oceanbites

SURFO SPECIAL: Flame retardants: Not as friendly as we like to think

Jamillez Olmo Classen is a senior at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, majoring in Technology in Industrial Chemical…

Biology Coastal Management Ecology Undergraduate Research

SURFO SPECIAL: The world is your oyster: Collecting data on Matunuck Oyster Farm

Did you know that oysters act as a biological water purifier? Thus, many different environmental conditions like the tide and…

Climate Change

Lost in transmission: how the delivery of electricity has its own carbon emissions

The life cycle of electric power is more complex than we give it credit for. Learn how researchers have estimated…

Plastic Pollution

Traces of human plastic pollution in ocean sediment

Is the plastic we produce being stored in our oceans’ sediments? To answer this question scientists studied a sediment core…

Behavior Conservation Invasive Species

Robofish To The Rescue!

When mosquitofish were introduced all over the world to control mosquito populations nobody thought they would have such a negative…

Ecology Fisheries

SURFO Special: Keep clam and carry on! Comparing diet differences in awning clams and quahogs

Every summer, the URI Graduate School of Oceanography hosts undergraduate research interns called SURFOs. In this post, learn about Sommer…

Geology

SURFO Special: Surveying hazardous faults during Eastern Haiti’s 270-year earthquake hiatus

Every summer, the URI Graduate School of Oceanography hosts undergraduate research interns called SURFOs. In this post, learn about Kamal…

Ecology Sharkbites Saturday

There’s No Such Thing as Free Lunch: Observing the Foraging Behavior of Sharks Feeding on a Sperm Whale Carcass

All species in the animal kingdom must find food to survive. For some species, finding food can be difficult and…

Sharkbites Saturday

Birds of a feather are eaten together: Young tiger sharks take a bite out of migrating songbirds

Drymon, J. M., K. Feldheim, A. M. V. Fournier, E. A. Seubert, A. E. Jefferson, A. M. Kroetz, and S.…

Biogeochemistry Physical oceanography

How important is carbon export by ocean eddies?

A recent paper uses an ocean model to investigate the relative importance of carbon sequestration by eddies transporting phytoplankton into…

Biodiversity Biological oceanography Climate Change Coastal Management Conservation Ecology engineerings Fisheries Human impacts Noise ocean engineering ocean engineerings Ocean Exploration

The Sound of (Fish) Music

The ocean contains a symphony of sounds. A new study describes a novel method for capturing the chorus "sung" by…

Biology

The Price of Motherhood: Deepwater Fish Regenerate Their Tails to Increase Reproductive Fitness

What happens if a fish gets its tail bitten off? It must survive the injury, but also decide what is…

Conservation

From Animal Tracking to Conservation

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride on the back of a whale? Scientists now use…

Plastic

Giant Clams vs. Small Plastics

Microplastics are found all throughout our oceans. But in the Red Sea, there are a lot less. Find out how…

Methodology

Could sponges replace expensive ocean tech?

The ocean is a big place and trying to study all of the animals living there can take a lot…

Climate Change

Telling the complicated story of Atlantic Salmon with the help of genetic technology

Plamu Salmo salar (or “Atlantic Salmon”, “Black Salmon”, or “Plamu” as it’s known in my neck of the woods)…

Coral

3D Printing Can Help Coral Environments, Here’s How.

In the face of mass bleaching and other anthropogenic stressors, researchers and scientists alike have been working on ways to…

Ecology

Happy clams eat varied diets: seasonal changes in food resources for coastal critters

Between land and sea, coastal ecosystems receive seasonal varieties of food sources that impact organisms at the bottom of the…

Climate Change Conservation Coral Ecology Restoration

Can Coral Reefs Strangled By Algae Recover?

“Experimental support for alternative attractors on coral reefs”, Russell J. Schmitt, Sally J. Holbrook, Samantha L. Davis, Andrew J.Brooks, Thomas C. Adam, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2019, 116 (10) 4372-4381; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1812412116…

Climate Change Human impacts

Tracking the transience of lake ice in a changing climate

Changes in seasonal lake ice are threatening the lives of those who depend on it. Find out how scientists are…