Climate Change Double Whammy Causes Unexpected Effects in Pacific Mussels

Comparative physiologists studied how two aspects of climate change—warming temperatures and increasingly acidic waters—may affect the ecologically important Pacific blue mussel (Mytilus trossulus), a foundational species in the intertidal environments of the northern Pacific Ocean.

Exploring, Monitoring and Modeling the Deep Ocean

The NSF is funding a team led by the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin to implement a Deep-Ocean Observing Strategy (iDOOS), bringing together U.S. and international networks engaged in deep-ocean observing, mapping, exploration, modeling, research and sustainable management.

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences joins ASU’s Global Futures Lab

In a major development in the bid to deepen the understanding of the role that the ocean plays in climate science, Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow announced today that ASU, a leading research university, has established a partnership with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), one of the longest-serving research institutes dedicated to studying ocean processes in the Western Hemisphere.

Corals Carefully Organize Proteins to Form Rock-Hard Skeletons

Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who championed the theory of evolution, noted that corals form far-reaching structures, largely made of limestone, that surround tropical islands. He didn’t know how they performed this feat. Now, Rutgers scientists have shown that coral structures consist of a biomineral containing a highly organized organic mix of proteins that resembles what is in our bones. Their study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, shows for the first time that several proteins are organized spatially – a process that’s critical to forming a rock-hard coral skeleton.

How to Identify Heat-Stressed Corals

Researchers have found a novel way to identify heat-stressed corals, which could help scientists pinpoint the coral species that need protection from warming ocean waters linked to climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study.

Ocean acidification causing coral ‘osteoporosis’ on iconic reefs

Scientists have long suspected that ocean acidification is affecting corals’ ability to build their skeletons, but it has been challenging to isolate its effect from that of simultaneous warming ocean temperatures, which also influence coral growth. New research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reveals the distinct impact that ocean acidification is having on coral growth on some of the world’s iconic reefs.

Protecting bays from ocean acidification

While there was a bay-wide decline of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) from the 1960s through the 1980s, restoring these once-abundant SAV beds has been a primary outcome of efforts to reduce loads of nutrients and sediments to the estuary and SAV cover has increased by 300 percent from 1984 to 2015. One of the largest recovered SAV beds lies in an area of the bay known as the Susquehanna Flats—a broad, tidal freshwater region located near the mouth of the Susquehanna River at the head of the bay.

Global Cooling After Nuclear War Would Harm Ocean Life

A nuclear war that cooled Earth could worsen the impact of ocean acidification on corals, clams, oysters and other marine life with shells or skeletons, according to the first study of its kind.