22. Gibbs, S. J., et al., “Nannoplankton Extinction and Origination Across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum,” Science 314 (2006): 1770–73.
23. Although oxygen is fundamental to life, there is little chance we will run out of it quickly. Even if all photosynthesis were to cease tomorrow, it would take over a thousand years to draw down atmospheric oxygen to levels that would threaten human existence.
24. Fernandez, E., et al., “Production of Organic and Inorganic Carbon Within a Large-Scale Coccolithophore Bloom in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean,” Marine Ecology Progress Series 97 (1993): 271–85.
25. Despite these encouraging results from lab experiments, a recent study has shown that calcification by coccolithophores in the sea is reduced by higher dissolved carbon dioxide levels. Whether this affects other aspects of their growth and oxygen production is not known. Hutchins, D. A., “Forecasting the Rain Ratio,” Nature 476 (2011): 41–42.
26. Suttle, C. A., “Viruses in the Sea,” Nature 437 (2005): 356–61. By weight, all the viruses in the sea are equivalent to seventy-five million adult blue whales (of which there are about ten thousand left today).
27. Shi, D., et al., “Effect of Ocean Acidification on Iron Availability to Marine Phytoplankton,” Science 327 (2010): 676–79.
28. Dixson, D., et al., “Ocean Acidification Disrupts the Innate Ability of Fish to Detect Predator Olfactory Cues,” Ecology Letters 13 (2010): 68–75.
29. Munday, P., et al., “Ocean Acidification Impairs Olfactory Discrimination and Homing Ability of a Marine Fish,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (2009): 1848–52.
30. Cigliano, M., et al., “Effects of Ocean Acidification on Invertebrate Settlement at Volcanic CO2 Vents. Marine Biology 157 (2010): 2489–2502.
31. Kerr, “Ocean Acidification.”
Chapter 8: Dead Zones and the World’s Great Rivers
1. Actually the flush toilet was a reinvention—the Romans had them, and there are claims in the archaeological literature for even more ancient examples.
2. Another important source of nutrients to the sea is atmospheric deposition, especially of nitrogen.
3. Beman, J. M., et al., “Agricultural Runoff Fuels Large Phytoplankton Blooms in Vulnerable Areas of the Ocean,” Nature 434 (2005): 211–14.
4. Diaz, R. J., and R. Rosenberg, “Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for Marine Ecosystems,” Science 321 (2008): 926–29.
5. Rabalais, N. N., et al., “Sediments Tell the History of Eutrophication and Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico,” Ecological Applications 17 (2007): supp. t: S129-S143.
6. http://CNN.com: edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/08/18/dead.zone; accessed November 19, 2011. Dead zones are actually far from lifeless. In these places we have reproduced the conditions of ancient oceans and awakened the sulfur-loving microbial communities of old.
7. Beman, “Agricultural Runoff Fuels.”
8. Fahlbusch, H., “Early Dams,” Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 162 (2009): 13–18; doi: 10.1680/ehh2009.162.1.13.
9. Ibid.
10. Chen, C-T. A., “The Impact of Dams on Fisheries: Case of the Three Gorges Dam,” in W. Steffen et al., eds., Challenges of a Changing Earth (Berlin: Springer, 2002), chap. 16.
11. Rabalais, “Sediments Tell the History.”
12. Gwo-Ching, G., et al., “Reduction of Primary Production and Changing of Nutrient Ratio in the East China Sea: Effect of the Three Gorges Dam?” Geophysical Research Letters 33 (2006): doi:10.1029/2006GL025800.
13. Ryan, W. B. F., et al., “An Abrupt Drowning of the Black Sea Shelf,” Marine Geology 138 (1997): 119–26. A recent study suggests the flood was not as severe as this, with only a thirty-meter (about thirty-two yards) height difference between the Mediterranean and Black Sea lake, rather than eighty meters (about eighty-seven yards): Giosan, L., et al., “Was the Black Sea Catastrophically Flooded in the Early Holocene?” Quaternary Science Reviews 28 (2009): 1–6.
14. The Black Sea basin gets abundant freshwater inflow from rivers. This mixes with seawater to form a low-density, low-salinity layer, which flows out through the Bosporus into the Eastern Mediterranean. Some of the outflowing water is replaced by a deeper return flow of high-salinity water from the Mediterranean, which sinks into the Black Sea basin. The two-layer nature of the Black Sea is thus maintained by salinity and temperature contrasts between deep and shallow water, which means that the surface water layer is much less dense and floats above the deep layer.
15. Savage, C., et al., “Effects of Land Use, Urbanization, and Climate Variability on Coastal Eutrophication in the Baltic Sea,” Limnology and Oceanography 55 (2010): 1033–46.
16. Conley, D. J., et al., “Long-term Changes and Impacts of Hypoxia in Danish Coastal Waters,” Ecological Applications 17 (2007), supp.: S165–S184.
17. Jackson, J. B. C., et al., “Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems,” Science 293 (2001): 629–38.
18. Boesch, D. F., et al., Coastal Dead Zones and Global Climate Change: Ramifications of Climate Change for Chesapeake Bay Hypoxia. Pew Center on Global Climate Change and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (2007).
19. The causes of Florida red tides are less straightforward than a simple response to increased nutrient pollution, but this doubtless plays an important role in triggering and sustaining them. Alcock, F., An Assessment of Florida Red Tide: Causes, Consequences and Management Strategies. Technical Report 1190, Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL (2007).
20. Kirkpatrick, B., et al., “Environmental Exposures to Florida Red Tides: Effects on Emergency Room Respiratory Diagnoses Admissions,” Harmful Algae 5 (2006): 526–33; Kirkpatrick, B., et al., “Gastrointestinal Emergency Room Admissions and Florida Red Tide Blooms,” Harmful Algae 9 (2010): 82–86. See also www.topcancernews.com/news/1797/1/Algal-toxin-commonly-inhaled-in-sea-spray-attacks-and-damages-DNA.
21. Knowler, D. J., et al., “An Open-access Model of Fisheries and Nutrient Enrichment in the Black Sea,” Marine Resource Economics 16 (2002): 195–217.
22. Richardson, A. J., et al. “The Jellyfish Joyride: Causes, Consequences and Management Responses to a More Gelatinous Future,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24 (2009): 312–22.
Chapter 9: Unwholesome Waters
1. Safina, C., “The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Well Blowout; a Little Hindsight,” PLoS Biology 9 (2011): e1001049. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001049.
2. Crone, T. J., and M. Tolstoy, “Magnitude of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Leak,” Science 330 (2010): 634.
3. This figure took me by surprise when I first saw it; the wellhead was gushing so fast at 68,000 barrels a day. But tankers are monumental these days, and it would take a long time to fill one at that rate. The rate and total amount of oil loss was estimated by experts in fluid dynamics who used footage of the leaking wellhead to measure the speed at which the oil gushed from it.
4. I am grateful to Nigel Haggan of the University of British Columbia for sharing this witticism!
5. Schrope, M., “The Lost Legacy of the Last Great Oil Spill,” Nature 466 (2010): 305–6.
6. www.birdlife.org/news/news/2010/06/seabird-petition.html.
7. At the time of writing, October 2011, an area of 1,041 square miles around the Deepwater Horizon wellhead remained closed. http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/media/pdfs/2010/Area%206%20and%207%20Press%20Release_FINAL.pdf; accessed October 29, 2011.
8. Safina, “The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Well Blowout.”
9. Jernelöv, A., “How to Defend Against Future Oil Spills,” Nature 466 (2010): 182–3.
10. National Research Council, Oil in the Sea III: Inputs, Fates, and Effects (Washington, DC, 2003).
11. Wurl, O., and J. P. Obbard, “A Review of Pollutants in the Sea-Surface Microlayer (SML): A Unique Habitat for Marine Organisms,” Marine Pollution Bulletin 48 (2004): 1016–30.
12. Quite a lot of pollutants are also carried long distances by wind alone to be d
eposited into the sea far from the sources.
13. Jernelöv, “How to Defend Against Future Oil Spills.”
14. Kessler, J. D., et al., “A Persistent Oxygen Anomaly Reveals the Fate of Spilled Methane in the Deep Gulf of Mexico,” Science 331 (2011): 312–15.
15. Wells, R.S., et al., “Integrating Life-History and Reproductive Success Data to Examine Potential Relationships with Organochlorine Compounds for Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Sarasota Bay, Florida,” Science of the Total Environment 349 (2005): 106–19.
16. Reddy, M. L., et al., “Opportunities for Using Navy Marine Mammals to Explore Associations Between Organochlorine Contaminants and Unfavourable Effects on Reproduction,” Science of the Total Environment 274 (2001): 171–82.
17. Hoover, S. M., “Exposure to Persistent Organochlorines in Canadian Breast Milk: A Probabilistic Assessment,” Risk Analysis 19 (1999): 527–45.
18. Arctic Pollution 2009. Report from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (Oslo: AMAP, 2009), pp. xi, 83.
19. Porterfield, S. P., “Vulnerability of the Developing Brain to Thyroid Abnormalities: Environmental Insults to the Thyroid System,” Environmental Health Perspectives 102 (1994): 125–30.
20. Arctic Pollution, 2009.
21. Sunderland, E. M., et al., “Mercury Sources, Distribution, and Bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean: Insights from Data And Models,” Global Biogeochemical Cycles 23 (2009): doi:10.1029/2008GB003425.
22. Anh-Thu, E. V., et al., “Temporal Increase in Organic Mercury in an Endangered Pelagic Seabird Assessed by Century-Old Museum Specimens,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (2011): 7466–71.
23. Frederick, P., and N. Jayasema, “Altered Pairing Behaviour and Reproductive Success in White Ibises Exposed to Environmentally Relevant Concentrations of Methylmercury,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2010): doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2189.
24. Sunderland, E. M., “Mercury Exposure from Domestic and Imported Estuarine and Marine Fish in the U.S. Seafood Market,” Environmental Health Perspectives 115 (2007): 235–42.
25. Lowenstein, J. H., “DNA Barcodes Reveal Species-Specific Mercury Levels in Tuna Sushi That Pose a Health Risk to Consumers,” Biology Letters (2010): doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0156.
26. Tarbox, B. M., “Toxic Fish Counter” (2010); www.gotmercury.org.
27. Muir, D. C. G., and P. H. Howard, “Are There Other Persistent Organic Pollutants? A Challenge for Environmental Chemists,” Environmental Science and Technology 40 (2006): 7157–66.
28. Law, R. J., et al., “Levels and Trends of Brominated Flame Retardants in the European Environment,” Chemosphere 64 (2006): 187–208; Darnerud, P. O., “Toxic Effects of Brominated Flame Retardants in Man and in Wildlife,” Environment International 29 (2003): 841–53.
29. Roze, E., et al., “Prenatal Exposure to Organohalogens, Including Brominated Flame Retardants, Influences Motor, Cognitive, and Behavioral Performance at School Age,” Environmental Health Perspectives 117 (2009): 1953–58.
30. Arnold, K., et al., “Medicating the Environment: Impacts on Individuals and Populations,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution (in press).
31. Heckmann, L.-H., et al., “Chronic Toxicity of Ibuprofen to Daphnia magna: Effects on Life History Traits and Population Dynamics,” Toxicology Letters 172 (2007): 137–45.
32. Daigle, J. K., “Acute Responses of Freshwater and Marine Species to Ethinyl Estradiol and Fluoxetine,” master’s of science thesis, Louisiana State University (2010).
33. Hannah, W., and P. B. Thompson, “Nanotechnology, Risk and the Environment: A Review,” Journal of Environmental Monitoring 10 (2008): 291–300.
34. Koehler, A., et al., “Effects of Nanoparticles in Mytilus edulis Gills and Hepatopancreas—A New Threat to Marine Life?” Marine Environmental Research 66 (2008): 12–14.
35. Ylitalo, G. M., et al., “High Levels of Persistent Organic Pollutants Measured in Blubber of Island-Associated False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) around the Main Hawaiian Islands,” Marine Pollution Bulletin 58 (2009): 1922–52.
Chapter 10: The Age of Plastic
1. Ebbesmeyer, C. C., and E. Scigliano, Flotsametrics and the Floating World (New York: HarperCollins, 2009).
2. Ballan, H., “Plastics and a Man Named Yarsley”; www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/Yarsley.html; accessed November 3, 2011.
3. Yarsley, V. E., and E. G. Couzens, Plastics (Middlesex, UK: Penguin Books Ltd, 1941).
4. Thompson, R. C., et al., “Plastics, the Environment and Human Health: Current Consensus and Future Trends,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (2009): 2153–66.
5. Yarsley, Plastics.
6. Hohn, Donovan, Moby Duck (New York: Viking, 2011).
7. Maury, M. F., The Physical Geography of the Sea (Edinburgh and New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1883).
8. Purdy, J., Memoir Descriptive and Explanatory, to Accompany the Charts of the Northern Atlantic Ocean (London: R. H. Laurie, 1853).
9. Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea.
10. Ebbesmeyer and Scigliano, Flotsametrics.
11. Moore, S. L. et al., “Composition and Distribution of Beach Debris in Orange County, California,” 2001; Southern California Coastal Water Research project; ftp://www.sccwrp.org/pub/download/DOCUMENTS/AnnualReports/1999AnnualReport/09_ar10.pdf; accessed May 20, 2011.
12. Barnes, D. K. A., “Remote Islands Reveal Rapid Rise of Southern Hemisphere Sea Debris,” The Scientific World Journal 5 (2005): 915–21.
13. Barnes, D. K. A., et al., “Accumulation and Fragmentation of Plastic Debris in Global Environments,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (2009): 1985–98.
14. Yamashita, R., and A. Tanimura, “Floating Plastic in the Kuroshio Current Area, Western North Pacific Ocean,” Marine Pollution Bulletin 54 (2007): 464–88.
15. Gregory, M. R., “Environmental Implications of Plastic Debris in Marine Settings—Entanglement, Ingestion, Smothering, Hangers-on, Hitch-hiking and Alien Invasions,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (2009): 2013–25.
16. Moore, C. J., et al., “A Comparison of Plastic and Plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre,” Marine Pollution Bulletin 42 (2001):1297–1300.
17. Lavender Law, K., “Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre,” Science 329 (2010): 1185–88.
18. Young, L. C., et al., “Bringing Home the Trash: Do Colony-Based Differences in Foraging Distribution Lead to Increased Plastic Ingestion in Laysan Albatrosses?” PLoS ONE 4 (2009): e7623; doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007623.
19. As any frustrated golfer knows, golf balls sink in freshwater, but they float in higher density saltwater.
20. Ryan, P. G., et al., “Monitoring the Abundance of Plastic Debris in the Marine Environment,” Philsophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (2009): 1999–2012.
21. Mrosovsky, N., “Leatherback Turtles: The Menace of Plastic,” Marine Pollution Bulletin 58 (2009): 287–89.
22. Plot, V., and J-Y. Georges, “Plastic Debris in a Nesting Leatherback Turtle in French Guiana,” Chelonian Conservation and Biology 9 (2010): 27–70.
23. Teuten, E. L., et al., “Transport and Release of Chemicals from Plastics to the Environment and Wildlife,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364 (2009): 2027–45.
24. Eriksson, C., and H. Burton, “Origins and Biological Accumulation of Small Plastic Particles in Fur Seals from Macquarie Island,” Ambio 32 (2003): 380–84.
25. Stamper, M. A., et al., “Case Study: Morbidity in a Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps) Due to Ocean-Bourne Plastic,” Marine Mammal Science 22 (2006): 719–22.
26. Tarpley, R. J., and S. Marwitz, “Plastic Debris Ingestion by Cetaceans along the Texas Coast: Two Case Reports,” Aquatic Mammals 19 (2003): 93–98.
27. Jacobsen, J. K., et al., “Fatal Ingestion of Floating Net Debris by Two Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus),” Marine Pollution Bulletin 60 (2
010): 765–67.
28. Ryan, “Monitoring the Abundance of Plastic Debris.”
29. American Chemical Society, “Hard Plastics Decompose in Oceans, Releasing Endocrine Disruptor BPA,” ScienceDaily, March 24, 2010; www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323184607.htm; accessed May 20, 2011.
30. Mato, Y., et al., “Plastic Resin Pellets as a Transport Medium for Toxic Chemicals in the Marine Environment,” Environmental Science and Technology 35 (2001): 318–24.
31. According to Captain Charles Moore, plastic debris from Central and North American coasts probably also arrives there via ocean highways joining the gyre from coastal inputs without having to go around.
32. Boerger, C. M., et al., “Plastic Ingestion by Planktivorous Fishes in the North Pacific Central Gyre,” Marine Pollution Bulletin 60 (2010): 227–78.
33. Lavender Law, “Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic.”
34. Ebbesmeyer, C. C., and E. Scigliano, Flotsametrics.
35. Ryan, P. G., et al., “Monitoring the Abundance of Plastic Debris.”
Chapter 11: The Not So Silent World
1. Frisk, G. V., “Noiseonomics: The Relationship Between Ambient Noise Levels and Global Economic Trends”; http://pruac.apl.washington.edu/abstracts/Frisk.pdf; accessed February 14, 2011.
2. Denny, M. W., Air and Water: The Biology and Physics of Life’s Media (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
3. Doug Anderson’s favorite marine mammal call is that of the Weddell seal of Antarctica. You can hear a clip of this and many other marine mammals at Discovery of Sound in the Sea: www.dosits.org/audio/marinemammals/pinnipeds/weddellseal; accessed January 1, 2012.
4. The decibel scale provides a measure of sound levels, or sound pressure levels more precisely, that is referenced to the sensitivity of the human ear, where 0 decibels corresponds to something at the lowest limit of our hearing in air. All decibel measures must be referenced to a specific sound-pressure level, which is conventionally taken to be 20 μpa (micropascals) at one meter (about one yard) from the source in air and 1 μpa at one meter from the source underwater. What this means is that for a given level of sound pressure, the loudness underwater would be equivalent to hearing the sound one meter away, whereas the loudness of the same sound on land would be equivalent to hearing the sound twenty meters (about twenty-two yards) away.
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