the past six weeks has been a wonderful journey. I learnt so much from your questions and comments and hope that the same holds true for you as well.

Before we finish this module, I would like to give you my own piece of advice on how to help protecting the oceans. As a biologist I am going to focus on the living organisms that inhabit the oceans, and specifically fish.

Most of us eat fish on a regular basis. Fish, apart from being very tasty, are necessary for a balanced diet they are high in omega-3 fatty acids that are good for keeping the heart healthy.

However, we should be aware of which fish to eat, as overfishing of specific species puts great pressure on their populations and eventually they might be faced with extinction. In addition, fishing of some species such as the tuna using fish aggregating devices (FADs) has detrimental effects on other types of fish and marine organisms (e.g. sea turtles), which are being caught as by-catch and then thrown off the ship. Greenpeace is pressuring supermarkets and brands supporting FADs to move to pole and line caught seafood. See this helpful video below which helps visualising the situation:

You can also check #NotJustTuna and #justtuna that have gained considerable attention over the past days on twitter.

Here you can also find some fish guides that list the species you should avoid eating or at least take notice of the method the fish is being caught. The Marine Conservation Society for example, lists 65 fish species that are fished unsustainably and thus should be avoided by consumers.

I am not advocating removing fish completely from your diet. I am just trying to raise awareness as to which fish species are on the verge of extiction and thus, we, the consumers should be more careful the next time we go and buy fresh or canned fish from the supermarket.

As an epilogue, I will attach this superb video that has been created as part of the European’s Union campaign to end overfishing

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in alignment with week 5’s material, I thought it would be a good idea to add some links from past cruise blogs. In these, you will get to know more about life onboard the ship and the various research activities undertaken during a cruise.

Hope you find it interesting!

The post Best of cruise blogs appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

the idea for this post came from one comment I read during week 2 the course. A learner, Mike Charleswoth Finch, was asking why in modern English we use the word haline, instead of saline, to refer to the thermohaline circulation. Professor Rachel Mills replied “past estimates of saltiness came from titration of the halogens (halides in ionic form), and the word is derived from the Greek for salt. The word saline is derived from Latin for salt!”.

Now this made me thinking, what about the history of the words (etymology) that we came across this week’s material. I made a small search and below I present some examples. Hope you enjoy it!

Mobilis in mobili: moving in a moving thing; changing through the changing medium. This was the motto of Nautilus from the Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (source: Wikipedia)

Water (Figure 1): Old English wæter (noun) of Germanic origin; related to Dutch water, German Wasser, from an Indo-European root shared by Russian voda (compare with vodka), also by Latin unda ‘wave’ and Greek hudōr ‘water’ (source: Google).

For more interesting facts about the etymology of water and its relation to English History see:

http://watermyth.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/history-of-english-word-water-part-one.html

http://watermyth.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/etymology-of-water.html

Figure 1. A splash of water

Ocean (Figure 2): Late 13th century from Old French occean “ocean” (12c., Modern French océan), from Latin oceanus, from Greek okeanos, the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth (as opposed to the Mediterranean), of unknown origin (source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ocean)

Some early references of the word okeanos in the Greek mythology:

http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanOkeanos.html

Figure 2. Oceans

Gyre (Figure 3): late Middle English (in the sense ‘whirl someone or something round’): from late Latin gyrare, from Latin gyrus ‘a ring’, from Greek guros . The noun is from Latin gyrus  (source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gyre)

Figure 3. The three main gyres in the Pacific Ocean.

Interestingly, gyros in modern Greek has also come to mean a typical streetfood delicacy (Figure 4)  similar to well-known kebap.

Figure 4. Gyros, a delicacy from Greece.

Lunar: late Middle English: from Latin lunaris, from luna ‘moon’ (source: Google)

The modern English word lunatic has the same root and referes to someone affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes of the moon.

Solar: late Middle English: from Latin solaris, from sol ‘sun’ (source: Google).

Again many modern English words have the same root, such as: circumsolar, extrasolar, insolate, insolation, solar, solarium, soliform, solstice, subsolar

Image credits:

Figure 1: https://u.osu.edu/commoditychainahlqvist/watering/

Figure 2: http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/take-action/10-things-you-can-do-to-save-the-ocean/

Figure 3: http://cimioutdoored.org/gyre-work/

Figure 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyro_%28food%29

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today I am going to tell you a bit about what the oceans mean to me. This is also part of your activities for the first week of Exploring Our Oceans (1.8. “What do the oceans mean to you?”), and I have to admit that I am astonished by the different perspectives and views people have for this wonderful “habitat”.

Waves

Figure 1. The power of waves.

Waves are in perpetual movement. They shape the coasts around the world. Some people ride them. Some people are scared of them. Some people love watching them from a safe distance. But no one is indifferent towards them. Waves have always fascinated me. They are both scary and mysteriously beautiful at the same time. They captivate me. They have my fullest attention. They are of the most iconic aspects of the ocean to me.

Wildlife

Figure 2. A typical coral reef.

What would the oceans be without its inhabitants? This is difficult to answer, but in any case it would be much more boring. From large fishes to tiny algae, from ancient sponges to fairly recent sea otters, oceans are teeming with life. A coral reef (Figure 2) is a typical example of a biodiversity hot spot in the oceans.

Benthic foraminifera

Image 3. Photomicrograph of some calcareous benthic foraminifera.

Ok, I admit it benthic foraminifera are not the first thing that pops up to most people’s mind when they think about the oceans. To be fair, before I started my PhD I was not one of those people as well.

However, benthic foraminifera are and have been iterally everywhere in the oceans, and become more and more abundant as one goes deeper. They might not be as charismatic as larger marine mammals, but they do have beautifully complex and elaborate “tests” (shells), are incredibly diverse and play an important role in the carbon cycle. You don’t need to be a foraminiferologist to adore these wonderful sea creatures.

Image credits

Image 1: http://hdwallpapersfit.com/ocean-waves-hd-wallpapers.html

Image 2: http://www.wallpaperup.com/22477/animals_fishes_underwater_oceans_seas.html

Image 3: http://gallery.usgs.gov/photos/03_27_2014_gkb4Frq11X_03_27_2014_6#.Vd2UVZdvmiw

The post Paris Stefanoudis: what do the oceans mean to me appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

today I am going to tell you a little bit of what I am doing in my PhD and my main activities throughout the year!

My research

My study area is the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Abyssal_Plain), situated in the northeast Atlantic (Figure 1). This area has been investigated over the past 30 years and was initially chosen because scientists thought i) it was for most of its part flat and hence the water depth was thought to remain more or less constant throughout the area and ii) it is far away from the continental slope and thus it would have minimum terrestrial impact. While the second point is true, recent bathymetric data showed that the area is not as flat as previously thought.

Figure 1. The location of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) in the northeast Atlantic.

The seafloor at PAP is populated by several small hills (<1000 meters in height). Today we know that hills are one of the most common landform in our oceans. They are ecologically similar to the better-known seamounts (>1000 meters in height) (Figure 3).

Figure 2. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the middle and several  hills and seamounts on both sides of it.

Figure 3. A collection of benthic foraminifera that I found on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, NE Atlantic.

The aim of my research is to look at how this topographic variation (abyssal hills versus the “flat” abyssal plain) on the PAP seafloor affects benthic foraminiferal communities (Figure3) in terms of:

• abundance (How many individuals of foraminifera are present in each site?)
• diversity (How many different species are present?)
• community composition (What species are present in each site? Are some species present only on the hills and not on the plain and vice versa?)

At first, that might not seem as important to some people. However, knowing the effect of hills and seamounts on the diversity patterns of these common marine organisms can help us estimate their total abundance and diversity in the oceans. Many benthic foraminifera are calcium producers as their “tests” (shells) are made of calcium carbonate. As such, they are important to the global carbon cycle and thus can mediate the effects of rising CO₂ levels.

Lab

In order to give answers to those questions, I have to analyse sediment samples taken from my study area in 2011, and then analyse them back in the lab. This involves individually picking out all the benthic foraminifera present in the samples, counting their total numbers and identifying the different species.

Stats

With the help of statistical packages, my data on hill and plain foraminiferal communities is compared against environmental information from the study sites (sediment characteristics, food availability) and if any significant correlations are present, they will be identified.

Marine Life Talks

These are talks aimed for the public given the first Thursday of every month, covering various aspects of marine (or aquatic) science such as biology, ecology, archaeology, geology or maritime activities. They first started 10 years ago in the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton) (NOCS) and have been running since with great success. Now they are organised by me and other PhD students from NOCS. They are great fun and many a people turn up every month.

For information about upcoming talks please visit:

http://noc.ac.uk/news/marine-life-talks

Demonstrating and volunteering

Many PhD students have the option to demonstrate in lectures or practical sessions for undergraduate courses. The online course “Exploring our Oceans” is another example. I personally try to do it as much as possible. Regarding the online course, I thought it would be a great idea to interact with the public, make them aware of our work and give them useful information about our oceans.

Workshops, conferences

Of course, PhD-life would not be the same without participating in workshops (enhance my skills in certain areas e.g. statistics) and attending conferences (present your work, exchange ideas and/or make connections with researchers working on similar subjects).

If you want to know about what I am doing you can follow me on twitter: @Paris_St_V

Image credits:

Figure 1: http://www.classroomatsea.net/D341/about.html

Figure 2: http://oceansjsu.com/105d/exped_mapping/ridge.html

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It was one month after my start that I was asked to take part in the James Cook 85 cruise (JC085) at the NE Atlantic and more specific the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Area, where my whole project is actually based. The cruise was to start on the 14th of April (2013) from Southampton and finish on the 29th of April in Glasgow. I was overwhelmed with joy and I could already imagine me like the new Jacques Cousteau.

The cruise was going to last just 16 days (about the minimum duration for a research cruise in deep waters) which I thought might be a good start for someone who has never been on a ship before. In order to join the ship, I had medical examination (always good, even if you are not going on the ship) as well as sea-survival training (fun times at the Warsash Maritime Academy!).

Older PhD students who had been on a cruise before gave me a piece of advice: on a ship you always have to have with you seasick tablets. And so I did…!

Upon arriving on the ship I familiarised myself with the area (decks, cabins, common rooms) introduced myself to the other scientists that were going to be with me for the next 2 weeks, and started working. Boxes had to be tied up, equipment had to be transferred in order to be readily available when needed etc. In short, everything had to be in order for later use.

The first days were quite rough, with huge waves shaking our lovely ship, making even seasoned crew members feeling ill.

I was seasick as well and if I had to choose one word to describe the whole process of sea-sickness, it would be: Misery! Luckily it did not last long (2 days) (thank you seasick tablets and ginger beer!) and after that I was fully operational and ready to rock! However, I had to wait two more days until we arrived at the PAP area.

As soon as we arrived, everyone on the ship became more active and we finally started doing what they were supposed to do: SCIENCE!

I was involved in the benthic part of it which included:

1. Megacorer deployment

This piece of equipment is used in order collect sediment samples (see left picture) from the bottom of the ocean. Studies for macrofauna (anything than is retained in a sieve with mesh size of 300 μm, usually invertebrates) as well as meiofauna (anything that passes through 300 μm but is retained in 32 μm, usually foraminiferans and nematodes). The team responsible for this is posing for you in the picture above!

2. Amphipod traps

As can be seen from the picture, four amphipod traps were deployed on the seafloor, all using fish as a bait (hence it is a trap!). Depending on the the number of amphipods that aggregate at a given time interval in each of the four traps, along with their orientation of each trap relative to the seafloor, we get important information about amphipod density and ecology.

3. Otter trawl

By far the most exciting part was the trawl. The whole procedure took ages, but when the trawl arrived on the deck, it was full of deep-sea treasures (see pic below): crabs, starfish, ugly/scary deep-sea fish (albeit when you see them live you realise how small they are) and of course huge sea cucumbers (see 2nd pic below). I was a strange feeling holding in your hands something that lives 5000 m beneath the sea surface. It was a truly unique experience and for me the highlight of the cruise.

  A best-of the things you get from a trawl.

 A sea-cucumber

In many cases I had to wake up at 3 in the night, as our shift was usually between 4 am to 4 pm. With lots of coffee, anything is possible though!

Apart from the processes that I was involved I looked with great interest at what other scientific groups did and helped whenever I could. Cooperation and team spirit was luckily present and at the end I had made some good friends.

During evenings we very often saw movies in the DVD-room, played cards, went to the gym or simply chatted while having a beer with the rest of the scientists and crew members. Food was great and the all the cooks were really friendly (they also listened to old school rock n roll, which is always a plus).

After 16 days, our journey came to and end and we returned back at NOCS. Not before taking a picture with all the scientists together, though!

In conclusion, being on a research cruise is great fun and I would recommend it to every oceanographer! The only things that is in my to-do list, is go with a submersible in the deep and witness everything live and in motion.

Sources:

Jacques Cousteau: http://www.danocreative.com/art/?p=468

Sea-surival course: http://www.sunsail.co.uk/sailing-schools/shorebased/rya-sea-survival

Seasick: http://www.esquire.com/features/Dilemmas/seasick-0808#slide-1

Megacorer: http://www.classroomatsea.net/JC010/features/megacorer.html

Amphipod trap: http://noc.ac.uk/news/rrs-james-cook-cruise-062-4-august-2011 and http://ecomar2010.wordpress.com/page/3/

Trawl: http://www.oceanlab.abdn.ac.uk/blog/?p=133

Sea cucumber: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber

The post Life on board – Paris appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

today I am going to tell you a little bit of what I am doing in my PhD and my main activities throughout the day!

1. FORAMS (a.k.a. Foraminifera)

Figure1. Best of Foraminifera

My main aim is to look at how topographical features such as abyssal hills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abyssal_plain) affect benthic Foraminifera (those that live on the seabed). For that reason we took samples in 2011 during the James Cook Cruise 62 from the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Area (PAP) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcupine_Abyssal_Plain).

Figure 2. The James Cook in action!

2. LAB

Back in the lab, I pick out all the forams in the samples and try to identify what species they belong to.

Figure 3. A typical day in the lab

3. Pictures

Another important task is to take pictures of every foram species I encounter. In the end, I hope to make a photographic atlas showing all the species present at the PAP.

4. Stats

In each of the study sites there is more data available about grain size, slope of the abyssal hills, food availability etc. which I combine with my foram-data and try to find correlations by using statistical software. This part is also fun as I get the chance to sit in my lovely office and have a cup of coffee!

5. Workshops, conferences, paper writing

Of course, PhD-life would not be the same without participating in workshops (enhancemy skills in certain areas e.g. statistics) and attending conferences (present your work, exchange ideas and/or make connections with researchers working on similar subjects).

Scientific articles, sometimes referred to as papers, are another important part of every scientist/researcher.Papers are the means by which scientists can make their work known to the rest of the scientific community. They are published in scientific journals (there are hundreds of them, each specialized in a certain area!) and are available online to everyone (a subscription to the journal is necessary though, apart from open-access articles such as those you have seen in the course). This is particularly important, as it helps us, scientists, communicate and combine our knowledge to test new hypothesis, validate old theories or tackle current environmental problems.

6. Marine Life Talks

These are talks aimed for the public given the first Thursday of every month, covering various aspects of marine (or aquatic) science such as biology, ecology, archaeology, geology or maritime activities etc. They first started 10 years ago in the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton) (NOCS) and have been running  since with great success. Now they are organised by me and Matteo Ichino (also a MOOC facilitator) and another PhD student (Jen Durden) in our group. They are great fun and many a people turn up every month. Next week’s talk (now that I have the chance to advertise it) is:  “Crabs, eels and rubbish: long term studies on the River Thames”, by Dr Paul Clark from the Natural History Museum (London). You are all welcome to attend! Date and time: 06/03/2014 at 7.30 pm.

More info: http://noc.ac.uk/news/marine-life-talks

7. Demonstrating and volunteering

Many PhD students have the option to demonstrate in lectures or practical sessions for undergraduate courses. The online course “Exploring our Oceans” is another example. I personally try to do it as much as possible. Regarding the online course, I thought it would be a great idea to interact with the public, make them aware of our work and give them useful information about our oceans.

7. Social activities

There are a lot of such activities in NOCS : sport activities  (volleyball, circuits, football etc.), post-graduate coffee, social hours, cake sales,  all at a weekly/regular basis, which help me to socialize and get to know other people working in the building. It is much more fun when you have familiar people working around, plus you don’t feel alone when you stay until late in the lab trying finish your work!

So more or less, that is what I am doing during my PhD. It would be nice to hear also from other undergraduates, masters or PhD students.

How did you find it? Did you have this in mind when you were thinking of PhD students?

Image credits:

Fig.1) http://geologyinart.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/foraminiferal-sculpture-park-question.html

Fig.2) http://www.amtblog.org.uk/index.php/category/andy-rees

The post PhD-life appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

1) Dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis): Apart from Dumbo being one of my favorite cartoons ever, this octopus is nothing short of beautiful. Looking at the video (see below) its movements are so elegant and remind me of a small baby. If I was a shark I would leave this possible meal in peace!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXrzpisJ9pI

2. Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina): Seals have a special place in my heart. To me, seals like the one depicted blow, look as if they are resting on a big sofa, taking a nap, after a massive Sunday meal!

3) Penguins (Aptenodytes): I will not even attempt to justify this choice. That picture should be reason enough for you.

4) Australian snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni): With human-like expressions and behavior, that particular species looks like a really, really, good fella!

5) Foraminifera: What?? Foraminifera are cute?…Actually they are not, but I though it would be a good idea to make you aware of them as I am in contact with these little creatures every day. In the picture that I created this Christmas 2013 to decorate my office, you can see that with a little bit of help from basic software, everyone can look funny/cute. By the way, the different foraminiferan species in the picture belong to the genus Reophax.

Which are your cutest animals? Comment below. You never know how everyone views things in life!

Sources:

1) http://sublimecreatures.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/the-dumbo-octopus/

2) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Common_Seal_Phoca_vitulina.jpg

3) http://www.bubblews.com/news/2255355-march-of-the-penguins

4) http://seaturtles.org/article.php?id=2554

The post Cutest sea creatures appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

2. Frilled shark
Look at those teeth. And the killer look!

3. Giant squid
Just compare the size of the scientists and that of the squid. It’s called giant for a good reason. The fact that the pic is black and white makes it even more terrifying (like a Hitchcock movie)

4. Vipefish
Thought to put the angler fish, but looking at that picture I changed my mind.

5. Moray eel
You are thinking “An eel? Seriously?”. Well yes, this particular eel always gave me the creeps. Notice the long, cold stare!

So which are your scariest sea animals?
Source:
1. http://www.stunninginterestingfacts.com/2013/01/the-blobfish.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chlamydoselachus_anguineus_head.jpg
3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Giant_squid_Ranheim.jpg
4. http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01679/deep-sea-viperfish_1679474i.jpg
5. http://www.messersmith.name/wordpress/tag/moray-eel/

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I am going to share with you some pictures from the oceans which are representative for me. My area of expertise is the deep-sea so I am going to focus on that. Next week it will be your turn to tell us what the oceans mean to you!

Although a scientist myself, when I hear the words “deep-sea” I find it hard not to think of the angler fish. Of course, this truly vast environment has much more to display, but the angler fish is nevertheless iconic.

James Cook is a UK research ship going all over the world to study the oceans. Having been there myself as part of my PhD, I feel it is inextricably linked with oceans.

No, it is not a picture from a snowing night. This is the so called “marine snow” and represents the main food source for organisms in the deep-sea. For more info about it see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_snow.

This software-generated image shows that the seafloor is not flat. There are sea mountains, valleys, hills etc. Abyssal hills in particular, are the most common landform on earth! The view from top of one hill must be breathtaking!

One of my PhD’s main focuses is to look at Foraminifera. Xenophyophores (see picture) are associated organisms and cover much of the seafloor at great depths. Truly spectacular organisms, worth knowing.

Keep an eye on the blog over the next for more posts from the facilitators, educators of the course (#UoSFLOceans) and researchers of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

Image credits:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/anglerfish/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_James_Cook
http://www.seos-project.eu/modules/oceancurrents/oceancurrents-c03-p04.html
http://oceansjsu.com/105d/exped_mapping/ridge.html
http://everythingisweird.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/what-is-the-mariana-trench/

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