An international team of scientists have completed the world’s second and largest survey of soft corals, using more than 4,400 museum specimens collected over the past two decades. Their results indicate soft corals have two centers of diversity, one of which was unexpected.

Study provides critical framework for tracking the origin of Chondria tumulosa, a rapidly spreading macroalga in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

 

A new study led by researchers at Baylor University and University of Rhode Island and supported by a scientist with Georgia Aquarium has uncovered surprising details about leopard seals’ hunting habits, revealing that while the species is broadly considered a generalist predator, individual seals tend to specialize in their diets—sometimes with major consequences for other animals in the ecosystem.

Deep-sea mining in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean could harm ocean life including whales and dolphins, new research shows.

An international team led by Prof. CHEN Jitao from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied ancient sedimentary rocks in Naqing, South China, to analyze their chemical compositions.

Researchers have revealed the declining health of coastal marshes several years before visible signs of decline, providing an early warning and opportunity to protect an ecosystem that serves as the first line of defense against coastal flooding.   

Killer whales have been seen detaching lengths of seaweed and using them to massage each other – the first evidence of tool-making by marine mammals.  

Primates, birds, and elephants are all known to make tools, but examples of tool use among marine animals are much more limited. Reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on June 23, a team of whale experts has found widespread tool manufacture and usage in an endangered population of resident killer whales living in the Salish Sea—part of the Pacific Ocean between British Columbia and Washington. The whales fashion tools from kelp and use them for grooming purposes.