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oceans

Latest Articles

Illustration of a flying albatross, a swimming basking shark and the Lévy walk paths they take.
behavior

Random Search Wired Into Animals May Help Them Hunt

By Liam Drew
June 11, 2020
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The nervous systems of foraging and predatory animals may prompt them to move along a special kind of random path called a Lévy walk to find food efficiently when no clues are available.

Scanning electron micrograph of a cluster of coccolithophores.
ecology

How Jurassic Plankton Stole Control of the Ocean’s Chemistry

By Christie Wilcox
October 1, 2019
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Only 170 million years ago, new plankton evolved. Their demand for carbon and calcium permanently transformed the seas as homes for life.

Art for "Rapid Oxygen Changes Fueled an Explosion in Ancient Animal Diversity"
Abstractions blog

Rapid Oxygen Changes Fueled an Explosion in Ancient Animal Diversity

By Jonathan Lambert
May 9, 2019
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Skyrocketing animal diversity a half-billion years ago was linked to spikes and dips in marine oxygen levels, according to a detailed geological study.

Art for "Scientists Discover Nearly 200,000 Kinds of Ocean Viruses"
Abstractions blog

Scientists Discover Nearly 200,000 Kinds of Ocean Viruses

By Jonathan Lambert
April 25, 2019
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New work raises the estimated diversity of viruses in the seas more than twelvefold and lays the groundwork for a better understanding of their impact on global nutrient cycles.

Q&A

On Waste Plastics at Sea, She Finds Unique Microbial Multitudes

By Elizabeth Svoboda
September 13, 2018
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Maria-Luiza Pedrotti is illuminating the unseen worlds of plastic-eating bacteria that teem in massive ocean garbage patches.

Tidal pool with ocean life
Abstractions blog

Awash in Sea of Data, Ecologists Turn to Open Access Tools

By John Rennie
May 24, 2017
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To assess the ocean’s health, ecology’s “rugged individualists” learned to get with the big data program.

The helmet jellyfish (Periphylla periphylla) uses bioluminescence for defense.

In the Deep, Clues to How Life Makes Light

By Steph Yin
December 1, 2016
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Bioluminescent organisms have evolved dozens of times over the course of life’s history. Recent studies are narrowing in on the complicated biochemistry needed to illuminate the dark.

Biology

Scientists Map 5,000 New Ocean Viruses

By Carl Zimmer
May 21, 2015
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In the few decades since viruses were first found in the oceans, scientists have only been able to identify a handful of species. A new survey has uncovered nearly all the rest.

climate science

The Ocean’s Dynamic Role in Climate Change

By Natalie Wolchover
April 11, 2013
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New data collected by mathematicians and oceanographers in the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean could dramatically improve climate models.

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