Fellow Study Abroad Students

james.garlick Milky Way Over Sea Sparkle Bay. Bioluminescent Phytoplankton or “Sea Sparkles” captured on the neck of the South Arm Peninsula in Tasmania

DEEP-SEA MINING COULD DESTROY MARINE ECOSYSTEMS

Despite deep-sea environments covers about half of the Earth’s surface and is home to a vast range of species, little is known about these environments, and mining could have long-lasting and unforeseen consequences, not just at mining sites but also across much larger areas.

According to a study published in scientific journal Frontiers in Marine Science, which is the first to give a global overview of all current plans to mine the seabed, in both national and international waters, and looks at the potential impacts including physical destruction of seabed habitats, creation of large underwater plumes of sediment and the effects of chemical, noise and light pollution arising from mining operations.

Rising demand for minerals and metals, including for use in the technology sector, has led to a resurgence of interest in exploration of mineral resources located on the seabed. Such resources, whether seafloor massive sulfides around hydrothermal vents, cobalt-rich crusts on the flanks of seamounts or fields of manganese nodules on the abyssal plains, cannot be considered in isolation of the distinctive, in some cases unique, assemblages of marine species associated with the same habitats and structures.

Some operations are already taking place, generally at relatively shallow depths near national coastlines. The first commercial enterprise, expected to target mineral-rich sulfides in deeper waters, at depths between 1,500 and 2,000 m on the continental shelf of Papua New Guinea, is scheduled to begin early in 2019.

Illustration: A schematic showing the potential impacts of deep-sea mining on marine ecosystems. Schematic not to scale.

Reference: Miller et al., 2018.  An Overview of Seabed Mining Including the Current State of Development, Environmental Impacts, and Knowledge Gaps. Frontiers in Marine Science.

The Ghost, Craig Parry’s photo of the famed white whale Migaloo won first place in the underwater world category at the 2017 Golden Turtle International Photography Competition in Moscow this week.

Anyone else love squids as much as we do? (Qeue slow-motion tentacle-raise) 🙋🏻

Galiteuthis phyllura, also known as the cockatoo squid, lives in the North Pacific from 200 to over 1,000 meters (660 to 3,280 feet) deep. This species has a transparent body and photophores, or light organs, under their eyes. We often encounter them hanging horizontally in the water column with their arms raised above their heads.

major traffic incident

Costa Rica’s flag

To post about the miniature melo (Micromelo undatus) may seem a bit odd, as it is not a nudibranch but a closely-related sea snail! Its thinly-calcified shell is easily seen covering half of its back and is patterned with dazzling brown-red lines, a stark contrast to the blue, white-spotted body below. It lives in many tropic waters, whether that be Japan or Florida, and reaches about 3cm in length. It eats polychaete worms, and uses their toxins as its own.

Semana Santa

Tortuguero

Puerto Viejo

Beach

Other exchange students

This past week was Semana Santa, so in other words, it was spring break for us. Everyone in our program (there are 14 IFSA students in Costa Rica for the semester and two more that are in their second semester here) had travel plans. A few people went to places alone, one group traveled outside of Costa Rica, and I went with a group to Tortuguero and Puerto Viejo. There were six of us total, and the initial trip to Tortuguero lasted half a day.  

It concluded with a one hour boat ride to Tortuguero, which speaks to how secluded and isolated it is. The main road is a large sidewalk and there were no cars. The beach was never crowded, although the ocean was too rough to swim in. After a few days, I recognized people as we walked around the town. Tuesday morning, I unfortunately woke up with a headache due to a lack of food the day before. So I missed the beach day by trying to sleep it off, but after lunch, everyone else wanted to take a nap. Since I was feeling better, I decided to go to the beach alone (which was less than five minutes from the hotel- and it took less than 10 minutes to get from one shoreline to the other). It was so relaxing since there were not many people and at one point, a dog decided to hang out with me for five minutes. On Wednesday, we went on a canoe tour in el Parque Nacional de Tortuguero. We saw lots of birds and a two different points, we were a few feet away from caimans.  

We left Tortuguero Thursday morning and spent half the day traveling to Puerto Viejo. Puerto Viejo was basically the opposite of Tortuguero as far as tourist destinations go. Tortuguero was secluded, very little people (even though there were tourists), no cars. Puerto Viejo was crowded and is a popular destination for Semana Santa. And while I think the beach in Tortuguero was more beautiful than any in Puerto Viejo, the ocean was nicer in Puerto Viejo because it was relatively easy to find a good place to swim.  

Now, going into the trip, I thought that our group was probably relatively cohesive. But as in all groups (even small ones) there were tensions that slowly got worse as the week went on. First, let me give a little context. Out of the 14 of us, there are very clear tensions in the group. It is easy to tell who does not get along with someone else. Lines and groups formed relatively quickly since we spent so much time together in the beginning. But for Semana Santa, it seemed that the two main groups had divided. However, even within ours, there was tension. It was mainly little stuff that slowly increased as the week went on, but the important thing is that it did not prevent anyone from enjoying themselves on the trip.  

This is also kind of a teachable moment as well. Some people think that when they go abroad, they will meet and become great friends with awesome people. While this is not necessarily wrong, I think it is important to realize that just because you are abroad, it doesn't mean that people will leave stuff that leads to social problems and tensions in the U.S. My advice? Don't force friendships, especially if you don't make friends right away anyways, like me. Be yourself and focus on enjoying your time during this awesome experience. Chances are you will develop friendships and they will be natural ones since you have not forced anything (this is what I have done, and I have become friends with other IFSA students). And if you don’t, that's okay too. Remember, you only have a few months to take in as much of another country as possible and that may mean you don't have enough time to develop very strong friendships. And instead of trying to build friendships with other exchange students, try to build relationships with your host family and with native students. They are the ones who can really show you what their country has to offer.

THE PARADOX OF THE PLANKTON EXPLAINED BY COMPUTER SIMULATION

The paradox of the plankton results from the clash between the observed diversity of plankton and the competitive exclusion principle, which states that, when two species compete for the same resource, ultimately only one will persist and the other will be driven to extinction. With phytoplankton this is different, despite the limited range of resources, as is light, nitrate, phosphate, silicic acid, iron, a large number of species coexist, all competing for the same sorts of resources.

Now, a new math model explains such biodiversity. To understand this paradox researchers created a conceptual model for a theoretical community. Where each member of that community consumes one type of resource, and consuming it causes the production of exactly two new resources. Also, any new member could only survive if there is an open niche, or if it was better to exploit a resource than a current member. But with this computer simulation, researchers discovered that its simple rules led to a virtual community that, like the bacterial or phytoplankton communities, this hypotethical community was diverse and stable, and in fact became increasingly stable to as organisms diversified.

Resource competition and metabolic commensalism -where one organism benefits from the other without affecting it- drive a healty and diverse ecosystem. Researchers demonstrate that even when supplied with just one resource, ecosystems can exhibit high diversity and increasing stability.  Despite early stages where massive die-offs scenes occured, as time passed and community grew more stable, these became less common. Affortunately to phytoplancton species, two communities under ideal conditions can develop so differently from one another, without producing extintions.

Photo:  Gordon T. Taylor.

Reference: Goyal and Maslov, 2018. Diversity, Stability, and Reproducibility in Stochastically Assembled Microbial Ecosystems, Physical Review Letters 

One Month

One month down

Cultural differences

Language barrier

On Friday, my first month in Costa Rica ended and marked the beginning of my second month here. Over the course of this month, I have noticed a lot of differences between Costa Rican culture and U.S. culture, although there are probably more that I have not noticed because I have not thought about them. Personal space and your personal bubble do not exist in the way they do in the U.S. It is common to hug and kiss people on the cheek as a sign of greeting and farewell, which as someone who likes their personal bubble, is taking a bit of time to get used to. It is very common for men to catcall, whistle, honk their horns, and stare at women walking, although every time that I have seen it, that's all it was. It makes me think that instead of men just lacking in all forms of self control, it is more of a cultural norm to do it and it would be out of place for men not to do it. Although, it still makes my female friends from the U.S. very uncomfortable for obvious reasons. Rules of the road really just seem like suggestions and it seems that drivers make up their own rules as they go, including motorcycles and scooters that always pass cars, buses, trucks, SUVs, etc... when they shouldn't. Most classes at the university are only once a week and there is a lot less busy work and a lot more group work. It is acceptable for people to show up late for classes and events (tico time), however, it does not apply to my science classes.

By far, my biggest struggle has been the language barrier. Looking back at a month ago, I can tell that there has been at least a subtle increase in my proficiency with Spanish. I try to listen and follow my professors, my parents, and other people that I encounter, but at times I can't understand what they are saying, although my listening skills are still a lot better than my speaking skills. I try to talk as much as possible but my problems are when I don't a word I need and cannot get around (although today I had a conversation about my opinion genetic modification with classmates for fun and it went really well) and if I don't have anything to say, I usually don't say anything. To mediate this, I've tried to force myself to talk more with mixed success. But I have learned that even if I understand 95% of what everyone says, the only way my speaking will improve is if I speak as much as I possibly can, knowing that I will make a lot of mistakes in the beginning.