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A new robot
travels across the seafloor to monitor the impact of climate
change
on deep-sea ecosystems. Like the robotic rovers Spirit
and Opportunity, which
wheeled tirelessly across the dusty surface of Mars, a new robot
spent most of July travelling across the muddy ocean bottom
about 25 miles off the coast of California. This robot, The
Benthic Rover, has been providing scientists with an entirely
new view of life on the deep sea floor. About the size and
weight of a small compact car, the Benthic Rover moves slowly
across the seafloor taking photographs and sediment in its path.
Every 10 to 16 ft the rover stops and makes a series of
measurements on the community of organisms living in the
seafloor sediment.
These measurements will help scientists
understand one of the ongoing mysteries of the ocean – how
animals on the deep
sea floor find enough food to survive. Most life in the deep sea
feeds on particles of organic debris, known as Marine Snow,
which drift slowly down from the sunlit surface layers of the
ocean, But even after decades of research, marine biologists have
not been able to figure out how the small amount of nutrition in
marine snow can support the large numbers of organisms that live
on and in seafloor sediment.
Two recent expeditions led by
Conservation International (CI) to the heart of Asia’s “Coral
Triangle” discovered dozens of new species of marine life
including epaulette sharks, “flasher” wrasse and reefbuilding
coral, confirming the region as the Earth’s richest seascape.
The unmatched marine biodiversity of the region on the northwest
end of Indonesia’s Papua province, includes more than 1.200
species of fish and almost 600 species of reef-building coral,
or 75% of the world’s know total. Researchers described an
underwater world of visual wonders, such as the small epaulette
shark that “walks” on it’s fins and colourful schools of reef
fish populating abundant and healthy corals of all shapes and
sizes.
Researchers are
one step closer to creating a micro-aircraft that flies with the
manoeuvrability and energy efficiency of an insect after
decoding the aerodynamic secrets of insect flight. The so-called
’bumblebee paradox’ claiming that insects defy the laws of
aerodynamics is dead. With this new research, modern
aerodynamics really can accurately model insect flight. The
researchers used high-speed digital video cameras to film
locusts in action in a wind tunnel, capturing how the shape of a
locust’s wing changes in flight and used the information to
create a computer model which recreates the airflow and thrust
 generated by the
complex flapping movement.
It means that for the first time
engineers understand the aerodynamic secrets of one of natures
most efficient flyers; information vital to the creation of
miniature robot flyers for use in situation such as search and
rescue, military applications, and inspecting hazardous environ-ments.
There were 7 reported sightings of dolphins during
November, these were all off St. Ives and Hayle area, and would
have been the Bottlenose Dolphin pod. A large Risso's Dolphin
was seen off Cape Cornwall on the first of the month and all the
12 reported sightings of Harbour Porpoises were around Penwith,
from St. Ives to Porthgwarra, except one which was seen off
Kilcobben Cove near The Lizard.
Grey Seals were reported 3 times,
all at Porthgwidden Cove at St Ives.
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