Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

About: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a nonprofit organization based out in Falmouth, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Mantle (geology). The organization has 5685 authors who have published 18396 publications receiving 1202050 citations. The organization is also known as: WHOI.

The grand challenges of Science Robotics

Abstract: One of the ambitions of Science Robotics is to deeply root robotics research in science while developing novel robotic platforms that will enable new scientific discoveries. Of our 10 grand challenges, the first 7 represent underpinning technologies that have a wider impact on all application areas of robotics. For the next two challenges, we have included social robotics and medical robotics as application-specific areas of development to highlight the substantial societal and health impacts that they will bring. Finally, the last challenge is related to responsible innovation and how ethics and security should be carefully considered as we develop the technology further.

Function and functional redundancy in microbial systems

Abstract: Microbial communities often exhibit incredible taxonomic diversity, raising questions regarding the mechanisms enabling species coexistence and the role of this diversity in community functioning. On the one hand, many coexisting but taxonomically distinct microorganisms can encode the same energy-yielding metabolic functions, and this functional redundancy contrasts with the expectation that species should occupy distinct metabolic niches. On the other hand, the identity of taxa encoding each function can vary substantially across space or time with little effect on the function, and this taxonomic variability is frequently thought to result from ecological drift between equivalent organisms. Here, we synthesize the powerful paradigm emerging from these two patterns, connecting the roles of function, functional redundancy and taxonomy in microbial systems. We conclude that both patterns are unlikely to be the result of ecological drift, but are inevitable emergent properties of open microbial systems resulting mainly from biotic interactions and environmental and spatial processes.

The Ventilated Thermocline

Abstract: A simple theoretical model for the oceanic thermocline and the associated field of current is presented. The model consists of a finite but arbitarily large number of inviscid, homogeneous fluid layers each with a different density. The dynamical balances everywhere are Sverdrupian. IN regions where the Ekman pumping is negative (downward) the surface density is specified, i.e., the position of the outcrop of density interfaces is specified. This outcropping of density layers allows deep motion to be excited by the ventilation provided by Ekman pumping even in latitudes far south of the outcrop where the layer is shielded from direct influence of the wind. Analytical solutions are presented in the case where the density-outcrop lines are coincident with latitude circles. The solutions are not self-similar and important sub-domains of the solution are defined by critical potential vorticity trajectories which separate the ventilated from the unventilated regions in the lower thermocline. These cri...

Diversity of ageing across the tree of life

Abstract: Evolution drives, and is driven by, demography. A genotype moulds its phenotype’s age patterns of mortality and fertility in an environment; these two patterns in turn determine the genotype’s fitness in that environment. Hence, to understand the evolution of ageing, age patterns of mortality and reproduction need to be compared for species across the tree of life. However, few studies have done so and only for a limited range of taxa. Here we contrast standardized patterns over age for 11 mammals, 12 other vertebrates, 10 invertebrates, 12 vascular plants and a green alga. Although it has been predicted that evolution should inevitably lead to increasing mortality and declining fertility with age after maturity, there is great variation among these species, including increasing, constant, decreasing, humped and bowed trajectories for both long- and short-lived species. This diversity challenges theoreticians to develop broader perspectives on the evolution of ageing and empiricists to study the demography of more species.

Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem

Abstract: Summary The overall goal of this lecture is to provide an overview of the process and progress of ocean acidification in the global oceans and its impacts on marine organisms over time scales of days to centuries. Examples of acidification impacts on corals, shellfish, and zooplankton are given to show how acidification can affect different kinds of life processes. This lecture describes what we know and what we don't know about ecosystem responses to acidification and the socio-economic implications for our society. Finally, we discuss the future implications of increased CO2 levels on the health of our ocean ecosystems and related ocean-based economies.