Did oceans gain, lose, gain ability to support life?
Conditions suitable to support complex life may have developed in Earth’s oceans—and then faded—more than a billion years before life truly took hold. The findings may benefit the search for signs of...
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The fish we eat could soon be eating more mercury
A highly toxic form of mercury could jump by 300 to 600 percent in zooplankton—tiny animals at the base of the marine food chain—if land runoff increases by 15 to 30 percent, according to a new study....
View ArticleRival theories about Antarctica may both be true
A new explanation for the origin of Antarctica links two competing theories. It’s one of the big mysteries in the scientific world: how did the ice sheets of Antarctica form so rapidly about 34 million...
View ArticleSpores from healthy kelp travel miles to rescue sick ones
After big winter storms, clumps of kelp forests often wash ashore along the Southern California coast. But, contrary to the devastation these massive piles of seaweed might indicate, the kelp may...
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These big predators keep urchins under control
New research demonstrates the importance of predator size to help kelp beds recover from an overload of urchins. Large California sheephead fish eat large urchins, helping to keep the urchin population...
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Little diatoms have big influence on ocean nutrients
Diatoms are each just single cells, but they have a significant impact on the dispersal of nutrients and trace elements in global marine waters, report researchers. Diatoms are a very common group of...
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We save coral reefs and then sea stars eat them
A study that may sound a new alarm for endangered corals shows that small marine protected areas may be especially vulnerable to attack by crown-of-thorns sea stars (Acanthaster species), which can...
View ArticleOceans hold ‘endless’ uranium for nuclear power
Trace amounts of uranium exist in seawater, but efforts to extract it for nuclear power haven’t produced enough to make it a viable source for countries that don’t have uranium mines. A practical...
View ArticleIron deep in the ocean can travel 2,500 miles
When scientists studied a deep hydrothermal plume of water in the Pacific Ocean, they were surprised to find that iron particles persist for more than 2,500 miles. The iron comes from vents along...
View ArticleElectricity shows where saltwater invades aquifers
Researchers have transformed pulses of electrical current sent 1,000 feet underground into a picture of where seawater has infiltrated freshwater aquifers along the Monterey Bay coastline. The...
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Bird bones say ocean food chain got shorter
Bones of the Hawaiian petrel, an endangered species, show the birds have experienced a significant shift in food resources most likely during the past 100 years—possibly due to industrial fishing...
View ArticleMethane from microbes kept early Earth warm
Methane-making microbes may have battled “rust-breathing” microbes for dominance in early Earth’s oceans—and kept those oceans from freezing under an ancient, dimmer sun in the process, new research...
View ArticleClimate predictions and reality are lining up
Scientists studying climate change have long debated exactly how much hotter Earth will become given certain amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Models predicting this “climate sensitivity” number may...
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How to save the ocean while protecting local people
Marine conservation experts call for the adoption of a code of conduct for ocean conservation that takes into consideration local populations and their concerns about land, food, and their livelihoods....
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Fat shows how coral ‘babies’ cope with warmer water
Cauliflower coral larvae don’t have high tolerance for the environmental stress of warmer water, but their location may play a role in their level of tolerance for increases in temperature. “This study...
View ArticleTiny creatures struggle to build shells in acidic water
More CO2 will make it harder for tiny shelled organisms to maintain the ocean’s carbon cycle, new research suggests. For the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists at the...
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Volcanoes that made tectonic plate may go deeper than we thought
Measurements of energy loss near the band of volcanoes that formed the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate in the Pacific Ocean indicate that the molten rock that formed the plate may extend much deeper under...
View ArticleWhy fleece jackets are bad news for the ocean
Microfibers are one of the biggest contributors to ocean pollution. New research clarifies how washing fleece jackets contributes to the problem. A type of microplastic—similar to the vilified and...
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Lost ecosystem turns up in seafloor mud
Paleontologists investigating the sea bed off the coast of southern California have discovered a lost ecosystem that for thousands of years had nurtured communities of scallops and shelled marine...
View ArticleSafe spots protect creatures from acidic ocean
Ocean acidification is pervasive along the West Coast of the United States and likely to spread, but persistent, less-acidic havens in some regions may be sheltering marine life from harsher...
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