Southampton

Iron is recognised as a nutrient, the lack of which limits plankton growth in some parts of the ocean. By adding small quantities of iron to the surface of the ocean, plankton growth can be stimulated (‘the iron hypothesis’), potentially providing a means of extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequestering it in the deep ocean for hundreds of years.

Computer simulations performed by researchers at the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Glasgow show how oceanic stirring and mixing influence the formation and dynamics of plankton patches in the upper ocean.

The 8th UK Sea Ice Group meeting will take place at National Oceanography Centre on Thursday 16 September and Friday 17 September 2010.

A two-year project, which will provide vital information on the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere and its influence on climate, begins this month.

Durlston Dolphin Project by Ed Harland

Scientists onboard the RRS James Cook have found the world’s deepest hydrothermal vents 3,1 miles down (5000 metres) in the Caribbean’s Cayman Trough.

The NOC scientists are writing a daily blog diary. Follow from the first day at www.thesearethevoyages.net/jc44/mar21.html.

A British scientific expedition has discovered the world’s deepest undersea volcanic vents, known as ‘black smokers’, 3.1 miles (5000 metres) down in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean.

The 3rd International Ocean Stewardship Forum (IOSF), a conference designed to promote greater integration between the legal and technical aspects of marine policy-making has been cancelled.

www.oceanstewardship.com

The movement of ocean eddies and other surface water masses over short timescales causes rapid changes in the community composition of marine algae (phytoplankton) in the sunlit upper ocean, according to new findings.

Some regions of the deep ocean floor support abundant populations of organisms, despite being overlain by water that contains very little oxygen, according to an international study led by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. But global warming is likely to exacerbate oxygen depletion and thereby reduce biodiversity in these regions, they warn.