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Oysters turn into pollution trackers
Why it is in news?
- French researchers hoping to get an early warning on pollution in the ocean have found an unlikely ally in a mollusc more often destined for the dinner table.
- Their findings reveal that much like canaries in a coal mine, oysters stationed near offshore oil platforms can detect minute amounts of hydrocarbons as each one constantly filters dozens of gallons of water every day.
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- That could alert scientists to tiny infrastructure cracks before they become catastrophic oil spills that threaten wildlife and coastal communities.
- Attached to rocks or other supports, oysters are ideal for nearly real-time analysis because “they have nothing to do except notice the surrounding noises and temperature and light variations,”
- Electrodes are attached to oysters in the tank allowing researchers to measure how quickly each oyster’s valves are opening and closing to filter the water for food.
- Spikes in valve cycles are the first alert that the mollusc has become stressed, with larger increases corresponding to higher hydrocarbon concentrations
- The observations have been tested in areas including the Barents Sea off Norway and Russia.
Source
The Hindu