Feature Channels: Marine Science

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A University of Queensland-led study has found humpback whales can learn incredibly complex songs from whales from other regions.

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An international team of scientists has developed an accurate record of preindustrial sea level utilizing precisely dated phreatic overgrowths on speleothems that provide a detailed history of Late Holocene sea-level change in Mallorca, Spain, an island in the western Mediterranean Sea. The results provide an unprecedented picture of sea level over the past 4,000 years, putting the preindustrial and modern global mean sea level (GMSL) histories in context.

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A pair of Orca (Killer Whales) that have been terrorizing and killing Great White Sharks off the coast of South Africa since 2017 has managed to drive large numbers of the sharks from their natural aggregation site.

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A new University of Washington study that leverages historical data has found unique support for a "safety in numbers" strategy, where Pacific salmon living in larger groups have a lower risk of being eaten by predators. But for some salmon species, schooling comes at the cost of competition for food, and those fish may trade safety for a meal.

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Gulf Star investment from Valero will support school environmental stewardship with youth in Port Arthur, Texas

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Climate change might be behind an unusual disease outbreak among Antarctic fish. For about a decade, University of Oregon biologists John Postlethwait and Thomas Desvignes have been visiting the West Antarctic Peninsula. They study a unique group of fish that has adapted to the harsh polar environment. But on a 2018 field excursion, they noticed something especially strange: a large number of those fish were afflicted with grotesque skin tumors.

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In The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, scientists in Denmark review recent experiments and find noise regulations may need to be changed to protect porpoises, seals, and other sea-dwelling mammals. Current guidance for seals and porpoises is based on few measurements in a limited frequency range; the guidance is still valid for these frequencies, but investigators found substantial deviations in recent studies of the impact of low frequency noise on seals and high frequency noise on porpoises.

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Even with plenty of fish in the sea, sea dragons stand out from the crowd. The funky, fabulous fish are bedecked with ruffly leaf-like adornments. Their spines are kinked. They’re missing their ribs and their teeth. And the responsibility of pregnancy is taken on by the males. By sequencing the genomes of two species of sea dragons, University of Oregon researchers have found genetic clues to the fish’s distinctive features: They’re missing a key group of genes found in other vertebrates. Those genes help direct the development of the face, teeth and appendages, as well as parts of the nervous system.

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Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the University of Connecticut, and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences have executed a license agreement for a kelp germplasm, or collection of microscopic cells called gametophytes, containing more than 1,200 samples all developed and isolated by WHOI and UConn-led teams.

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Come explore “What the Gulf Gives” with the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. This year-long awareness campaign celebrates the connections between the Gulf and the benefits it provides people including recreation, tourism, economic impact, coastal resilience, seafood and more.

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The effects of global climate change already are resulting in the loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise, and longer and more intense heat waves, among other threats. Now, the first-ever survey of planktonic lipids in the global ocean predicts a temperature-linked decrease in the production of essential omega-3 fatty acids, an important subset of lipid molecules.

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Researchers from the University of Portsmouth say a ‘one size fits all’ approach to preserving mangrove forests will not work

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An innovative tool will holistically examine and diagnose key processes with numerical simulations and experiments and predict changes in responses to water management, ecological restoration and climate change. It is designed to provide a suite of environmental and ecological information on the state of the greater Florida Bay ecosystem as well as potential future changes. Importantly, this model could potentially predict underwater aquatic vegetation coverage, harmful algal blooms, and fisheries resources under climate change and/or Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program management scenarios.

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A team led by the University of Washington has compiled and analyzed hundreds of these field observations to produce the first comprehensive report of the impacts of the 2021 heat wave on shellfish.

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Back in 2019, research scientists at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Halmos College of Arts and Sciences joined forces with colleagues on an ambitious project to save at-risk corals. As that project has progressed, NSU is now making its coral nursery available for other similar projects.

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BRI is part of an international group of scientists who published a joint letter in Science, just prior to the next round of international negotiations on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. This letter urges more attention to the diversity of contaminants that pollute the environment and adversely impact biodiversity.

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Environmental chemical pollution threatens biodiversity. However, the complexity of this pollution remains insufficiently recognised by decision-makers - this is what international researchers led by Gabriel Sigmund from the University of Vienna and Ksenia Groh from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) argue in the most recent issue of “Science”. Their letter appears shortly before the international negotiations on the “post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”. These will take place from 21st of June in Nairobi (Kenya).

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A team of U.S. and Chinese scientists mapping oil pollution across the Earth’s oceans has found that more than 90% of chronic oil slicks come from human sources, a much higher proportion than previously estimated. Their research, published in Science, is a major update from previous investigations into marine oil pollution, which estimated that about half came from human sources and half from natural sources.

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The Gulf of Mexico Alliance is pleased to announce a new partnership with Hancock Whitney as they become the most recent organization to join the Alliance’s Gulf Star Program.

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A combination of ecological field methods and cutting-edge artificial intelligence has helped an interdisciplinary research group detect eelgrass wasting disease at nearly three dozen sites along a 1,700-mile stretch of the West Coast, from San Diego to southern Alaska.

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A new study shows that seagrass fisheries provide a reliable safety-net for poor, since fishermen perceive those habitats to maintain large fish catches over time.

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Prehistoric coral reefs dating back up to 250 million years extended much further away from the Earth’s equator than today, new research has revealed.

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The relatively pristine coral populations of WA’s inshore Kimberley region are better equipped to survive ocean warming than the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park, according to a new Curtin University study.

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A deep dive into the 5,500 marine RNA virus species scientists recently identified has found that several may help drive carbon absorbed from the atmosphere to permanent storage on the ocean floor.

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Marine predation intensifies in warmer waters; could reshape ocean communities as climate changes.

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As the cherished rainforest in South America’s Amazon River region continues to shrink, the river itself now presents evidence of other dangers: the overexploitation of freshwater fish.

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Program pairs PNNL experts with aspiring UW undergraduates who learn through doing on laboratory projects.

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A new journal issue is dedicated to highlighting the Triton Initiative’s recent work advancing environmental monitoring of marine energy.

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Machine learning enables largest study to date on aesthetic preferences and fish ecology.

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Shinnecock Bay on the south shore of Long Island, New York, is being named a new “Hope Spot” by Mission Blue, an international organization that supports the protection of oceans worldwide. This distinction is the result of a decade of restorative work led by Stony Brook University scientists.

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By: Bill Wellock | Published: June 6, 2022 | 12:19 pm | SHARE: The United Nations marks June 8 as World Oceans Day, an opportunity to celebrate the ocean and how it supports life on Earth.As director of Florida State University’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS), Eric Chassignet leads investigations into the physical processes that govern the ocean and its interactions with the atmosphere.

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Marine species don’t recognize international borders or exclusive economic zones — and a new article says science focused on conserving oceanic species and habitats should also transcend these human boundaries.

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Scientists at the University of Bristol have demonstrated how predators overcome their preys’ erratic behaviour by adapting their own during the hunt.

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They click. They whistle. They love seafood. They are New York City’s nearshore bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that return to feed in local waters from spring to fall each year, and a team of scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is tracking them.

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An ancient bout of global warming 56 million years ago that acidified oceans and wiped-out marine life had a milder effect in the Gulf of Mexico, where life was sheltered by the basin’s unique geology – according to research by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG).

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A small, rare crayfish thought to be extinct for 30 years has been rediscovered in a cave in the City of Huntsville in northern Alabama by a team led by an assistant professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

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Speakers provided updates on the ocean-observing infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. during the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System’s (GCOOS) recent spring meeting. The plenary speaker was Dr. William Burnett, Director of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), which uses marine buoys to collect and disseminate ocean observations that support maritime navigation as well as predictions to changes in weather, climate, oceans and coasts.

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Tiny antibodies in sharks have dexterity and flexibility that human antibodies do not. They can bind tightly to the spike proteins of coronaviruses and neutralize the virus. This could help researchers develop new vaccines and therapies for COVID-19.

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Many people may not realize that the humble sea urchin is a titan when it comes to the study of biology. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered that sea urchins could help biological studies go further than ever before.

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An iconic coral species found in UK waters could expand its range due to climate change, new research shows.

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Exclusively subterranean bivalves - the group of molluscs comprising clams, oysters, mussels, scallops - are considered a rarity.