U.S., NASA will give $17 million to explore marine biodiversity
The U.S. has announced a new prototype system to "gauge national marine biodiversity," NASA reports. The system will include three demonstration projects, which together will cost roughly $17 million.
The projects, which will be completed over the next five years, will be funded by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in conjunction with contributions from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The prototype observation networks will use NASA satellite data from marine environments in four locations in the U.S: the Florida Keys; Monterey Bay and the Santa Barbara Channel in California; and the continental shelf in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska. The Shell Oil Company will also contribute funding to the Alaska project.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Scientists hope the projects will "lay the foundation" for the first national network to monitor biodiversity, NASA reports. The new network would include observations of every part of marine life, "at scales ranging from microbes to whales." If successful, the network could "serve as a marine resource management tool to conserve existing biodiversity and enhance U.S. biosecurity against threats such as invasive species and infectious agents," according to NASA. The network could also help scientists develop strategies for dealing with pollution and climate change.
"We now have large amounts of biologically relevant information on marine ecosystems, including global observations of ocean color and sea surface temperature from space," Woody Turner, manager of NASA's Biodiversity Research Program at NASA's Washington headquarters, said in a statement. "But we need a more effective way of combining different types of information to get a better picture of how marine ecosystems are changing if we are to sustain these important ecosystem resources."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
-
Kerala: one Indian state, four exhilarating ways
The Week Recommends The southwestern region pretty much has it all, from beachfront, to port metropolis, to verdant mountainside
By Scott Hocker, The Week US Published
-
Is a high-yield savings account worth having?
The Explainer They can pay up to 10 times more than a standard savings account
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: April 15, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why February 29 is a leap day
Speed Read It all started with Julius Caesar
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing
Speed Read If touchdown is successful, it will be the first U.S. mission to the moon since 1972
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Scientists create 'meaty' rice for eco-friendly protein
Speed Read Korean scientists have invented a new hybrid food, consisting of beef muscle and fat cells grown inside grains of rice
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New images reveal Neptune and Uranus in different colours than originally thought
Speed Read Voyager 2 images from the 1980s led to 'modern misconception'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published