Taking more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by stashing it in the ocean seems like a good idea, but it could backfire if tiny marine animals called zooplankton get extra hungry.
Explore the incredible underwater world of plankton.
A row of monopiles that will be the base for offshore wind turbines, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
David L Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
A recent study focusing on how offshore wind farms in Massachusetts waters could affect endangered right whales does not call for slowing the projects, but says monitoring will be critical.
Muttonbird ‘wrecks’ are becoming more common. Despite speculation about many possible causes, the evidence points to changes in the Arctic ocean ecosystem from where the birds migrate to Australia.
Marine life known as zooplankton might be the biggest problem with getting carbon cycling right in climate models. The potential variations in carbon uptake are greater than global transport emissions.
Sea ice floes off the coast of Spitsbergen island, Svalbard.
Realimage / Alamy Stock Photo
Deonie Allen, University of Birmingham; Melanie Bergmann, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research e Steve Allen, Dalhousie University
Arctic sea ice algae contaminated with microplastics have serious consequences for ecosystems and the climate.
Artificial light is an emerging threat for marine ecosystems in coastal waters (Kochi, India).
Vinu Sebastian/Shutterstock
We need to advance our understanding of the effects of microplastics on aquatic ecosystems, especially on small animals at the base of food webs that might be ingesting more of these particles.
Spring herring and Atlantic mackerel fisheries are among the most lucrative in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and brought in more than $1.3 billion to Québec and Atlantic fishers in 2020.
(Shutterstock)
DNA sequencing is making it possible for scientists to identify thousands of species of zooplankton – drifting animals that are key links in ocean food webs.
Sustained ocean warming could greatly reduce catches of fish like these herring photographed off Norway.
Jacob Botter
Fish are a key food source for millions of people worldwide. But a recent study finds long-term warming over the next 200 years could starve tiny plankton, with impacts that would ripple up food chains.
Young African penguins are following the usual cues to feeding grounds only to find that the sources of food in these places is no longer available. This is devastating for their numbers.
Watch out, there’s a mixotroph about.
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They ‘engulf living prey, suck out their innards, poison them, harpoon them, make them explode, and steal and reuse body parts’. And we ignore them at our peril.
Inspiring aliens since 1979, Phromina means business.
JesseClaggett
Meet a parasite that can create its own mobile nursery for its young, a parasite that is thought to be the inspiration behind the chest-bursting xenomorph in the film Alien. Meet Phronima, the pram-pushing…