The De-Evolution of the Ocean 290
An anonymous reader writes to mention an LA Times article entitled 'A Primeval Tide of Toxins.' The article looks at changing conditions in the world's oceans, and the resulting explosion in the growth of algae, jellyfish, and other primitive lifeforms. From the article: "In many places -- the atolls of the Pacific, the shrimp beds of the Eastern Seaboard, the fjords of Norway -- some of the most advanced forms of ocean life are struggling to survive while the most primitive are thriving and spreading. Fish, corals and marine mammals are dying while algae, bacteria and jellyfish are growing unchecked. Where this pattern is most pronounced, scientists evoke a scenario of evolution running in reverse, returning to the primeval seas of hundreds of millions of years ago. Jeremy B.C. Jackson, a marine ecologist and paleontologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, says we are witnessing 'the rise of slime.'" The article is parting of a just-beginning series on our changing world called Altered Oceans.
De-evolve? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Flawed concept (Score:4, Informative)
1. Highly developed or complex.
I would say not so much a mistake.
Caulerpa taxifolia (Score:5, Informative)
Originally a genetically modified strain was found that survived well in aquariums in Germany, and this strain was accidently released by the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, it quickly spread and seems to be impossible to destroy effectively. As it is asexual technically it is the same plant, there is no known predator apart from one slug I think. It is currently spreading like wildfire and nobody really knows what to do. It easily spreads via ships ballast tanks, and the plant is toxic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_taxifolia [wikipedia.org]
http://www.grid.unep.ch/product/publication/downl
A real disaster in the making..
Maybe Devo were right all along? (Score:2, Informative)
A sweet romantic place
Beautiful people everywhere
The way they show they care
Makes me want to say
It's a beautiful world
For you
It's a wonderful time to be here
It's nice to be alive
Wonderful people everywhere
The way they comb their hair
Makes me want to say
It's a wonderful place
For you
Hey
Tell me what I say
Boy 'n' girl with the new clothes on
You can shake it to me all night long
Hey hey
It's not for me
On a rather more serious note, it's already happening. In the Baltic sea, for example, one third of the organisms and plants living down at the bottom have already died. The cod is more or less extinct there. The rest of it will probably die soon too. The world is dying, and it may be too late to do anything about it.
There is hope (Score:4, Informative)
The solution is just a matter of international political will.
Not genetically modified and only a local disaster (Score:5, Informative)
The strain in question wasn't genetically modified, at least not deliberately. According to the links you gave, it was exposed to tank chemicals and lighting, and that exposure appears to have caused it to mutate and gain increase ability to survive in cold water -- it's naturally found only in the tropics.
Also, it's not 'impossible to destroy effectively'. The PDF you linked to describes several methods that have been found effective, but only for relatively small infestations, like those that have been found in the United States and Australia. Introduction of the animals that eat taxifolia in its natural locations would probably clean up big infestations, but the effects of further alien introductions are nearly impossible to predict. So far it's spreading like wildfire only around the Mediterranean, but other temperate waters have to be watched for infestations (warmer waters aren't at risk, because they already have taxifola and its predators, and colder waters aren't at risk, because even this strain of taxifolia can't stand that much cold).
So, it's a cause for concern around the temperate waters of the world, but only a potential disaster in the Mediterranean area. It's similar to the Zebra Mussel, which is causing significant harm to the freshwater lakes and rivers of North America and Sweden.
Words, words... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:De-evolve? (Score:3, Informative)
Uh, no. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] actually has a nice definition: "the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations." Nothing whatsoever to do with a "gain in genetic material."
Darwin himself certainly proposed no such thing. Keep in mind that Darwin didn't know anything about genetics or mutations. While Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, lived at roughly the same time as Darwin, Mendel's paper was largely forgotten until the 20th century.
Re:Start of the next version of earth biology? (Score:3, Informative)
How does this grab you then?
"THIS is evolution?!"
"Survival of the fittest. Often the simplest organism is the strongest."
From the movie Evolution
I don't know how your flamey post got modded up to +4, since you apparently missed the point. In a crisis the most fit creatures will survive -- usually the simplest, as pointed out above -- and then they will evolve again into more complex organisms. You can easily call that a "biological reset" if you aren't anal-retentive because that's what it essentially is.
Could this also be a factor? (Score:2, Informative)