Rising seas could drown turtle eggs, according to new research

July 22, 2015 by James Whitmore, The Conversation

Immersion in seawater kills sea turtle eggs, suggesting that sea turtles are increasingly at risk from rising seas, according to research published today in Royal Society Open Science.

In a laboratory experiment, researchers immersed green turtle eggs in seawater for varying lengths of time. The researchers tested eggs of various ages, and then counted the number of eggs that hatched. They found that immersion for six hours reduced survival by a third.

The study partly explains reduced numbers turtle of hatchlings recorded at Raine Island, home to the largest population of green sea turtles in the world.

David Pike, lecturer in tropical biology at James Cook University and lead author of the study, said turtle nests low down on beaches could be underwater for six hours during abnormally high "king" tides or storm surges.

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100 Million Year Old Seawater Discovered Under Chesapeake Bay

November 22, 2013

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

US Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologists drilling into the largest crater in the country have stumbled across an amazing discovery – the oldest body of seawater ever unearthed.

The water, which according to Discovery News is at least 100 million years old, was found over one kilometer beneath Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The seawater is believed to have come from the earliest days of the Atlantic Ocean and was hidden beneath a more recent, 56-mile-wide impact crater near the bay’s entrance.

The USGS investigators did not realize how old the water was until they completed an analysis of the chemicals it contained. As it turns out, the water held forms of chloride and bromide, as well as other chemicals that helped them determine that the liquid is, in fact, from the Early Cretaceous Period. While older water has been discovered in Canada, the newly discovered crater is now officially the oldest large body of water on Earth.

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New DNA Method Tracks Fish and Whales in Seawater

ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2012) — Danish researchers at University of Copenhagen lead the way for future monitoring of marine biodiversity and resources by using DNA traces in seawater samples to keep track of fish and whales in the oceans. A half litre of seawater can contain evidence of local fish and whale faunas and combat traditional fishing methods. Their results are now published in the international scientific journal PLOS ONE.

"The new DNA-method means that we can keep better track of life beneath the surface of the oceans around the world, and better monitor and protect ocean biodiversity and resources," says PhD student Philip Francis Thomsen from the Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen.

Marine ecosystems worldwide are under threat with many fish species and populations suffering from human over-exploitation, which greatly impacts global biodiversity, economy and human health. Today, marine fish are largely surveyed using selective and invasive methods mostly limited to commercial species, and restricted to areas with favourable conditions.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120830105421.htm