#MarineFungi Could Eat #PlasticPollution, Helping to Clean Our #Oceans and #Beaches
Learn more about the marine #fungi that could be conditioned to help clean up #Hawaii’s beaches.
By Monica Cull
Feb 14, 2025 4:00 PMFeb 14, 2025 4:01 PM
"Hawaii is home to some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes. Striking blue waters, lush jungles, and pristine beaches make it a paradise. It’s also home to other unique inhabitants, such as sea turtles, dolphins, and… plastics?
"According to a new study from the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa, plastics are becoming the most prevalent form of pollution in the ocean, which can be detrimental to marine species and their habitat. However, researchers from UH discovered a fungus from Hawai‘i’s nearshore environment that may have the ability to break down plastics, and to top it off, they may be conditioned to do it faster. The findings were recently published in Mycologia.
" 'Plastic in the environment today is extremely long-lived and is nearly impossible to degrade using existing technologies,' said Ronja Steinbach, lead author of the study and a marine biology undergraduate student at the UH Mānoa College of Natural Sciences, in a press release.
"Marine fungi may be a term you’ve never heard before. This is likely due to the fact that less than 1 percent of marine fungi are known to science.
" 'Our research highlights marine fungi as a promising and largely untapped group to investigate for new ways to recycle and remove plastic from #nature. Very few people study fungi in the ocean, and we estimated that fewer than one percent of marine fungi are currently described,' said Steinbach in the press release.
"For this study, the research team looked at marine fungi found in #corals, #seaweed, #sand, and #sponges from Hawai’i’s nearshore. And they hope that the fungi could help degrade plastics in the marine environment.
" 'Fungi possess a superpower for eating things that other organisms can’t digest (like #wood or #chitin), so we tested the fungi in our collection for their ability to digest plastic,' said Anthony Amend, Pacific Biosciences Research Center professor and co-lead author of the study, in a press release.
The Hungry Fungi
"The team exposed the fastest-growing fungi to small dishes filled with #polyurethane, a common plastic, and noted if and how fast the fungi would consume it. The team also 'experimentally evolved' the fungi to see if they would grow and consume more polyurethane the more they were exposed to the plastic.
" 'We were shocked to find that more than 60 percent of the fungi we collected from the ocean had some ability to eat plastic and transform it into fungi,' Steinbach said in a press release. 'We were also impressed to see how quickly fungi were able to adapt. It was very exciting to see that in just three months, a relatively short amount of time, some of the fungi were able to increase their feeding rates by as much as 15 percent.'
"The research team is currently working to see if these marine fungi can break down other forms of plastics, such as #polyethylene and #PolyethyleneTerephthalate. They’re also trying to understand how, at a molecular level, these fungi can degrade these plastics.
" 'We hope to collaborate with #engineers, #chemists, and #oceanographers who can leverage these findings into actual solutions to clean up our beaches and oceans,' said Steinbach in a press release.
#SolarPunkSunday #PlasticPollution #Pollution #PollutionSolutions
Firings at US #weather and #oceans agency risk lives and economy, former agency heads warn
By SETH BORENSTEIN
Updated 9:48 AM EST, March 1, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — "The federal weather and oceans agency touches people’s daily lives in unnoticed ways, so massive firings there will likely cause needless deaths and a big hit to America’s economy, according to the people who ran it.
"The first round of firings started Thursday at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a government agency that monitors the oceans, the atmosphere where storms roam and space, and puts out hundreds of 'products' daily. Those products generally save lives and money, experts say.
"#NOAA’s 301 billion weather forecasts every year reach 96% of American households.
The firings are 'going to affect safety of flight, safety of shipping, safety of everyday Americans,' Admiral Tim Gallaudet told The Associated Press Friday. President Donald Trump appointed Gallaudet as acting NOAA chief during his last administration. 'Lives are at risk for sure.'
"Former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad agreed.
"'We’re getting into prime #tornado time. We’re getting into #planting season for the agricultural season for the bread belt,' Spinrad said. 'It’s going to affect safety. It’s going to affect the economy.'"
https://apnews.com/article/noaa-doge-federal-cuts-musk-weather-danger-6f60e7c511989aeff8930ae87c9a5ee8
#USPol #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #PolyCrisis #HungerGames #FoodInsecurity #WeatherForecasts #ExtremeWeather #Safety #Spaceweather #SolarFlares #ClimateScientists #OceanWarming #Oceanographers #BadDOGE
The people who once ran the federal weather and oceans agency say it touches people’s daily lives in unnoticed ways and that massive firings there could cause needless deaths and a big hit to America’s economy. The first round of firings shook the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday. It's a government agency that monitors the oceans, the atmosphere where storms roam and space. Experts say NOAA's forecasts and other products save lives and money. Former NOAA chiefs say the cuts put lives at risk from tornadoes, floods, wildfires and other serious dangers. One senator told the Associated Press that 650 NOAA workers lost their jobs this week.
Via the #BBC
Something remarkable has happened 2 A23a, world's biggest #iceberg.
For months→been spinning on spot just north of #Antarctica when really it should b racing along w/ Earth's most powerful ocean current
Scientists say frozen block, more than 2X the size of #GreaterLondon, has been captured on top of huge rotating cylinder of water
It's a phenomenon #oceanographers call #Taylor Column - and it's possible A23a might not escape its jailer 4 yrs
#Oceanographers uncover the vital role of mixing down of oxygen in sustaining #DeepSea health https://phys.org/news/2024-04-oceanographers-uncover-vital-role-oxygen.html
The deepwater oxygen deficit in stratified shallow seas is mediated by diapycnal mixing https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47548-2
"mixing down of #oxygen by summer #storms is an important process in topping up the deep water oxygen levels in summer, and in keeping these seas healthy."
New research led by oceanographers from the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University has shown for the first time the important role of the 'mixing down' of oxygen in maintaining healthy conditions in the deep waters around the UK and elsewhere.
A team of #MarineBiologists and #oceanographers from the University of California, the University of British Columbia, the University of Hawaii and the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, has found evidence suggesting that fish such as skipjack, yellowfin tuna and bigeye have been changing their migration patterns due to climate change and have begun moving into areas where people plan to start #DeepSeaMining.
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-deep-sea-fish-populations-due.html
A team of marine biologists and oceanographers from the University of California, the University of British Columbia, the University of Hawaii and the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, has found evidence suggesting that fish such as skipjack, yellowfin tuna and bigeye have been changing their migration patterns due to climate change and have begun moving into areas where people plan to start deep sea mining.
A team of oceanographers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working with a colleague from Chungnam National University and another from the University of Hawaii, has mapped 19,000 previously unknown undersea volcanoes in the world's oceans using radar satellite data. In their paper published in the journal Earth and Space Science, the group describes how they used radar satellite data to measure seawater mounding to find and map undersea volcanoes and explains why it is important that it be done.
I have not seen any new fisheries people or oceanographers on the Fediverse for over a month, so I have not updated my list. I guess the Twitter migration may have lost momentum.
I note that some key people I used to follow have not moved. Perhaps the cost in lost followers is considered too high?
Personally I'm enjoying not having to spend anywhere near as much time filtering my feed compared to Twitter.
https://fediscience.org/@Huia_fishocean/109357256770703063
#fisheries #oceanography #oceanographers #fisheriesscientists
Attached: 1 image I've started a list of people on Mastodon working in fisheries or oceanography. It's small, so far, but I'll add to it as I find people. You can import the list more than once as the list grows. You can follow all on the list by using these menus: /settings/import and export/import Use import type=following list, data=merge, and the file to import is at this link: <https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZXc12VZx30JIfrLtQYn4AHGpr3JKyrnocPk> If you find someone who should be on the list, send me their handle, and I'll add them.
A fascinating and revealing tale about the career of the oceanographer Dr. Mary Sears.
Dr Angel Borja
DoomsdaysCW
joe•iuculano 
Lukas VFN 🇪🇺
KilleansRow 🇺🇲 🇺🇦🍀
KaylinQ
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻💻🧬
Sam McClatchie