Science - USA (2022-01-14)

science.org SCIENCE

PHOTO: ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE/PS124 AWI OFOBS TEAM

NEWS

IN BRIEF

Foreign funding disclosure

RESEARCH SECURITY | U.S. research
agencies have 120 days to develop uniform
policies describing the outside sources
of funding that scientists must disclose
when they apply for federal grants. The
deadline was set in a 4 January directive

from the White House Office of Science

and Technology Policy (OSTP) aimed at

protecting federally funded research from

attempted theft by some foreign govern-

ments. In recent years, the Department

of Justice has prosecuted some two dozen

academics for failing to disclose financial

ties to China, a move critics say has chilled

research collaborations and criminalized

minor violations of often confusing federal

rules. Research groups welcomed OSTP’s

34-page report, but say they wish it had

specified what kinds of foreign collabo-

rations might get a scientist in trouble.

“OSTP intends to address [such questions]

in the future,” says its director, Eric Lander.

ECOLOGY

Huge icefish

colony found

“

For people who are not responsible for policy,

it’s very easy to make a prediction.

”

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

to The New Yorker, responding to suggestions to change course and treat SARS-CoV-2 as endemic.

S

cientists aboard an Antarctic research cruise have

discovered the most extensive breeding colony

of fish anywhere. In February 2021, while towing

video cameras and other instruments close to the

sea floor in the Weddell Sea, the RV Polarstern

came upon thousands of 75-centimeter-wide nests,

each occupied by a single adult icefish (Neopagetopsis

ionah) and up to 2100 eggs. “It was really an amazing

sight,” says deep-sea biologist Autun Purser of the Alfred

Wegener Institute, who led the research cruise’s under-

water imaging, reported in Current Biology this week.

Including subsequent tows, the team saw 16,160 closely

packed fish nests, 76% of which were guarded by solitary

males. Adult icefish may use currents to find the spawn-

ing grounds, where the water above is rich in zooplank-

ton that their offspring can eat, Purser says. Assuming

a similar density of nests in the areas between the sur-

vey lines, the researchers estimate that about 60 million

nests cover roughly 240 square kilometers. The icefish

and their eggs dominate the area’s biomass, which the

authors describe as “exceptionally high” for the Antarctic

sea floor. The researchers say the colony provides a new

reason to create a marine protected area in the Weddell

Sea, a unique and largely undisturbed ecosystem.

Edited by Lila Guterman

Icefish guard nests along the Weddell Sea’s floor.

124 14 JANUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6577