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Categories: Biology: Marine, Offbeat: Earth and Climate

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While the majority of the world's reefs are now under threat or even damaged potentially beyond repair, a new study offers some encouraging news: efforts to restore coral reefs not only increase coral cover, but they can also bring back important ecosystem functions, and surprisingly fast.

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Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new research shows. The findings raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from that meteor, as was widely reported.

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Producing coral skeleton components in the easy-to-use soft-bodied sea anemone Nematostella creates a perfect lab system for studying, and eventually helping, corals threatened by a changing climate.

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In a new study, researchers have used the fossil record to better understand what factors make animals more vulnerable to extinction from climate change. The results could help to identify species most at risk today from human-driven climate change.

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Despite marine sponges being widespread on our planet, their biodiversity and distribution is still poorly known. Even though the Mediterranean Sea is the most explored sea on Earth, a study reveals the presence of new sponge species and new records in unexplored habitats such as underwater caves or mountains around the Balearic Islands.

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In order to keep the population of harbour porpoises in Danish coastal waters stable, only 24 can perish in fishing nets each year. However, over 900 die each year.

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A new study provides insights into the role of microbes and their interaction as drivers of interspecific differences in coral thermal bleaching.

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Scientists have discovered the gene that enables marine algae to make a unique type of chlorophyll. They successfully implanted this gene in a land plant, paving the way for better crop yields on less land.

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The findings suggest that subtropical seagrasses are less resilient to heavy grazing from marine herbivores, in part because they receive less sunlight relative to their tropical counterparts. As tropical herbivores move into subtropical waters, overgrazing may prevent subtropical seagrass meadows from persisting in these environments.

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Marine biologists have discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

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It would be a game-changer if all members of a basketball team could see out of each other's eyes in addition to their own. Biologists have found evidence that this kind of collective sensing occurs in close-knit groups of African weakly electric fish, also known as elephantnose fish. This instantaneous sharing of sensory intelligence could help the fish locate food, friends and foes.

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A new study finds that exposure to chronic radiation from Chornobyl has not damaged the genomes of microscopic worms living there today -- which doesn't mean that the region is safe, the scientists caution, but suggests that these worms are exceptionally resilient.

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Fossils of a strange new species of marine lizard with dagger-like teeth that lived 66 million years ago, show a dramatically more biodiverse ocean ecosystem to what we see today.

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An orca (killer whale) has been observed, for the first-ever time, individually consuming a great white shark -- and within just two minutes.

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Researchers identified the proteins of a CO2-fixing organelle, namely, 'pyrenoid,' in the marine algal group Chlorarachniophyta and revealed various pyrenoid-associated proteins among algal groups, suggesting the independent evolution of pyrenoids in different algal groups.

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Dung beetles share the load when it comes to showing their affection for each-other, when transporting a 'brood ball'.

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Researchers show how biohybrid robots based on jellyfish could be used to gather climate science data from deep in the Earth's oceans.

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A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded.

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Researchers report that the Golgi ribbon, an organelle structure previously thought to be exclusive to vertebrates, is also present in animal taxa, including mollusks, earthworms, and sea urchins. The function of the Golgi ribbon is still enigmatic, but its presence in diverse animal lineages indicates that its function is not vertebrate specific, as previously thought. The team also showed Golgi ribbons form at a specific timepoint during embryogenesis, which suggests that they might play a role in cell differentiation.

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Avian influenza virus H5N1 has adapted to spread between birds and marine mammals, finds a new study.