PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Declining sea ice strands baby harp seals

2013-07-22
(Press-News.org) DURHAM, N.C. -- Young harp seals off the eastern coast of Canada are at much higher risk of getting stranded than adult seals because of shrinking sea ice cover caused by recent warming in the North Atlantic, according to a Duke University study.

"Stranding rates for the region's adult seals have generally not gone up as sea ice cover has declined; it's the young-of-the-year animals who are stranding (those less than one year old)," said David Johnston, a research scientist at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

"And it's not just the weakest pups -- those with low genetic diversity and presumably lower ability to adapt to environmental changes -- that are stranding," he said. "It appears genetic fitness has little effect on this."

The study, published online this week in the peer-reviewed open-access journal PLoS One, is the first to gauge the relative roles that genetic, environmental and demographic factors such as age and gender may be playing in harp seal stranding rates along the U.S. and Canadian east coasts in recent years.

Harp seals rely on stable winter sea ice as safe platforms to give birth and nurse their young until the pups can swim, hunt and fend off predators for themselves. In years of extremely light ice cover, entire year-classes may be disappearing from the population, Johnston said.

The new study complements a Duke-led study published last year that found seasonal sea ice cover in all four harp seal breeding regions in the North Atlantic has declined by up to 6 percent a decade since 1979, when satellite records of ice conditions in the region began.

To expand upon the earlier study, Johnston and four colleagues at the Duke University Marine Lab compared images of winter ice from 1992 to 2010 in a major whelping region off Canada's east coast, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with yearly reports of dead harp seal strandings along the U.S. northeast coast that were grouped by gender and estimated age of the seal.

The analysis revealed a significant difference: In years when ice cover was reduced, stranding rates for younger seals rose sharply, even though stranding rates for adult seals remained relatively stable.

The researchers also compared DNA samples from 106 harp seals that had been stranded ashore with those from seals that had accidentally been caught by fishing boats in the region during the same period.

"We used measures of genetic diversity to determine if the dead seals that came ashore were less fit than the presumably healthy ones that had been caught by fishermen, but found no difference," said Thomas Schultz, director of Duke's Marine Conservation Molecular Facility. "The stranded animals appear to have come from a genetically diverse population, and we have no evidence to suggest that genetic fitness played a role in their deaths."

The analysis also showed that male seals stranded more frequently than females during the study period, and that this relationship was strongest during light ice years.

"Our findings demonstrate that sea ice cover and demographic factors have a greater influence on harp seal stranding rates than genetic diversity," said Brianne Soulen, who co-led the study while she was a master's degree student in marine ecology at Duke.

Kristina Cammen, a Duke Ph.D. student who also co-led the study, said the findings "provide more context for what we're seeing in high-latitude species in general. The effects of climate change are acting on younger animals; it's affecting them during the crucial first part of their life."



INFORMATION:

"Factors Affecting Harp Seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) Strandings in the Northwest Atlantic," Brianne K. Soulen, Kristina Cammen, Thomas F. Schultz, David W. Johnston

PLoS ONE, July 17, 2013.

http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068779



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Health risks from arsenic in rice exposed

2013-07-22
High levels of arsenic in rice have been shown to be associated with elevated genetic damage in humans, a new study has found. Over the last few years, researchers have reported high concentrations of arsenic in several rice-growing regions around the world. Now, University of Manchester scientists, working in collaboration with scientists at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata, have proven a link between rice containing high levels of arsenic and chromosomal damage, as measured by micronuclei* in urothelial cells, in humans consuming rice as a staple. The ...

82 percent of adults support banning smoking when kids are in the car

2013-07-22
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A new poll shows 82 percent of adults support banning smoking in cars when children under 13 are riding in the vehicle. According to the latest University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, support is strong for prohibiting drivers and passengers from smoking when kids are in the car. However, only seven states nationwide have laws banning the practice. Also in this month's poll, 87 percent of adults said they'd support a ban on smoking in businesses where children are allowed. Seventy-five percent expressed ...

Could turning on a gene prevent diabetes?

2013-07-22
This news release is available in French. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 % of cases of diabetes around the world, afflicting 2.5 million Canadians and costing over 15 billion dollars a year in Canada. It is a severe health condition which makes body cells incapable of taking up and using sugar. Dr. Alexey Pshezhetsky of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center, affiliated with the University of Montreal, has discovered that the resistance to insulin seen in type 2 diabetics is caused partly by the lack of a protein that has not previously been associated ...

Carnegie Mellon-developed chemicals that break down water contaminants pass safety test

2013-07-22
PITTSBURGH—A family of molecules developed at Carnegie Mellon University to break down pollutants in water is one step closer to commercial use. Study results published online in the journal Green Chemistry show that the molecules, which are aimed at removing hazardous endocrine disruptors from water sources, aren't endocrine disruptors themselves as they proved to be non-toxic to developing zebrafish embryos. Created by Carnegie Mellon green chemist Terry Collins, the molecules, called TAML® activators, provide an environmentally friendly method for breaking down toxic ...

Protein complex linked to cancer growth may also help fight tumors, Moffitt researchers say

2013-07-22
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital in China have discovered a gene expression signature that may lead to new immune therapies for lung cancer patients. They found that NF-κB, a protein complex known to promote tumor growth, may also have the ability to boost the immune system to eliminate cancerous cells before they harm, as well as promote antitumor responses. The study appeared in the June 3 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. NF-κB is a protein complex that controls gene expression. ...

Carnegie Mellon, Microsoft scientists use game to generate database for analysis of drawing

2013-07-22
PITTSBURGH—The fingers of thousands of people who created sketches of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on their iPhones can collectively guide and correct the drawing strokes of subsequent touchscreen users in an application created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research. The app compensates for the "fat finger" problem associated with touchscreens, automatically correcting a person's drawing strokes while preserving the user's artistic style. "Our goal was to make it invisible to the user, so people wouldn't even be aware the correction is taking ...

Hospice workers struggle on front lines of physician-assisted death laws

2013-07-22
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Laws that allow physician-assisted death in the Pacific Northwest have provisions to protect the rights of patients, doctors and even the state, but don't consider the professionals most often on the front lines of this divisive issue – hospice workers who provide end-of-life care. The existing system, a new analysis concludes, has evolved into a multitude of different and contradictory perspectives among hospice organizations and workers, who historically have opposed physician-assisted death but are now the professionals taking care of most of the ...

The love hormone is 2-faced

2013-07-22
CHICAGO --- It turns out the love hormone oxytocin is two-faced. Oxytocin has long been known as the warm, fuzzy hormone that promotes feelings of love, social bonding and well-being. It's even being tested as an anti-anxiety drug. But new Northwestern Medicine® research shows oxytocin also can cause emotional pain, an entirely new, darker identity for the hormone. Oxytocin appears to be the reason stressful social situations, perhaps being bullied at school or tormented by a boss, reverberate long past the event and can trigger fear and anxiety in the future. That's ...

Melatonin pre-treatment is a factor that impacts stem cell survival after transplantation

2013-07-22
Putnam Valley, NY. -- When melatonin, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland, was used as a pre-treatment for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) prior to their transplantation into the brains of laboratory animals to repair damage from stroke, researchers in China found that the stem cells survived longer after transplantation. Previous studies had shown that 80 percent of transplanted MSCs died within 72 hours of transplantation. By contrast, the melatonin pre-treatment "greatly increased" cell survival, said the researchers. The study appears as an early e-publication for ...

Why superstition-rich baseball playoff fans aren't loyal to a brand

2013-07-22
NEW YORK - Wear your lucky Yankees jersey. Hold your breath. Expect nothing less than a World Series win. Certain routines are routine for millions of baseball playoff fans desperate to meet victory. In fact, a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says fans are so deep in their traditions, they will drop brand loyalty-if it means a win. The study, written by Gita V. Johar of Columbia Business School and Eric J. Hamerman of Tulane University shows a sports fan will easily switch to a different product if the fan believes the new brand will bring about good luck ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

‘Built for cutting flesh, not resisting acidity’: sharks may be losing deadly teeth to ocean acidification

Study reveals beneficial effects of diet and exercise on alcohol-related adverse liver health

Making the weight in four years

AI review unveils new strategies for fixing missing traffic data in smart cities

Scientists discovered hopfion crystals – which are flying in spacetime

For bees, diet isn’t one-size-fits-all

How a malaria-fighting breakthrough provides lasting protection

Cognitive Behavioural therapy can alter brain structure and boost grey matter volume, study shows

Largest ever study into cannabis use investigates risk of paranoia and poor mental health in the general population

Most US neurologists prescribing MS drugs have received pharma industry cash

A growing baby planet photographed for first time in a ring of darkness

Brain’s immune cells key to wiring the adolescent brain

KAIST develops AI that automatically detects defects in smart factory manufacturing processes even when conditions change​

Research alert: Alcohol opens the floodgates for bad bacteria

American Gastroenterological Association, Latica partner to assess living guidelines using real-world evidence

University of Tennessee collaborates on NSF grants to improve outcomes through AI

New technique at HonorHealth Research Institute uses ultrasound to activate drugs targeting pancreatic cancer

Companies 'dumbed down' cryptocurrency disclosures in good markets prior to reporting standardization, Rotman research finds

MSU study: What defines a life well-lived? Obituaries may have the answers.

Wind isn’t the only threat: USF-led scientists urge shift to more informed hurricane scale

Study: Fossils reveal reliable record of marine ecosystem functioning

New Simon Fraser University–University of Exeter partnership fast-tracks path to become a lawyer

Busy bees can build the right hive from tricky foundations

Deep sea worm fights ‘poison with poison’ to survive high arsenic and sulfide levels

New monthly pill shows potential as pre-exposure prophylaxis HIV drug candidate

Estalishing power through divine portrayal and depictions of violence

Planetary scientist decodes clues in Bennu’s surface composition to make sense of far-flung asteroids

For students with severe attention difficulties, changing school shifts is not the solution

Novel virtual care program enhances at-home support for people with heart failure

Giving mRNA vaccines a technological shot in the arm

[Press-News.org] Declining sea ice strands baby harp seals