When Julia Sigwart went looking for the scaly-foot snail – or Sea Pangolin – in the deep ocean, they were hard to find. Now they are seen as endangered from the prospect of deep sea mining.
A juvenile Plectropomus leopardus from the Whitsundays.
David Williamson/James Cook University
In a study that cultivated coral ‘gardens’ with varying numbers of species, plots with more species were healthier. This finding could inform strategies to help coral reefs survive climate change.
Anglerfish have an enlarged fin overhanging their eyes and their mouth that acts as a lure – much like bait on a fisherman’s line.
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We know very little about the deep sea and how its inhabitants, including anglerfish, will respond to change. In fact, more people have walked on the Moon than have been to the bottom of the ocean.
Oceanix, a proposed floating city, has captured the attention of the UN.
OCEANIX/BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Floating cities are back on the agenda, with the UN recently hosting a meeting on the subject. The latest in a long line of proposals since the ‘50s was unveiled, but just how feasible is the idea?
Most species of tiny coral reef fish are overlooked because of their small size. Now, their importance for coral reef ecosystems has put these fish and their unique way of life in the limelight.
(Sinclair-Taylor Tane)
New research reveals that miniature, brightly coloured fish play an outsized role in the marine food chain in coral reefs.
Droplets rising from the Champagne vent on the ocean floor in the Mariana Islands. Fluids venting from the site contain dissolved carbon dioxide.
NOAA Ocean Explorer
Lowell D. Stott, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Thousands of years ago, carbon gases trapped on the seafloor escaped, causing drastic warming that helped end the last ice age. A scientist says climate change could cause this process to repeat.
Phytoplankton under a microscope.
Rattiya Thongdumhyu/Shutterstock
Phytoplankton are tiny, but they do important work.
The sea is blue because of the way water absorbs light, the way particles in the water scatter light, and also because some of the blue light from the sky is reflected.
Flickr/Fiona Paton
Photons stream from the sun and interact with all matter on Earth. Depending on what the light touches, some of the photons will get absorbed or soaked up. And some will bounce back.
Project Oceanology class retrieves a bottom trawl at the mouth of the Thames River.
Anna Sawin
For decades, New England students took field trips out into the Long Island Sound. Their data show how quickly the sound is warming, leading to fewer American lobster, rock crab and winter flounder.
Marine parks are good for fish - especially if they’re in the right areas.
Epstock/Shutterstock
With strategic planning, the marine protected area network could be a third smaller, cost half as much, and still meet the international target of protecting 10% of every ecosystem.
Wil Burns, American University School of International Service and Greg H. Rau, University of California, Santa Cruz
Adding industrial chemicals and natural alkaline minerals could slow climate change, but like other geoengineering proposals, it comes with many complex technical and legal challenges.
The pressure in the deepest part of the ocean can be 1,000 times greater than the pressure we experience at sea level – but creatures that live and visit there have some very special features.
When temperatures rise and ice melts, more water flows to the seas and ocean water warms and expands in volume.
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Satellites hundreds of miles overheard are helping scientists to predict drought, track floods and see how climate change is changing access to water resources.
Plastic pollution on a beach on Bali, Indonesia.
(Shutterstock)