In the cold, dark depths of the Arctic Ocean, a feast of the dead is under way. A vast community of sponges, the densest group of these animals found in…
Category: Oceans
Corals may store a surprising amount of microplastics in their skeletons
A surprising amount of plastic pollution in the ocean may wind up in a previously overlooked spot: the skeletons of living corals. Up to about 20,000 metric tons of tiny…
Albatrosses divorce more often when ocean waters warm
When it comes to fidelity, birds fit the bill: Over 90 percent of all bird species are monogamous and — mostly — stay faithful, perhaps none more famously than the…
How intricate Venus’s-flower-baskets manipulate the flow of seawater
A Venus’s-flower-basket isn’t all show. This stunning deep-sea sponge can also alter the flow of seawater in surprising ways. A lacy, barrel-shaped chamber forms the sponge’s glassy skeleton. Flow simulations…
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
In an opening scene of the new film Fathom, Michelle Fournet sits at her computer in the dark, headphones on. The marine ecologist at Cornell University is listening to a…
A new book uses stories from tsunami survivors to decode deadly waves
TsunamiJames Goff and Walter DudleyOxford Univ., $34.95 On March 27, 1964, Ted Pederson was helping load oil onto a tanker in Seward, Alaska, when a magnitude 9.2 quake struck. Within…
A common antibiotic slows a mysterious coral disease
Slathering corals in a common antibiotic seems to temporarily soothe a mysterious tissue-eating disease, new research suggests. Just off Florida, a type of coral infected with stony coral tissue loss…
Something mysteriously wiped out about 90 percent of sharks 19 million years ago
About 19 million years ago, something terrible happened to sharks. Fossils gleaned from sediments in the Pacific Ocean reveal a previously unknown and dramatic shark extinction event, during which populations…
A new book explores how military funding shaped the science of oceanography
Science on a MissionNaomi OreskesUniv. of Chicago, $40 In 2004, Japanese scientists captured the first underwater images of a live giant squid, a near-mythical, deep-ocean creature whose only interactions with…
Corals’ hidden genetic diversity corresponds to distinct lifestyles
Stony corals that build reefs have been hiding their diversity in plain sight. A genetic analysis of the most widespread reef coral in the Indo-Pacific revealed that rather than being…
