Rainer Lohmann, a professor at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, is collaborating with a researcher at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California to learn about the health and ecology of fur seals that winter in different locations in the South Pacific.

“What we’re trying to learn is where the pollutants come from and how those pollutants vary by where the seals feed,” said Lohmann, who has conducted studies of marine pollutants around the world. “Fur seals that have given birth have lower pollutant levels than those that have not, because they pass their pollutants on to their pups in their milk.”

All of the seals the researchers are studying breed on the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica, but some spend the winter off the coast of Argentina while others winter off Chile. The two groups are thought to be exposed to different pollutants in the food they eat at their wintering grounds.

Lohmann’s lab is analyzing 60 samples of seal milk collected between 2000 and 2010. He expects to find a wide variety of pollutants in the samples, including mercury, pesticides, flame retardants, PCBs, and other organic pollutants.

“These are all pollutants that degrade very slowly, so some may have been in the environment for decades while others, like flame retardants, are relatively new compounds that are still used by industry today,” Lohmann said.

Few studies of marine pollutants have been conducted in Antarctica, in part because there are greater concerns about pollutant levels in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere.

“The two hemispheres don’t mix very well, which is why the northern hemisphere is more contaminated than the southern — most of the pollutants have been released in the northern hemisphere and the air doesn’t flow to the south very often. So Antarctica is much cleaner,” Lohmann explained. “But we don’t know whether the pollutants down there are the result of a slow infiltration from the north or whether it’s a slower accumulation of pollutants used and released in the south.”

According to Lohmann, seal milk is about 50 percent fat, enabling young seals to grow rapidly. But it also means that if their mother’s milk is contaminated with pollutants, the pups will quickly accumulate pollutants in their bodies as well. And due to the pups’ smaller size, the researchers speculate that the young seals are more seriously effected by the pollutants than are older and larger seals.

“The seals can’t avoid the pollutants, so the best we can hope for is that the concentration of pollutants will decrease in their system over time, so that whatever harm there was is less harmful in the future,” Lohmann said. “But some data suggests that pollutant concentrations haven’t declined in the last ten years, even though most of the compounds were banned 40 years ago.”

Lohmann also speculates that some older pollutants that had been frozen in glaciers may be released again as the glaciers melt due to climate change.

“That could cause wildlife to be re-exposed to chemicals that previously were safely locked away in the ice,” he said.

Now scientists at MIT have discovered another dimension of the outsized role played by these tiny cells: The cyanobacteria continually produce and release vesicles, spherical packages containing carbon and other nutrients that can serve as food parcels for marine organisms. The vesicles also contain DNA, likely providing a means of gene transfer within and among communities of similar bacteria, and they may even act as decoys for deflecting viruses.

In a paper published this week in Science, postdoc Steven Biller, Professor Sallie (Penny) Chisholm, and co-authors report the discovery of large numbers of extracellular vesicles associated with the two most abundant types of cyanobacteria, Prochlorococcus and Synechoccocus. The scientists found the vesicles (each about 100 nanometers in diameter) suspended in cultures of the cyanobacteria as well as in seawater samples taken from both the nutrient-rich coastal waters of New England and the nutrient-sparse waters of the Sargasso Sea.

Although extracellular vesicles were discovered in 1967 and have been studied in human-related bacteria, this is the first evidence of their existence in the ocean.

“The finding that vesicles are so abundant in the oceans really expands the context in which we need to understand these structures,” says Biller, first author on the Science paper. “Vesicles are a previously unrecognized and unexplored component of the dissolved organic carbon in marine ecosystems, and they could prove to be an important vehicle for genetic and biogeochemical exchange in the oceans.”

Billions and billions of vesicles

Biller’s metagenomic analysis of the vesicles taken from the seawater revealed DNA from a diverse array of bacteria, suggesting that vesicle production is common to many marine microbes. The researchers estimate the global production of vesicles by Prochlorococcus alone at a billion billion billion per day — representing a notable addition of carbon to the scarce nutrient pool of the open seas.

Lab experiments showed that the vesicles are stable, lasting two weeks or more, and that the organic carbon they contain provides enough nutrients to support the growth of nonphotosynthetic bacteria.

Given the dearth of nutrients in the open ocean, the daily release by an organism of a packet one-sixth the size of its own body is puzzling, Chisholm says. Prochlorococcus has lost the ability to neutralize certain chemicals and depends on nonphotosynthetic bacteria to break down chemicals that would otherwise act as toxins. It’s possible the vesicle “snack packets” help make this relationship mutually beneficial.

“Prochlorococcus is the smallest genome that can make organic carbon from sunlight and carbon dioxide and it’s packaging this carbon and releasing it into the seawater around it,” says Chisholm, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Biology, who is lead investigator of the study. “There must be an evolutionary advantage to doing this. Our challenge is to figure out what it is.”

Because the vesicles also contain DNA and RNA, the researchers surmise they could play a role in horizontal gene transfer, a means for developing genetic diversity and sharing ecologically useful genes among the Prochlorococcus metapopulation.

Marine decoy

But perhaps the most unusual potential role of the vesicles is as a decoy for predators: Electron microscopy shows phages (viruses that attack bacteria) attached to vesicles. When a phage injects its DNA into the vesicle (making it impossible for the phage to reproduce in a living cell), it renders the phage inactive, according to Biller, who says the vesicles could be acting like chaff released by a fighter jet to divert missile attacks. A phage attached to a vesicle is effectively taken out of the battle, providing a creative means of deterrence.

“Marine cyanobacteria of the genera Prochlorococcus and Synechoccocus are the two most abundant phototrophs,” says biologist David Scanlan, a professor at the University of Warwick who was not involved in this research. “By releasing extracellular vesicles these organisms shed new light on the importance of such particles in the largest ecosystem on Earth — the open ocean — with implications for marine carbon cycling, mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer, and as a defense against phage attack.”

The vesicles first came to Chisholm’s attention in 2008 when Anne Thompson, then a graduate student, noticed little “blebs” on the surface of Prochlorococcus cells while using electron microscopy. Neither she nor Chisholm nor other ocean biologists who saw the photo were able to identify the spheres. But Biller, who joined Chisholm’s lab in 2010 after completing his graduate studies on soil bacteria, recognized them as vesicles, and began the study resulting in the Science paper.

Ignore Climate Change at Your Peril

Last year, when Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi launched an attack on our ABC, calling it a “taxpayer-funded behemoth” and suggesting the Government “cut the ABC budget”, GetUp members responded in full force. Since the campaign began, more than 219,000 people have signed the petition to defend our ABC – even Play School’s very own Benita added her voice to the campaign!

Our message is loud and clear: Australians want our ABC to remain free, fair and independent.

More than 12,000 GetUp members chipped in to display this billboard right in the heart of Prime Minister Abbott’s electorate, where he – and thousands of the voters he answers to – will drive past and see our message in big, bold letters:

But we’re not home yet. In the lead up to budget time, when cabinet are deciding whether or not to cut funding to the ABC, you can be sure we’ll keep making noise. Let’s make certain Prime Minister Abbott and the government are fully aware of just how unpopular this decision would be.

GetUp members like you have already made it possible to lock in a second billboard in Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate – and soon, local leaders will take our message to letterboxes in their local neighbourhoods, making sure as many people as possible hear our message. There’s still time to chip in to help fund these exciting next steps in this campaign, if you haven’t already.

Click here to help make it happen: https://www.getup.org.au/defend-abc

Stay tuned for updates on this exciting campaign soon. In the meantime, keep up the great work!

insight for the european commercial marine business

• Adv

16 year-old Amina Filali — raped, beaten and forced to wed her rapist — killed herself because Morocco’s penal code allows a rapist to marry his underage victim. After years of struggle to reform the law, the big vote to repeal this shocking provision could happen in days! Let’s honour Amina’s memory by ensuring her tragedy is never repeated.

16 year-old Amina Filali, raped, beaten and forced to wed her rapist, killed herself — the only way she saw to escape the trap set for her by her rapist and Moroccan law. We’ve joined Moroccan activists, campaigning for years to repeal this provision, and now victory is within reach. This week, one last vote could make it happen.

Article 475 in Morocco’s penal code allows a rapist to avoid prosecution and a long prison sentence by marrying his victim if she is a minor. It’s any rape survivor’s worst nightmare, and for Amina, it came true. But now, after hundreds of thousands of us helped to push Parliament, a vote to repeal the provision is within our grasp. If it’s called, insiders say the repeal is certain to pass. We just need one final push to get it to the table.

Right now, there is almost no news coverage and no pressure on legislators to do the right thing. When our call is 1 million strong, we’ll place ads in the newspapers that MPs read and stand with Moroccan activists outside of Parliament with a sea of pink balloons representing the massive global response. Let’s honour Amina’s memory by ensuring her tragedy is never repeated. Click below to join now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/forced_to_marry_her_rapist_f/?bhPqncb&v=33980

When Amina was brutally raped, her family reported it to officials in their town of Larache. Instead of prosecuting the rapist, the court allowed him the option of marrying his victim— and Amina’s family agreed to the proposal. After her suicide, Avaaz members stood with Amina’s heartbroken parents and Moroccan activists to deliver nearly 800.000 voices for reform, making international headlines. The government promised change but nothing happened — until now.

Article 475 isn’t the only challenge to women’s rights in Morocco, but has become a striking symbol of what’s wrong. The government has promised to pass comprehensive legislation to stop violence against women since 2006 and to strike down Article 475, but nothing changed while girls’ lives were destroyed.

Finally things are moving in the right direction, with the Justice Committee striking down the most problematic part of the article and passing the bill on to the entire Lower Chamber for a vote — if this issue is called, it’s very likely that Morocco will have a new law and Amina will see a kind of justice. This vote is the first crucial step to the real reform that women’s groups in Morocco have long fought for. Let’s seal the deal on 475 to demand that laws should protect, not trample on women’s rights:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/forced_to_marry_her_rapist_f/?bhPqncb&v=33980

From Afghanistan and India to Japan and Kenya, Avaaz members use our collective power to join with people around the globe to fight for women’s rights — today, let’s stand together for Amina Filali and the legacy of hope that her story must leave.

With hope and determination,

Dalia, Antonia, Emma, Marie, Rewan, Alex, Ricken and the entire Avaaz team

PS – Many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community! Start yours now and win on any issue – local, national or global: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=23917

More information:

Morocco set to repeal controversial rape section in penal code (Al Jazeera)
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/8/morocco-set-to-repealcontroversialrapelaw.html

Morocco MPs Ask to End Rapist Marriage Law After Teen Suicide (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-09/morocco-mps-ask-to-end-rapist-marriage-law-after-teen-suici…

Morocco protest against rape-marriage law (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17416426

Morocco mulls tougher line against rape-marriages (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/03/20123171132404140.html 

Protesters in Morocco demand reform of rape laws after teen girl’s suicide (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/17/world/africa/morocco-child-rape/index.html 

Global Rights report on violence against women in Morocco
http://www.globalrights.org/site/DocServer/2011-10-14_Final_Shadow_Report_to_CAT.pdf?docID=12983