marine life, ecology

Laboratory experiments find that Toxoplasma, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia can congregate on microplastic beads and fibers, suggesting they might make their way into and around the world’s oceans by hitching rides on tiny bits of trash.

Edward Ricketts built his laboratory just onshore from the swirling tidepools of Monterey Bay, California, an ideal backdrop against which he developed a new system for studying the ecology of any given habitat.

The microscopic marine animal Trichoplax adhaerens may use rapid changes in cell shape to avoid being ripped apart by forces in the ocean.

If left unchecked, greenhouse gas emissions will drive ocean temperatures up, affecting wildlife in these regions.

A controversial hypothesis suggests that jellyfish may one day rule the oceans, and Mola mola may tell us if we are approaching a tipping point.

Policymakers’ choice of seawater intakes highlights California’s troubling embrace of unproven technologies.

Watching the decomposition of pig carcasses anchored to the seafloor is helping forensic researchers understand what to expect of human remains dumped in the ocean.

Watch what happens when marine organisms have their way with a sunken pig carcass.

Researchers identify areas where marine ecosystems are faring better or worse than predicted in hopes of saving the world’s corals.

Sorting the Beef from the Bull, Cheats and Deceits, A Sea of Glass, and Following the Wild Bees

Baby fish show fewer signs of stress in the presence of large fish that scare off midsize predators. 

A marine bacterium generates contractile structures that are essential for the metamorphosis of a tubeworm.

Fungi in 100 million year-old seafloor sediments could possess novel antibiotics.

Rising ocean acidity along the California coast may wreak havoc in the region’s oyster populations.

Floating pools of plastic debris in the Pacific offer more surfaces for marine insects to lay eggs.

Life on Earth is mind-bogglingly diverse with estimates of the number of existing species in the tens of millions. Over the last 4 billion years, many species have gone extinct; and because of the actions of humans, many existing species are now endangered.