Category: Science

andre oortgijs, CC BY-SA 3.0 ,Beautiful_coral_reef_Batangas_Anilao_-_panoramio via Wikimedia Commons

Hibernating Corals and the Microbiomes that Sustain Them

1/2/2023 - By ecomagazine.com As winter approaches, many species of animals— from bears and squirrels to parasitic wasps and a few lucky humans—hunker down for some needed rest. The northern star coral (Astrangia poculata) also enters a hibernating state of dormancy, or quiescence, during this time. But what happens to its microbiome… SEE MORE

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, CC BY 2.0 , NASALAUNCH via Wikimedia Commons

NASA Launches International Mission to Survey Earth’s Water

12/23/2022 - By nasa.gov A satellite built for NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) to observe nearly all the water on our planet’s surface lifted off on its way to low-Earth orbit at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft also… SEE MORE

Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2022, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ,North_Sea_bloom via Wikimedia Commons

Breathing Life into the Ocean

12/15/2022 - By earthobservatory.nasa.gov From global to regional scales, images from satellites portray the dynamic beauty of the world’s oceans. Each view reveals something unique, from the seasonal pulses of life to the colorful signature of phytoplankton blooms. Almost all life in the ocean depends on tiny photosynthetic organisms known as phytoplankton.… SEE MORE

When Will Electrification Come to Boating?

11/15/2022 - By Soundings Trade Only. New technologies are augmenting electric propulsion in boats, but battery standards and charging infrastructure are still developing. Electrification has been an increasingly common buzzword in the marine industry, especially in the past four to five years. Most notably, the recreational marine industry is seeing advancements in… SEE MORE

NOAA’s New Satellite to Help Improve Extreme Weather Predictions

11/10/2022 - By NOAA NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2), the third in a series of five advanced polar-orbiting satellites, blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 1:49 a.m. PST today. The satellite will join its predecessors, Suomi NPP and NOAA-20, as they circle the globe 14 times a day,… SEE MORE

Jim Maragos/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (original picture), modification: Mielon, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Beauty and Fragility of Coral Reefs

9/14/2022 - By Rachel Ross. Coral reefs are large underwater structures composed of the skeletons of colonial marine invertebrates called coral. The coral species that build reefs are known as hermatypic, or "hard," corals because they extract calcium carbonate from seawater to create a hard, durable exoskeleton that protects their soft, sac-like… SEE MORE

Learning About Elusive, Mysterious Alaska Sharks

9/12/2022 - By NOAA Fisheries. Keeping shark populations healthy is an important part of ecosystem-based management for sustainable fisheries and resilient fishing communities. But getting the information needed to effectively manage Pacific sleeper sharks, salmon sharks, and other large Alaska sharks is challenging. “Data on these sharks are hard to get. They’re… SEE MORE

Rusty Clark from merritt usland FLA, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

New Crab Shell and Zinc Battery Shows Promise

9/8/2022 - A rechargeable battery made from crab shells and zinc could store wind and solar energy, and then its parts can either safely biodegrade within a matter of years or be recycled. The key is chitosan, a compound derived from chitin, a substance found in crab and shrimp shells. The battery… SEE MORE

Environment

Shipwreck Off Patagonia is Likely Long Lost Whaler

9/6/2022 - By Eco Magazine. Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it almost certainly is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I., lost in 1859. Archaeologists have spent years researching the ship's origin without making a definitive… SEE MORE

Badseed, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Progress Seen in Repairing the Ozone Layer

8/30/2022 - By NOAA. An annual analysis of air samples collected at remote sites around the globe that is tracking a continued decline in the atmospheric concentration of ozone-depleting substances shows the threat to the ozone layer receding below a significant milestone in 2022, NOAA scientists have announced. In early 2022, the… SEE MORE