From the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen:
Dirk Müter is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry’s NanoGeoScience research group. He headed the project, which is now now published in Acta Biomaterialia under the title, “Microstructure and micromechanics of the heart urchin test from X-ray tomography”.
Longhorn cowfish. Photo by Michael Apel
From the University of California at San Diego:
The boxfish’s unique armor draws its strength from hexagon-shaped scales and the connections between them, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found.
From the Marine Aquarium Society of North America:
The excitement has begun as MASNA starts their membership drive for 2015.
As a member of the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America you will become part of the largest non-profit organization of marine aquarium hobbyists and clubs.
Pillar Coral. Photo by Mark Vermeij.
From BioMed Central:
A rare and threatened Caribbean coral species has for the first time been successfully bred and raised in the lab, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Ecology.
Reefs in the Middle East experience some of the hottest temperatures. Photo by Daviddarom (C.C.)
A new species of algae has been discovered in reef corals of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf where it helps corals to survive seawater temperatures of up to 36 degrees Celsius – temperatures that would kill corals elsewhere.
Cichlid fish in the Lake Tanganyika (Photo: Stefanie Schwamberger)
The manner and routes of dispersal vary with the species and the ecological conditions. Many fish form shoals to avoid predation.
Research on zoantharians, a group of animals related to corals and anemones, by researchers James Reimer of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, Angelo Poliseno of Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Italy, and Bert Hoeksema from Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands, has demonstrated how little we know about marine diversity in the so-called “center of marine biodiversity” located in the central Indo-Pacific Ocean.
Photo courtesy of Seabird McKeon
From the Smithsonian:
Guard-Crab Diversity Key to Coral Reef Survival in French Polynesia
Coral reefs face a suite of perilous threats in today’s ocean.
This is an underwater photograph of coral and the life the it supports near Lizard Island. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science President Matthew P. Scott
From Carnegie Institution
In a quest for historical context on the peril facing coral reefs, the team compared current measurements of the growth rate of a section of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef with similar measurements taken more than 30 years ago.
Giant groper. Image: P. Chabanet
From the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies
One of Australia’s leading coral reef ecologists fears that reef biodiversity may not provide the level of insurance for ecosystem survival that we once thought.