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

Conditioning reefs for the future

In a world first, a new 'state-of-the-art' climate change experimental facility has been completed at the University of Queensland's Heron Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef

2010-12-08
(Press-News.org) In a world first, a new 'state of the art' climate change experimental facility has been completed at the University of Queensland's Heron Island Research Station.

The Climate Change Mesocosm (CCM) project led by Associate Professor Sophie Dove and Dr. David Kline from the Global Change Institute's Coral Reef Ecosystems Laboratory is one of the largest and most accurately controlled ocean acidification and warming experimental systems in the world and simulates ocean temperatures and acidification levels predicted to occur on coral reefs in the next 50 to 100 years.

Able to regulate both temperature and CO2 levels prescribed by the 2100 IPCC scenarios in a highly controlled environment, the CCM system allows studies of climate change from the molecular to the ecosystem level.

"While similar to the "Free Ocean Carbon Enrichment" (FOCE) project, recently featured in Sir David Attenborough's documentary "Death of the Oceans", the CCM differs in that it regulates the temperature, in addition to, the acidification levels above and below the current ambient conditions of water on the reef" said Dr Dove.

It is unique in so far as the experimental controls allow variation with respect to real-time conditions of CO2 and temperature measured in the adjacent deepwater of Wistari channel."

Conditions in the 72 experimental aquaria and 12 mini-reefs can then fluctuate a fixed amount above or below the ambient 'control' conditions, but importantly incorporate a day/night and seasonal variability."

The main components of the system are 4 x 7,500L custom built air-tight and insulated fibre-glass tanks or sumps which provide the necessary residence time of the water for the fine control of CO2 and temperature.

Dr David Kline a research fellow with the GCI explains "We are simulating preindustrial ocean conditions of -100 ppm CO2 and minus 1°C; a control treatment of current reef CO2 and temperature; the "B1" IPCC scenario of + 220ppm CO2 and +2°C, and an extreme "A1FI" scenario of +640 ppm CO2, +4.5 °C."

"In the eight months the FOCE system has been on the reef flat we have noticed the corals exposed to the higher CO2 levels look quite different. The types of algae are different and the growth rate of the coral appears to have slowed.

We expect to see similar results from the CCM experiments where reefal organisms respond to the dual influences of acidification and temperature."

INFORMATION:

For more information contact:
Sophie Dove: s.dove@uq.edu.au +61 7 336 57229 or David Kline: d.kline@uq.edu.au +61 7 334 69576

Media: Robert Mackay-Wood, Communications Manager, Global Change Institute (r.mackaywood@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3346 9041 or +61 410 491 159)

Images: www.gci.uq.edu.au/mesocosm

About the Global Change Institute:

The Global Change Institute at UQ, Brisbane, Australia, investigates complex, interconnected, large-scale global issues in innovative ways, in order to contribute evidence-based, progressive solutions to the major problems of a rapidly-changing world.

The Global Change Institute is a vehicle for collaborative research, learning, engagement and advocacy. It seeks to partner with third-parties and achieve multi-disciplinary, integrated solutions to global change issues within the existing and projected frameworks of those problems: political, environmental, social, economic and technological.

About Heron Island Research Station:

Heron Island is an important site for the long-term collection of baseline oceanographic data on the Southern Great Barrier Reef. It is an integral component of the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observations System (GBROOS) and the nation wide Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). Situated on the southern Great Barrier Reef, 80 kilometres offshore from the city of Gladstone, the crystal clear water and near pristine conditions make an ideal platform to conduct research and teaching activities.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Carbon capture and storage technologies could provide a new green industry for the UK

2010-12-08
The UK has the capacity to develop new green industries for capturing harmful carbon dioxide emissions from industry and storing them deep underground, but more investment is needed to further develop the relevant technologies and infrastructure, say scientists in new research published today. The authors, from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, have published two briefing papers that highlight the potential opportunities associated with adopting Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) technologies and the challenges involved. The researchers ...

Dueling dipoles

2010-12-08
Photosynthesis, the formation of energy-rich chemical compounds with the aid of sunlight, is fundamental to life on Earth. In plants, sunlight is collected by so-called antennal complexes, consisting of proteins bound to the green pigment chlorophyll. The chlorophyll captures the light energy and relays it, virtually without loss, via several intermediate molecules, to the reaction centers, where it is converted into stable forms of chemical energy. The intermolecular transfer process is described by Förster theory. This postulates that pigments act as oscillating dipoles ...

European summit agrees that lifestyle change is the only answer to heart disease

2010-12-08
Sophia Antipolis, 7 December 2010: 'Some progress, but the big challenges remain'. This was the verdict after the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) hosted the 2010 European Summit on CVD Prevention on 30 November. The summit was attended by a broad cross-section of medical experts, healthcare organisations, national societies, regulators and representatives from the European Union (EU). The aim of this bi-annual event is to encourage concerted action towards a harmonised strategy for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Europe. Much of the debate centred ...

Apros software is renewed to simulate clean power plants of the future

2010-12-08
Apros is already widely used for dependable analysis of combustion and nuclear power plants in particular but also of other industrial processes. Even the most difficult process failures can be simulated by using this software. Apros simulation software is the result of a quarter century's development work by VTT experts in co-operation with Fortum, and it is already used in 26 countries. Apros version 5.09 brings several new features for its end users. The separate phase thermal hydraulics calculation (6-equation model) of Apros has now been extended to cover all parts ...

New discovery about how flowering time of plants can be controlled

2010-12-08
Researchers at Umeå Plant Science Center in Sweden discovered, in collaboration with the Syngenta company, a previously unknown gene in sugar beets that blocks flowering. Only with the cold of winter is the gene shut off, allowing the sugar beet to blossom in its second year. The discovery of this new gene function makes it possible to control when sugar beets bloom. The new findings were recently published in the prestigious journal Science. Scientists at Umeå Plant Science Center and the international company Syngenta, in a joint study of genetic regulation in the ...

Medicaid-funded ADHD treatment for children misses the mark

2010-12-08
Washington, DC, 7 December 2010 – The enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 expands Medicare benefits to scores of previously uninsured individuals including many of our nation's children. While access to treatment is laudable, the quality of such treatment is the subject of an article in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In the article titled "Quality of Care for Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a Managed Care Medicaid Program," Dr. Bonnie Zima and ...

Doctor Who's trusty invention is anything but sci-fi

2010-12-08
Television's favourite Time Lord could not exist without his trusty sonic screwdriver, as it's proved priceless in defeating Daleks and keeping the Tardis in check. Now Doctor Who's famous cure-all gadget could become a reality for DIY-ers across the world, say engineers. Ultrasonic engineers at Bristol University and The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair are uncovering how a real life version of the fictional screwdriver - which uses sonic technology to open locks and undo screws - could be created. Professor of Ultrasonics, Bruce Drinkwater, who is ...

Sheathless transradial intervention highly successful in treating complex lesions

2010-12-08
Cardiologists from the Mayo Clinic performed sheathless transradial percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to remedy complex lesions, achieving a 90% success rate with no radial complications. Standard guiding catheters were used during the procedure. Details of this novel approach—overcoming the last hurdle to greater adoption of transradial PCI in the U.S.—are published in the December issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Intervention, the official journal of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. PCI, commonly known as angioplasty, ...

Reducing maternal and newborn deaths globally

2010-12-08
On Tuesday 7 December 2010, maternal health professionals from Africa and Asia will be attending a workshop in Liverpool to discuss the effects of 'Making It Happen', a programme with a life-saving training package for health care providers at its heart. Participants will share successes and lessons learned from this maternal and newborn health intervention, to better determine how the programme can be scaled-up. Supported by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), UNICEF and other bodies and in partnership with the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists ...

Social tools prove powerful for online health programs

2010-12-08
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In an era when social networking sites and blogs are visited by three quarters of online users, it's only natural that the medical profession would also tap into the power of social media tools. Caroline Richardson, M.D., associate professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, and her colleagues found that adding an interactive online community to an Internet-based walking program significantly decreased the number of participants who dropped out. Seventy-nine percent of participants who used online forums to motivate ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

CPADS: a web tool for comprehensive pancancer analysis of drug sensitivity

Several healthy diet patterns are associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes regardless of ethnicity – shows meta-analysis of more than 800,000 people

Liver fibrosis to cancer: scientists map path to block deadly transition

Microbiota boost immunotherapy? A meta-analysis dives into fecal microbiota transplantation and immune checkpoint inhibitors

Cancer's double agents: Fibroblasts both help and hinder immunotherapy

Unveiling large multimodal models in pulmonary CT: A comparative assessment of generative AI performance in lung cancer diagnostics

AI can fake peer reviews and escape detection, study finds

T cell senescence in the tumor microenvironment

Simple solution to save lives globally: Low-cost ‘SimpleSilo’ offers hope for babies with gastroschisis

Curbing roadway fatalities hinges on shared responsibility and rethinking safety

Beta-HPV can directly cause skin cancer in immunocompromised people

Efforts underway to end race-based assessments of lung function

CAR-T cell therapy linked to increased risk of secondary primary malignancies globally

THER: integrative web tool for tumor hypoxia exploration and research

How sources of dietary fat influence cancer growth in obesity

Women less likely than men to receive MS drugs

AI language models sharpen chest CT diagnoses, speeding surgical decisions

Machine learning model predicts which patients with nasopharyngeal cancer respond to radiation

GenAI models extract pathological features for lung adenocarcinoma grading and prognosis

New research further investigates safety of general anesthesia in infants

We might inhale 68,000 lung-penetrating microplastics daily in our homes and cars – 100x previous estimates

Indian adults who move to cities are significantly more likely to become obese than their rural counterparts - and the longer they stay, the greater the risk

Instagram images could influence public opinion on certain major events

Different dimensions of psychopathy might be associated with different physiological underpinnings of facial emotion recognition - and oxytocin could affect this skill - per scoping review of 66 studi

How cumulative heat exposure affects students

An international survey of over 300 adults reveals that males born in summer are potentially more prone to depression than those born in other seasons

The unusual head of a fish and the puzzle of its genes

How does metformin lower blood sugar?

Increasing solar power could lead to significant cuts in CO2 emissions

Black Death offers window into how childhood malnutrition affects adult health

[Press-News.org] Conditioning reefs for the future
In a world first, a new 'state-of-the-art' climate change experimental facility has been completed at the University of Queensland's Heron Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef