King Crabs invade Antarctica

[itsnotaboutu]

This is a huge story,

King Crabs Invade Antarctica

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2011) — It's like a scene out of a sci-fi movie -- thousands, possibly millions, of king crabs are marching through icy, deep-sea waters and up the Antarctic slope.


"They are coming from the deep, somewhere between 6,000 to 9,000 feet down," said James McClintock, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham Endowed Professor of Polar and Marine Biology.

Shell-crushing crabs haven't been in Antarctica, Earth's southernmost continent, for hundreds or thousands, if not millions, of years, McClintock said. "They have trouble regulating magnesium ions in their body fluids and get kind of drunk at low temperatures."

But something has changed, and these crustaceans are poised to move by the droves up the slope and onto the shelf that surrounds Antarctica. McClintock and other marine researchers interested in the continent are sounding alarms because the vulnerable ecosystem could be wiped out, he said.
Read the whole story here:


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110419191022.htm

[Poll_Blind]

1. I know it may sound odd but stories like this trouble me the most.

It says things are changing on an absolutely enormous scale. Even from a selfish standpoint, even little shifts in such enormous systems can spell a kind of doom down the line that nobody wants any part of.

PB

[Renew Deal]

2. Selfish or Shellfish?

;)

[gristy]

3. sciencedaily is a rag, if I recall

[joshcryer]

4. It's a copy+paste from a UAB release:

http://www.uab.edu/news/latest/item/1052-king-crabs-invade-antarctica-could-jeopardize-cures-for-disease

[nilram]

5. huh? science daily: started in 1995.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/about.htm

It looks like they aggregate scientific articles. The article they've published on King Crab in the antarctic is correctly attributed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The original article appears here --

http://www.uab.edu/news/latest/item/1052-king-crabs-invade-antarctica-could-jeopardize-cures-for-disease

and is based on research by James McClintock, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham Endowed Professor of Polar and Marine Biology.

[Enthusiast]

8. Sciencedaily is a collection

of articles covering the latest discoveries. It is a fine resource for the lay man.

[JCMach1]

6. Deadliest Catch- the Final Frontier anyone???

[Morning Dew]

7. Paging Captain Sig. n/m

[SoCalDem]

9. Do penguins like crab? n/t