Plankton, some of the smallest organisms on Earth, are leading big changes in the ocean.
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Articles on Plankton
Displaying 1 - 20 of 33 articles
Plankton-eating sharks are struggling to navigate crowded ocean highways, a new study suggests.
Mountains can’t be created without lubricant, and 2 billion years ago that lubricant was graphite produced by the carbon broken down from layers of dead plankton on the ocean floor.
Studies of Lake Windermere show how organisms moving in lakes help keep water layers fresh and reduce greenhouse gas production.
Seabirds journey vast distances across the Earth’s seascapes to find food and to breed. This means their biology, particularly their breeding success, can reveal what’s happening in our oceans.
How Pacific winds interact with the sea to bring colder waters up from the depths.
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.
Marine fish could serve as a crucial global emergency food supply in times of crisis, if marine ecosystems were in a healthy state to start with.
Cold-water plankton is being replaced by warm-water species.
How did whales that feed on tiny prey evolve into the largest creatures on Earth? And why don’t they get even bigger?
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.
Acidic oceans are disrupting a major part of the carbon cycle, slowing how seas absorb carbon from the atmosphere. This could massively speed up the effects of climate change.v
If the Amazon rainforest functions as our planet’s lungs, what do raging wildfires threaten? An atmospheric scientist explains why the fires, though devastating, won’t suffocate life on Earth.
Algae at the bottom of the Arctic food chain relies on sea ice.
Plankton in the world’s oldest and deepest lake are being disrupted by exceptionally warm waters.
Although often separated as two unique subjects in science, geology and biology have been intricately intertwined since life on Earth first evolved billions of years ago.
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.
Plankton has a chemical fingerprint that reveals where it came from. Scientists have now used this to track sharks at the opposite end of the food web.
A recent study shows plankton that have adapted to road salt have disrupted circadian rhythms. This finding suggests that environmental pollutants could also affect human circadian clocks.
The world’s oceans are home to innumerable life forms, from sponges to sea lions, and scientists have many creative ways of studying them.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor, University of Wollongong
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Professor in Earth Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Emeritus Professor of Mineral Physics, University of Cambridge
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Professor of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen
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Research Scientist, Queen's University, Ontario
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Deputy Manager Biotoxin Monitoring Programme, Scottish Association for Marine Science
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Professor of Global-Change Ecology, University of the Sunshine Coast
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Professor of Environmental Change, UCL
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Associate Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Southampton
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Professor of Marine Science, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
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PhD graduate, University of Southampton
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Research Fellow, School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds
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Associate Professor, School of Environment, Griffith University
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Senior Lecturer in Coastal Dynamics, Bangor University
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Chair Professor, Swansea University
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Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis
