Feature Channels: Marine Science

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The photo captures the beauty of a largely unexplored part of the world. It also captures the joy of a life’s work realized. The video tells the story of the research pioneer, and it will air this week, showcasing the work that has been a central focus for four decades. Margaret Amsler, Ph.D., is among researchers featured in the NHK documentary “Hunt for the Giant Squid” that is set to air Thursday at 3 p.

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New research from the University of Delaware suggests there is a ghost crab pot problem in the state’s Inland Bays, with almost 3.5 abandoned crab pots per acre just along the Bay Cove section of Rehoboth Bay near Dewey Beach. The lost or abandoned pots can cause injury to swimmers, damage boat propellers and have the potential to create a cycle of trapping and killing area sea creatures.

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New FSU Study Shows Psychological Concept Underpins Mating Choices

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A years-long study that involved scientists and experiments at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley concluded that an odd assortment of particles found in beach sands in Japan are most likely fallout debris from the 1945 Hiroshima A-bomb blast.

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WCS 3-Sentence Science: Complex social-ecological interactions underpin many environmental problems.

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Saltwater intrusion changes coastal vegetation that provides bird habitat. Researchers found that the transition from forests to marshes along the North Carolina coast due to climate change could benefit some bird species of concern for conservation.

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In recent years, glaciers near the North and South poles, as well as in mountainous areas, have been shrinking due to the effect of global warming, becoming a significant contributor to the recent sea level rise.

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In examining the DNA of a variety of whales, Northern Arizona University researcher Marc Tollis and an international team of scientists found these giant mammals have genetically adapted to protect against cancer. They want to know how this could prevent cancer in humans.

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KINGSTON, R.I., – May 6, 2019 – The University of Rhode Island will lead a new $94 million consortium to support ocean exploration, responsible resource management, improved scientific understanding of the deep sea and strengthen the nation’s Blue Economy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today.

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Recent hybridization of the Gulf killifish — a large minnow common in the heavily polluted Houston Ship Channel — has enabled the species to adapt rapidly to extreme pollution, a Baylor University study has found.

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In oxygen-poor parts of the ocean, some microorganisms survive by breathing arsenic. This holdover from the ancient Earth was not thought to still exist in the open ocean.

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Lifelong chemical records stored in the canine teeth of an elusive group of harbor seals show that the seals remain in freshwater their entire lives and are likely a distinct population from their relatives in the ocean. Their home territory, Iliamna Lake, is in the heart of the proposed Pebble Mine project.

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In the wild and in the lab, researchers find a relationship between higher water temperatures and a lower percentage of female flounder, a cause for concern.

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An associate director of Mississippi State’s Northern Gulf Institute is receiving international attention for his eye-opening study on the impact exotic species have on native marine communities.

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Researchers found out that the Arctic does not lose ice uniformly. Different seasonal patterns are at play depending on region: From the early 2000s, the ice cover in the Eurasian Arctic has been shrinking even in the winter period, while the American region only lost ice in the summer. The team explains this in terms of seasonal memory: a response of the winter ice cover to the atmospheric conditions in the previous summer.

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Ocean acidification could have serious consequences for the millions of people globally whose lives depend on coastal protection

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Advanced molecular techniques have revealed the diversity of a little-understood group of ocean microbes called protists

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New research provides the most complete account to date of the viruses that impact the world’s oceans, increasing the number of known virus populations tenfold. This new study brings the total known marine viral populations within the ocean close to 200,000 – work that will help scientists better understand their influence throughout the world, including their part in delivering carbon deep into the sea, protecting the atmosphere from further damage. The study, led by researchers at Ohio State, appears online April 25 in the journal Cell.

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In recent years, seaweeds have been notorious for washing up and fouling beaches on Long Island. Now, a collaborative team of scientists and marine farmers have demonstrated that the seaweed, sugar kelp, can be cultivated in the shallow estuaries of Long Island, a breakthrough that may unlock a wealth of economic and environmental opportunities for coastal communities.

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Global warming has caused twice as many ocean-dwelling species as land-dwelling species to disappear from their habitats, a unique Rutgers-led study found. The greater vulnerability of sea creatures may significantly impact human communities that rely on fish and shellfish for food and economic activity, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

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Coral reefs worldwide are threatened by a variety of human impacts. Fishing is among the most pressing threats to reefs

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St. Mary’s College of Maryland students Lauren Swam '19, Isaac Hersh '19, and Colin Cassady '19, recently had a firsthand experience studying marine ecology on the coral reefs of Belize. Interviewed for The Naturalist Podcast (http://www.naturalistpodcast.com/the-naturalist-podcast-episode-27-on-carrie-bow-cay-with-lauren-isaac-and-colin/), the three shared their encounters towing through seagrass beds, snorkeling mangrove forests, and doing research on coral reefs with Seabird McKeon, visiting professor in the biology department.

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Photos taken months, and in some cases years, apart by scuba divers show female sand tiger sharks returning to the same shipwrecks off the North Carolina coas

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Researchers, including a team from The Ohio State University, have published new findings showing that the DNA of the tube anemone does what few other species’ mitochondrial genomes have been shown to do. It defies the classic doughnut shape it “should” be in and is arranged in several fragmented pieces, the number of which vary depending on the species. On top of that, the animal now holds the record for the largest mitochondrial genome reported to date. It contains almost 81,000 base pairs, or pieces of genetic information, according to the new study, published online in the journal Scientific Reports. Human mitochondrial DNA contains fewer than 17,000 base pairs.

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Rutgers senior Lauren Rodgers once dreamed of becoming a fiction writer. But then she enrolled in a high school science and math program in her native Columbia, South Carolina, where she read an article that discussed the ocean’s critical role in absorbing carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas linked to global warming.

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The species can bury carbon in underwater sediments 40 times faster than tropical forests bury it in the soil.

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Student research trip aboard R/V Endeavor, notice of media availability and remote interview capabilities

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As you bite into a chocolate bunny or egg this weekend, consider this: rabbits often eat their own young, and hens their own eggs.

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Northern Arizona University geology professor Michael Smith will map the layers of rock in the Green River Formation in Wyoming to learn about the climate and flooding events during a period 50 to 53 million years ago when the climate was much hotter and carbon dioxide levels spiked.

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The Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) recently wrapped up its spring meeting in New Orleans, which showcased news from the Gulf ocean observing community.

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Primitive ponds may have provided a suitable environment for brewing up Earth's first life forms, more so than oceans, a new MIT study finds.

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The iTAG website will help researchers throughout the Gulf and in neighboring regions track their animals. Electronically tracking animals over large distances allows scientists to better understand biodiversity hotspots and ecosystem processes.

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For the first time, researchers offer an up-close look at the clitoris of female dolphins along with insights on the potential for the animals to experience sexual pleasure.

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Sea urchins have no eyes, yet they can respond to light and accurately react to visual stimuli by way of photoreceptor cells. To better understand this phenomenon, an international research team is creating a computational model of the decentralized, “spherical” vision of the sea urchin from its makeup.

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New research is detailing how environmental stressors, including heavy metals, brought on by human activity are harming coastal green sea turtle populations – work that researchers hope will inform conservation efforts going forward.

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A new method for reconstructing changes in nitrogen sources over time has enabled scientists to connect excess nutrients in the coastal waters of West Maui, Hawaii, to a sewage treatment facility that injects treated wastewater into the ground.

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A winter break expedition to the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences results in important find for students on UD team

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Sea snakes, best known from shallow tropical waters, have been recorded swimming at 250 metres in the deep-sea ‘twilight zone’, smashing the previous diving record of 133 metres held by sea snakes.

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As current antibiotics dwindle in effectiveness against multidrug-resistant pathogens, researchers are seeking potential replacements in some unlikely places. Now a team has identified bacteria with promising antibiotic activity against known pathogens.

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Leading ocean science and engineering institutions are joining forces to create Ocean Visions, an innovative scientist-driven ocean conservation venture that fosters collaboration between top researchers, conservationists and entrepreneurs committed to solving some of the biggest challenges facing ocean health.

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To help financially support sea turtle research, NSU is partnering with the annual Tortuga Music Festival, creating the First Annual Sea Turtle Derby

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A Costa-Rican lizard species may have evolved scuba-diving qualities allowing it to stay underwater for 16 minutes, according to faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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Striking traits seen only in males of some species - such as colourful peacock feathers or butterfly wings - are partly explained by gene behaviour, research suggests.

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The first survey of methane vent sites off Washington’s coast finds 1,778 bubble columns, with most located along a north-south band that is in line with a geologic fault.

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Research led by the University of Southampton (UK) suggests that 'rogue' waves are occurring less often, but becoming more extreme.

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Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have coined jellyfish, ‘the gingerbread house’, conveying their newly discovered role in providing both food and shelter to fish.

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Narwhals - enigmatic arctic whales known for their sword-like tusk – spend over half their time diving to find food but are also able to last up to three days without a meal, according to a study by Manh Cuong Ngô and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, published in PLOS Computational Biology.

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University of Sydney scientists have modelled how carbonate accumulation from 'marine snow' in oceans has absorbed carbon dioxide over millennia and been a key driver in keeping the planet cool for millions of years.

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The quest for clean energy sources has been ongoing for many years with minimal results. This could all change with the development of a single device that will lie on the water’s surface and utilize the ocean waves to generate electrical power.

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By analyzing troves of genetic data and considering a vast number of possible ways to examine it, University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists now have a high degree of confidence that horseshoe crabs do indeed belong within the arachnids.