Ocean Sentry
The Earth’s atmosphere and oceans play important roles in moving heat from one part of the world to another, and new research is illuminating how those patterns are changing in the face of climate change.
January, 2019
-
29 January
How sponges undermine coral reefs from within
An affected coral reef may seem intact on the outside, while on the inside looking like a complex of mining shafts with galleries and cavities that are completely filled with sponge tissue.
-
29 January
Retreating ice exposes Arctic landscape unseen for 120,000 years
The retreat of Arctic glaciers is exposing landscapes that haven’t seen the sun for nearly 120,000 years.
-
28 January
Microplastic waste floating in Pacific Ocean tipped to double by 2030: researchers
Microplastic waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is expected to increase approximately twofold by 2030 and exceed fourfold by 2060, causing potential harm to the ecosystem, a study by a Japanese team has shown.
-
28 January
An icy forecast for ringed seal populations
Arctic sea ice is now declining at a rate of 12.8 percent per decade – 2012 had the lowest amount of summer ice on record. The drastic change has numerous implications for Arctic ecosystems, from increased shipping – the first commercial container ship crossed the Arctic Ocean in fall 2018—to changing food webs. But …
-
28 January
Fears killer whales held captive in Russia will freeze to death as winter seas ice over
A group of killer whales held captive in Russia’s remote far East are at risk of freezing to death as their pens ice over in mid-winter temperatures, campaigners say.
-
25 January
Warming weather could make Arctic fish faster
As sea temperatures rise, mammals and birds may lose their edge over the cold-blooded species they eat, as well as the sharks that hunt them.
-
24 January
When coral species vanish, their absence can imperil surviving corals
Waves of annihilation have beaten coral reefs down to a fraction of what they were 40 years ago, and what’s left may be facing creeping death: The effective extinction of many coral species may be weakening reef systems thus siphoning life out of the corals that remain.
-
24 January
3rd right whale calf spotted this season excites researchers
A third North Atlantic right whale calf has been spotted by a state of Florida research team off the coast of northern Florida, giving hope to scientists after a slow start to the season.
-
23 January
Oceans are getting louder, posing potential threats to marine life
A 2017 study, for example, found that a loud blast, softer than the sound of a seismic air gun, killed nearly two-thirds of the zooplankton in three-quarters of a mile on either side.
-
23 January
Quintana Roo’s coral reefs in state of alert
The specialists explain that from the nineties to date more than 30 percent of the coral cover has been lost, so if the trend continues in the medium term, the reefs will erode, and evetually dissappear.
-
23 January
Fishing imperils 40 shark species in the Galapagos
Just how many sharks are being killed here is unclear, experts say, because so many are caught illegally. But according to one study, about a half-million sharks were annually killed in Ecuadoran waters from 1979 to 2004. In the Galapagos, recent research indicates overfishing is causing shark numbers to crash, …