Latest Virginia Institute of Marine Science Stories
Salt water relay minimizes VibrioA joint study by local oyster growers and researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that moving farmed oysters into saltier waters just prior to harvest nearly eliminates the presence of a bacterium that can sicken humans.The findings"”reported by VIMS professors Kim Reece and Howard Kator, and local oyster growers Thomas Gallivan, A.J. Erskine, and Tommy Leggett"”may offer a relatively low-cost solution to a controversial change in FDA...
By David Malmquist, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceAn international team of researchers including professor Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has published a comprehensive new analysis showing that loss of plant biodiversity disrupts the fundamental services that ecosystems provide to humanity.Plant communities"”threatened by development, invasive species, climate change, and other factors"”provide humans with food, help purify water supplies, generate oxygen,...
Underwater glider sets 2 Antarctic firstsResearcher Walker Smith of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, has been conducting shipboard studies of biological productivity in Antarctica's Ross Sea for the last three decades. This year he's letting underwater robots do some of the work.Smith and graduate student Xiao Liu are using a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to deploy and test a free-swimming underwater glider in the frigid waters of...
By David Malmquist, Virginia Institute of Marine ScienceA new study of local sea-level trends by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) brings both good and bad news to localities concerned with coastal inundation and flooding along the shores of Chesapeake Bay.Dr. John Boon, the study's lead author, says the good news is that "absolute sea level in Chesapeake Bay is rising only about half as fast as the global average rise rate." The bad news, says Boon, is that...
by David Malmquist, VIMSUFO"”unidentified floating object"”haunts lake at City CenterTracy Collier, an employee at Home Technologies in City Center at Oyster Point, was walking her employer's Westie around the Center's manmade lake on Thursday when she saw a large, mysterious blob floating in the water.Co-worker Charlie Schmuck says "The lake is behind our office. Tracy was walking by the lake, saw the object, and asked everyone else to come out and take a look."Tracy thought it was "a...
Conservation actions aid vertebrates, but not nearly enoughDr. Jack Musick, emeritus professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, has overseen a global study suggesting that 33 percent of shark, skate, and ray species are threatened with extinction.The work is part of a major new study of vertebrates by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's oldest and largest environmental network. The IUCN study shows that conservation actions have benefitted a few...
A new study co-authored by professor Kam Tang of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science reveals that tiny aquatic organisms known as "water fleas" play an important role in carrying hitchhiking bacteria to otherwise inaccessible lake and ocean habitats. The article, "Bacteria dispersal by hitchhiking on zooplankton," appeared in the June 29 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was co-authored by scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of...
Researchers have said in a new report that coastal development and declining water quality are threatening seagrasses worldwide, The Associated Press reported. Some 58 percent of seagrass meadows are in decline, according to a study of coastal grasses around the world. Seagrass provides habitat for coastal life and helps reduce the impact of sediment and nutrient pollution.Coastal ecosystems have been pushed out of balance due to a combination of growing urban centers, artificially hardened...
 An international team of scientists warns that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems. The team has compiled and analyzed the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass observations and found that 58 percent of world's seagrass meadows are currently declining.The assessment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows an acceleration of annual seagrass loss from...
By SCOTT HARPER By Scott Harper The Virginian-Pilot gloucester point Scientists, watermen and environmentalists urged passage Wednesday of a bill from U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican, intended to more closely monitor the spending and priorities of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup. The bill, expected to be considered when Congress reconvenes later this month, would require the Office of Management and Budget to determine how much federal money is being spent on the cleanup each...
