As the oceans become more acidic, box jellyfish may start eating a lot more. Their greedy appetites could have a huge impact on marine ecosystems.

Some of the carbon dioxide we release is dissolving in the oceans, where it becomes carbonic acid – making the oceans less alkaline and more acidic. ��è����Ƶs are scrambling to identify which species will be most impacted.

They are particularly concerned about organisms that play pivotal roles in marine food webs, because if they disappear, entire ecosystems may collapse.

are particularly critical. These tiny crustaceans by mass. They swarm in vast numbers in some regions of the ocean, where larger animals feast on them.

What happens to copepods affects all that depend on them, “which is pretty much everything,” says of Utah State University in Logan.

Previous studies have found copepods . However, these have largely focused on single species, so community-level effects may have been missed.

To find out, Hammill and his colleagues collected zooplankton and one of their gelatinous predators, the box jellyfish , from the waters around Australia. They kept the plankton in tanks containing either ambient seawater or seawater acidified at levels predicted for 2100, then added box jellyfish to half of the tanks. After 10 days, they counted what survived.

Both acidification and box jellyfish reduced the number of copepods, but both together caused 27% more deaths than the sum of the two individually. The jellyfish were eating more: they gobbled up nearly 37% of copepods in the ambient seawater tanks, but almost 83% in the acidified water.

Hammill thinks the copepods were weakened by the acidified water and that the jellyfish took advantage, but can’t rule out other possibilities. “It could be the jellies are being negatively affected by the acidified water and are needing more prey to get along,” he says.

“It is a simple and clever experiment with some intriguing results,” says of California State University, Northridge. It highlights the critical need to better understand community dynamics in response to changing environmental conditions, she says.

“If these results do translate to the global oceans, even just a little, it could have potentially dramatic and cascading effects on the ocean food web,” Silbiger says.

Other jellyfish are likely to respond similarly to acidified water, says Hammill.

He plans to look at the Arctic ecosystem next. “It’s the most productive and one of the largest ecosystems [in] the world,” he says. If the same pattern occurs, it “could be a really big deal”.

Journal reference:

(Image: Gary Waters/Ikon Images)

Academia is starting to acknowledge the depression and anxiety that some faculty members, students and postdocs experience – and help is there

As an academic, Sarah Boon was extremely successful. She landed a tenured position a mere six years after completing her PhD. A stack of publications in high-end journals led to an influx of funding offers, speaker invitations and collaborations. But as her career skyrocketed, so did her mood swings, crippling exhaustion and disinterest in everything she normally enjoyed. When she was finally diagnosed with depression, anxiety and a mood disorder, part of her was relieved.

Boon isn’t the only researcher to have been affected by mental illness. A number of recently published personal accounts in blogs and the national press tell the story of a harsh and competitive work environment that can prove a catalyst for anxiety and depression. But institutions are waking up to the issue, and support is set to increase under new changes to the Affordable Care Act.

Sketchy stats

Anecdotally, mental health issues are common among academics, but evidence to support this claim is sparse. Only a handful of studies have sought to examine the levels of stress and their subsequent mental health consequences among academics, and most have focused on faculty. What we do know is that, in the US, about experiences some kind of mental illness in a given year.

An Australian study found that , while the percentage among academics in the has been estimated to be as high as 53 per cent. In the US, though, there have been no peer-reviewed studies on the prevalence of mental health issues in academics, at any level. “It is next to nothing,” explains Mahadeo Sukhai, vice chair of the board of the . “There is a lot of work that needs to be done.”

For academics worried about their mental health, the first step toward addressing it is admitting that you’re struggling. Seek out help, especially if you have struggled in the past, says , chief psychologist and director of the Counseling and Psychological Services Center, Appalachian State University, in Boone, North Carolina. “It’s good to have a mental health professional you can check in with,” says Jones. “You might not realize, if you are functioning well, that you are acting abnormally or have obsessive or compulsive behavior.” The good news is that support systems are available for academics who need them.

Jones says his university’s health plan, like many, covers a lot of mental health services. “The most common insurance among our faculty is the state’s insurance plan, which allows you 26 mental health professional consultations a year. That’s quite generous, and if the therapist writes a petition on your behalf, they can increase that as well.”

For those universities without such cover, mental health treatment can be prolonged and expensive, but the high cost is one of the areas President Obama is focusing on in the Affordable Care Act [ACA]. , the ACA has expanded healthcare insurance . This should enable academics to get the long-term treatment they may need without having to worry about the out-of-pocket expense.

But even institutions with less substantial insurance plans have some resources available. , an associate professor and director of the counseling Service at the University of Florida in Gainesville, says that most universities have an Employee Assistance Program [EAP] or a [FSAP]. “Both usually offer an initial consultation, then may refer you to a counselor or psychiatrist,” she says. While they aren’t designed for long-term support, many schools’ FSAPs provide quick, free and confidential counseling and support to those in need.

Most EAPs and FSAPs will help faculty find a therapist or psychiatrist whose fees will be covered at least in part by a faculty or staff health plan. “I am approached by members of staff or their family members quite frequently,” says Benton. “I know a number of clinicians I would readily refer somebody to, and recommend people to specific ones.”

Some colleges, like the University of Florida, even have an online database for finding the most appropriate . The website also allows users to search for affordable mental health services in communities throughout the country, and if the situation is dire, the ‘s crisis hotline [1.800.273.TALK] is always free and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Improving the outlook

While these resources are performing a vital role, Sukhai stresses that institutions need to better accommodate the mental health needs of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. And more research is needed to determine exactly what resources work best for academics.

Such research is under way. Joshua Dunn, a registered psychologist and adjunct assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, has spearheaded a preliminary study to identify the specific aspects of academic life that are detrimental to mental health and what kinds of support are most helpful at alleviating them. His early results suggest that support groups and mentoring programs may not be sufficient for academics suffering from stress, anxiety or depression. In fact, his research demonstrated that even those who felt well-supported did not feel less stressed in their academic environment, perhaps because of ill-defined expectations about their work. “Research initiatives would be a very important next step to help guide training for professors to better manage the unhelpful aspects of perfectionism,” Dunn says.

Greg Gbur, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, was diagnosed with clinical depression in graduate school and has been open about his condition and treatment. He says that universities need to improve and expand mental health education among their faculties. “It would be nice to be given some minimal training in recognizing depression and how to cope with depressed people,” he says.

Sukhai agrees, and recommends more colleges introduce training programs for faculty and staff. One example is , which provides eight-hour courses in recognizing warning signs and responding constructively. Similar training is provided by the [NAMI].

He adds that leaders and managers within colleges and labs need to create an environment where concerned academics feel comfortable opening up. “There is a fear that if you bring mental illness up, people are going to respond negatively to it,” he says. “You feel like you can’t talk about it with your superiors because you’re afraid they’re going to misunderstand.”

Awareness campaigns targeting mental health in undergraduates have already had an impact on administrations. The non-profit group , for example, encourages students to be open about their mental health, and the organization holds mental illness awareness events at more than 400 college campuses. Meanwhile, the national efforts of NAMI have influenced legislation like the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, which provided millions of dollars in funding to help college campuses increase mental health services.

While it isn’t easy, admitting to colleagues that you have a mental health issue can actually be helpful, “so colleagues and bosses know you’re dealing with an illness, not a bad attitude,” says Jones. “Mental illness happens to people like any other illness, whether that is diabetes or heart disease. And seeing mental health professionals is the best way to deal with it.”

The stigma of mental illness currently keeps many academics silent about their struggles, says Jones, and it needs to be eliminated.

Although universities have some way to go, the silence surrounding mental health issues in academia is breaking, and support systems are improving for those who are dealing with stress, anxiety and depression. Even if you aren’t experiencing those issues in your career, it might be worth investigating the ways to help those who are.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Lighting the dark”