MBARI Research Supports Cryospheric Science
Ocean.“Ice-covered ocean and land are integral to the health of our planet and host unique communities of life. The Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences provides an opportunity to collaborate to better understand and protect these critically important polar environments. As a leader in ocean science and engineering, MBARI is well-positioned to play a major role in international efforts to take the pulse of polar regions and help discovery in uncharted waters,” said MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius, a global leader in polar research.Scientists have only recently been able to access
REV Ocean Finds Ship Management Partner for New Expedition Vessel
V.Ships, part of V.Group, will partner up with REV Ocean to provide a suite of ship management services for the REV Ocean vessel, deemed the world’s largest and most advanced research and expedition ship.Currently at Vard Søviknes in Norway, the vessel will be equipped to conduct research across the entire marine ecosystem, using advanced technology systems.Scientists and other experts will use it for research expeditions, seeking to solve issues related to the impact of CO2 emissions, plastic pollution, and unsustainable fishing on the ocean.The vessel is constructed to run on diesel-elect
Climate Change is Changing Marine Phosphorus Cycles
University of California, Irvine researchers have reported evidence that marine nutrient cycles – essential for sustaining ocean ecosystems – are changing in unexpected ways as the planet continues to warm.“Model studies have suggested that when the ocean warms it gets more stratified, which can drain certain parts of the surface ocean of nutrients,” said Professor Adam Martiny, one of the study’s lead authors.Although models suggest a connection between ocean temperatures and surface ocean nutrients, this is the first study to confirm climate change’s impacts on
Researchers Team Up to Investigate Costal Wave Breaking
Scientists from the University College London (UCL), the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), and the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) Paris-Saclay have joined forces to shed more light on the role of coastal wave breaking in global climate modeling.Under the WAVECLIM project, scientists from UCL, NOC and ENS will use novel observations of coastal wave breaking, advanced modeling, and machine learning to determine the importance of the coastal wave breaking, deemed notoriously complex and challenging-to-measure phenomenon.Specifically, the WAVECLIM project will look to fill a
Scientists Reconstruct Impact of Seafloor Volcanic Eruption
An international team of scientists is reconstructing the impact of the 2008 Chaitén volcanic eruption on the marine environment following an expedition onboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too).After 9,000 years of dormancy, the Chaitén Volcano erupted without warning on May 2, 2008. Ash spewed 30 kilometers (18 miles) into the air and blanketed the landscape. Heavy rain in the following days triggered devastating volcanic mudflows known as lahars that cascaded down mountainsides and into the Northern Patagonian Sea. The town of Chaitén evacuated as the powerful
Project Trio Looks at the Sea Life, Carbon Storage Connection
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) BIO-Carbon programme announced funding a trio of projects that aims to investigate how marine organisms contribute to storing large amounts of carbon dioxide in the ocean. While marine organisms play a critical role in storing carbon in the ocean, recent evidence suggests that climate models are not fully accounting for their impact, which could hinder predictions of the ocean’s role in future carbon storage.Project 1:The PARTITRICS Project, using shipboard observations and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) this project will seek to answer how
OSIL Buoy for Dublin City University Project
A multidisciplinary data buoy platform manufactured by Ocean Scientific International Ltd (OSIL) has been installed in Dublin Bay as part of the PREDICT multidisciplinary project. This project will provide a coordinated program of coastal ocean observations that will be used to validate, calibrate and extract as much information as possible from satellite earth observation data as an experimental proof of concept with the aim of generating AI models that can be used to predict environmental change in a range of environments.The 1.9m OSIL Fulmar buoy is recording and transmitting a variety of
Expedition Taps New Tech to Check Deep-Sea Coral Health
Scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's R/V Falkor (too) have returned from an expedition to study the impact of climate change on deep water corals. Scientists from the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico found greater biodiversity than previously known in Puerto Rican waters and may have identified several suspected new species of corals, collecting over 300 samples across 75 different species. Research will be conducted in the coming months to identify and name any new species.The 20-day expedition included researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Lehigh University
4500 Years Old & 180km: World's Largest Known Plant Discovered in Shark Bay
; of the seagrass Posidonia australis in the shallow, sun-drenched waters of the World Heritage Area of Shark Bay in WA, is detailed in a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Evolutionary biologist Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair, from UWA’s School of Biological Sciences and the UWA Oceans Institute, is a senior author of the study and said the project began when researchers wanted to understand how genetically diverse the seagrass meadows in Shark Bay were, and which plants should be collected for seagrass restoration.“We often get asked how many different plants are growing
February 2025
