Search Results for: Ocean

Mangroves, the backbone of the tropical ocean coastlines, are far more important to the global ocean’s biosphere than previously thought. And while the foul-smelling muddy forests may not have the scientific allure of tropical reefs or rain forests, a team of researchers has noted that the woody coastline- dwelling plants provide more than 10 percent of essential dissolved organic carbon that is supplied to the global ocean from land, according to a report published 21 February in Global Biogeo

While biologists sort out what levels of noise go unnoticed, are annoying or cause harm to marine mammals, physical oceanographer Jeff Nystuen is giving scientists and managers a way to sift through and identify the sounds present in various marine ecosystems.

Nystuen, from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, presented his latest findings this week at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu.

Knowing what sound is already there is needed when tr

First passive recordings from ocean gliders provide insight into whale behavior for some endangered species

Like robots of the deep, autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, are growing in number and use in the oceans to perform scientific missions ranging from monitoring climate change to mapping the deep sea floor and surveying ancient shipwrecks. Another use for these versatile platforms has now been found: monitoring the lives of whales.

Marine mammals are major

Is pollution causing regional coral extinctions?

Since the 1980s, researchers have hypothesized that nutrient levels rather than temperature are the main factor controlling the latitudinal bounds of coral reefs, but the issue remains controversial. New results from an extensive survey of reefs in South Florida by a Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution research team strongly support this hypothesis. The research suggests that, by supporting blooms of harmful seaweed, increasing

Absence of sharks from abyssal regions of the world’s oceans

Marine scientists have discovered that the deepest oceans of the world would appear to be shark free. In a paper published today, an international team of researchers, led by the University of Aberdeen, reveal that sharks have failed to colonise at depths greater than 3,000 metres.

Sharks occur throughout the world’s oceans and it had been hoped that as man explores deeper into the abyss and beyond th

Using DNA analysis, MIT researchers and colleagues have gained new insight into how marine microbes thrive and survive at different depths of the ocean.

“Microbes are the central processors of matter and energy in almost every ecosystem imaginable – especially so in the sea,” said MIT Professor Ed DeLong, who led the work. Thousands of different types of microbes, the world’s smallest creatures, inhabit every cubic centimeter of seawater. They have huge effects on ocean che