An emergency recovery of a DOLAN-type surface buoy was conducted on July 24th by the CVOO team of Cape Verde. Colleagues from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) informed CVOO about a drifting surface buoy which originally was part of an oceanographic mooring 290 nautical miles northeast of CVOO (off Cape Blanc, Mauritania).

Interview with prof. Lucas J. Stal (NIOZ and UvA), MaCuMBA coordinator

Can you explain to a wider audience, whose knowledge of marine microorganism may be limited, why a project like MaCuMBA is important?
Most people when they hear about microorganisms think of dirt, of illness, or at best they know that microorganisms make our beer, wine, yoghurt, cheese, antibiotics, etc. Few people realize that the total biomass of microorganisms on earth is many times higher than that of all other organisms together, including man. Few people know that the genetic diversity of microorganisms is overwhelmingly larger than that of all plants and animals together and that the number of species is unknown but must be in the many tens of millions.

Northwest Africa and Southeast Australia are regions which are particularly vulnerable to climate change. In her thesis, Raquel Lopes dos Santos of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, investigate organic compounds in marine sediment cores, in order to reconstruct past environmental conditions in these areas. She found that vegetation changes were large and abrupt over the past 150,000 years in these regions and were caused by climate change as well as indirectly by humans. Lopes dos Santos will defend her thesis at the Utrecht University, on 17 December, 2012.

As of 1 January 2013, Dr. Katja Philippart (NIOZ-MEE) is appointed as the new board member 'Ecology' at the Waddenacademie-KNAW. Katja will replace prof. dr. Peter Herman, who held this position until 1 September 2012. Following the appointment by the Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW) , the board will gain a plenary status again.