Upper ocean water masses shrinking in changing climate: Less efficient CO2 sink

June 08, 2020

We’re familiar with how climate change is impacting the ocean’s biology, from bleaching events that cause coral die-offs to algae blooms that choke coastal marine ecosystems, but it’s becoming clear that a warming planet is also impacting the physics of ocean circulation.


Nitrous Oxide Cycling Study Points to Microbial Networks Key to Maintaining the Balance of Marine Nutrients

July 24, 2023

Oceans are critical to stabilizing the world’s climate, absorbing a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions and capturing 90 percent of the excess heat they generate. By some estimates, the ocean also accounts for up to half the annual emissions of another greenhouse gas – nitrous oxide (N2O), the third most important climate emission after carbon dioxide and methane. With the climate changing amid record high atmospheric levels of all three gases, the importance of the marine nitrogen cycle is ripe for study.


Study reveals salps play outsize role in damping global warming

February 28, 2023

Humans continue to amplify global warming by emitting billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. A new study reveals that a distant human relative plays an outsize role in damping the impacts of this greenhouse gas by pumping large amounts of carbon from the ocean surface to the deep sea, where it contributes nothing to current warming.


Animals in Ocean’s Twilight Zone Thrive on Upcycled Nutrients

July 24, 2023

Living at the edge of darkness, the community of microbes and tiny animals in the ocean’s twilight zone upcycle nutrients to ensure their survival. A study led by researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa revealed that small, free-floating animals called zooplankton rely mainly on an even smaller class of organisms, called microzooplankton, to consolidate the sparse waste products in the water and transform it into higher-quality food. The study was published in Limnology and Oceanography.


Study Highlights Importance of Mineral Iron in Ocean Ecosystems

August 31, 2023

New research published in Nature has revealed the importance of mineral forms of iron in regulating the cycling of this bio-essential nutrient in the ocean.


Discovery of a New Calcifying Phytoplankton Species off Bermuda

October 25, 2023

A newly described coccolithophore species, Calciopappus curvus was recently found in 2020 in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda by scientists affiliated with the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, a unit of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University (ASU BIOS). This newly named species has also been observed prior to its discovery off Bermuda in water samples from far-flung locations as the North Atlantic to tropical and subtropical regions of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean.


Studying Microbial Metabolisms to Better Understand the Ocean’s Carbon Cycle

January 30, 2023

Research conducted as part of the multi-year, multi-institutional BIOS-SCOPE (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology) project is shedding light on how the end products of cellular metabolism, called metabolites, could be used to track future changes in the marine environment.


Sea Urchins Age Phenomenally Well

May 06, 2016

Found along the west coast of North America, red sea urchins (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) call the ocean bottoms home. There, these spiky creatures feed on seaweed and kelp, and are often found in groups. While they may face predation from sea stars and crabs, the urchins, when left to their own devices, age phenomenally well. In fact, some researchers even report their lifespans as being over 100 years long.


Study Reveals Corals’ Influence on Reef Microbes

November 10, 2016

Sean McNally, former BIOS Fall Semester student, Grant-in-Aid recipient, and teaching assistant (currently at the University of Massachusetts Boston School for the Environment), and his colleagues, recently had a paper published in the journal Limnology & Oceanography (L&O) revealing how corals influence the communities of microorganisms in the waters around them. Read more at www.whoi.edu/news-release/picoplankton


Coral Research Conducted at BIOS Leads to Publication for Doctoral Student

May 30, 2021

Adult corals that survive high-intensity environmental stresses, such as bleaching events, can produce offspring that are better suited to survive in new environments. These results from a series of experiments conducted at BIOS in 2017 and 2018 are deepening scientists’ understanding of how the gradual increase of sea surface temperatures and other environmental disturbances may influence future coral generations.


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