oceanbites

A Tree of Life Project With Some Serious Bite

If you have any intererst in shark anatomy, ecology or evolution, find out about a must-see website designed by the Chondrichthyan Tree of Life Project.

The Coral Dilemma: Is Hybridization the Key?

Coral: a mineral, plant, and animal all in one (oh my!) Unfortunately, coral is in danger- and the many reefs which support a wide variety of organisms (including humans) are rapidly dying. Does interspecific hybridization hold the key to our coral dilemma?

When life gives you global warming, make pancake ice in ocean wave models

Sea ice is retreating, the Arctic is opening up, and wave activity is increasing. What does this mean for the ocean and atmosphere? The refreezing season of autumn may have some answers.

Octopus Mama Drama: Research Expedition Bonus Science

Dorado Outcrop is a small underwater mountain that first received attention from a few scientists because the seafloor that it sits upon is colder than what is expected. It ended up in the media spot-light because of the hundreds of octopuses that call it home.

Studying Leopard Seals in Antarctica

Check out this article by guest author Sarah Kienle about her recent research expedition to Antarctica to study leopard seals!

Sleeping with one eye open: fur seals may help us understand sleep patterns

Most mammals need to catch their zzz’s to function properly. Fur seals appear to naturally go through prolonged periods of sleep deprivation without suffering obvious side effects. Researchers are studying these semi-aquatic mammals to uncover some mysteries about sleep.

Fixin’ to lose: Trichodesmium reacts to climate change

Nitrogen is vital for all life on the planet. One of the main global sources for nitrogen, the bacteria Trichodesmium, may stop providing nitrogen to the global cycle in an ocean affected by climate change.

Linking marine and human health in Hispaniola

Biodiversity is often associated with higher standards of human livelihood, but researchers have yet to draw a direct line between healthy marine ecosystems and humans. Read on to learn how national infrastructure can complicate the relationship between biodiversity and human health.

Important oyster-producing region of British Columbia swamped with microplastics

If you grew up in the developed world, chances are you have an intimate relationship with plastic. Your lunch container, your childhood toys, your coffee press, that sweater you just bought, and the packaging it came in – they’re all made of low-cost petrochemical derivatives. And they’re swamping our oceans in a pollutant the […]

Sea Ice Drives Global Circulation

A recent study uses observational data from the Antarctic to show that sea ice processes help drive the global current system called the overturning circulation. This result suggests that changes to sea ice extent in the Antarctic could impact large-scale circulation as well as the ocean’s uptake of heat and carbon dioxide.

Saving Sawfish: Using local knowledge to study critically endangered species in remote areas

What if I told you sharks have cousins that are so morphologically distinct, they swim around sporting a toothy, chainsaw-like projection between their eyes, called a rostrum? Now what if I told you that largely because of that unique rostrum, these are some of the most endangered shark relatives in the world? Don’t lose hope! […]

Ocean to Table Mercury: a Rising Risk

For fish eaters, mercury consumption is an ever-present worry but often pushed to the backs of our minds. But the risk of mercury poisoning is only increasing as human activity introduce more mercury into the ocean and atmosphere. In their recent paper, Lavoie and his colleagues estimate how much mercury is reaching our plates through […]

Turn Up The Heat, Turn Down the Productivity

What happens if we do not curb carbon emissions? In a recent study, Moore and co-authors (2018) predict the implications of sustained carbon emissions. Ocean nutrients may be redistributed leaving much of the global ocean in a state of declining biological production! Check out this article to learn more!

Bite or Flight: How Seaweed Can Shape Feeding Behavior in Fish

What is a forest without trees or a coral reef without coral? Neither a forest nor a coral reef. Entire ecosystems are made possible by the living flora that define them; they provide shelter and hunting grounds for the animals which live in them. But what happens when the building blocks of these ecosystems are […]

The Efficiency of Nautili

Imagine if you could function just as well at the top of Mt. Everest (where the air is super thin) as you do at sea level; you’d probably be considered pretty special. Well, nautiluses can do that, and these researchers wanted to know why.