Natgeo  Photograph By @thomaspeschak This Is A Marine Iguana, But I Think They Should Be Called ‘Ocean

Anyone else love squids as much as we do? (Qeue slow-motion tentacle-raise) 🙋🏻

Galiteuthis phyllura, also known as the cockatoo squid, lives in the North Pacific from 200 to over 1,000 meters (660 to 3,280 feet) deep. This species has a transparent body and photophores, or light organs, under their eyes. We often encounter them hanging horizontally in the water column with their arms raised above their heads.

My host dad’s mom’s 86th birthday cake.

Phytoplankton (Coccolithophore) bloom!

Phytoplankton bloom in the Bay of Biscay.

The waters off the western coast of France show swirls of green and turquoise as a result of a phytoplankton bloom associated with increasing springtime temperatures.

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North Cascades National Park, Washington

A night in the Cascade Mountains

This impending issue has been known for some time. I believe it has a role in the resurgence of nationalism, immigration debates, and isolationism in certain countries - a bit of preemptive door slamming… 

143 Million People May Soon Become Climate Migrants, World Bank Warns

Climate change will transform more than 143 million people into “climate migrants” escaping crop failure, water scarcity, and sea-level rise, a new World Bank report concludes.

Most of this population shift will take place in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—three “hot spots” that represent 55 percent of the developing world’s populations.

This worst-case scenario is part of a ground-breaking study focused on the impacts of slow-onset climate, as opposed to more visibly dramatic events such as extreme storms and flooding. The report, Groundswell—Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, also shifts the focus from cross-border migration, which has drawn global attention as refugees and migrants flee war, poverty and oppression, to in-country migration, which involves many more millions of people on the move in search of viable places to live. The 143 million represent 2.8 percent of the three regions’ population.

Advice to other First Generation College students

THE PARADOX OF THE PLANKTON EXPLAINED BY COMPUTER SIMULATION

The paradox of the plankton results from the clash between the observed diversity of plankton and the competitive exclusion principle, which states that, when two species compete for the same resource, ultimately only one will persist and the other will be driven to extinction. With phytoplankton this is different, despite the limited range of resources, as is light, nitrate, phosphate, silicic acid, iron, a large number of species coexist, all competing for the same sorts of resources.

Now, a new math model explains such biodiversity. To understand this paradox researchers created a conceptual model for a theoretical community. Where each member of that community consumes one type of resource, and consuming it causes the production of exactly two new resources. Also, any new member could only survive if there is an open niche, or if it was better to exploit a resource than a current member. But with this computer simulation, researchers discovered that its simple rules led to a virtual community that, like the bacterial or phytoplankton communities, this hypotethical community was diverse and stable, and in fact became increasingly stable to as organisms diversified.

Resource competition and metabolic commensalism -where one organism benefits from the other without affecting it- drive a healty and diverse ecosystem. Researchers demonstrate that even when supplied with just one resource, ecosystems can exhibit high diversity and increasing stability.  Despite early stages where massive die-offs scenes occured, as time passed and community grew more stable, these became less common. Affortunately to phytoplancton species, two communities under ideal conditions can develop so differently from one another, without producing extintions.

Photo:  Gordon T. Taylor.

Reference: Goyal and Maslov, 2018. Diversity, Stability, and Reproducibility in Stochastically Assembled Microbial Ecosystems, Physical Review Letters 

What’s a whale fall?

Whale falls can be found throughout the ocean. This one was spotted in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Southern California!

GIF transcript beneath the cut.

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Delta

Flight 1235- 12:05pm

Harrisburg to Atlanta

Right now, my first flight is almost over and we will soon land in Atlanta. I should be on my way to Atlanta. But I am not on that flight. I am sitting in Harrisburg International Airport (Canada counts).  

IFSA-Butler sent everyone multiple emails in the months leading up to departure about visas. Each email was clear and concise, and I reread everyone to make sure there was nothing else I had to do. So, it was surprising (and very stressful) when the boarding agent would not allow me on the plane because I didn't have a visa. I told him I didn’t need one and showed him the documents from IFSA-Butler. Nope. He needed something from the Costa Rican government. So I called IFSA-Butler and my advisor told me the same thing every email said. I didn’t need a visa because I would apply for a tourist visa after landing in San Jose and then apply for an extension of it.  

I told the agent this, but he needed official documentation. I relayed the message that he could call the Costa Rican Consulate and they would verify what I was saying. That wasn't his responsibility (I'd like to point out here that if I called and tried to tell him what they said, he would have had to speak with them to verify it, meaning it technically was his responsibility). As everyone was boarding, one kind stranger showed the agent the website of the Costa Rican Embassy saying that you did not need a visa to enter the visa and you would apply for a visa after landing. He said that the date of my departure was after the 90-day tourist visa expired. I repeated that I would get an extension in Costa Rica and it was impossible for me to have a tourist visa before arriving in Costa Rica (from what IFSA-Butler told me).

By the time my advisor got me documentation from Costa Rican immigration and emailed it to me, it was too late. Oh, and it was in Spanish and they would have had to find a way to translate it since I would not be able to. And my bag was on the plane.  

So here I am, sitting in Harrisburg International Airport after figuring out how I would get to Costa Rica. Everything is taken care of now after many phone calls and my flight is tomorrow at 3:34pm out of Washington, D.C. But my back won't be back until 5ish and I'm waiting for my parents to comeback.  

So I will conclude by quoting my travel agent at Advantage Travel (IFSA's travel agency), "Delta can go pound salt."

Prionace glauca by migueldesigns It’s no exaggeration to say the blue shark is one of the most beautiful sharks swimming in the earth’s waters today. It stands out with its slim, elongated, torpedo-shaped body and beautiful swimming style. Sadly, this shark species is among the most highly fished sharks around. Humans catch it for its fins, meat, oil, and as a display animal because of its beauty. About 10 million blue sharks are killed by humans every year! As a result, this shark is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Blue sharks have a deep blue back with white underbelly, large eyes, and long pectoral fins. It has a particularly strong and unique sense of smell.