Tag: research

Migrating Seabirds Are Bringing Forever Chemicals into the Arctic

10/23/2024 - By William von Herff. New research shows how toxic chemicals hitch a ride with seabirds flying from southern latitudes to the Arctic. Between March and May each year, 15 million black-legged kittiwakes gather from across the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to nest and breed on rocky Arctic cliffs—some making the journey… SEE MORE

American Lobster Show Resilience Amid Climate Change

9/22/2024 - By Carli Stewart. Experiments conducted at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have shown that female American lobsters groom their offspring, and the grooming behaviors appear to remain stable despite the temperature and acidity conditions projected for Maine’s coastal waters by the end of the century. A study by… SEE MORE

Neighborhood Digs

9/20/2024 - By Brian Payton. On the Pacific Northwest coast—and around the world—community archaeology is helping people reconcile with each other and their history. Tiny fountains rise, sparkle, and splash back down on the intertidal zone of Xwe’etay, or Lasqueti Island, British Columbia. It’s as if the clams squirt in response to… SEE MORE

In Graphic Detail: By-caught Birds

9/19/2024 - By Rebecca Heisman. New research estimates that some 200,000 birds are accidentally caught in fishing gear in Europe each year. When commercial fishers haul up their nets, they often find dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, and other creatures entangled amid their catches. These accidentally caught, nontarget species are known as by-catch,… SEE MORE

Image Credits: World History Encyclopedia.

Scandinavia’s Missing Bronze-Age Boatyards

8/26/2024 - By Richard Kemeny. Archaeologists argue that ancient Scandinavian boat-building infrastructure has been hiding in plain sight. Long before their Viking successors wielded naval prowess to conquer distant lands, boats were at the heart of life in Scandinavia. Tens of thousands of depictions of prehistoric ships have been discovered adorning rocks… SEE MORE

Tracking the Effects of an Eelgrass Epidemic

8/21/2024 - By Grace Hunter. Even when it’s less than lethal, seagrass wasting disease leaves eelgrass reeling. In shallow intertidal waters of the northeast Pacific, eelgrass meadows grow across the ocean floor like submerged lawns. These meadows are the foundation for underwater neighborhoods that shelter and feed animals such as crabs, salmon,… SEE MORE

Artificial Intelligence Could Soon Turn Anyone into an Expert Tracker

8/18/2024 - By Ryan Truscott. Scientists are working on a machine learning tool that could, one day, identify individual animals from photographs of their footprints. Some wild animals are relatively easy to study. Certain penguin populations, for instance, are so unaccustomed to large predators that they barely fear humans and will often wander right… SEE MORE

The Mysterious Discovery of ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor

8/9/2024 - By Mara Magistroni. Researchers believe they have discovered oxygen being produced 4,000 meters below the sea surface, and think polymetallic nodules—the sought-after bounty of deep-sea miners—could be the source. For more than 10 years, Andrew Sweetman and his colleagues have been studying the ocean floor and its ecosystems, particularly in… SEE MORE

The ocean is becoming too loud for oysters, research finds

8/2/2024 - By sciencedaily.com. Baby oysters rely on natural acoustic cues to settle in specific environments, but new research from the University of Adelaide reveals that noise from human activity is interfering with this critical process. "The ocean's natural sound is gradually hushing due to habitat loss, leading to a quieter natural… SEE MORE

African easterly wave convection moving over Africa into the Atlantic captured by the Meteosat Second Generation Satellite. (Image downloaded via EUMETSAT.)

Damping The “Seeds” Of Hurricanes

7/14/2024 - By Audrey Merket. Increased atmospheric moisture produced weaker hurricane formation. Increased atmospheric moisture may alter critical weather patterns over Africa, making it more difficult for the predecessors of many Atlantic hurricanes to form, according to a new study published this month. The research team, led by scientists from the U.S.… SEE MORE