Feature Channels: Marine Science

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While modern marine concrete structures crumble within decades, 2,000-year-old Roman piers and breakwaters endure to this day, and are stronger now than when they were first constructed. University of Utah geologist Marie Jackson studies the minerals and microscale structures of Roman concrete as she would a volcanic rock. She and her colleagues have found that seawater filtering through the concrete leads to the growth of interlocking minerals that lend the concrete added cohesion.

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Unmitigated climate change will make the United States poorer and more unequal, according to a new study published today in the journal Science. The poorest third of counties could sustain economic damages costing as much as 20 percent of their income if warming proceeds unabated. States in the South and lower Midwest, which tend to be poor and hot already, will lose the most, with economic opportunity traveling northward and westward. Colder and richer counties along the northern border and in the Rockies could benefit the most as health, agriculture and energy costs are projected to improve.

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How baleen whales became filter feeders is widely debated among scientists—but now anatomy researchers at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine may finally solve this mystery.

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A multi-year survey of the health of endangered southern resident killer whales suggests that up to two-thirds of pregnancies failed in this population from 2007 to 2014. The study links this orca population's low reproductive success to stress brought on by low abundance of Chinook salmon.

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For surfers, finding the “sweet spot,” the most powerful part of the wave, is part of the thrill and the challenge.

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Climate change from rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) is having two major effects in our seas - global warming and ocean acidification - and the combination of these threats is affecting marine life from single organisms to species communities.

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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is one of the most studied spills in history, yet scientists haven’t agreed on the role of microbes in eating up the oil. Now a research team at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified all of the principal oil-degrading bacteria as well as their mechanisms for chewing up the many different components that make up the released crude oil.

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A new strategy for sending acoustic waves through water could potentially open up the world of high-speed communications to divers, marine research vessels, remote ocean monitors, deep sea robots, and submarines. By taking advantage of the dynamic rotation generated as the acoustic wave travels, also known as its orbital angular momentum, Berkeley Lab researchers were able to pack more channels onto a single frequency, effectively increasing the amount of information capable of being transmitted.

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In the year 2100, 2 billion people – about one-fifth of the world’s population – could become climate change refugees due to rising ocean levels. Those who once lived on coastlines will face displacement and resettlement bottlenecks as they seek habitable places inland, according to Cornell University research.

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"Sidedoor," the Smithsonian's podcast, returns today to begin its second season. The podcast transports audiences behind the scenes with stories that can't always be told through a museum exhibit.

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NSU will be overseeing the National Coral Reef Management Fellowship Program with NOAA and U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs

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Waves deep within the ocean play an important role in establishing ocean circulation, arising when tidal currents oscillate over an uneven ocean bottom. The internal waves generated by this process stir and mix the ocean, bringing cold, deep water to the surface to be warmed by the sun. This week in the Physics of Fluids, investigators how to tell which way internal waves will go. The proposed theory unifies several previously understood explanations of wave propagation.

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A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has identified for the first time what drives the observed differences in the chemical make-up of sea spray particles ejected from the ocean by breaking waves.

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Berkeley Lab scientists have demonstrated how floating particles will assemble and synchronize in response to acoustic waves. Their simple experiment provides a new framework for studying how seemingly lifelike behaviors emerge in response to external forces. The work could help address fundamental questions about energy dissipation and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.

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The drill holes left in fossil shells by hunters such as snails and slugs show marine predators have grown steadily bigger and more powerful over time but stuck to picking off small prey, rather than using their added heft to pursue larger quarry, new research shows.

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Researchers at Tulane University have developed a subsidence map of coastal Louisiana, putting the rate at which this region is sinking at just over one third of an inch per year.

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Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association recognizes undergraduate for computer application.

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More than five trillion pieces of plastic debris are estimated to be in our oceans, though many are impossible to see with the naked eye.

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Paleontologists Adam Tomašových of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Susan Kidwell of the University of Chicago examine a lost ecosystem of scallops and shelled marine organisms called brachiopods in a new study.

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For World Oceans Day – celebrated today across the globe – WCS launches the 30-Day Plastics Challenge to reduce use of single-use disposable plastics, and to bring attention to the fact that, by some estimates, a staggering 5 trillion pieces of plastic are currently floating in the world’s oceans.

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Sex-changing fish exhibit differences in androgen receptor (AR) expression in muscles that are highly sensitive to androgens (male sex hormones) and essential for male courtship behavior, according to a Georgia State University study.

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Today, on June 8, ocean lovers worldwide are coming together to celebrate the world’s oceans and recognize the vital role these water bodies play in supporting life on Earth. But for the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System— and its 11 regional associations across the nation — every day is about the oceans, coasts and Great Lakes and supporting local environments, economies and human health and safety.

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The Government of Fiji has made a commitment to gazette two large Marine Managed Areas (MMAs) within Fiji’s Vatu-i-Ra Seascape — a highly diverse and productive area vital to both people and wildlife alike.

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Calcium carbonate combined with sea urchin proteins form tiny stacks of ‘bricks’ that creates a structure which provides a tough, exoskeleton defense for the sea creature. NYU Dentistry research studying the protein may enable the development of tunable fracture resistant materials that one day will find its use in developing lightweight ‘armor' and ‘sturdier’ dental composites.

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The Gulf of Mexico Alliance is pleased to announce eight of ten Coastal Resilience Awards to community projects in four of the five U.S. Gulf States. The awards total $347,334 and are supported by a grant from the NOAA Office for Coastal Development.

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A Saint Louis University scientist hopes that a greater understanding of how whales feed will shed light on how they have evolved to the enormous sizes seen today. This new knowledge also will aid conservation efforts for whales, most of which are endangered species.

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The ICARUS neutrino detector, born at Gran Sasso National Lab in Italy and refurbished at CERN, will make its way across the sea to Fermilab this summer. Follow along using an interactive map online.

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A controlled lab study led by Mote Marine Laboratory and published June 1 in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE revealed that black band disease was less deadly to mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata) as water acidified, or decreased in pH.

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As the United Nations Oceans Conference convenes in New York, a new paper calls on marine scientists to focus on social issues such as human rights violations in the seafood industry.

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Department of Anthropology have recently joined efforts within the University of California San Diego to launch the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA). Researchers with the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology will conduct fieldwork at key underwater and coastal archaeological sites around the world, studying the influence of marine environments on human cultures.

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A group of research scientists from NSU's Guy Harvey Research Institute and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation has the most successful research trip in the history of their Isla Mujeres, Mexico project.

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Researchers from the University of Washington and Smithsonian Institution have reported the first observed case of lionfish preying upon a fish species that had not yet been named. Their results, published May 25 in PLOS ONE, may indicate an uncertain future for other fish found in the largely unexplored deep-ocean coral reefs.

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UCLA scientists discovered that changes to the genes that shortened the Galapagos cormorant's wings are the same genes that go awry in a group of human bone disorders characterized by stunted arms and legs. The findings shed light on the genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of limb size and could eventually lead to new treatments for people with skeletal ciliopathies.

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Stony corals may be more resilient to ocean acidification than once thought, according to a Rutgers University study that shows they rely on proteins to help create their rock-hard skeletons.

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Research out of the University of New Hampshire has found that some roads, as far as two miles from the shore, are facing a new hazard that currently cannot be seen by drivers - rising groundwater caused by increasing ocean water levels.

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Seven years after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, researchers embark on new expedition to the Gulf to monitor impacts on deep sea corals

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Oleo Sponge could make oil spill cleanup more efficient.

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One thing that turtles do very well is move across sand. That, in itself, was an inspiration for a new type of robot, the C-Turtle, developed by a team of Arizona State University professors and students.

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Penn State researchers have created a new hybrid technology that produces unprecedented amounts of electrical power where seawater and freshwater combine at the coast.

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With the drastic increase in the number of unusual dolphin strandings and deaths along the southeastern coast of the U.S. and elsewhere, finding specific antibodies to test, monitor and document their immune health is critical.

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University of Delaware researchers have received funding to study the distribution and concentration of microplastics in the Delaware Bay. This small debris can cause problems in the aquatic food chain. The UD team is hoping their findings can help government regulators shape new policy to protect the environment.

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Experiments at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source have helped scientists to solve a mystery of why some rocks can float for years in the ocean, traveling thousands of miles before sinking.

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Young great white sharks are using California’s coasts as a sort of nursery, says Chris Lowe, director of the CSU Long Beach Shark Lab.

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Although computer models of archaeological sites are commonly used to yield insights which contribute to the protection of heritage materials, scientists often question their credibility, calling for these long-term trends be ‘ground truthed’ in order to ensure that calculated rates of change reflect observed phenomena ‘in the field’.