Clever Nature: Class of 2009

Albatross cam for bird's eye view

A bird's eye view of another flying albatross and killer whale (indicated)

Albatrosses are smart enough to associate with killer whales out in the open ocean, tiny cameras attached to the birds revealed.

The discovery may explain how black-browed albatrosses find their prey in an apparently featureless open ocean, said the researchers.

 

Chimps mentally map fruit trees

Where next?

A chimpanzee's spatial memory is so precise that it can find a single tree among thousands in a forest.

More than that, the chimps also recall how productive each tree is, and decide to travel farther to eat from those they know will yield the most fruit.

 

Octopus snatches coconut and runs

The octopuses use the coconuts as a shelter

An octopus and its coconut-carrying antics surprised scientists.

Underwater footage revealed that the creatures scoop up halved coconut shells before scampering away with them so they can later use them as shelters.

Researchers said it is the first example of tool use in octopuses.

One of the researchers, Dr Julian Finn from Australia's Museum Victoria, told BBC News: "I almost drowned laughing when I saw this the first time."

 

 

 

 

Bird brains prove to be very sexy

Showing off his bird brain

Male bowerbirds that show superior intelligence are more sexually attractive to female birds, scientists discovered.

Researchers gave male bowerbirds a set of cognitive tests to evaluate their problem solving ability.

Bowerbirds that performed well in the tests also mated with the most females, when compared with their more stupid rivals.

 

 

Spider builds life-sized decoys

An adult C. mulmeinensis alongside decoy prey pellets (L) and decoy egg sacs (R)

A species of spider builds a life-like model of its own body to distract predators, scientists found.

The spider may be the first example of an animal building a life-size replica of its own body.

The arachnid's behaviour also offers one explanation for why many spiders like to decorate their webs with strange-looking ornaments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clever rooks repeat ancient fable

Rooks are a member of the corvid family of birds

Footage of clever rooks

revealed that one of Aesop's fables may be based on fact.

In the fable, written more than 2,000 years ago, a crow uses stones to raise the water level in a pitcher so it can reach the liquid to quench its thirst.

A study published in Current Biology revealed that rooks, a close relative of the crow, do just the same when presented with a similar situation.

The researcher said the study shows rooks are innovative tool-users, even though they do not use tools in the wild.

Eagles filmed hunting reindeer

Extraordinary camera footage taken by a BBC crew proved that golden eagles are smart enough to hunt and kill reindeer.

 One eagle was filmed swooping down and grabbing a calf, while another pulled out of an attack at the last minute.

It finally proved this eagle species does occasionally hunt reindeer, something suggested by forensic evidence and the local Sami people.

 

The plant that pretends to be ill

A leaf damaged by mining moths (left) compared to one faking it (right).

It is not just animals that show clever ways to adapt to life.

This year a plant that pretends to be ill was found growing in the rainforests of Ecuador.

The plant feigns sickness to stop it being attacked by insect pests known as mining moths, which would otherwise eat its healthy leaves.

It was the first known example of a plant that mimics being ill.

 

Chimps born to appreciate music

Chimpanzees were found to be biologically programmed to appreciate pleasant music.

Infant chimpanzees innately prefer consonant over dissonant music, suggesting an appreciation of music is not a uniquely human trait.

 

Blue tits embrace 'aromatherapy'

Looking for a health boost

Finally in 2009, we learnt that it is not just humans that use aromatherapy. Blue tits were found to line and disinfect their nests with bacteria-killing aromatic medicinal plants such as mint and lavender, scientists discovered.

That creates a more sterile environment for chicks, which in turn grow faster and have a better chance of survival.

Heart study targets immune cells in the arteries

Ruptured plaques can cause a heart attack

Scientists are to try to develop a treatment to target harmful immune cells in the arteries that are believed to trigger many heart attacks.

It is two decades since it was established a patient's immune system could produce the inflammation in the arteries that leads to an attack.

But treatments based on this knowledge have so far proved ineffective.

The Bristol Heart Institute says this could be because drugs kill off the helpful as well as the harmful cells.

With the backing of the British Heart Foundation, they want to look at developing a treatment that specifically targets the more harmful immune cells.

It is thought these are drawn to the arteries as a result of the plaques of fatty deposits that build up here.

This can lead to the artery becoming inflamed, and the wall damaged.

Plaques can then rupture, causing the formation of a blood clot, which can then lead to a heart attack.

"This research could point to new ways to protect fatty deposits from becoming unstable by selectively modifying the harmful immune cells while preserving their helpful activity," said Professor Andrew Newby, who will lead the £750,000 research.

"Such a discovery will help pave the way for new treatments to prevent heart attacks, which could save thousands of lives each year."

The Bristol researchers are to team up with experts from France, Sweden and the Netherlands to test the effectiveness of combining conventional drugs and new treatments to lower the immune response in the arteries of patients with heart disease, who are at risk of heart attacks.

The work could build on research being carried out at Imperial College London, where scientists recently identified one of the molecules that switches the immune cell into "attack mode" in the arteries.

More than 300 people die of a heart attack each day, and there appears to be a peak on Christmas Day and New Year's Day - perhaps, it is speculated, due to the rich food, alcohol and anxiety the festive season brings with it.

Children more likely to catch swine flu, study suggests

Children have been hard hit by the swine flu virus

Children are twice as likely as adults to catch swine flu, according to a joint UK-US study.

Imperial College London researchers and a team from the US looked at how the virus spread among families.

In a study of more than 800 people, one in eight people developed the infection after someone in their house got it.

But the team also dismissed suggestions that children may be "super spreaders" as they were found to be no more contagious than older people.

Rates of swine flu have tended to be higher among younger age groups, the official figures have shown. 

What is more, there is thought to be a large pool of children who have been infected but not displayed symptoms.

This research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, confirmed that children were more likely to become infected.

The team looked at the families and household contacts of 216 people infected with swine flu.

Of that group of 600, the under-18s were most likely to get it - twice as likely as adults under 50 - while those over the age of 50 were the least likely.

Infectious

However, the overall one in eight figure for infections was deemed to be pretty low compared to past pandemics.

The researchers, who were also drawn from the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at how long people remained infectious as well.

They found the average length of time between one person displaying symptoms and then someone else in their house falling ill was 2.6 days.

They said it meant suggestions at the start of the pandemic that people should stay at home for up to seven days when ill was probably unnecessary.

Lead researcher Dr Simon Cauchemez said: "If they are only likely to transmit the virus to other people for the first few days of their illness, keeping people off work for a week may be unnecessary and could be detrimental to the economy."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "All further information continues to add to our knowledge and understanding of the virus."

Nasa picks three in space contest

The three finalists focus on the Moon, Venus, or an asteroid

The US space agency Nasa has selected three projects as finalists for its next celestial mission.

The projects aim to either probe the atmosphere and surface of Venus, return an asteroid fragment to Earth, or send back rocks from the Moon's south pole.

The proposals are part of the New Frontiers programme, designed to carry out frequent, low-cost missions.

Nasa has provided funding for a fuller analysis of the projects, with a winner to be selected in mid-2011.

The cost of the winning project must not exceed $650m (£410m) and must be ready to launch by the end of 2018.

These limits are in keeping with the New Frontiers programme's principles of funding focused, short-term, and comparatively cheap space science missions.

The three proposals are:

• The Surface and Atmosphere Geochemical Explorer, or Sage, would gather information about Venus' atmosphere during the descent of a lander, which would then scratch at the planet's surface to determine its chemical and mineral composition in detail.
• The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, or Osiris-Rex, would initially orbit an asteroid, landing on it to collect about 60g of material that would be returned to Earth.
• The Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return Mission would land near the Moon's southern pole, returning about a kilogram of material that scientists believe has risen from the moon's interior to the surface.

Each team has been given $3.3m (£2.1m) to further flesh out the details of their proposals over the coming year.

"These are projects that inspire and excite young scientists, engineers and the public," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for Nasa's Science Mission Directorate.

"These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to Nasa this year."

The proposal that is eventually chosen will form the third mission in the New Frontiers programme.

The first, New Horizons, was launched in 2006 and is bound for a Pluto fly-by in 2015. The second, dubbed Juno, will be the first craft to orbit Jupiter from pole to pole after it launches in August 2011.

Parents warned on children's safety risk from alcohol

Parents should recognise the risks of alcohol to young people, say ministers

Parents in England are being warned not to under-estimate the "dangerous consequences" of under-age drinking.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls says parents worried about their children's safety should recognise the connection between alcohol and "risky behaviour".

This follows a survey suggesting many parents do not rank drinking alcohol as a serious risk to their children.

Mr Balls says parents must make "the link between alcohol and the impact it can have on a young person's safety".

The children's secretary's advice comes ahead of a publicity campaign which will promote a "safe and sensible" approach to alcohol among young people.

New year parties

The survey, carried out by the Mumsnet website, found that under-age alcohol consumption was not a major concern for parents of children aged between nine and 16.

They were more worried about issues such as drug taking, traffic accidents and teenage pregnancy.

The survey also found that only about a quarter of parents talked to their children about the risks associated with alcohol.

And almost two-thirds of parents were not concerned that their children would drink alcohol by the age of 16.

With new year celebrations approaching, Mr Balls urged parents to advise their children that alcohol was often a factor in other concerns - such as accidents and teenage pregnancy.

"Research tells us that young people who regularly drink alcohol are more likely to fall behind in school, be involved in road traffic accidents or have unsafe sex," said Mr Balls.

"If parents discuss the link between alcohol and these other issues, they can make sure it's their child making the decisions, not the alcohol."

Earlier this month England's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, criticised parents for an over-liberal approach in allowing their children to "get a taste" of alcohol at a young age.

He warned that 500,000 children between the ages of 11 to 15 years will have been drunk in the past four weeks.

Early exposure to alcohol could lead to binge drinking in later life, he said, advising that young people under the age of 15 should drink no alcohol.

Type-two diabetes limb amputations rise dramatically

Diabetes can lead to damaged feet and toes

The number of people in England having a limb amputated because of type-two diabetes has risen dramatically, a study has shown.

Between 1996 and 2005, below-ankle amputations doubled to more than 2,000, and major amputations increased by 43%.

However the number of amputations in people with type-one diabetes dropped, an Imperial College London team found.

A charity said more early diagnosis was needed, as diabetes can go undetected for more than 10 years.

The number of people diagnosed with type-two diabetes had increased greatly in the past decade, which could partly explain the findings, the researchers said.

In the UK, 2.35 million people have type-two diabetes, which is caused by the body not properly responding to the insulin it produces, and is often a result of lifestyle factors such as obesity.

DIABETES AND AMPUTATION Type-one diabetes is caused by the body failing to produce insulin Type-two diabetes accounts for 90% of cases and is caused by the body not responding properly to insulin or not producing enough Both types can impair blood flow to the feet People with diabetes can also suffer nerve damage and might not immediately notice a problem If left unattended a small injury could develop into a hard-to-treat ulcer that could become infected, leading to the need for amputation

Along with complications such as heart attacks and strokes, people with diabetes are far more likely to develop foot problems, including ulcers, which can become infected and lead to gangrene.

Writing in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, the researchers said the number of the most major amputations, above the ankle joint, had risen by 43%.

And the average age of those having above-ankle amputations fell from 71 to 69 years, which followed the pattern of people being diagnosed younger, they said.

More men underwent amputations than women, a gap that widened during the 10-year period.

Study leader Dr Eszter Vamos said they had expected to see long-term complications of diabetes rising to some extent because the number of people diagnosed with the condition had increased.

"But at the same time there is very strong evidence that with a multidisciplinary team approach you can prevent up to 80% of the amputations.
"It highlights the importance of frequent foot checks and that it is very important to get glycaemic control and blood pressure and cholesterol control."
Diabetes UK care manager Sara Spiers said there were about 100 diabetes-related amputations each week in the UK.
"The findings of this study are especially interesting because they indicate a particular rise in the number of type-two diabetes related amputations," she said.
"This rise could be for a number of reasons, including type-two diabetes not being diagnosed early enough, people not getting the education they need to manage their condition effectively, and swifter treatment of foot problems, meaning people are more likely to have an amputation than die because of foot ulcers."
She added more early diagnosis was needed, as the condition could go undetected for more than 10 years and most people already had complications when they were diagnosed.

'Back to nature' cuts flood risks

The annual cost of flooding is rising in the US, the study say

Reconnecting flood-plains to rivers will help reduce the risk of future flooding, suggest US scientists.

A study by US researchers said allowing these areas to be submerged during storms would reduce the risk of flood damage in nearby urban areas.

Pressure to build new homes has led to many flood-prone areas being developed.

Writing in Science, they said the risks of flooding were likely to increase in the future as a result of climate change and shifts in land use.

"We are advocating very large-scale shifts in land use," said co-author Jeffrey Opperman, a member of The Nature Conservancy's Global Freshwater Team.

"There is simply no way economically or politically that this could be accomplished by turning large areas of flood-plains into parks," he told the Science podcast.

"What we are proposing in this paper is a way that this strategy can be compatible, and even supportive, with vibrant agricultural economies and private land ownership."

For example, the authors explained, the flood season and growing season in California did not occur at the same time.

This meant that allowing the land to be submerged by floodwater would not result in a permanent loss of farmland or crops being destroyed.

In their paper, they said that man-made flood management systems, such as levees, also had an ecological impact.

"Control infrastructure prevents high flows from entering flood-plains, thus diminishing both natural flood storage capacity and the processes that sustain healthy riverside forests and wetlands," they observed.

"As a result, flood-plains are among the planet's most threatened ecosystems."

'Ecosystem services'

The reconnection programmes would deliver three benefits, they added:

• Reduce the risk of flooding

• Increase in flood-plain goods and services

• Greater resilience to potential climate change impacts

In other parts of the world, Dr Opperman said that there was a range of agricultural strategies for private landowners that would be compatible with allowing areas to be flooded.

"There are emerging markets for ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and nutrient sequestration," he explained.

"These are services that flood-plains do provide, so with various climate policies there will be a price for carbon."

The researchers cited the Yolo By-pass, in California, US, in their paper as a successful demonstration of the idea they were advocating.

The scheme absorbed 80% of floodwater during heavy storms, they said, protecting the nearby city of Sacramento.

"During a March 1986 flood, the by-pass conveyed [about] 12.5bn cubic metres of water, more than three times the total flood-control storage volume in all Sacramento basin reservoirs.

"Without the by-pass flood-plain, California would need to build massive additional flood-control infrastructure," they observed.

The Yolo by-pass was created back in the 1930s, when a 24,000 hectare flood-plain was reconnected to the Sacramento River.

The scheme was introduced when it became apparent that a "levees only" approach would not offer the required flood protection.

"It's connected in an engineered way, which mean that when the river reaches a certain volume it flows over a weir and enters the flood-plain," Dr Opperman explained.

He added that the scheme also had numerous additional ecological benefits: "In recent decades, people began to notice that this area was a phenomenal habitat for birds.

"In the past 10 years, people recognised that native fish were moving from the river on to the flood-plain, and deriving all of the benefits that fish get from natural flood-plains.

"It was an excellent place for fish to spawn, and for juvenile fish to be reared."

Study blames two genes for aggressive brain cancer

Glioblastoma is a deadly form of brain cancer

Scientists have discovered two genes that appear responsible for one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

Glioblastoma multiforme rapidly invades the normal brain, producing inoperable tumours, but scientists have not understood why it is so aggressive.

The latest study, by a Columbia University team, published in Nature, pinpoints two genes.

The researchers say that the findings raise hopes of developing a treatment for the cancer.

Acacia plant controls ants with chemical

Plants have systems for keeping their six-legged inhabitants in check

In Africa and in the tropics, armies of tiny creatures make the twisting stems of acacia plants their homes.

Aggressive, stinging ants feed on the sugary nectar the plant provides and live in nests protected by its thick bark.

This is the world of "ant guards".

The acacias might appear overrun by them, but the plants have the ants wrapped around their little stems.

These same plants that provide shelter and produce nourishing nectar to feed the insects also make chemicals that send them into a defensive frenzy, forcing them into retreat.

Nigel Raine, a scientist working at Royal Holloway, University of London in the UK has studied this plant-ant relationship.

Dr Raine and his colleagues from the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Reading in the UK and Lund University in Sweden have been trying to work out some of the ways in which the insects and the acacias might have co-evolved.

He explains how the ants provide a useful service for the acacias.

"They guard the plants they live on," said Dr Raine. "If other animals try to come and feed on the rich, sugary nectar, they will attack them."

In Africa, one type of ant-guard, known as Crematogaster , will even attack large herbivores that attempt to eat the plant.

Ants will fiercely guard their acacia homes

"If a giraffe starts to eat the leaves of an acacia that is inhabited by ants, the ants will come out and swarm on to its face, biting and stinging," says Dr Raine.

"Eventually, the giraffe will get fed up and move off."

In the New World tropics, the Pseudomyrmex genus of ants fulfil a very similar guarding role.

For both species, the acacias provide little, reinforced structures that the ants hollow out and nest within, as well as sugar-rich nectar for them to eat.

"In return, both groups of ants protect their host plants from herbivores - both hungry insects and larger [animals]," explains Dr Raine.

Give and take

That is the plus side for the plants. But being inhabited by aggressive insects could make one important aspect of a plant's life difficult - flowering.

Flowers need to be pollinated so the plant can reproduce. So what stops the ants from attacking the helpful little pollinators or stealing all the tasty nectar that attracts them?

"Some plants do this structurally, with physical barriers to stop ants getting on to the flower, or sticky or slippery surfaces that the insects can't walk on," said Dr Raine.

"Acacias don't have these barriers. They have very open flowers, but still, the ants don't seem to go on to them. We wanted to know why."

One clever approach by the plant is a food "bribe". "Extrafloral nectaries" are small stores of nectar on stems, from which the inhabitants can feed without going on to the flowers.

Acacias also produce structures called beltian bodies on the leaf tips.

Ants protect the leaves from large herbivores

These, Dr Raine explains, are nutritious structures produced by the plant to feed its resident colony of ant-guards.

But when this isn't enough, it is a case of chemical warfare.

Flowers can produce a variety of chemicals. We can smell some of the volatile organic compounds they release when we sniff our favourite summer bloom.

But there is a more manipulative side to these scents.

Floral volatile compounds can act as signals - drawing in pollinators such as bees and hummingbirds in with their irresistible aromas.

To the ants, however, they are far from irresistible.

"The flowers seem to produce chemicals that are repellent to the ants," said Dr Raine. "They release these particularly during the time when they're producing lots of pollen, so the ants are kept off the flowers."

In recent studies, described in the journal Functional Ecology, Dr Raine and his colleagues found that the plants with the closest relationships with ants - those that provided homes for their miniature guard army - produced the chemicals that were most effective at keeping the ants at bay.

"And that was associated with the flower being open," he says. "So the chemicals are probably in the pollen."

A bribe: Plants provide "nectaries" on their stems

When the pollen has all been taken away - by being brushed on to the bodies of hungry pollinators and helpfully delivered to other plants - the flowers become less repellent.

"So at this point, the ants can come on to the flowers and can protect them from other insects that might eat them, so that the developing seeds aren't lost," he explains.

Dr Raines' team was able to test this using young flowers that had just opened and that contained lots of pollen.

The scientists wiped them on older flowers and on the acacia's stems.

This showed them that the effect was "transferrable" - the stems and older flowers that had been wiped became more repellent.

"It gives this really neat feedback system - the plant is protected when it needs to be protected, but not when it doesn't."

Selective deterrents

The repellent chemicals are specific to the ants. In fact, they attract and repel different groups of insects.

"[The chemicals] don't repel bees, even though they are quite closely related to ants. And in some cases, the chemicals actually seem to attract the bees," says Dr Raine.

The researchers think that some of the repellents that acacias produce are chemical "mimics" of signalling pheromones that the ants use to communicate.

"We put flowers into syringes and puffed the scent over the ant to see how they would respond, and they became quite agitated and aggressive" he explained.

"The ants use a pheromone to signal danger; if they're being attacked by a bird they will release that chemical that will quickly tell the other ants to retreat."

Dr Raine says this clever evolutionary system shows how the ants and their plants have evolved to protect, control and manipulate each other.

The ants may be quick to swarm, bite and sting, but the harmless-looking acacias have remained one step ahead.

Seamount diary: December 2009

An unidentified octopus discovered at a depth of 500m

A new project led by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) plans to unveil the mysteries of seamounts in the southern Indian Ocean, and help improve conservation and management of marine resources in the area.

A team of the world's leading experts, paired with scientists from the western Indian Ocean region, has been nominated by the IUCN and its partners to join the Norwegian research vessel Dr Fridtjof Nansen.

Leaving Reunion Island on the evening of November 12, 2009, the vessel is sailing towards the southwest Indian Ocean Ridge, where it will study six seamounts rising from the ocean floor located between 32°00' S and 41°00' S, before ending its voyage in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on 20 December.

A seamount echogram. The thick blue layer at the summit of the seamount represents the deep scattering layer (see A little background on the science, Tues 1 Dec, below)

Sarah Gotheil, Marine Programme Officer at IUCN, is onboard the vessel, capturing every aspect of the work.

The expedition is supported by expertise and funding supplied by partner organisations including; the United Nations Development Programme, the Global Environment Facility, Zoological Society of London, the EAF-Nansen project, the Institute of Marine Research, Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems Project, the Marine Ecology Laboratory, University of Reunion and the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme.

MONDAY 21 DECEMBER - HOMEWARD BOUND

Land ahead! As we woke on Friday morning, we could see the coast of South Africa and knew the harbour of Port Elizabeth awaited us.

Arrival didn't mean the end of the work, though, and during the few days that separated us from our flights back home people were busy cleaning the ship and packing the samples.

The majority of the species collected will remain in South Africa, while a few will be shipped to England.

Before getting there, however, we had two last stations to study.

After Coral seamount and the "roaring forties", we sailed northward accompanied with a gale force wind towards Melville bank, the last seamount that we investigated on the southwest Indian Ocean Ridge.

A Bean's sawtoothed eel (Serrivomer beanii) captured at 500m

Melville turned out to be very different from Coral, and much more similar to the first seamounts that we studied.

It was a bit like returning to familiar grounds, although it brought its own surprises.

Among the species that we have collected, the barreleye was certainly one of the most special.

Then we finally left the southwest Indian Ocean Ridge and steamed northward for two days to reach the last seamount of this cruise, south of Madagascar.

The area that we reached is called Walters Shoal - an enormous underwater plateau, with areas as shallow as 10 metres from the surface!

For our investigations, though, we went to a much deeper seamount, at about 1200 metres from the surface.

Initially, one of the main reasons for choosing this area was that it was known to attract seabirds, and Barau's petrels in particular, that come to feed here at this time of year.

Unidentified fish caught at 700m

We did not encounter as many seabirds as expected, but at least were back in a pleasant climate.

We also made some great catches, including a scorpionfish, a pelagic butterfish and a shorthorn fangtooth.

The very last trawl came up with the first octopus of the expedition, a ghostly looking squid and a tiny crustacean larva with impressive spikes.

Although the adventure at sea came to an end, the work is really just starting.

Many scientists will be busy analysing the data and working on the specimens collected for the next few years.

The next important step will be the organisation of a scientific workshop to identify all species caught and look at the stomach contents of certain specimens.

A scorpionfish captured 700m above the summit of the final underwater mountain.

We hope that the former work will lead to the discovery of species new to science, while the latter will help us better understand the food chain in the areas surveyed.

Additional analyses will be carried out on the oceanographic work to improve our comprehension of the currents around the seamounts, and on the acoustics data.

All in all, it has been a very successful 40-day expedition over 6000 miles.

We gathered a very rich collection of data and specimens, and encountered a higher diversity of species than expected.

Nearly 7000 individual species or group of the same species have been labelled, and some were recorded for the first time in the region.

A barreleye fish, which has huge eyes within a dome-shaped translucent head

The species collection includes an impressive variety of fish, shrimps, squids and gelatinous marine creatures.

Many more microscopic species of phytoplankton and zooplankton, representing the base of the food chain in the ocean, have also been collected.

The two seabird and marine mammal observers recorded thousands of seabirds from as many as 36 species, and 26 marine mammals.

It was also extremely interesting to discover that the six seamounts we surveyed are very different from each other, and we believe that our findings will certainly improve our global knowledge of seamount ecosystems.

THURSDAY 10 DECEMBER - THE ROARING FORTIES

After nearly two days of steaming, we reached the southernmost station that we have planned to investigate, at about 41° south.

It is a site off the southwest Indian Ocean ridge that would allow us to compare it to the other sites on the ridge.

We thus crossed the subtropical front and entered what is known as the roaring forties, an area famous for rough winds and waves.

But thankfully, we were welcomed by calm waters, as well as a thick fog, which rendered the atmosphere surprisingly unearthly.

Scientists hope snowboarding scaleworms will colonise their whale bones

The air was colder and more humid, and the water temperature had dropped by 9°C!

As we had expected and to our great delight, the species were very different from what we saw on the ridge further north.

After a few days of investigations on this site, we went back to the ridge to study a seamount named Coral, also located in the roaring forties.

Like Atlantis seamount, this feature has been set aside on a voluntary basis as a protected area by the Southern Indian Ocean Deepsea Fishers Association.

As its name indicates, deep-sea coral communities are thriving on the seamount, and are thus protected from the potential impact of bottom fishing gear.

We very much look forward to coming back in two years time with the ROV to actually be able to see and film these communities of corals.

Redmouth whalefish (Rondeletia loricata) caught at 900m

As we did on Atlantis, we sunk a stack of whale bones and branches of mango tree onto Coral, which we will recover during the next cruise.

We hope that the bones and wood will have been colonised by communities of scavengers, including snowboarding scale worms, so that we can study these whale fall communities of the Indian Ocean.

We found that the fauna of the waters surrounding Coral Seamount was different to the other seamounts we surveyed.

Species of fish usually associated with seamounts were not caught in our pelagic trawls but instead a species of rattail fish was found that occurs in Australia, New Zealand and the Madagascar Ridge.

A silver spinyfin (Diretmus argenteus) found at 900m

Squids were much less abundant and diverse, and the crustacean fauna was also different with some large prawns taken in deeper trawls.

We had crossed into quite different waters, much colder and more typical of the Sub-Antarctic regions than the waters north of the sub-tropical front.

This also showed in the birds surrounding the ship which were dominated by Southern Ocean species such as wandering albatross, cape pigeons and prions.

The weather also ended up living up to the fearsome reputation of the roaring forties.

After a few days of relative calm we were punished by five days of gale force westerly winds that battered the ship for the last few days at Coral Seamount and pursued us all the way to Melville Bank (140 nautical miles to the north), the last seamount that we will investigate on the ridge, before going further north to Walters shoal, south of Madagascar.

A little background on the management
(by Dr Alex David Rogers)

The other reason we are here - other than the scientific - is that in humankind's search for fish in the oceans, fishers began to target seamounts because of their abundant fish populations.

However, when exploitation of seamounts began there was very limited knowledge about the biology of the fish stocks that were being targeted.

The giant mysid Gnatophausia zoea is among the largest of free-swimming crustaceans (900m)

It came as terrific surprise when it was realised that seamount fish species like orange roughy, oreos and cardinal fish, live for more than 100 years, grow extremely slowly and are very late in maturing to reproduce.

It turned out that many seamount fish stocks were extremely vulnerable to overfishing and given that many of them were located in the high seas where there was no control on fishing effort, many stocks crashed very rapidly.

In addition, it was discovered that the main method of fishing, bottom trawling, was highly destructive to seabed communities on seamounts which were formed by animals like corals.

Some of these have now been aged to more than 4000 years old (although typically ages are tens to hundreds of years old), and are unlikely to recover from severe impacts from fishing.

Phytoplankton (microscopic plants) produce half of the oxygen present in the Earth’s atmosphere

The South West Indian Ocean Ridge was subject to a major boom-bust fishery for deep-sea fish species in 2000 - 2002.

However, fishing still continues on the ridge, although at a lower level than earlier this decade and, furthermore, some of the main fishing companies have got together to voluntarily protect some of the seamounts.

Thus we aim to identify why commercial stocks of fish are found on the South West Indian Ocean Ridge (and therefore elsewhere); how important the seamounts are to other marine life, including birds and whales; and to make our findings available to the fishing industry and managers of fisheries in the region, to help develop ecosystem-based precautionary management of high-seas seamount fisheries.

Our study will help to confirm the conservation benefits of protecting seamount features on the ridge and will inform future management of high seas deep-sea ecosystems globally.

In 2011, we will return again and investigate the seabed communities of the seamounts to examine whether vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, occur on the ridge.

TUESDAY 1 DECEMBER - SAPMER BANK & THE MIDDLE OF WHAT

We reached Sapmer bank, the second seamount we have planned to study, at the beginning of the third week on the ship.

We were looking forward to being able to discover another underwater mountain and compare it to the first one.

Sapmer turned out to be a really exciting site, with many animals and a great diversity of species, cephalopods in particular.

An anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsoni) which lives 1000m down

We were thrilled to see our first anglerfish, the famous "black devilfish" portrayed as the monster of the deep.

Sapmer is very different from Atlantis seamount.

While Atlantis looks like the ideal cone-shaped seamount with one summit plateau, Sapmer is a rugged structure with many pinnacles and a complex topography.

Its plateau is also much larger than Atlantis's and rock falls can be quite clearly seen along its flanks.

We've gathered some initial evidence that the tides may be washing deep cold currents up the slopes of the seamount and bringing rich and productive water to its top, acting like an upwelling.

This may explain why we have seen such a high diversity of creatures, including predators such as seabirds and whales.

A leaping humpback whale spotted

Once done with our work on Sapmer, we went on to visit a seamount named Middle of What.

This site turned out to be equally exciting in terms of species diversity.

However, the highlight of our little stay on Middle of What remains the two humpback whales that jumped around just a few metres from the ship for 30 minutes.

A wonderful and unforgettable show!

A little background on the science (by Dr Alex David Rogers)

Why are seamounts important and why are we studying them in the South West Indian Ocean, hundreds of nautical miles from the nearest land?

Most of the deep-sea is inhabited by a very sparse (but diverse) community of animals.

This is because most of them rely on particles of food raining down from the sea surface where photosynthesis takes place.

Gigantocypris (rear view), caught at 700m

As this food - known as marine snow, because it looks like snowflakes - sinks it gets consumed and so only a small part reaches the seafloor.

Seamounts are different, as some of them harbour striking communities of animals living on the seabed as well as an abundance of fish.

They also appear to be hotspots for ocean predators such as sharks, tuna, whales, seabirds and seals.

Scientists have proposed several mechanisms for why this happens.

Early theories suggested that because seamounts act as an obstruction to the flow of ocean currents they could cause nutrient rich deep waters to rise to the ocean surface, acting like fertiliser to stimulate production by microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton.

Rosenblattia rubustus caught at 700m

However, early work using echosounders around seamounts, suggested that layers of animals that live in oceanic waters may act as a food source to the animals on seamounts.

These layers - known as the deep-scattering layer (DSL), because they reflect sound and are visible on echosounders - undergo the world's largest daily migration, rising towards the sea surface at night to feed, and then sinking back into the dark depths by day to avoid being eaten themselves.

It has been suggested that these layers of animals may drift over seamounts at night when they are shallow.

Then when they try to migrate downwards at or before dawn they are set upon by the seamount residents.

The amphipod Eurythenes gryllus (700m)

One of the reasons we are studying the South West Indian Ocean Ridge is that the seamounts along it occur at a variety of depths and in different currents and provide us with a range of environments to try and understand what is making seamounts biological hotspots.

Is it enhanced productivity, or is trapping of the DSL, or is there some other mechanism at work?

To investigate the different aspects of seamount ecosystems we need to include very different types of scientific observations.

Thus we have on board specialists working on phytoplankton, planktonic animals, fish, echosounders (acoustics), and on ocean currents (oceanographers).

Portraits of each cruise participants will soon be available on the cruise blog!

TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER - OUR FIRST SEAMOUNT

At 6am on the morning of the 17 November, we reach our first seamount, named Atlantis.

We can tell we've been travelling southward: the temperature has dropped by a few degrees, the wind is stronger, the sky more cloudy and waves higher.

The visible wildlife is also different: we've identified four different species of albatrosses (Shy, Wandering, Indian yellow-nose and Northern royal).

They may have travelled all the way from the Antarctic, and some of the birds have been following the ship for a few days, probably in the hope of a meal.

On the hunt for a bone-eating snotflower worm (Osedax mucofloris)

Atlantis seamount has an interesting history. It used to be an actual island some 100,000 years ago before it became submerged.

If closely observed, fossil beaches can even be noticed!

Atlantis, a 15 kilometres long feature, has its summit at 700m from the surface and goes as deep as 4000m.

It has been set aside on a voluntary basis as a benthic protected area (i.e. a non-fishing zone) by the Southern Indian Ocean Deepsea Fishers Association.

Before our arrival, very little information on the species thriving on and around Atlantis was available.

As seamounts are known to be hotspots of biodiversity, we had rather high expectations as regards the variety and the multitude of species we would collect above Atlantis.

The reality turned out to live up to our hopes!

Amazing creatures, from tiny transparent animals that look like terrestrial scorpions to a 2-metre-long dealfish, including fish, larvae, squids, crustaceans and jellyfish were captured.

A Stemonosudis fish species caught at a depth of 700m

We also gathered our first evidence of how seamounts are different to the open ocean.

During the night many predators rise into the waters above the seamount preying on the creatures from the surrounding ocean.

Atlantis appears to be a biological hotspot, an oasis in the ocean!

We've spent three full days fishing and taking oceanographic measurements, including during the night. Operations on a research vessel usually take place 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, weather permitting…

Heteropod with shell caught at 350m

A stack of whale bones, mingled with thick branches of mango tree, were also sunk by one of our scientists onto the seamount.

As we did, you may wonder why this was done?

Fascinating communities, mainly made of worms, develop and thrive on whale bones.

They live in conditions that are comparable to those found on hydrothermal vents: they do not live off solar energy, like the great majority of ecosystems on earth, but exploit chemically-based energy.

The discovery of these so-called chemosynthetic habitats in the 1970s shattered the conviction that life was impossible without sunlight.

While we start to have a database of these worms from around the world, we don't know anything about them in the Indian Ocean.

A white-chinned petrel and storm petrel dance on the waves

The plan is to come and collect the colonised bones and wood back in two years time, when the second cruise is in the area.

One of our birdwatchers was also lucky enough to see a whale, live this time, a sperm whale that was quietly roaming around, just a few metres from the ship.

Towards the end of the week, we started making our way down to the second seamount called Sapmer bank. We even passed above several seamounts that we believe to be unnamed features.

To our knowledge, Sapmer has been fished in the past, and is still targeted by the deep-sea fishing industry.

It will be interesting to see whether there is a difference in biodiversity and biomass between a fished and a protected seamount.

TUESDAY 17 NOVEMBER - HITTING THE HIGH SEAS

This first week - half of which was spent on land and the other half on the vessel - may well have been the most hectic week out of the whole expedition.

The first part of the scientific team arrived on Reunion Island on November 7, followed a day later by the other part of the team coming from South Africa and Madagascar.

It was the first time that we all met - 15 people of eight different nationalities (French, Swiss, South African, Malagasy, Mauritian, German, British and Norwegian) who were going to spend six weeks together on a vessel in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

We spent Sunday and Monday discussing the finalisation of the cruise plans, including the location and number of stations we would survey and the surveying methods we would use at each investigation point.

An unknown species of squid, caught at a depth of between 45-70m

The meeting ran really smoothly. But our arrival at the port on Tuesday morning was a bit chaotic.

Traffic delays meant that as we arrived at the dock, we just had enough time to throw our luggage into our respective cabins, and welcome a group of local schoolchildren, showing them everything from the laboratories, the acoustic room, the research equipment, the kitchen, the dining room, the wheelhouse, to the TV/library area and the gym.

After a few intense hours, we finally got a chance to get familiar with our new home and its friendly Norwegian crew.

But it didn't take long before a black cloud spoiled this beautiful sunny day.

We got informed that we wouldn't be able to leave the next day, as planned, as the ethanol that we were expecting from South Africa had not yet arrived.

Unknown species...

The alcohol is a key product, as it is used for species preservation, thus it was not thinkable leaving without it.

We ended up losing a precious day and half, out of a tight 40 day schedule.

At last, at 7pm on November 12, we left the port of Reunion Island.

It was a very particular and moving moment, as we realised that we were leaving land and civilisation behind us for quite some time, and that we were all together sharing an adventure, in this confined habitat in the middle of nowhere.

The work started slowly but surely, as it will take a few days before getting to the first seamount.

The first experts on duty were the birdwatchers, who were lucky enough to see about 1000 sooty terns - the most common species of seabirds in the western Indian Ocean area - on their first day of watch.

An unknown species of lightfish

We also took some initial oceanographic measurements.

The week ended with the launch of the first fish net and the first catches of marine species (pictured).

They give us a little glimpse into the biodiversity of the Indian Ocean and a foretaste of what we might find around the seamounts.

We are all thrilled about this adventure, as we know that very few people have been in this area before.

We are conscious about the pioneering dimension of this cruise, as very little biological studies have been undertaken to date in the high seas of the Indian Ocean.

We are also excited to think that we will most certainly come across species that are new to science - maybe we have already collected some?

Mystery of Amazon manatee migration solved

On the run, the gentle manatee migrates away from harm

The mystery of why Amazonian manatees migrate has been solved.

Only in recent years did scientists find that the secretive aquatic mammal migrates from shallow to deep water.

Now researchers can reveal that the manatees make this perilous journey to avoid being exposed to attack by predators during the low-water season.

That means the species may be at greater risk than thought, say scientists, as migration and low water levels make them vulnerable to hunters.

The international team of researchers from Brazil and the UK publish their findings in the Journal of Zoology.

Great escape

The elusive Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) is a large plant-eating mammal that lives in freshwater.

Due to its peculiar shape it has been described as a cross between a seal and a hippo.

The species is only found in the Amazon River basin from the river mouth to the upper reaches of tributaries of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru.

The researchers studied manatees that live within the Mamiraua and Amana Sustainable Development Reserves in the north west of Brazil.

To obtain their results, the researchers asked local inhabitants about the animals' movements, studied the shapes and depths of the local rivers and lakes and then used radio tracking tags to follow the movements of 10 manatees.

During the high-water season, between mid May and the end of June, manatees live in quiet lakes called varzeas that form within river flood plains, the scientists found.

Here the manatees consume 8% of their body weight in aquatic plants each day.

Then during the low-water season, between October and November, the animals start to migrate as the water level drops.

They journey to deeper water within long narrow lakes called rias, which are submerged river valleys.

They do this because it becomes too dangerous to remain in shallow water, the scientists say.

If the manatees do not move, they become stranded and exposed to hunters such as caimans, jaguars and humans who stalk the water margins.

Troubleshooters that block cancer

The research was carried out on breast cancer cells

Scientists have shown how a family of "limpet-like" proteins play a crucial role in repairing the DNA damage which can lead to cancer.

They hope the finding could pave the way for a new type of drug which could help kill cancer cells, and promote production of healthy replacements.

The proteins seem to have a remarkable ability to zero in on damaged areas.

The breakthrough, uncovered independently by two teams, appears in the journal Nature.

The family of Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) proteins track down sites in the body where DNA damage has occurred.

They attach themselves to normal proteins, and guide them in to fix the genetic faults.

Using this method, the proteins are even able to repair double strand DNA breaks - the most severe type of DNA damage.

When their work is done, the proteins detach themselves and move on.

Breast cancer gene

One of the study teams was able to follow this process of repair taking place on the BRCA1 gene, which, if damaged, is associated with a very high risk of breast cancer.

SUMO was shown to attach to the damaged gene, and switch it back on - helping prevent breast cancer forming.

Researcher Dr Jo Morris, from King's College London, said: "This new insight is the first step towards developing drugs which may protect normal cells from the side effects of chemotherapy, or improve the effectiveness of current breast cancer treatments."

Dr Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK, which part-funded the study, said: "DNA damage, particularly double strand DNA breaks, are a fundamental cause of cancer and we know that people who have mutations in the BRCA1 gene have a higher risk of developing some kinds of cancer.

"Discovering that these limpet-like proteins play such an important role in repair may provide new opportunities to stop cancer from growing."

But she added: "This is an extremely complex and intricate biological process so it may be many years before we can use this knowledge to safely intervene and help treat cancer patients."