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Whittard Canyon
Whittard Canyon is a submarine canyon off the coast of southwest Ireland that lies between Celtic Sea and Atlantic Ocean. It covers an area of which span over 80 by 20 miles (129 by 32 km), with overall depth below 1,500 m. The canyon has been used as subject for numerous scientific research, ranging from its sediment transport to its biodiversity. In 2015, a group of scientists from NERC's National Oceanography Centre (NOC) on board RRS James Cook studied the canyon for five weeks. During the studies, they found abundant forms of deep-water life, such as blue sharks, swordfishes, cold-water corals, clams, and deep-sea oysters. In this canyon, the coral species can live in darkness and get their food from the passing water, which differed from the tropical corals that need sunlight to survive. Another expedition team from NIOZ also studied that layers with high concentrations of suspended particles in the canyon, which called nepheloid layers, contribute significantly t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porcupine Biscay Canyons
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi within the profoundly diverse order (biology), order Rodentia and display superficially similar coats of rigid or semi-rigid quills, which are modified hairs composed of keratin. Despite this, the two groups are distinct from one another and are not closely related to each other within the Hystricognathi. The largest species of porcupine is the third-largest living rodent in the world, after the capybara and beaver. The Old World porcupines (Hystricidae) live in Italy, Asia (western and southern), and most of Africa. They are large, terrestrial, and strictly nocturnal. The New World porcupines (Erethizontidae) are indigenous to North America and northern South A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Shark
The blue shark (''Prionace glauca''), also known as the great blue shark, is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, which inhabits deep waters in the world's temperate and tropical oceans. Averaging around and preferring cooler waters, the blue shark migrates long distances, such as from New England to South America. It is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Although generally lethargic, they can move very quickly. Blue sharks are viviparous and are noted for large litters of 25 to over 100 pups. They feed primarily on small fish and squid, although they can take larger prey. Maximum lifespan is still unknown, but it is believed that they can live up to 20 years. Anatomy and appearance Blue sharks are light-bodied with long pectoral fins. Like many other sharks, blue sharks are countershaded: the top of the body is deep blue, lighter on the sides, and the underside is white. The male blue shark commonly grows to at maturity, whereas the larger females ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nepheloid Layer
A nepheloid layer or nepheloid zone is a layer of water in the Deep sea, deep ocean basin, above the ocean floor, that contains significant amounts of suspended sediment. It is from 200 to 1000 m thick. The name comes from Greek language, Greek: ''nephos'', "cloud". The particles in the layer may come from the upper ocean layers and from stripping the sediments from the ocean floor by currents. Its thickness depends on bottom current velocity and is a result of balance between Radiative levitation, gravitational settling of particles and turbulence of the current. The formation mechanisms of nepheloid layers may vary, but primarily depend on deep ocean convection. Nepheloid layers can impact the accuracy of instruments when measuring bathymetry as well as affect the types marine life in an area. There are several significant examples of nepheloid layers across the globe, including within the Gulf of Mexico and the Porcupine Bank. Formation mechanisms A surface nepheloid layer (SNL) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Netherlands Institute For Sea Research
The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, also known as NIOZ, in Dutch the Nederlands Instituut voor Zeeonderzoek, is the Dutch national oceanographic institute. It is located on the island of Texel, and in Yerseke, in the Netherlands. The institute was founded in 1876 as the Zoological Station and in 1960 it was renamed to its current name. NIOZ carries out marine research in the waters of the Netherlands and overseas; it also plays a role in educating students, and offer facilities that can be used by marine scientists from the Netherlands and other countries worldwide. NIOZ has a longstanding collabaration with Utrecht University, for instance in an interdisciplinary Master’s programme Marine Sciences. NIOZ is part of the institutes organization of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Wim Mook Willem Gerrit "Wim" Mook (10 July 1932 – 24 January 2016) was a Dutch isotope physicist. Mook was born on 10 July 1932 in Groningen. He obtained his doctorate at the University o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters are in the superfamily Ostreoidea. Some types of oysters are commonly consumed (cooked or raw), and in some locales are regarded as a delicacy. Some types of pearl oysters are harvested for the pearl produced within the mantle. Windowpane oysters are harvested for their translucent shells, which are used to make various kinds of decorative objects. Etymology The word ''oyster'' comes from Old French , and first appeared in English during the 14th century. The French derived from the Latin , the feminine form of , which is the latinisation of the Ancient Greek () 'oyster'. Compare () 'bone'. Types True oysters True oysters are members of the family Ostreidae. This family includes the edible oysters, which mainly belong t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot. They live in both freshwater and marine environments; in salt water they prefer to burrow down into the mud and the turbidity of the water required varies with species and location; the greatest diversity of these is in North America. Clams in the culinary sense do not live attached to a substrate (whereas oysters and mussels do) and do not live near the bottom (whereas scallops do). In culinary usage, clams are commonly eaten marine bivalves, as in clam digging and the resulting soup, clam chowder. Many edible clams such as palourde clams are ovoid or triangular; however, razor clams have an elongated parallel-sided shell, suggesting an old-fashioned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton. A coral "group" is a colony of very many genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a sac-like animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in height. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. Each polyp excretes an exoskeleton near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a skeleton characteristic of the species which can measure up to several meters in size. Individual colonies grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously overnight, often around a full moon. Fertilized eggs form planulae, a mobile early form of the coral polyp which, when m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swordfish
Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfish are elongated, round-bodied, and lose all teeth and scales by adulthood. These fish are found widely in tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and can typically be found from near the surface to a depth of , and exceptionally up to depths of 2,234 m. They commonly reach in length, and the maximum reported is in length and in weight.Gardieff, S. Swordfish.' Florida Museum of Natural History. Accessed 26 December 2011 They are the sole member of their family, Xiphiidae. Taxonomy and etymology The swordfish is named after its long pointed, flat bill, which resembles a sword. The species name, ''Xiphias gladius'', derives from Greek (''xiphias'', "swordfish"), itself from (''xiphos'', "sword") and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RRS James Cook
The RRS ''James Cook'' is a British Royal Research Ship operated by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). She was built in 2006 to replace the ageing RRS ''Charles Darwin'' with funds from Britain's NERC and the DTI's Large Scientific Facilities Fund. She was named after Captain James Cook, the British explorer, navigator and cartographer at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton by The Princess Royal. On her maiden scientific voyage, on 5 March 2007, the ''James Cook'' set off to study the Fifteen-Twenty Fracture Zone. ''James Cook'' was involved in the discovery of what is believed to be the world's deepest undersea volcanic vents, while in the Caribbean in 2010. In September 2015, while on a cruise studying the seabed and marine life of the Whittard Canyon on the northern margin of the Bay of Biscay, oceanographers pictured what they believe was the first blue whale in English waters since the mammals were almost hunted to extinction in the north-east ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Submarine Canyon
A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley cut into the seabed of the continental slope, sometimes extending well onto the continental shelf, having nearly vertical walls, and occasionally having canyon wall heights of up to 5 km, from canyon floor to canyon rim, as with the Great Bahama Canyon. Just as above-sea-level canyons serve as channels for the flow of water across land, submarine canyons serve as channels for the flow of turbidity currents across the seafloor. Turbidity currents are flows of dense, sediment laden waters that are supplied by rivers, or generated on the seabed by storms, submarine landslides, earthquakes, and other soil disturbances. Turbidity currents travel down slope at great speed (as much as 70 km/h), eroding the continental slope and finally depositing sediment onto the abyssal plain, where the particles settle out.Continental Margin Sedimentation: From Sediment Transport to Sequence Stratigraphy (Special Publication 37 of the IAS) Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Oceanography Centre
The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is a marine science research and technology institution based on two sites in Southampton and Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the UK’s largest institution for integrated sea level science, coastal and deep ocean research and technology development. From 1 November 2019 the NOC began operating as an independent self-governing organisation – a charitable company limited by guarantee. The centre was set up to work in close partnership with institutions across the UK marine science community to address key science challenges, including sea level change, the oceans’ role in climate change, predicting and simulating the behaviour of the oceans through computer modelling, the future of the Arctic Ocean and long-term monitoring technologies. Marine science national capability The NOC provides the bulk of the UK’s capability to meet the needs of the country’s marine research community. National marine capability provided by the NOC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Environment Research Council
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several environmental (mainly geographic) research organisations (including Nature Conservancy which became the Nature Conservancy Council in 1973 and was divided up in 1991) were brought under the one umbrella organisation. When most research councils were re-organised in 1994, it had new responsibilities – Earth observation and science-developed archaeology. Collaboration between research councils increased in 2002 when Research Councils UK was formed. Chief executives * Sir Graham Sutton (1965–1970) • Professor James William Longman Beament (succeeding V. C. Wynne-Edwards FRS) 1978-1981 * Professor John Krebs, Baron Krebs 1994-1999 * Sir John Lawton 1999–2005 * Professor Alan Thorpe 2005–2011 * Dr Steven Wilson (Acting) – 2011–2012 * Professor Duncan Wingh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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