When algae blooms turn toxic, they can inflict sweeping harm on wildlife and humans that enter their path. One type of these algae overgrowths in coastal regions have a name—red tides—and in Florida, they’re such a problem that the governor has declared a state of emergency. It’s crunch time for research, and IBM is helping lead the charge, finding answers 1,000 miles away in New York’s Lake George. The Jefferson Project, a partnership between IBM Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and The FUND for Lake George, is turning the lake into a living laboratory. They’re using AI and IoT-connected sensors to power a new advance in environmental monitoring, modeling how bodies of water react to higher concentrations of humans, chemical runoff, and other disruptors. They’re collecting around nine terabytes of data per year, and the insights derived from this treasure trove of data may help unlock the power to literally stem red tides. The Jefferson Project is one of many IBM efforts to help preserve the environment for current and future generations.
With blockchain, ocean plastic has met its bottleneck.
What’s a great way to celebrate World Oceans Day? Honor the people and businesses working to save our oceans. One company’s solution is simple—Plastic Bank is incentivizing people to keep plastic on land by turning it into a new kind of currency. In developing countries, locals can bring their plastic waste to a collection center and trade it for digital tokens leveraging IBM Blockchain technology that can be exchanged for goods from participating merchants. In regions where bank accounts are rare, and crime and corruption are prevalent, Plastic Bank’s blockchain-powered currency offers a secure, portable alternative. With their mission to keep oceans clean while financially empowering communities, Plastic Bank is more than deserving of World Oceans Day accolades.
Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.
Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. The coastal dead zones result from fertiliser and sewage running off the land and into the seas.
The analysis, published in the journalScience, is the first comprehensive analysis of the areas and states: “Major extinction events in Earth’s history have been associated with warm climates and oxygen-deficient oceans.” Denise Breitburg, at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in the US and who led the analysis, said: “Under the current trajectory that is where we would be headed. But the consequences to humans of staying on that trajectory are so dire that it is hard to imagine we would go quite that far down that path.”
A fisherman on a beach in Temuco, Chile that is blanketed with dead sardines, a result of algal blooms that suck oxygen out of the water. Photograph: Felix Marquez/AP
TheChelidonura hirundinina is not a nudibranch - still, this colourful headshield slug can grow up to 4 cm long, and lives in the western Indo-Pacific. See the little hairs around the edge of its head (closest to the camera)? Those are cilia, and are used as sensors to detect their prey: flatworms. This species is also known as the Swallowtail Headshield slug, because of its split back end.
The “Betty” Bomber is a Japanese Navy bomber that was a technological game-changer for Japan during WW2. This particular airplane was claimed by the Pacific over seventy years ago - photo taken at Chuuk Lagoon, Micronesia
Green Sea Turtles (”Honu” in Hawaiian) begin their lives as omnivores, but then transition to an all vegetarian diet as they enter adulthood. They eat mostly sea grasses and algae and it is said that herbivorous turtles like these tend to host fewer parasitic organisms such as barnacles living on their shells, as a result of their vegetarian diet. Judging by the beauty and cleanliness of this dude’s shell, I’d say that the theory has some merit - photo taken at Maarehaa Kandu, Indian Ocean
