Oceanography Scientific Assignment | Custom Assignment Help

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Written assignment In 2-3 typed pages (double-spaced, 12 point font maximum), write up these details on your reading of the selected News and Views article (from the list), the reference you chose from that article, and the current event. 1. Summarize the News and Views article. What topic does it cover broadly? Why is this topic important, and what new research is being discussed? Is it interdisciplinary? Was there an old paradigm that was changed? Please use your own words—plagiarism = cheating. 2. Identify one reference you chose to explore in more detail. How does it fit into the News and Views article you chose (i.e., why is it referenced?)? What journal was it printed in? Scientific articles use a lot of discipline-specific jargon. Be patient as you read it and look up words you don’t understand. 3. Summarize the main point(s) of the reference. You might also include answers to questions like: Was it observation based? Was computer modeling used? Did it have a hypothesis? 4. Identify one current event (news, movie, blog, etc.) and explain how it relates your topic. 5. Conclude with one paragraph on why you chose this topic and how it relates to Oceanogragphy. 6. Reference list (in some standard format like APA style) of the 3 items you discuss in this assignment (1 News and Views, 1 selected reference, 1 current event

formation in their human culture systems.
Nonetheless, their protocols will undoubtedly
help to advance our understanding of the
molecular basis of normal segmentation and
to reveal the genes that, when mutated, lead
to the development of disorders of the spine.
More broadly, gene-regulatory networks are
highly conserved between mammals, regardless
of the animals’ size or whether they are
bipedal or quadrupedal. This is in stark contrast
to the species-specific timing of gene
oscillations, which is fundamental to bodyplan
development. What causes these crucial
differences in timing remains an enigma — but
one that can now begin to be unravelled.
Adelaida Palla and Helen Blau are in the Baxter
Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, Department
of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute for
Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine,
Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford,
California 94305-5175, USA.
e-mail: hblau@stanford.edu
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625–639 (2012).
4. Diaz-Cuadros, M. et al. Nature 580, 113–118 (2020).
5. Matsuda, M. et al. Nature 580, 124–129 (2020).
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Even the most remote marine ecosystems on
Earth — such as those at high latitudes, including
in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica
— can no longer be considered pristine1. The
effects of humans on marine ecosystems now
have a global footprint2–4, and mitigation of
associated threats requires knowledge of the
areas of particular ecological and biological
significance. Such areas sustain the healthy
functioning of marine ecosystems and should
therefore be protected. On page 87, Hindell
et al.5 report analyses of tracking data for
marine species that reveal these key areas in
the Southern Ocean.
The waters of the Southern Ocean encircle
the Earth through the Drake Passage, the ocean
region between the tip of South America and
Antarctica. Because of this passage, the Southern
Ocean has a key role in global climate and
ocean circulation6. This ocean is also home
to a unique range of marine fauna, including
many charismatic predators, such as penguins
(Fig. 1) and seals, as well as the precious
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). These krill
are at the base of the marine food web, and,
alongside species of toothfish (Dissostichus
eleginoides and Dissostichus mawsoni), are
the target of the largest fishing industries in
the Southern Ocean7,8. The fisheries compete
with animals for food resources, and fishing
activities along with the pressures from
climate change are raising concerns about
the possibility of ecosystem collapses there8,9.
The Commission for the Conservation of
Antarctic Marine Living Resources is the main
management body for the Southern Ocean,
and is tasked with ensuring the preservation
of this ecosystem. To succeed, the commission
needs to take precautionary steps, including
the establishment of more and better-designed
marine reserves as has been suggested8, and
sites for these should be chosen on the basis of
Marine conservation
Predators on track
for ocean protection
Ana M. M. Sequeira
Satellite tracking of marine predators in the Southern Ocean
has revealed key ecological areas under disproportionate
pressure from human activities. These results show the value
of tracking data for informing conservation efforts. See p.87
knowledge of the whereabouts of ecologically
significant marine areas10. However, accurately
defining these areas in a highly dynamic,
changing environment is challenging.
Monitoring predators at the top of a marine
food web can help with this task. Such predators
migrate within and between ecosystems,
and can be used as indicator species11 — those
able to provide information on the status of
an ecosystem or habitat if alterations occur in
their movement patterns, behaviour or reproductive
success. In particular, tracking top
predators can assist with identifying the areas
that they use most, which can be considered
as regions of great ecosystem
importance, not
only for the predators but also for a wide range
of other species11. Indeed, tracking data are
increasingly being used to inform conservation
policy around the world12, and have been
used to quantify the extent of spatial overlaps
between species and fishing activities
globally3.
Hindell et al. report analyses of tracking
data from 4,060 individuals of 17 species of
marine predators (seabirds and mammals),
and suggest a way to use such data to predict
key ecological regions in the Southern Ocean.
Tracking data were collected between 1991 and
2016 using electronic tags attached to the
animals. These tags provided location estimates
(obtained using satellite information
or other methods) as the animals migrated.
The authors used some of these data (for
2,823 individuals) to develop predictive
models to identify crucial habitats in the
Antarctic region for all of the predator species
combined. These integrated results provide a
spatially defined assessment of areas of high
biodiversity that includes species across
multiple levels of the food chain (termed
trophic levels) in the Southern Ocean.
Defining a single, integrated result from such
varied data sets and from so many species is a
complex undertaking. Predators in the Southern
Ocean include a large range of species from
across different taxonomic groups. These
include species living in the Antarctic
region
and species residing immediately north of it
(in the sub-Antarctic), all with different diets
and patterns of movement. The authors used
a series of data-processing steps to generate a
value they termed ‘habitat importance’, which
they predicted using data across all of these
species together (assemblage-level maps). To
do this, Hindell and colleagues first mapped
habitat importance for the species living in the
Antarctic separately from those living in the
sub-Antarctic, and then selected the maximum
habitat-suitability values in those two maps to
generate an overall assemblage-level map for
all of the predator species combined.
Finally, the authors defined the regions in
the top 10% of their calculated habitat importance
value as the areas of the most ecological
significance in the Southern Ocean. This final
“Tracking data are
increasingly being used to
inform conservation policy
around the world.”
34 | Nature | Vol 580 | 2 April 2020
News & views
© 2020
Springer
Nature
Limited.
All
rights
reserved.
step was a central part of their study. It enabled
comparisons to be made between the areas of
ecological significance and the areas affected
by human activities, as well as between the levels
of existing protection inside and outside
these areas.
Hindell and co-workers report that the
predicted areas of ecological significance they
identified match the ocean regions of known
elevated productivity for Antarctic krill13 and
for other organisms at the base of the food
web, including myctophids (lanternfish)14.
This result is consistent with the idea that
marine predators can be used as indicators
to identify areas of ecological significance.
The authors report the particularly striking
finding that a disproportionately higher level
of human pressures (fishing and the effects of
climate change) occurred inside rather than
outside the areas identified as being of ecological
significance. On the basis of this, the
authors recommend that the current network
of protected marine areas in the Southern
Ocean be extended. They confirm that these
extensions should include the areas for which
protection is already being planned.
It would have been interesting if the authors
had suggested how an approach similar to
theirs could best be used to tackle comparable
problems on a global scale. For example, the
authors’ views on the best strategy for contributing
scientific knowledge to inform efforts to
protect biodiversity on the high seas (the waters
outside national jurisdictions) would have been
a valuable addition. This topical issue is currently
being discussed by the United Nations
General Assembly, and negotiations are under
way to develop an international
legally binding
solution to address the problem15.
Scientists have tracked marine predators for
decades3,4,12. It is time to pool all these existing
data sets to address pressing conservation
challenges on a global scale. To succeed, a
worldwide movement is needed within the
community of animal-tracking researchers, to
drive the sharing of these data and to combine
them with information about human activities
at sea. Combining such information will
deliver much-needed evidence of the extent
of existing threats, to inform managers and
policymakers in a timely manner. As Hindell
and colleagues state, the Southern Ocean has
the potential to provide an example of how
“science, policy and management can interact
to meet the challenges of a changing planet”,
and their work highlights a pathway for how
best to direct policy efforts.
Ana M. M. Sequeira is at the Oceans Institute
and School of Biological Sciences, University
of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
6009, Australia.
e-mail: ana.sequeira@uwa.edu.au
1. Blight, L. K. & Ainley, D. G. Science 321, 1443 (2008).
2. Halpern, B. S. et al. Science 319, 948–952 (2008).
3. Queiroz, N. et al. Nature 572, 461–466 (2019).
4. Sequeira, A. M. M. et al. Front. Mar. Sci. 6, 639 (2019).
5. Hindell, M. A. et al. Nature 580, 87–92 (2020).
6. Rintoul, S. R. Nature 558, 209–218 (2018).
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(2012).
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(2008).
12. Hays, G. C. et al. Trends Ecol. Evol. 34, 459–473 (2019).
13. Atkinson, A. et al. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 362, 1–23 (2008).
14. Freer, J. J., Tarling, G. A., Collins, M. A., Partridge, J. C. &
Genner, M. J. Diversity Distrib. 25, 1259–1272 (2019).
15. Wright, G. et al. Mar. Policy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
marpol.2018.12.003 (2019).
This article was published online on 18 March 2020.
Figure 1 | Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) in Antarctica. Hindell et al.5 report analyses of tracking data for marine predators, including this penguin
species. The authors’ results pinpoint regions of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica that should be protected.
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© 2020
Springer
Nature
Limited.
All
rights
reserved.