1. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 1 Lesson #1 Why do we Care About the Oceans? MAR 151 Vernon Asper Department of Marine Science

2. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 2 What this course is not This course is NOT an oceanography course –That would require a lot of science background; we require little –We will not cover all of the information an oceanography course will cover –We will not deal with the nitty gritty of equations and scientific terms

3. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 3 What this course is This course is intended for non science majors –We will discuss the oceans in terms of their relevance to the world and society –This will require some background information and some fundamental concepts Terms processes –You will be required to think about what your are told, both by the professors and by the media.

4. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 4 Logistics of the Course Philosophy: –appreciate the oceans and how we depend on them –try to learn concepts rather than memorize The book: –We aren’t going to follow it chapter by chapter –Pay attention to major terms and concepts –More detail for those who are interested Class: –Attend! –The lectures and notes contain all of the material that will be on the tests

5. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 5 Course Objectives to develop an appreciation for the oceans. to understand what goes on there and how it affects us To learn about natural and man-made changes in the earth and its climate To understand the truth (inconvenient or not) about climate change

6. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 6 What we’ll cover: Why do we care about the oceans? (climate, food, hurricanes, recreation) What are the oceans like? (Water, depth [topography], salinity, temperature, basic circulation, tides) How do we know about the oceans? (history of oceanography, activities of oceanography, waves) How did it get that way? (plate tectonics, sediments, shoreline processes)

7. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 7 More of what we’ll cover Why is the sea salty? (creation of the solar system, salinity) What do fish eat? (food chains, productivity, upwelling, ecology) What eats fish? (marine mammals, predators, birds, humans, fisheries) What causes hurricanes and how do they affect us? What can we expect in the future? (El Nino, global warming, sea level rise, loss of coastal wetlands, pollution) What is still to be learned about the ocean?

8. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 8 Why do we care about the oceans? Do they affect us? Do we affect them? Are they changing? How do we know? Would we even notice if they disappeared? Are we doing anything to them that might cause problems in the future?

9. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 9 How do the Oceans Affect Us? Climate Weather Food Recreation Transportation Energy

10. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 10 Are the Oceans Important? 2/3 of the earth’s surface. controls climate –El ni Z o –ice ages controls atmosphere –Temperature –Chemistry Controls weather –Moisture –pressure

11. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 11 Climate Climate is greatly affected by water masses in the oceans. –The movement of large water masses redistributes heat in the ocean. Since the oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, this movement has a major affect on the overlying atmosphere and thus climate.

12. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 12 Climate Coastal communities have a “milder” climate than those further inland Why? Water has an extraordinary ability to hold and transport heat Hold: –Water has a high “heat capacity” (heat it can store) –Or the amount of energy needed to raise it’s temperature Transport: –The oceans circulate

13. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 13 What is Heat Capacity Heat Capacity is the amount of energy required to make a substance get warmer Substances with a high heat capacity can absorb a lot of heat energy without getting a lot warmer. These substances can “store” a lot of heat, just like a battery stores electricity And, if the water is moving, the heat is transported from one place to another.

14. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 14 Heat Capacity If you have gram of water, you have to add 1 calorie of heat to make it 1 °C warmer By the way, 1 calorie (science term) is equal to 0.001 Calorie (food term) Or 1000 calories = 1 Calorie ( So one Coke, which has about 150 Calories (150 x 1000 calories), has enough sugar energy to heat 4 Cokes (64 oz) from room temperature to boiling!)

15. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 15 Heat Capacity Compare water to other liquids: –Water’s heat capacity is 1.00 c/gm/°C –Alcohol is 0.58 –Glycol antifreeze 0.50 –Air is 0.24 So if you want to store heat, water is 4 times more efficient than air –(like comparing a 4 Gigabyte card vs a 1 Gigabyte!) Therefore, a large body of water can heat or cool a LOT of air. This keeps coastal areas cool in the summer

16. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 16 Oceans and Climate Sea breezes bring cool air ashore Caused by the land heating more quickly than the sea This reverses at night and you get a “land breeze” but you only feel this out on the water

17. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 17 The Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm current that flows along the east coast of the US First mapped by Ben Franklin More complicated than he imagined

18. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 18 The Gulf Steam helps warm Europe Warm water flows across the ocean Heat is delivered to Europe Without this warming, Scotland would be about as cold as Greenland!

19. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 19 Climate vs. Weather Climate: what conditions are generally like –Average temperatures –Minimum and maximum temperatures –Rainfall –Wind What the conditions are like right now –Current temperature, rainfall, cloud cover –How conditions change over the short term

20. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 20 Mississippi Weather We don’t really have weather in the summer We have the same conditions every day: –Highs in the low 90’s –Lows at night around 80 –Humidity at 80% –Afternoon thundershowers Repeat every day from May to September

21. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 21 Mississippi Weather In the winter time, we do have weather “fronts” pass through bringing good and bad weather –Cold fronts bring wind and clear weather –Warm fronts bring precipitation We’ll go over this in more detail later –The concepts behind our local weather are important for the ocean too www.weatherunderground.com

22. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 22 Global Climate Change Temperatures are warming!

23. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 23 Global Climate Change (Cont.) As temperatures rise, ice will melt from polar regions This would cause sea-level to rise.

24. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 24 The rest of the story The long term temperature story: –Earth’s colder now than it’s been for most of the last 150 million years! –Earth warmed rapidly for 6,000 years –Cooled again by ~1°C since then!

25. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 25 Climate Change We will devote a lot of time to these questions: –Is climate change real? –What do we think causes it? –How do we know? –How does it work? –How are the oceans involved? –What can we expect? –What should we do?

26. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 26 Hurricanes! Hurricanes are extreme low pressure areas –When one is coming, we stare at the barometer –We watch the Weather Channel and see how low can it go. By why is low pressure associated with a big storm? Why and how does the ocean feed a hurricane

27. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 27 Hurricanes! To understand hurricanes, we need to take a look at: –What “low pressure” is –What affects air density –What causes wind –Where the energy in a hurricane comes from –Why the spin –How they affect the ocean We’ll deal with all of this is “Lesson #8”

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30. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 30 Hurricanes!

31. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 31 Katrina

32. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 32 Lost my FIB! Research tool Note the USM logo

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35. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 35 Katrina The coast will never be the same Massive destruction Recorded in tree rings Recorded in sediments Recorded in our memories

36. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 36 Katrina Katrina was born in the ocean All energy came from the sea Without water, there can be no hurricane

37. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 37 Katrina Storm Surge Wind pushes the water Water floods the land Reason for all the damage

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40. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 40 Katrina It could have been worse Katrina was only a Cat 3 when it landed

41. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 41 Why we care: Food! Natural fisheries –Commercial fishing operations Shrimp Oysters Finfish –Recreational fishing Mariculture –Shrimp –Oysters –finfish

42. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 42 Why we care: Food! World ocean fish production appears to have leveled at between 80 and 90 million tons annually.

43. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 43 Why we care: Food! Heavy fishing pressure has diminished the harvest of many species –Cod is almost gone Some countries harvest more than others We’ll discuss this later –Limitations –management

44. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 44 Living Resources: Mariculture Mariculture is marine agriculture or fish farming of finfish, shell fish and algae. Mariculture requires raising the organisms under favorable conditions until they are large enough to be harvested for food.

45. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 45 Living Resources: Mariculture For mariculture to be economically viable the species must be: –Marketable. –Inexpensive to grow. –Trophically efficient. –At marketable size within 1 to 2 years. –Disease resistant.

46. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 46 Living Resources: Mariculture Currently, about one out of every four fish consumed spent part of its life in mariculture For some organisms the percentage supplied by mariculture is even larger.

47. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 47 Living Resources: Mariculture In the US, roughly 90% of the shrimp consumed are imported, pond-raised shrimp Biloxi processing plants process mostly imported shrimp No viable, commercial shrimp aquaculture program exists (yet) in the US Much more later! White Shrimp Brown Shrimp Pink Shrimp This is a ghost shrimp, like we may catch on Horn Island. Not edible?

48. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 48 Why we care: Recreation! Fishing Boating Scuba diving Beach basking Cruising http://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jan/14/us-italian-cruise-industry- impact/

49. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 49 $portfishing Key-biscayne.com

50. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 50 Boating Statistics are weak –Each state handles its own registration –Accidents are logged but activity is not closely monitored 78 million people use 17 million boats 1/3 of all households participate Activity increasing Tied to fishing Key-biscayne.com

51. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 51 SCUBA Diving Oil rigs make great habitat Great for diving Gulf of Mexico is one of the best spots http://members.aol.com/UWBolten/Texas.htm

52. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 52 Beachgoing 40% of American families visit the beach each year More than 50% of US population lives within 50 miles of the beach Key-biscayne.com

53. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 53 Transportation The US imports a lot of material Most of it comes by water. This requires ports, highways, railroads, etc. Source: www.oceancommission.gov

54. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 54 OIL ~40% of our oil is produced domestically Of that, 25% comes from offshore sources Only the Gulf and Alaska allow new drilling today

55. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 55 Energy Demand continues to climb US production continues to decline Imports increase Politics abound Wikimedia.org

56. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 56 Energy Guess where the oil is? Not much in the US Should we drill more? Is drilling safe? http://api-ec.api.org

57. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 57 Energy Drilling is “relatively” safe Most input is from natural sources (really!) Outboard motors were a huge problem that is being addressed

58. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 58 Energy We’ll continue this discussion later: –Where does oil come from? –CO 2 –Gas –Hydrates –Alternative fuels RegionUsage (quadrillion Btu) US98 Canada14 Mexico7 Asia120 Central/ South America 22 Africa13 Europe85

59. ©1996, West Publishing Company (Modified by Asper, 2006) Slide 59 Why We’re Interested, Summary The oceans cover 70% of the earth’s surface We depend on them for: –Climate (the oceans control climate) –Weather (hurricanes are born there) –Food (fisheries and aquaculture) –Recreation (boating, diving, beach-going) –Transportation (imports and exports, cruises) –Energy We will look at each of these in more detail and discover how they work