Science

(CNN) The bomb cyclone that pounded the West Coast last week brought with it some of the tallest waves ever recorded off the California coast.

Scientists attending a national gathering of Arctic researchers are outlining a widening range of climate change risks for so-called "sentinel" species, such as ringed seals and beluga whales, which have sustained Inuit for millennia.

Climate negotiators in Madrid are trying to avoid 2 meters of sea level rise, but research suggests 10 times that — 65 feet — is already inevitable.

Corals are dying but science could be able to help them fight back from the brink.

In the first study of its kind, an IMAS-led research team estimates that around 570 000 hermit crabs have been killed on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean and Henderson Island in the Pacific after being trapped in plastic debris.

The researchers found that across the 11 western states, of the $50.8 billion of total estimated flood damages during 1978 to 2017, atmospheric rivers accounted for 84% of these damages, exceeding 99% in some areas of the coastal states.

Proposals for North Carolina Sea Grant’s Community Collaborative Research Grant program are being accepted now through Jan. 20, 2020.

Bounding the southern approach to New York harbor, New Jersey's low, narrow Sandy Hook peninsula is home to an extremely rare forest: a 65-acre patch of eastern holly and red cedar trees, some of which date to the early 1800s. Close to sea level, rooted in nutrient-poor sand and exposed to wind from all directions, such forests once covered much of the East Coast. These few trees have survived the development that has swallowed nearly everything around them, along with countless storms, and—so far—rising sea levels. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy tore through, killing many trees with saltwater inundation and wind. The skeletons of the dead now whiten in the sun. With the slow inland march of rising ocean waters, and the increasing climate-driven potential for future powerful storms like Sandy, how much longer the rest may exist is an open question.

A few days after a full moon on a sultry summer evening, a light current and sea water temperature of about 85 degrees created the perfect conditions for coral sex in the Florida Keys.

A postgraduate researcher is investigating the biotoxin production potential of Azadinium and related species in Irish waters, particularly in estuaries used for shellfish aquaculture such as Killary Harbour and Bantry Bay.

New marine life has formed in pools at a black sand beach created by the Kilauea volcano eruption, according to researchers in Hawaii.

"I am in love with this sea. I live for it and I live off it. If they took it away from me, I would die," says Pedro Martinez-Banos, gazing out across the sparkling waters of Spain's Mar Menor.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) is leading a pioneering international project to sequence the DNA of marine microbes in the Arctic Ocean.

A conveyor belt of ocean water that loops the planet and regulates global temperatures could be heading for a tipping point.

Millions of years before Colombia won its independence from Spain at the historic Battle of Boyacá, the site was covered by an inland ocean inhabited by marine invertebrates. Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and collaborators discovered a new fossil species of comma shrimp that was remarkably well preserved in mid-Cretaceous rocks of Boyacá, now part of the Colombian Andes, allowing them to fill a 160 million-year gap in the evolution of these crustaceans.

Scientists at Northumbria University led the study with NASA jet propulsion specialists

Oysters once dominated the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Bay to return to full ecological health without restoring Crassostrea virginica to its glory days as the Chesapeake’s apex filterer.

Carey Schafer’s graduate research finds her waist deep in Florida waters, covered in mud and battling mosquitoes.

An Oregon State University anthropologist has been awarded $750,000 by the National Science Foundation to research issues facing coastal communities exposed to repetitive flooding, and the effectiveness of federal disaster response policies.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — For generations, people in Alaska’s far-north villages have relied on hand-built ice cellars dug deep into the permafrost to age their whale and walrus meat to perfection and keep it cold throughout the year.

Rare right whales talk to each other in sonorous whoops that travel for miles, but they talk to their young calves in whispers.

On December 2, National Oceanography Centre (NOC) scientists will embark on a research expedition that will see them spend Christmas and New Year sailing through remote waters in the Southern Ocean onboard RRS Discovery. This is part of the project, led by the NOC, to understand the role of this notoriously rough part of the ocean in taking up and storing carbon from the atmosphere. The team will largely be focusing on studying the seasonal growth of tiny marine plants, called phytoplankton.

Ocean warming threatens to wipe out corals, but scientists are trying to protect naturally resilient reefs and are nursing some others back to health.

Over 400 people lost their lives in December 2018 when Anak Krakatoa erupted and partially collapsed into the sea, sending a wave westward towards the Indonesian island of Sumatra that was between 5 and 13 metres high when it made landfall less than an hour later.

Marine fog brings more than cooler temperatures to coastal areas. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have discovered elevated levels of mercury in mountain lions, the latest indication that the neurotoxin is being carried in fog, deposited on the land, and making its way up the food chain.

Species that previously were non-existent in Russia's remote and icy Arctic waters are now found in big numbers.

International race to uncover ancient ice-core samples could help predict the future of climate change

More than 362,000 square kilometers (140,000 square miles) of seafloor habitat off the US West Coast is now protected under federal regulations published Monday. The new rules will protect the crucial coral, sponge, and rocky reef habitat from potentially destructive bottom trawling, according to a statement released by Oceana.

Investigating economic, environmental impacts of natural disasters

Strong ocean swells hammer ridges in the seafloor — producing earthquake-like shakes

As astronauts took the first first steps on the moon, aquatic explorers were experimenting with entire ocean cities.

Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another record high, the World Meteorological Organisation has warned.

When Hurricane Michael exploded in strength over the Gulf of Mexico in October 2018 and hit Florida with a devastating storm surge and 160 mile-per-hour winds, it marked the first Category 5 storm to reach the Panhandle and only the fifth to make landfall in the United States.

Connie Monroe clicks a button, flicks her wrist and watches as her neighborhood floods.

Comparison of current stickleback populations with fish collected in the 1970s shows the populations are evolving as California's climate becomes hotter and drier

Almost every day, news from around the world reinforces one of the most frustrating and dangerous paradoxes about our state: When it comes to its chances for coastal survival, Louisiana refuses to listen to its own best advice.

A toxic red tide is meandering along Florida’s west coast. Experts aren’t expecting it to reach the Atlantic, where it caused massive beach closures last year in South Florida.

The resilience of Samoan communities in the face of climate change is providing a blueprint for other nations to follow, according to Samoa and Otago researchers.

In the North, where food prices are notoriously high, beluga whales are a staple community resource

BOSTON — As climate change transforms ocean waters around the globe, the rapidly growing Massachusetts oyster industry is feeling the heat.

After three years of research, a team of leading marine experts, led by The Nature Conservancy and Deakin University, release today a watershed report describing and mapping the economic value provided, free-of-charge, by the coastal wetlands of south-eastern Australia.

An Oregon State University – Cascades anthropologist has been awarded $750,000 by the National Science Foundation to research issues facing coastal communities exposed to repetitive flooding, and the effectiveness of federal disaster response policies.

Vertebrate, insect, and plant cell lines are important tools for research in many disciplines, including human health, evolutionary and developmental biology, agriculture and toxicology. Cell lines have been established for many organisms, including freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates.

Special report: After the IceThis is the second installment of a Seattle Times series exploring climate change in the northern Bering Sea region. The series is part of the Pulitzer Center’s Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines

Canada’s Arctic policy is simply a laundry list of objectives — which is neither a strategy nor even a policy

Meet the wind- and solar-powered ocean drones boldly going where humans rarely venture—including the harsh, unforgiving Antarctic.

Some 'canaries' are 50 feet long, weigh 70 tons, and are nowhere near a coal mine. But the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale is sending the same kind of message about disruptive change in the environment by rapidly altering its use of important habitat areas off the New England coast

Justin Gilligan joins scientists on an expedition to the far northern Great Barrier Reef to witness the annual mass coral spawning spectacle and to look for ways to help this ecosystem under pressure.

At a time when ocean noise is receiving increased global attention, researchers at Oregon State University and NOAA have developed an effective method to use an underwater robotic glider to measure sound levels over broad areas of the sea.

From his lakefront dock in Crystal Rock, 70 miles west of Cleveland, Dean Koch still gleefully reminisces on his career as a commercial fisherman in the heyday.

From October 31 through November 20, 2019, NOAA and partners will conduct mapping and remotely operated vehicle operations from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect baseline information about unknown and poorly understood deepwater areas of the Southeastern U.S. continental margin.

Aerial surveys have revealed a drastic decline in waterbird numbers since 1982. The decline is linked to drought conditions, which leave water dwellers out in the dry. Poor water policy management is also partly to blame, according to one scientist

The toxic algae, stalled offshore from Siesta Beach to Collier County, could begin moving.

HONOLULU — New marine life has formed in pools at a black sand beach created by the Kilauea volcano eruption, according to researchers in Hawaii.

A shipwreck found almost by accident, sitting 300 feet deep in northern Lake Michigan, is being described as one of the “most intact wooden schooners” in the world.

You may not always think about it when you do your laundry or flush the toilet, but whatever you eat, wear or apply on your skin ends up in wastewater and eventually reaches the environment. The use of nanoparticles in consumer products like textiles, foods and personal care products is increasing. What is so special about nanoparticles is their tiny size: One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. The small size gives nanoparticles unique and novel properties compared to their bigger counterparts and may for example reach locations that bigger particles cannot reach.

A beautiful slide presentation on the new science aimed at preserving existing coral reefs, and the people who are pioneering the effort to save coral reefs from warming waters.

The progressive loss of sea ice in summer has serious implications for animals and for indigenous people

Newswise — DURHAM, N.H. – The effects of climate change are becoming more apparent, from the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine, to more frequent and severe storms and the increase of invasive turf seaweed.

Nokia conducted world's first-of-their-kind tests in Sendai coastal areas which were devastated by the tsunami to show the effectiveness of drones using a private LTE network for disaster prevention and mitigation.

The ocean hosts an inconceivable wealth of marine life and diverse habitats, most of which remains unknown and unseen. International plans to mine minerals from the deep seafloor threaten this largely unexplored biodiversity hotspot. States are currently seeking to develop a legal framework for deep seabed mining.

In an effort to reverse the decline in the health of the world's oceans, the United Nations (UN) has declared 2021 to 2030 to be the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

IT may be a dog-eat-dog world, but the willingness of great hammerhead sharks to eat their cousins has helped illuminate the species' 'crucial' role in the food chain.

Expert explains importance of pact, and why science is at the heart of it

Tetrodotoxin, the chemical weapon of choice for pufferfish, is such a potent neurotoxin that a single animal contains enough poison to paralyze and kill dozens of predators, and even adult humans who dare to eat their delicate flesh. But new research suggests the poison serves another purpose for the fish entirely: stress relief.

Calm ocean surface nurseries shelter thousands of baby fish. They also attract bits of plastic

This year’s algal bloom in western Lake Erie was about as bad as scientists expected. But it could have been worse.

More research is needed to understand its effects on fisheries and humans

Last week, I joined Joseph Colbert and Mallory Harmel to learn more about the rattlesnakes of Jekyll Island.

From October 31 through November 21, 2019, NOAA and partners will conduct mapping and remotely operated vehicle operations from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information about unknown and poorly understood deepwater areas of the Southeastern U.S. continental margin.

The first meeting of the Special Legislative Commission Relative to Ocean Acidification is set for Friday, November 8 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The Commission was created by legislation passed by Senator Cyr and Representative Fernandes in 2018.

Seagrass, the ocean’s early warning system, may well be our secret weapon in the fight against climate change.

Scientists say a failure of national management means excessive amounts of harmful chemicals--many now banned in other countries such as the EU, USA and Canada--are damaging the nation's waterways and the Great Barrier Reef.

Portable, easy-to-use and low-cost technology could be used by fish farmers to monitor water quality quickly and conveniently. A team of engineers has developed a highly sensitive system that uses a smartphone to rapidly detect the presence of toxin-producing algae in water within 15 minutes.

Supported by the Office of the Provost, the first Abess Scholars have wide latitude to bridge the gap between science and environmental policy.

Early-career scientists came together recently to learn to use a suite of ocean biogeochemical sensors, with the goal of closing the knowledge gap between ocean technology and potential end users.

Insights from a new study could spark discoveries about Martian landscapes and also help researchers get to the bottom of canyon formation here on Earth.

Sea levels rose as much as three metres per century during the last interglacial period as Antarctic ice sheets melted, a pace that could be exceeded in the future, given the turbo-charged potential of human-led climate change.

The 200-mile zone that hugs the curvature of the coast bursts with life, from phytoplankton to whales. Out in the open ocean, this activity is comparatively diminished. Understanding how coastal water is moved offshore fertilizing the open ocean is a long-standing goal of ocean scientists.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is often held up as the poster child for ocean pollution. And while the collection of trash collecting in the Pacific Ocean certainly deserves attention, researchers at the University of Delaware are concerned about a smaller source of pollution, much smaller.

They’re barely visible, only 1/8-inch or smaller, so it might not seem like a big deal. But it is. Microplastic particles are floating around in Tampa Bay in alarming numbers. In fact, research scientists from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and Eckerd College estimate that there may be as many as 4 billion of these indestructible particles at the bottom of the Bay.

A new study has shown that Britain's puffins may struggle to adapt to changes in their North Sea feeding grounds and researchers are calling for better use of marine protection areas (MPAs) to help protect the country's best known seabirds. Britain's coasts support globally important populations of many species of seabird, but they face many challenges as their established habitats change.

Satellite technology has been helping scientists track the Pacific Ocean Blob since its discovery in 2014. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitoring satellite maps documented the return of this devastating surge of unnaturally warm water that is killing corals and other marine life.

Special report: After the Ice -- This is the second installment of a Seattle Times series exploring climate change in the northern Bering Sea region. The series is part of the Pulitzer Center’s Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines

The blooms have the potential to kill marine mammals, but researchers don’t know why

Melville’s experience as a whaler equipped him with a deep knowledge of cetology and marine biology, making Moby-Dick a true novel of the sea

The governor’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force has prepared initial recommendations for the Legislature in 2020, which will make it harder for lawmakers to evade their responsibility.

The critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle had an offseason for nesting this year along Texas beaches, with 190 nests recorded in Texas.

Marine sediments play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle due to the oxygen consumption and CO2 respiration of the organisms that live in and on the ocean floor. To help predict the changing contribution of this respiration to the carbon cycle in a warming world, researchers from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) and universities in Taiwan have compiled the largest open-access database available of the sediment community oxygen consumption and CO2 respiration. Their findings are published in Nature Scientific Data.

Study may spawn ways to genetically alter and control red seaweeds

Half of the marine life in the world's oceans depends on the enrichment of phytoplankton by dissolved iron, just as plants at the base of the food chain on land need nutrients to help them grow.

In a warming ocean, Alexandrium algae are shredding marine food webs—and disrupting beloved Alaska traditions.

Tens of millions of voracious purple sea urchins that have already chomped their way through towering underwater kelp forests in California are spreading north to Oregon, sending the delicate marine ecosystem off the shore into such disarray that other critical species are starving to death.

The next five-year update to the state’s 2010 sea level rise assessment report will look all the way out to 2100, the science advisory panel to the state Coastal Resources Commission decided during its Oct. 18 meeting.

One proposed method for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere—and reducing the risk of climate change—is to capture carbon from the air or prevent it from getting there in the first place. However, research from Mark Z. Jacobson at Stanford University, published in Energy and Environmental Science, suggests that carbon capture technologies can cause more harm than good.

The largest synthesis of important marine areas conducted to date reveals that a large portion of Earth's oceans are considered important and are good candidates for protection. A first of its kind, the study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers including Ellen Pikitch, Ph.D., and Christine Santora of Stony Brook University and Dr. Natasha Gownaris, a Ph.D. graduate of Stony Brook University. The team examined 10 diverse and internationally recognized maps depicting global marine priority areas. The findings, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, may serve as a roadmap for the goal set by the United Nations to create 10 percent of the ocean as marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2020.

Charles Darwin's ship was decommissioned in 1870, when it was thought to be have been dismantled by the person that bought it.

The recent Typhoon Hagibis—the most powerful storm to hit Japan since 1958—caused massive destruction. The reported death toll as of October 22 has climbed to 80, with another 398 injured and 11 people still missing. Tens of thousands of homes were flooded, damaged, or without power after torrential rain and powerful winds resulted in tornadoes, widespread mudslides, and overflowing rivers. In addition, an earthquake in the northeastern area of Japan (Chiba-Tokyo) compounded landslides and flooding. Insured losses throughout the country are estimated at more than US$10 billion.

Sand on beach may look all the same, but it's not. Researchers have found that the material has a "sound," one that can be linked to its home. Find the source, and we can learn more about how it moves around the world.

A detox therapy used to treat overdoses in humans may help save endangered sea turtles from red tide poisoning. (With American Shoreline Podcast).