We start this issue with a look at the most ubiquitous species on the planet* – Prochlorococcus; a bluegreen algae (or photosynthesising bacterium if you want to be rude) that has adapted to life in the open ocean, but relies on other friendly bugs to do it. We also see the sequencing of the first crustacean genome; the child microscopist’s friend – the water flea!

In the conservation section we have news of more reports in the Census of Marine Life (CoML) series, covering South America, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Maine. While the Indian Ocean study suffers from a lack of core data, the US study provides a wealth of information, and a valuable insight into temperate marine ecosystems. We also have a nice paper looking at how penguins have fared since the 1970’s, when water temperatures changed in the southern Indian Ocean (but no formal climate change section this time).

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This issue we have tantalizing news of a new algal group – the rappemonads, which are reported to be common in both fresh and marine ecosystems, and goes to show the power of DNA based analysis. In conservation we have an article on seagrass in Northern Europe, which suggests that the eutrophication of coastal waters is an important factor. Seagrass (Zostra spp.) beds have largely disappeared from British waters, though I believe that disease has also been implicated here…

Finally, we end up in both hot and cold water in our section on climate change!

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We have three articles on how fish sense their surroundings in marine science this issue – from electrosensory arrays of sharks and rays, which help them oreintate themeselves in the water column and hunt for food, to a sense of smell that warns fish about predator activity on the reef. We end in climate change with a paper from PLoS 1 about how changes in carbon dioxide levels effect gene regulation in marine snails…
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We’ve got a number of papers on different aspects of biodiversity in this issue, amongst these there is an estimate of global seafloor biomass (about 100 megatons), how plankton may form specialised regional sub-species, and how diversity decreases under climatic stress (on this occasion the cooling of the poles). We’ll start, however, with a nice bit of kit that looks quite buildable for anyone wanting to take a look underwater without having to dive…

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While bacteria, phytoplankton and sponges play an important part in this week’s scientific mix, there is still a place for some leviathans, with tales of whales both living and dead…
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Back to basics this week, most of the science is involved with nutrition – eating and getting eaten – with a brief interlude from diatoms who are working hard on producing toxins to ensure that anyone who does eat them regrets it! The theme is picked up again in Fisheries, here our human apetite is pushing global fish stocks to the point of no return. To start though, a little fun with a novel tunicate…

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Leatherback turtles are popular this issue, with scientists tracking them across the Atlantic, how they thermo-regulate, and how to stop them ending up in the soup… Otherwise there is a nice bit of experimental work ‘proving’ that faster flow = more life (this doesn’t mean that low-flow = no life, however!). We are also, perhaps, getting closer to understanding why coral bleaching occurs at a molecular level.

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This issue we look at the behaviour of seals and jellyfish – choose the ideal holiday destination for starfish – then dive into a microbial ocean. How to manage fisheries, this time on a Chilean archipelago (there are some mitigating circumstances here, but best of luck guys), and catch up on more news from the Gulf of Mexico. One factor that we need to take on board is that the Gulf was in bad shape before the spill, and that the $20B oil spill response isn’t going to start managing the Gulf ecology properly.

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A real mixed-bag this week, our marine science highlights consider techniques for identifying viruses (or molecular quasi-species) and nanotech trackers to follow zooplankton. In conservation, we see progress on a new generation of bioreactors that promise to remove nitrogen from land runoff. In fisheries, even the best environmental practices at fish farms need improvement. In pollution, science of the gulf oil spill in the service of the law.

For those of you who worry about climate change, but feel they can’t do anything about it right now, we finish with the opportunity to transcribe the logs of British warships from the turn of the last century. The transcriptions will extend our baseline data about climate back in time over a wide area of the Earth’s surface, and so improve the qualty of our climatic forecasts.
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This week we start at the beginning of the marine food web – with algae blooming in the SW Atlantic, and plumbing the depths around Hawaii. In marine exploitation we see plans to mine hydrothermal vents in Papua New Guinea. Conservation worries in the Indian Ocean, with extensive bleaching now occurring due to high water temperatures. Coccolithophores make a guest appearance in climate change – responsible for absorbing large amounts of the CO₂ we’re pumping into the atmosphere – an understanding of their biology takes on global significance…

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