Science

As the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic escalates, marine biologists at Florida Atlantic University acknowledge that "wild" life must go on. Three 6-month-old green sea turtles, the last batch of the 2019 hatchlings at the FAU Marine Laboratory at the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex, were ready to be released. However, with closed beaches and scuba boats not permitted to travel, researchers from the FAU Marine Laboratory had to get creative.

As the world battles the coronavirus crisis, researchers are warning of a potentially active Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, which kicks off June 1 through the end of November.

The third-highest number of hooded plover fledglings has been recorded for the decade, with 17 little birds making it through to their first flight this season.

A new study by researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) found that human-induced environmental stressors have a large effect on the genetic composition of coral reef populations in Hawai'i.

Even with COVID-19 present worldwide, they see need.

Polar bears in the Barents Sea population use their environment in two different ways. Bears that spend most of their time offshore are exposed to higher levels of pollutants than bears that stay along the coast due to differences in feeding habits, energy expenditure, and geographical distribution.

When humans are staying home in fear of contacting the coronavirus, other creatures of Mother Nature have staged a comeback to the world’s longest sea beach at Cox’s Bazar. A calm and placid ambience now prevails in the most frequently visited beach of the country, as the local authorities have imposed a ban on people’s movement.

Great white sharks are congregating on the edge of the Gulf Stream near North Carolina.

The latest U.S. government effort to better the nation’s weather forecast modeling may not be adequate to achieve its intended goal, according to leading scientists in the weather community. The effort, some say, lacks the necessary push for innovation.

The Lake Erie region may soon have its watershed moment when it comes to curbing agricultural runoff thanks to researchers at Bowling Green State University.

Ahead of World Wetlands Day, research shows how protecting mangroves can mitigate sea level rise – while also helping them adapt to its effects.

Today's icy wasteland would've once played host to huge amounts of plant-life – during an unusually toasty period in history 90million years ago.

Around the world, people have seen a few unexpected benefits from staying home to contain the new coronavirus. Blue skies made a rare appearance in Chinese cities, a change of pace from the smog. Clear water began flowing through canals in Venice, Italy.

With spring underway, thousands of brown pelicans are returning to nest on Queen Bess Island — a bird rookery island south of New Orleans in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. What may seem like an ordinary annual event is actually quite remarkable, and a promising sign of recovery and resilience for Louisiana’s state bird.

What if Sandy had dealt New Jersey a glancing blow in 2012 instead of hitting it nearly head on? Or if the historic storm had made landfall farther south or north? What if the storm was smaller, slower, or more intense? How would the impacts change?

An international team of researchers from the United States and Europe has produced the first high-quality genomic sequence for the sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), a small species of sturgeon from Eurasia.

It’s dubbed "the lungs of the ocean."

“The Pleistocene” often evokes images of ice ages – with much of the planet covered by great ice sheets. In reality, this geological epoch that started 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago was a time of wildly swinging climatic conditions, typically with long, cold “glacial” phases interspersed with warm “interglacials”.

International team makes some fascinating but disturbing discoveries.

To remain active in frigid environments, the bald notothen drastically adjusts oxygen in its blood

Whole portions of the city could crumble away in just decades, especially during storms when tidelines surge well past existing sea walls and other coastal infrastructure, according to an assessment of sea-level rise by the city.

Spring peepers and wood frogs are calling for a mate, flowers are blooming, crows are nesting, songbirds are singing, and river herring are migrating from the Atlantic Ocean to warmer coastal waters. All life is beginning to stir, except of course for people. Across New Jersey and the rest of the country, many people have begun adjusting to a life of home-bound isolation, an effort to radically reduce human-to-human contact and slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation and North Pacific Gyre Oscillation are not as effective at helping us predict regional environmental and ecological change as in the past.

The northern-hemisphere winter of 2019-20 was the warmest ever on land. Land-surface air temperature and ocean-surface temperature. Average from December 2019 to February 2020, change from average during same months from 1951-80

For the first time, researchers have documented seasonal migrations of fishes across the deep seafloor, revealing an important insight that will further scientific understanding of the nature of our planet.

Scientists warn of broader ecosystem impacts.

Since pre-industrial times, the world's oceans have warmed by an average of one degree Celsius (1°C). Now researchers report that those rising temperatures have led to widespread changes in the population sizes of marine species. The researchers found a general pattern of species having increasing numbers on their poleward sides and losses toward the equator.

Humans don’t easily grasp the concept of exponential growth, but it’s exactly why coronavirus has gotten so hard to manage—and why climate change could too.

Let us resolve to leave the standing forests and other natural landscapes alone and revisit the provisions of forest land diversion under the legal framework to minimise biodiversity loss and buffer humanity from zoonotic emerging infectious diseases.

The Great Barrier reef is currently experiencing coral bleaching due to climate change.

The third mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in five years is under way, with central and southern regions more badly affected than in the 2016 and 2017 events. Key tourist sites have been spared.

A collaborative research project between the Universities of Manchester, Utrecht, and Durham, and the National Oceanography Centre has revealed for the first time how submarine sediment avalanches can transport microplastics from land into the deep ocean.

A slender little fish called the sand lance plays a big role as "a quintessential forage fish" for puffins, terns and other seabirds, humpback whales, and other marine mammals, and even bigger fish such as Atlantic sturgeon, cod, and bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Maine and northwest Atlantic Ocean. But scientists say right now they know far too little about its biology and populations to inform relevant management, climate adaptation and conservation efforts.

Just off the coast of Singapore, a group of scientists huddles together in the warm ocean water as waves roll and crash around them.

Microbial genomics techniques came of age following the Deepwater Horizon spill, offering researchers unparalleled insights into how ecosystems respond to such environmental disasters.

Over the past century, agriculture has kept up with demand from soaring populations by using more intensive growing practices and by converting large swaths of land to pasture. In particular, widespread applications of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers have fueled increased food production. But these nutrients also degrade water quality as they enter inland and coastal waters because runoff can spur harmful algal blooms that threaten human and ecosystem health as well as local economies.

Brace for another flooded spring — but not one as bad as last year, forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned on Thursday.

Algae might be small, but when they grow out of control, forming harmful algal blooms (HABs), they can cause big problems. Detecting HABs can present a challenge due to the complexity of the coastal environment. Now, scientists have developed a way to detect HABs early on by using images of Earth from space.

University of California, Irvine and NASA scientists assess ice sheet with potential to raise global sea levels nearly 5 feet

Surrounded by darkness, many deep-sea creatures emit light to help find prey or avoid predators. Scientists have long known that small organs called photophores are responsible for this bioluminescence. Now they’ve learned that photophores can also detect light, acting like rudimentary eyes all over the body.

The current pace of climate change exceeds historical events by 1-2 orders of magnitude, which will make it hard for organisms and ecosystems to adapt. For a long time, it has been assumed that adaptation was only possible by changes in the genetic makeup—the DNA base sequence. Recently, another information level of DNA, namely epigenetics, has come into focus.

As the salty Atlantic Ocean pushes farther inland, forests are turning to marsh. Some scientists want to speed the transition.

DRUM ISLAND — A great egret pops its head out of the new marsh below the massive pylons of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

Reporting to Louisianians about the existential threat climate change presents to our state’s coast often has me recalling one of Winston Churchill’s famous sayings: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.”

After Hurricanes Irma and Maria delivered a one-two punch to Virgin Islands National Park in September 2017, the impacts to the park's coral reefs were significant. While research indicates that soft corals at the park are recovering, there has been a great decline in stony corals such as elkhorn corals that are the primary reef builders.

University of California Irvine and NASA JPL project tracking Earth-sensing satellite turnover yields striking results

Preliminary 2020 Atlantic hurricane season forecasts are suggesting an above average hurricane season .

Researchers who urge people to move away from vulnerable shorelines are ‘walking the walk’

In a sampling of fish from a creek that flows into San Diego Bay, nearly a quarter contain microplastics, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE. The study, which examined plastics in coastal sediments and three species of fish, showed that the frequency and types of plastic ingested varied with fish species and, in some cases, size or age of fish.

Two new species of sawsharks discovered in the West Indian Ocean reinforces how much we still don't know about life in the ocean and the impact climate change is having on it.

A parasite known only to be hosted in North America by the Virginia opossum is infecting sea otters along the West Coast. A study from the University of California, Davis, elucidates the sometimes surprising and complex pathways infectious pathogens can move from land to sea to sea otter.

Climate change will fuel heavier downpours and deeper floodwaters on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, according to one of the first detailed looks at changing rainfall patterns at the local level in the mid-Atlantic.

When a partial fossil specimen of a primordial marine worm was unearthed in Utah in 1969, scientists had a tough go identifying it. Usually, such worms are recognized and categorized by the arrangement of little knobs on their plates. But in this case, the worm's plates were oddly smooth, and important bits of the worm were missing altogether.

A multiyear, collaborative research project to study how polluted runoff affects the Rachel Carson Reserve in Beaufort has led to a push for a broad coastal partnership to better address stormwater-related issues.

The recent rains across NSW have brought much needed relief.

At a time when shallow seagrass meadows have disappeared from 92% of UK’s vast coastline, scientists have realized that this curious and gentle habitat is needed now, more than ever, to help reduce CO2-induced warming—and guard against potentially rising seas.

A group of people were out on a banana boat run by Coastal Beach Services, who manages beach amenities at Four Points by Sheraton Destin-Fort Walton Beach, when they spotted the mother and calf.

The study of the oceans is crucial for countries such as India and Myanmar because it helps governments to predict and manage responses to climatic and ocean changes, particularly monsoon rains and drought, and the dangers posed by potentially deadly cyclones.

Sharks eating whales isn’t exactly new- it’s the circle of life, after all. But to date, white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) feeding events involving large whales have largely been described only in terms of observed scavenging events.

DURHAM, N.C. – The new North Carolina Climate Science Report, issued March 11, benefits from the scientific expertise of two Nicholas School of the Environment faculty members.

Scientists uncover yet another negative impact of climate change on the world’s oceans

Research Lives: Prof Rónadh Cox, Edward Brust professor of geology and mineralogy, Williams College, Massachusetts and UCD School of Earth Sciences

March 11, 2020 – According to a new report, Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice six times faster than in the 1990s – currently on track with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s worst-case climate warming scenario.

Research links ENSO climate pattern to Southeast Asian coral reefs

NOAA scientists plunge over the deck of Research Vessel Manta and in pairs descend the clear, blue water of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Floating above the underwater salt domes that rise from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, the divers survey the conditions and perform critical monitoring of the reefs below.

As part of the third and final call for proposals under the Coastal Restoration Fund, more than $13 million in funding was provided for an additional 24 projects to help restore and protect aquatic ecosystems on Canada’s three coasts.

Researchers are trying to pour cold water on the increasing number of female sea turtles being born due to rising temperatures.

Red Sea corals and especially corals of the Gulf of Aqaba in the northern Red Sea may be one of the last reefs to survive the century. Scientists estimate 70 to 90 percent of all coral reefs will disappear by mid-century, primarily as a result of climate change and pollution.

Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of rest of world

More than half of the planet's fresh water is in Antarctica. While most of it is frozen in the ice sheets, underneath the ice pools and streams of water flow into one another and into the Southern Ocean surrounding the continent. Understanding the movement of this water, and what is dissolved in it as solutes, reveals how carbon and nutrients from the land may support life in the coastal ocean.

While recent studies are projecting a dire future for coral reefs around the world, the Trump administration has made an agreement to increase habitat protections for several species.

The biggest impacts on the sea life in Swansea Bay, Wales, come from waves and tides rather than human activity, a wide-ranging new study—encompassing over 170 species of fish and other sea life such as crabs, squid and starfish—has revealed.

Mississippi has faced historic floods in the first two months of 2020. A new image from NOAA and NASA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite, show the flooding along the rivers in the region, particularly the Mississippi, Pearl and Pascagoula rivers.

USC scientists and their colleagues have developed a model that estimates two different ways microbes will respond to warming oceans.

Could pumping oxygen-rich surface water into the depths of lakes, estuaries, and coastal ocean waters help ameliorate dangerous dead zones? New work says yes, although they caution that further research would be needed to understand any possible side effects before implementing such an approach.

I freaking love the beach. It is my place of solace come summertime and my preferred destination come vacation time. So it breaks my heart to share this news: Half of our world’s beaches could be gone by the end of the century.

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program monitors a muddy thicket across from a snack shack, one of nine watch sites in the region.

U.S. protection of wetlands has expanded and contracted dramatically over the last five years, as Democratic and Republican administrations rewrote Clean Water Act rules to their constituencies’ liking. The lack of high-quality economic analysis has been a recurring theme in debates over how much protection wetlands deserve. Without a dollar figure that could stand up to scrutiny, politicians and regulators were skeptical of the benefits.

Geologists have studied exposed, 3.2-billion-year-old ocean crust in Australia and used that rock data to build a quantitative, inverse model of ancient seawater. The model indicates the early Earth could have been a 'water world' with submerged continents.

Climate change poses an existential threat to the world’s sandy beaches, and that as many as half of them could disappear by the end of the century, a new study has found.

An octopus has two-thirds of its brain cells in its suckers — suction cups along its arms that help in catching prey and moving around. This enables the octopus to process information locally and allows the arms to work independent of the brain.

Amazing video! Vets remove an entire beach towel from a python.

New research may provide more clues to how grey whales navigate the oceans

The ChoanoVirus genome codes for rhodopsin, perhaps giving its choanoflagellate host extra energy-harvesting capabilities.

Persistent heavy rains soaked the Mississippi River watershed in the first two months of 2020. The result has been bulging rivers from Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. Near-record flooding has brought two weeks of misery to the states of Mississippi and Tennessee, and high water is expected to arrive next week in New Orleans.

What caused it, and could something similar happen again?

Last year, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas with wind speeds of more than 180 mph. It was the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane on record and it came during the fourth year in a row with above-normal hurricane activity.