Marine Biology CLUB

Forest fires are currently burning so intensely in the Amazon rainforest that smoke from the blaze has actually covered nearby cities in a dark haze.

Amazon as the world’s largest rainforest plays a crucial role in keeping earth’s carbon-dioxide levels in check. The plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the air in their process of photosynthesis. This is the reason why Amazon rainforest which covers about 2.1 million square miles is often referred to as the lungs of our planet. The rainforest produces about 20 percent of the oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere. The Amazonian dry season which is from July to October which increases in late September. During the rest of the year, the wetter weather in amazon minimizes the risk of fires at other times of the year. The size of the Amazon Rain forest fire is still unclear. But it is sure that they had spread over several large Amazon states in northwest Brazil. NASA noted that the wildfires of Amazon Rainforest were large enough that they could be spotted from space On August 11. People in São Paulo had reported on social media that on Monday the sky had gone dark between 3 and 4 pm local time. The blazes have created a layer of smoke estimated to be 1.2 million square miles wide. The Amazon rain forest has shrunk by about 519 square miles i.e, 1,345 square kilometers which are even more than twice the area of Tokyo! The hotter and warmer conditions because of climate change can allow blazes that crop up during the summer season to grow bigger than they otherwise might have. Global warming also worsens this condition and the frequency of wildfires around the world. According to Climate Central, this year is going to be the third hottest on record globally. Last year was the fourth warmest where 2016 was the warmest followed by the year 2015 and 2017.

Dry and hotter conditions in the Northern Hemisphere are a consequence of this unprecedented warming. And this is because warming leads winter snow cover to melt very early and hotter air sucks away the moisture from trees and also from the soil. Decreased rainfall due to deforestation also makes forest prone to burning.

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Fish exposed to treated wastewater have altered behaviour

A team of researchers from Environment Canada and Climate Change Canada and McMaster University have found that fish living downstream from a wastewater treatment plant showed changes to their normal behaviour -- ones that made them vulnerable to predators -- when exposed to elevated levels of antidepressant drugs in the water.

The findings, published as a series of three papers in the journal Scientific Reports, point to the ongoing problem of prescription medications, personal care products and other drugs that end up in the watershed and the impact they have on the natural environment.

"Fish can be seen as the canaries in the coal mine," says Sigal Balshine, a professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster and one of the authors on the papers. "The fish that make their homes in the receiving waters downstream from wastewater treatment plants absorb these chemicals and therefore can be our water sentinels."

For their research, the team caged goldfish at various sites in Cootes Paradise watershed -- designated as a Great Lakes Area of Concern by an international environmental commission -- and at a control site in Jordan Harbour, which is located between Beamsville and St. Catharine's on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Their analysis found several commonly prescribed antidepressants, known as serotonin uptake/reuptake inhibitors, in the blood plasma of the fish that were caged in the Cootes Paradise Marsh, downstream from the Dundas Waste Water Treatment Plant.

The drugs, say, researchers, increased the levels of serotonin in the fish, which in turn affected their swimming behaviour. In short, the fish caged closest to the source of the drugs were bolder, less anxious, were more willing to explore, and more active overall than the fish caged at Jordan Harbour.

Because the affected fish were less anxious, their altered swimming patterns could make them more susceptible to predators. They began moving again faster following a simulated predator attack.

"Taken together, our results suggest the fish downstream of wastewater treatment plants are accumulating pharmaceuticals and personal care products at levels sufficient to alter neurotransmitter concentrations and to also impair ecologically-relevant behaviours," says Jim Sherry, a research scientist with Environment Canada and lead author of the study.

Researchers also point to other molecular changes in the fish which point to drug-induced injury to the liver and compromised lipid metabolism.

With an abundance of rivers, lakes and oceans, researchers suggest that most Canadians don't appreciate the seriousness and need for safe water reuse.

"Over one billion people on our planet lack access to clean drinking water and a number of serious water-borne diseases are caused by improper water treatment," says Balshine. "Water treatment and reuse must be a top priority for municipalities, regions and countries and so understanding the impacts of water treatment on ecosystem function is necessary first step to ensure that we have a sufficient water supply, maintain our biodiversity and protect the health of our ecosystems."

The study was funded by the Great Lakes Action Plan (Phase V) and the Build in Canada Innovation Program.

Seaweed could hold key to environmentally friendly sunscreen

A compound found in seaweed could protect human skin from the damaging impact of the sun without causing harm to marine ecosystems.

The use of sunscreens is advocated to prevent sun damage, but most formulations contain synthetic UV radiation filters that can make their way into water systems. Many of these are not eco-compatible and may harm fragile marine life including coral, fish and microorganisms.

Scientists at King's College London extracted a mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA), known as palythine, from seaweed to test its ability to protect against UV radiation in human skin cells. MAAs are natural compounds produced in organisms that live in sunlight-rich, shallow-water environments.

Using human skin cells in a lab, researchers showed that even at very low concentrations MAA could effectively absorb harmful rays from the sun and protect the cells against UVR induced damage. They also showed that palythine is a powerful antioxidant that could offer skin protection against oxidative stress, linked to cellular damage and photo ageing.

The paper, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, represents a breakthrough that could help move towards the development of an eco-compatible, non-toxic, natural sunscreen that protects human skin without negative environmental effects. Further research is required in order to prove that the compound has the same properties outside of the lab environment.

The European Chemicals Agency and The Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP), part of the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP), have expressed concern about the eco-toxic effects of eight out of the 16 commonly used sunscreen filters in Europe.

Lead author, Dr Karl Lawrence from St John's Institute of Dermatology at King's said: 'MAAs, in addition to their environmental benefits, appear to be multifunctional photoprotective compounds. They work through the direct absorption of UVR photons, much like the synthetic filters. They also act as potent antioxidants, which is an important property as exposure to solar radiation induces high levels of oxidative stress and this is something not seen in synthetic filters.'

Professor Antony Young, the senior author of the paper and member of the EEAP, said: 'There are significant concerns that conventional sun protection products are having a negative impact on the environment. Our data show that, with further research and development, marine-derived sunscreens may be a possible solution that could have a significant positive impact on the health of our marine habitats and wildlife, whilst still providing the essential sun protection that human skin requires guarding against damage that causes diseases such as skin cancer.'

World's heaviest bony fish identified and correctly named
Researchers clear up confusion between taxonomy of multiple species of ocean sunfishes

Japanese fish experts have identified and clarified the biological name of the world's heaviest bony fish ever caught. The 2,300-kilogram whopper is a Mola alexandrine bump-head sunfish, and not, as originally thought, a member of the more commonly known Mola mola ocean sunfish species. The study was led by Etsuro Sawai of Hiroshima University and is published in Ichthyological Research, which is the official journal of the Ichthyological Society of Japan. The journal is published by Springer.

Bony fish have skeletons made of bone rather than cartilage, as is the case for sharks or rays. Ocean sunfishes count among the world's largest bony fish and have for centuries attracted interest from seafarers because of their impressive size and shape. Specimens can measure up to three meters (total length), and many weighing more than two thousand kilograms have been caught. Instead of a caudal fin, sunfish have a broad rudder-like lobe called a clavus.

In this study, Sawai and his team referred to more than one thousand documents and specimens from around the world -- some of which date back 500 years. Their aim was to clarify the scientific names for the species of the genus Mola in fish.

Ocean sunfishes can be classified into three species which Sawai's team temporarily called Mola species A, Mola species B, and Mola species C, respectively. Of the three species, the scientific name of Mola species C was officially named Mola tecta in July 2017.

In this study, the researchers studied, dissected and measured 30 specimens of the remaining two Mola species (Mola species A and Mola species B) including fresh and preserved samples from different collections in the world. Information was obtained from photographs and from historical and recent records. The team set out specific morphological characteristics and made notes on the distribution of the different species. This led them to conclude that the species names Mola mola (Mola species B) and Mola alexandrine (Mola species A) should be used. They also proposed "bump-head sunfish" as the new common name for Mola alexandrine because of the very prominent shape of its head.

"For the same reason, we adopt the already proposed Japanese common name Ushi-manbo. 'Ushi' means 'cow', and refers to the head profile of the fish," Sawai explains.

They also solved a case of mistaken identity. The Guinness World Records lists the world's heaviest bony fish as Mola Mola. However, Sawai's team found a female Mola alexandrine specimen of 2,300 kilograms and 2.72 meters caught off the Japanese coast (Kamogawa, Chiba) in 1996 as the heaviest bony fish ever recorded. Through their investigations, Sawai's team re-identified it as actually being a Mola alexandrine based on its characteristic head bump, chin bump and rounded clavus although this specimen was identified Mola mola until now.

"Therefore, the world's heaviest bony fish that has been actually weighed and recorded to date is a specimen of Mola alexandrine, not Mola mola," says Sawai, who believes that there could be even bigger examples of this species alive in the ocean. In 2004, a 3.32 meter female Mola alexandrine specimen was caught off one of Japan's islands (Aji Island, Miyagi), but it was not weighed.