A study published recently in the prestigious journal Nature Ecology and Evolution has unveiled some of the key processes in marine microbial evolution.
Tag: Marine Ecology
‘Traffic calming’ boosts breeding on coral reefs
Coral reef fish breed more successfully if motorboat noise is reduced, new research shows.
Sea turtle success stories along African east coast – but thousands still dying Peer-Reviewed Publication
Conservation of sea turtles along much of Africa’s east coast has made good progress in recent decades – but tens of thousands of turtles still die each year due to human activity, researchers say.
Protected areas can be the beating heart of nature recovery in the UK, but they must be more than lines on a map
A new report launched today (22 April) by the British Ecological Society (BES) says that the UK government’s commitment to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 offers the opportunity to revitalise the contribution of protected areas to nature recovery.
Marine mollusc shells reveal how prehistoric humans adapted to intense climate change
Current global climatic warming is having, and will continue to have, widespread consequences for human history, in the same way that environmental fluctuations had significant consequences for human populations in the past.
Study shows how 1.5°C temperature rise can cause significant changes in coastal species
A temperature increase of around 1.5°C – just under the maximum target agreed at the COP23 Paris meeting in 2017 – can have a marked impact on algae and animal species living on UK coastlines, new research has found.
Maritime rope could be adding billions of microplastics to the ocean every year
The hauling of rope on maritime vessels could result in billions of microplastic fragments entering the ocean every year, according to new research.
How climate change could impact algae in the global ocean
Global warming is likely to cause abrupt changes to important algal communities because of shifting biodiversity ‘break point’ boundaries in the oceans – according to research from the University of East Anglia and the Earlham Institute.
NSF grants $2.5M for seagrass, marine ecosystem research
The National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences and Environmental Biology awarded a four-year, $2.5 million grant to Drew Harvell, professor emeritus in ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, to examine the transmission pathways of seagrass wasting disease in coastal meadows.
What’s Killing Coral Reefs in Florida is Also Killing Them in Belize
Only 17 percent of live coral cover remains on fore-reefs in Belize. A study finds new evidence that nitrogen enrichment from land-based sources like agriculture run-off and sewage, are significantly driving macroalgal blooms to increase on the Belize Barrier Reef and causing massive decline in hard coral cover. With only 2 percent of hard coral cover remaining in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, it’s too late to save that reef, but there’s still hope for the Belize Barrier Reef.

New Study Finds That Parasites Can Drain Energy from Hosts Prior to Infection
A new study by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has found that a species of brain-infecting parasite can disrupt the metabolism of its host—the California killifish—both before and after infection.

New study the first to link plastic ingestion and dietary metals in seabirds
A new study by Australian scientists is the first to find a relationship between plastic debris ingested by seabirds and liver concentrations of mineral metals, with potential links to pollution and nutrition.

Marine animals live where ocean is most ‘breathable,’ but ranges could shrink with climate change
Research shows that many marine animals already inhabit the maximum range of breathable ocean that their physiology allows. The findings are a warning about climate change: Since warmer waters harbor less oxygen, stretches of ocean that are breathable today for a species may not be in the future.

Puget Sound eelgrass beds create a ‘halo’ with fewer harmful algae, new method shows
Genetic clues show that eelgrass growing underwater along Puget Sound shorelines is associated with fewer of the single-celled algae that produce harmful toxins in shellfish. The evidence shows this effect extends 45 feet beyond the edge of the eelgrass bed.