Ocean science news, explainers, and statistics covering marine environments, currents, climate, coasts, seafloor research, and the changing global ocean.
NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program tracks a quiet chemical shift across the sea. As the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide from the air, seawater holds more hydrogen ions and fewer carbonate ions. That matters because carbonate helps many marine animals build shells and skeletons. The change reaches from coral reefs to tiny drifting snails and it…
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A PNAS study led by researchers at the University of Tokyo has produced a chromosome-scale map of the Greenland shark genome. The assembly covers an estimated 96.7 percent of the genome and reveals several biological systems that may support a lifespan measured in centuries. The findings bring scientists closer to a question that has surrounded…
Schmidt Ocean Institute announced 31 previously undescribed marine species from a two-week expedition off Brazil, a rapid burst of discovery from one of Earth’s least familiar habitats. The findings came from an official announcement describing work aboard the research vessel R/V Falkor (too), where an international team explored the ocean’s dim midwater with robotic vehicles…
Researchers at Colorado State University and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere have assembled four centuries of reports about one of the ocean’s rarest spectacles. Their database combines sailors’ accounts with satellite observations of enormous areas of steadily glowing water known as milky seas. The archive could help scientists anticipate where the next…
