Gulf of Mexico
Sinking Alligator Carcasses into the Deep Ocean to See What Eats Them
The Deep Unknown The deep ocean is an alien world. Life here must contend with crushing pressures, near-freezing temperatures, and a complete absence of light. At more than a thousand feet deep, it’s also the least explored and least understood ecosystem on Earth. That’s a problem, because the deep makes up about 95% of […]
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. P. Powers. 2019. Tiger sharks eat songbirds: scavenging a windfall of nutrients from the sky. Ecology 00(00):e02728. 10.1002/ecy.2728 Tiger sharks are well known to be opportunistic feeders, and that description isn’t limited to just live […]
Double, double methane and trouble: Quantifying natural and man-made methane seeps
Researchers from Texas A&M and Woods Hole tested out a new, 3D camera system designed to look at deep sea methane seeps. The high resolution, high frame rate videos yielded new insights into bubble dynamics that could influence how we respond to oil and gas spills. Eric OrensteinEric is a PhD student at the Scripps […]
A Slick Study! Natural Oil Seeps and Chlorophyll
Oil seeps are naturally occurring sources of oil to the marine environment. This study looks at the impacts of oil seeps on chlorophyll concentrations near the surface of the ocean and the results are pretty slick! Brian CaccioppoliI am a recent graduate (Dec. 2015) from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, with […]
Do fish communities need natural shorelines, or are artificial structures ok?
Due to coastal development and natural erosion, shoreline fish communities are stressed. Several versions of artificial structures have been built to help mimic natural shoreline habitats, but are they all equally helping to conserve the fish species, or are some better than others? Valeska UphamFor my fisheries and aquatic science PhD I am working on […]
Out of sight, out of mind: The effect of gas & oil spills on deep-sea communities
When undersea wells blowout, toxic concentrations of hydrocarbons can be rapidly released into the environment. The media presents these blowouts with dramatic images of flora and fauna covered in black tar along coastlines and on the sea surface. What are rarely shown in glossy photographs, however, are the consequences to the unseen deep-sea. Sarah FullerWith […]
The Northward Expansion: Tropical Fish Settling the Temperate Seagrass Prairie
How will northward shifting tropical species interact with the temperate habitats they encounter? An example from seagrass habitat in the northern GOM Rebecca FlynnI am a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (B.S.) and the University of Rhode Island (M.S.). I now work in southwest Florida, contributing to the management of an estuary. I […]
Analyzing bycatch to better understand natural fish communities
Commercial shrimp trawlers haul in 3 to 15 times more of anything else than they do shrimp. Most of these extra animals are dumped back into the ocean after they die, but analyzing this bycatch before it’s discarded could tell us how non-shrimp species are doing. Virginia SchutteI just finished my graduate education in the […]
Need help counting bubbles? Now you can use sound!
Bubbles elicit scenes of childhood summers playing on the front stoop or backyard. On the other hand, put bubbles at the bottom of the ocean and you will find highly educated adults toiling with complicated mathematical equations and state-of-the-art technology. Sarah FullerWith academic backgrounds in oceanography, geology, and environmental education, Sarah has traveled to far […]
Coral Invasion in the Gulf of Mexico
The black sun coral is “invading” the Gulf! Once settled, it could out-compete other benthic epifauna and change the dynamic of the region’s community structure. Valeska UphamFor my fisheries and aquatic science PhD I am working on how to tank raise urchins and transplant them onto reefs across the Florida Keys in order to help […]
How Our “Trash” Can Aid Juvenile Red Snappers
Cement, limestone, and even old barges are being used in the northern Gulf of Mexico to build additional habitats for several fish species. These recycled, man-made structures, also known as artificial reefs, have been piling up off the coast of the U.S. for the last 50-some years. While these rubble piles may look random, time […]
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