Greta Thunberg, International Climate Activist.

“Yes, hello, are you aware that it’s Sea Turtle Week?" 

This endangered hawksbill turtle wants to be sure you know! Hawksbills are just one of several species of sea turtle found within the waters of Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Look closely and you can see a GPS-linked satellite tag on its shell. This tag helps NOAA researchers track its movements, so we can better understand which habitats are critical for hawksbill recovery. 

(Photo: Don McLeish/NOAA) 

[Image description: A close-up of a hawksbill turtle that is looking directly at the camera. A small GPS tag is attached to its shell.]

One of the major threats to sea turtles is entanglement in fishing gear and other marine debris. 

Each year, threatened green sea turtles make their way to breeding grounds in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Although these islands are largely uninhabited and are protected by Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, ocean currents carry enormous quantities of trash here from around the world. More than 50 tons of debris enters monument waters each year! Here, fishing nets and other debris can entangle breeding adults and young hatchlings. 

You can help protect these and other sea turtles by reducing the amount of plastic you use and participating in beach and watershed cleanups. What actions will you take to protect 🐢? 

(Photo: Andy Collins/NOAA) 

[Image description: A green sea turtle rests on a beach. In the foreground is a pile of derelict fishing nets.]

Packing for a Journey into the Twilight Zone

Submitted for your consideration: A team of researchers from more than 20 institutions, boarding two research vessels, heading into the ocean’s twilight zone.

The twilight zone is a dimly lit region between 650 and 3300 feet below the surface, where we’re unfolding the mystery of how tiny ocean organisms affect our planet’s climate.

These tiny organisms – called phytoplankton – are plant-like and mostly single-celled. They live in water, taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.

Two boats, more than 100 researchers from more than 20 partner institutions, and a whole fleet of robotic explorers make up the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) team. We’re learning more about what happens to carbon dioxide after phytoplankton digest it.

The Equipment to Find Phytoplankton

Phytoplankton have predators in the ocean called zooplankton. They absorb the phytoplankton’s carbon, carrying it up the food chain. The EXPORTS mission will focus partly on how that happens in the ocean’s twilight zone, where some zooplankton live.  When phytoplankton die, sometimes their bodies sink through the same area. All of this carries carbon dioxide into the ocean’s depths and out of Earth’s atmosphere.

Counting Life

Studying the diversity of these organisms is important to better understand what’s happening to the phytoplankton as they die. Researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are using a very fine mesh net to sample water at various depths throughout the ocean to count various plankton populations.

Researchers from the University of Rhode Island are bringing the tools to sequence the DNA of phytoplankton and zooplankton to help count these organism populations, getting a closer look at what lives below the ocean’s surface.

Science at 500 Feet

Taking measurements at various depths is important, because phytoplankton, like plants, use sunlight to digest carbon dioxide. That means that phytoplankton at different levels in the ocean absorb and digest carbon differently. We’re bringing a Wirewalker, an instrument that glides up and down along a vertical wire to take in water samples all along its 500-foot long tether.

This journey to the twilight zone will take about thirty days, but we’ll be sending back dispatches from the ships. Follow along as we dive into ocean diversity on our Earth Expeditions blog: https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Underwater creatures: Photographer Marty Snyderman captures unique behaviors

Underwater photographer Marty Snyderman’s fascinating body of work brings to life some of the more unique behaviors of the animals of the deep. Snyderman has dedicated his professional life to documenting these creatures — including those that clean other fish, guard fertilized eggs in their mouths, and “fish” for their dinner using a natural worm or fishlike lure incorporating their own body as a fishing rod. In order to find such intriguing creatures, Snyderman, 67, said a lot of discussion must first take place between himself and fishermen, scientists, photographers or even local diving instructors. When photographing his subjects, he tries to stay within one or two feet of them whenever possible, something he admits can be tricky, given the sensitivity of the fish, whales, manta rays and other subjects. (Caters News)

Photography by Marty Snyderman

See more photos of underwater creatures and our other slideshows on Yahoo News.

Annual Arctic sea ice minimum, 1979-2016

This Type of Algae Absorbs More Light for Photosynthesis Than Other Plants

An obscure and ecologically successful group of algae, known as cryptophytes, have evolved pigments that capture light where chlorophyll cannot, Dudycha and colleagues report in a series of recent papers. The extra energy absorption from more wavelengths of light has allowed these algae to thrive in a variety of diverse environments, from oceans to streams to ponds to mud puddles.

NSF cancels grant reviews due to WH executive order

The National Science Foundation (NSF)—the major funding agency for basic science—has canceled all grant review panels this week to comply with an executive order from the new administration. This is where independent panels of scientists discuss grant proposals they’ve reviewed for scientific merit and recommend which projects get funded to NSF project managers. A LOT of work goes into setting up and scheduling grant reviews. It will take time to reschedule these panels, delaying key decisions for many promising projects. This will wreak havoc on science grant funding for months to come.

Put simply, this action along with the halting of NIH-funded grants are blatant and reckless political attacks on science, from an administration that seeks blinding loyalty.

NPR

National Science Foundation freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders

The National Science Foundation has canceled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

This past weekend marked the first anniversary of the launch of NASA’s latest ocean color satellite, PACE 🛰️! Happy birthday PACE!

Sharpening Our View of Climate Change with the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Satellite

As our planet warms, Earth’s ocean and atmosphere are changing.

Climate change has a lot of impact on the ocean, from sea level rise to marine heat waves to a loss of biodiversity. Meanwhile, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide continue to warm our atmosphere.

NASA’s upcoming satellite, PACE, is soon to be on the case!

Set to launch on Feb. 6, 2024, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission will help us better understand the complex systems driving the global changes that come with a warming climate.

Earth’s ocean is becoming greener due to climate change. PACE will see the ocean in more hues than ever before.

While a single phytoplankton typically can’t be seen with the naked eye, communities of trillions of phytoplankton, called blooms, can be seen from space. Blooms often take on a greenish tinge due to the pigments that phytoplankton (similar to plants on land) use to make energy through photosynthesis.

In a 2023 study, scientists found that portions of the ocean had turned greener because there were more chlorophyll-carrying phytoplankton. PACE has a hyperspectral sensor, the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), that will be able to discern subtle shifts in hue. This will allow scientists to monitor changes in phytoplankton communities and ocean health overall due to climate change.

Phytoplankton play a key role in helping the ocean absorb carbon from the atmosphere. PACE will identify different phytoplankton species from space.

With PACE, scientists will be able to tell what phytoplankton communities are present – from space! Before, this could only be done by analyzing a sample of seawater.

Telling “who’s who” in a phytoplankton bloom is key because different phytoplankton play vastly different roles in aquatic ecosystems. They can fuel the food chain and draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to photosynthesize. Some phytoplankton populations capture carbon as they die and sink to the deep ocean; others release the gas back into the atmosphere as they decay near the surface.

Studying these teeny tiny critters from space will help scientists learn how and where phytoplankton are affected by climate change, and how changes in these communities may affect other creatures and ocean ecosystems.

Climate models are one of our most powerful tools to understand how Earth is changing. PACE data will improve the data these models rely on.

The PACE mission will offer important insights on airborne particles of sea salt, smoke, human-made pollutants, and dust – collectively called aerosols – by observing how they interact with light.

With two instruments called polarimeters, SPEXone and HARP2, PACE will allow scientists to measure the size, composition, and abundance of these microscopic particles in our atmosphere. This information is crucial to figuring out how climate and air quality are changing.

PACE data will help scientists answer key climate questions, like how aerosols affect cloud formation or how ice clouds and liquid clouds differ.

It will also enable scientists to examine one of the trickiest components of climate change to model: how clouds and aerosols interact. Once PACE is operational, scientists can replace the estimates currently used to fill data gaps in climate models with measurements from the new satellite.

With a view of the whole planet every two days, PACE will track both microscopic organisms in the ocean and microscopic particles in the atmosphere. PACE’s unique view will help us learn more about the ways climate change is impacting our planet’s ocean and atmosphere.

Stay up to date on the NASA PACE blog, and make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of sPACE!

Stunning Footage of Sperm Whales Attempting to Communicate With Freedivers Using Clicking Noises