Mar Benavides, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
In the ocean, phytoplankton helped by diazotrophs play an outstanding role in withdrawing CO₂ from the atmosphere. But climate change is disturbing this delicate balance.
China's signature foreign policy is controversial for lots of reasons. But the environmental damage potentially wrought by the project has received scant attention.
A major war between the United States and Russia could make global fish catches fall by as much as 30 per cent.
(Pexels)
The surprise decision is an important win for many Australians, but reform of Australia's offshore petroleum laws is urgently required to protect marine environments.
The Nxaxo Estuary in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.
Dr Jacqueline Raw
Scientists are building up a picture of how much carbon can be taken out of the atmosphere and stored in coastal ecosystems.
Some lakes in the Arctic are expanding and others are disappearing as permafrost thaws.
This lake north of Inuvik, N.W.T., is expanding as the ice wedges (darker lines leading away from the lake) around this lake melt and the ground subsides.
(Philip Marsh)
Hundreds of thousands of lakes, rivers and streams in the Arctic exist only because of the permafrost that lies beneath them. The warming Arctic threatens to change that.
A whale shark, the only fully protected shark species in Indonesia, swims under a fishing net.
Paul Cowell/shutterstock
Shark fisheries in Indonesia are an important economic resource in several areas. Hence, stronger regulations are needed to prevent declines in shark population.
Seagrass meadow in Wakatobi National Park, Indonesia. Seagrass is an important nursery for many juvenile reef fish.
Ethan Daniels/shutterstock
Our study found that some individuals who previously participated in destructive fishing practices can transform into inspiring leaders and influence others to protect coral reefs.
A phytoplankton bloom stretching across the Barents Sea off the coast of mainland Europe’s most northern point.
European Space Agency
Populations of plankton are in decline. If we push this critical foundation of the marine food chain to extinction, we could cripple ecosystems for millions of years.
Sunset off the coast of Newfoundland.
Michel Rathwell/flickr
When we build marinas, ports, jetties and coastal defences we introduce hard structures that weren’t there before, and which reduce the amount of sunlight hitting the water.
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.
Shark Bay was hit by a brutal marine heatwave in 2011.
W. Bulach/Wikimedia Commons
Everyone knows the Great Barrier Reef is in peril. But a continent away, Western Australia's Shark Bay is also threatened by marine heatwaves that could alter this World Heritage ecosystem forever.
The sediments that accumulate beneath seagrass meadows can act as secure vaults for shipwrecks and other precious artefacts, by stopping water and oxygen from damaging the delicate timbers.