of the T-MEDNet marine monitoring network. A 2016 marine heatwave along Chile's southern coast caused huge algae blooms that wiped out fish farms and cost the aquaculture industry some $800 million, said scientist Kathryn Smith with the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. As the world warms, marine heatwaves are expected to become more frequent, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Though economists have yet to account fully for the impacts of marine heatwaves, recent experience has many concerned.

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