New marine life and plant species in Australia

Studies uncover new marine life, plant species
A three-year study by a team of scientists has discovered several new species of marine life off Western Australia's south coast.
Two volumes of the research, due to be launched in Perth today, provide extensive documentation on the underwater plants and animals found near Esperance.
Department of Fisheries researcher and co-editor Fred Wells says the information will be invaluable for future planning.
However, Dr Wells says there are still many new species to discover and more research needs to be done.
"One of the basic tools of modern science is, in fact, conserving bio-diversity and Western Australia is a hotspot of terrestrial biodiversity in the south-west," he said.
"We also have a world-class hotspot of coral reef biodiversity and in understanding what that biodiversity is, is the first step in conserving and looking after it.
Meanwhile, an environmental survey of the Pilbara, in the state's north-west, has uncovered seven new species of wattle, one of which will be named after a Karratha botanist.
Stephen Van Leeuwen has worked in the Pilbara for 20 years and did a lot of the groundwork for the three-year study which identified the new species.
The wattle to be named after him, acacia leeuweniana grows on granite outcrops in only two places in the Pilbara.
However, Dr Leeuwen says he never expected such an honour.
"We never expect to get something named after us, but it's a reward for the effort, I guess ... a great accolade, I guess, and privilege to have that happen, and [I'm] pretty chuffed," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1566992.htm

The Lionfish

I came across this fish and thought it was really strange looking and unique so I added it to my blog. The lionfish is also known as the Turkey Fish, Dragon Fish and Scorpion Fish. The lionfish is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region of the world, but various species can be found worldwide. This type of fish is also found in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

Pubnico Renewable Energy Wind Turbines

This is a photo of 5 of the 17 wind turbines in Lower West Pubnico, Nova Scotia. From the East side of Pubnico you can clearly view the turbines in rows such as the one seen here.

This is a sign that is found at the beginning of the road for the wind farm in Lower West Pubnico. In case it is difficult to read the statistics on the sign for the 17 wind turbines here there are:

-Create enough energy to power 13,000 houses across Nova Scotia

-The equivalent to not driving 16,000 cars for a year

-Displaces 90,000 tons of CO2 each year

-Equivalent of planting 750,000 trees to absorb CO2 for 60 years

Renewable Energy

http://www.souwesterwindfield.com/
This link is for the renewable energy options that are available and trying to widen their prospects. There is a wind farm in Pubnico, Nova Scotia with 17 wind mills that power a ridiculous amount of houses throughout Nova Scotia. My friend Robert Selig, is the representative in my county at home trying to raise awareness and hopefully bring more sources of renewable energy to Nova Scotia.

Caribbean Sea Currents

http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/caribbean/caribbean.html
This site seems to contain quite a bit of infomation about the currents of the Caribbean Sea, I wish I would have found it before my Bibliography was due.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKtFi51o27E
In search of information for my Caribbean group project I came across this video which made me really want to go there. The beautiful coral and variety of animals would be such a great time, even though my part of the project is based on Ocean Currents and Tides I thought this was a great video as the Caribbean Sea is such a beautiful and unique habitat.

YouTube - Warming Island

YouTube - Warming Island
Interesting video about global warming and it's effects upon Greenland and the creation a a new island.

Global Warming

I thought today's class was very intriguing concerning global warming. Tonight I was switching through channels on my television seeing everything on it was related to what we were discussing today in class. It was on the news with Jakarta and the flooding, the Jon Stewart Show and the Colbert report (a late night talkshow on the comedy network). I found that much of what the Colbert Report and the Jon Stewart show was joking around about the serious issue. The Colbert Report said "Global Warming does not exist as long as one scientist says that it doesn't". One quote that flashed across the screen that really grabbed my attention was "Denial is not a river in Antarctica". I thought that these quotes were quite powerful.

Caribbean tides

An interesting URL pertaining to the tides in the Caribbean as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/geol/tides.htm

Tides in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is wider than the Gulf, about 1900 miles from Central America to the Leeward Islands, but narrower, about 550 miles wide, and with a slightly larger area, 750,000 mi2. A tectonic plate occupies the area of the Sea, wedged between the subducting Pacific Plate on the west, and itself subducting beneath the Atlantic plate on the east. Its average depth probably does not exceed that of the Gulf by much, but on its northern side, in a line along the Sierra Maestra of Cuba and between the Caymans and Trinidad, is a subduction trench, the Bartlett Deep, that reaches 22,788 ft. in depth. The structure and history of the Caribbean are also not well known, but both the Gulf and the Caribbean are of great geological interest.
I have compared the tides at Biloxi, Galveston, Tampico and Progreso, Yucatan, which are spaced around the Gulf. If the tidal plots are superimposed in front of a strong light, it is found that low water occurs almost precisely at the same time at these widely-separated points. High water is almost as simultaneous, but there is some variation. It is clear that water is not sloshing from side to side of the Gulf, but the level at the centre is rising and falling with a period of one day. It would be impossible for all this water to enter and leave by the straits of Florida and Yucatan and distribute itself around the Gulf in the time available, so this simple drum-like oscillation is the only possibility.
Furthermore, the period of oscillation must be quite close to 24 hours, so that the diurnal stimulus can resonate to give the observed tidal ranges. The semidiurnal stimulus would not excite a significant amplitude, as is observed. The favoring of diurnal oscillations and the discouragement of semidiurnal oscillations explains the observed tides quite well, at least qualitatively.
Caribbean tides show more variations than Gulf tides, but are small in amplitude, less than 50 cm, and diurnal tides are prominent. In the eastern Caribbean, the tides at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and at Willemstad, Nederlandse Antillen, are almost entirely diurnal, like Gulf tides. The amplitude of the spring tide is about 40 cm, and of the neap tide, 15 to 20 cm at both locations. High spring tide at St. Croix occurs about 3 hours earlier than at Willemstad, but low tide about 2h 20m later. As the amplitude of the diurnal tide decreases and the small semidiurnal tide increases at neap tides, the time sequence may vary irregularly. The tides are not simultaneous, as in the Gulf.
Further west, the tides at Colón, Panama and Port Royal, Jamaica have a similar pattern, the diurnal tide predominating, but with a significant semidiurnal component that is increasingly important towards neap tides. The phases at these two rather widely-separated ports are almost exactly the same, for both components. Most of the time, there is one high tide a day, with a small advance and recession between the low tide and the next high tide. The neap tide may, however be double, with two high tides about 10 hours apart. The Colón tide is about 2h later than the Port Royal tide.
At Belize City, in the far west of the Caribbean, the tide is mainly semidiurnal, but with a diurnal component that increases toward spring tides, as usual. Typically, there are two high tides with a shallow minimum between them, separated by deeper low tides once a day. The tidal range is small, from little more than 10 cm up to 25 cm. The phase of the semidiurnal tide is 180° out of phase with the semidiurnal component at Colón, so there seems to be some semidiurnal sloshing in this area.
The diurnal resonance does not appear to be as strong in the Caribbean as it is in the Gulf, nor is it as simple. There is good evidence for semidiurnal sloshing from phase relations in the western Caribbean, from north to south. The small tidal ranges show that the tidal oscillations are not part of the Atlantic tides, which have much larger amplitudes.

http://geography.about.com/library/maps/blocean.htm
This site is quite interesting as it shows a breakdown of stats pertaining to each of the oceans.

A little late I know but it is finally up and working. The video in today's class was neat to see those amazing underwater structures built from the lava flows and hot minerals from within the Earth. It is so unbelieveable that all of those living organisms could exist at such dept and temperatures.