Monthly Archives: August 2007

A Bolt out of the blue.

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As I was quoted in The Australian this weekend in a piece entitled “Coral bleaching as record cold snap hits” (and have blogged here earlier on several occasions), cold weather across southern Queensland has resulted in coral bleaching in the exposed reef flats in the Capricorn Bunker group and the Keppell Islands (as confirmed by a CSIRO oceanographer, David Griffin).

No sooner than this was published, Andrew Bolt, an Op-Ed writer for the Herald Sun took dislike to the published comment: “Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said the extreme variation in temperature might be more common as climate change caused hotter summers and colder winters”.

Welcome back from vacation, Andrew. I must say, I have missed you.

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European heatwaves have doubled since 1880

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A new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research has some interesting implications for climate shifts in Europe (link to journal article). The dataset comes from 54 daily maximum temperature series from around Europe (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom). According to the authors, after correcting for bias, between 1880 and 2005, the length of summer heat waves over western Europe has doubled and the frequency of hot days has almost tripled. Continue reading →

Blackle

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The more energy conscious of you might want to take a look at a new google derived search engine, Blackle. As quoted from the website:

“Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. The Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen” Continue reading →

Mass coral bleaching off Okinawa

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Yossie Loya - bleaching It would seem that the beautiful reefs of Okinawa in Japan are experiencing stress again. In 1998, large areas of these unique Japanese reef systems bleached and died. Let us hope that this is not about to happen again. Here is a story that just appeared in the Yomiuri Shimbun (August 5) . Picture by Professor Yossi Loya (1998 bleaching event in Okinawa)

Large swaths of coral off islands around Okinawa Prefecture have been turning white due to a phenomenon known as coral bleaching–a sign that the coral is dying. This phenomenon has been sighted for the first time in four years in locations in the prefecture such as the coast around Ishigakijima island, which boasts the country’s largest coral reef, and is thought have been brought on by high water temperatures in July.

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Sea anenome genomics

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Whilst not strictly related to climate change, a fascinating study on sea anemome genome recently published in the journal Science is well worth mentioning (link to article, link to news story). Researchers studying the DNA sequence of the starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) – typically considered a “simple” organism with no central nervous system, simple receptors and a shared mouth / anus (Phylum Cnidaria, mostly marine organisms including corals and jellyfish) – revealed remarkable similarities with vertebrate DNA.

When examining the anemone genome for 283 human genes involved in human diseases, 226 were present in the anemone DNA. The evolutionary implications of this are vast – and surprising, too, when considered that the anemone genome may reveal more about the evolution of humans than any other closely related organisms.