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News
UW Oceanography in the Marshall Islands
Today the class will have a day of cultural activities. In the morning, they're off to the Alele Museum. Then, in the afternoon, they'll experience the music and art of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Tomorrow, July 4, is "Fisherman's Day".
Research
Microbial Biofilms of Carbonate Chimneys
The ISME Journal has published a communication by UW Oceanography Professor John Baross and Oceanography graduate student William Brazelton on the sequence diversity of transposase genes in the mirobial biofilms that coat the carbonate chimneys of the Lost City Hydrothermal Field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Their findings suggest that lateral gene transfer is a common phenonmenon among members of the biofilm.
R/V Thompson News
new chimlet growing from the array cage
Mariner Revisited
Jason II was sent down to the Mariner vent site, where the scientists observed a brand new "chimlet" growing out of the array cage set down ten days previously. The white microbial biofilm can already be seen on the chimlet. They have decided to leave this array in situ to allow further development. Another array, described as a "microbial apartment complex" was recovered, and a new array was deployed.
Research
Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone Change
Mean annual precipitation in the tropical Pacific
NATURE GEOSCIENCE has published an online article by UW Oceanography Assoc. Professor J. Sachs and others about the changes in the Pacific intertropical convergence zone. Palaeoclimatic evidence suggests that it has shifted substantially during the past millennium. Microbiological, molecular and hydrogen isotopic evidence from lake sediments in the Northern Line Islands, Galápagos and Palau, presented by the authors, indicates that the Pacific intertropical convergence zone was south of its modern position for most of the past millennium.
