The disappearance of sea ice in polar regions due to global warming not only increases the amount of light entering the ocean, but also changes its color. These changes have far-reaching consequences for photosynthetic organisms such as ice algae and phytoplankton. That is the conclusion of new research published in Nature Communications, led by marine biologists Monika Soja-Woźniak and Jef Huisman from the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) at the University of Amsterdam.

The highest trophic niches in Mesozoic oceans were filled by diverse marine reptiles, including ichthyosaurians, plesiosaurians, and thalattosuchians, dominating food webs during the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Yet during the mid-Cretaceous, ichthyosaurs, thalattosuchians, and pliosaurids vanished, replaced by mosasaurs, xenopsarian plesiosaurians, and new groups like sharks, fish, turtles, and birds. This shift restructured marine ecosystems. Project SEASCAPE analyzes this turnover using phylogenies and functional data, revealing selective extinctions and divergent functional landscapes between the Early and Late Cretaceous.

In 2013, a sea star wasting syndrome decimated populations of Pisaster along the west coast of North America and along the Monterey Peninsula in California, where this study was conducted. The orange and purple stars have a hungry appetite for mussels in the rocky intertidal. Without the voracious sea stars lurking around, mussel populations exploded, expanding in cover from around five percent to more than 18 percent within three years. In the wake of the sea star die-off, mussels became a major prey surplus for sea otters, revealing a surprising link between the adjacent rocky intertidal and kelp forest ecosystems. The new research into the phenomenon shows how the loss of a keystone predator (Pisaster) in one ecosystem can impart changes to another (sea otters), linking ecosystems.

SAN DIEGO (April 30, 2025) — Many are aware of the dire challenges with plastic waste polluting the ocean, but new research shows it may harm wildlife in ways not previously understood. In a new study just published in the journal Environmental Pollution, researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance found that plastic swallowed by northern fulmars— seabirds found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans—can leak chemicals that interfere with the birds’ hormone systems.

A new study from the University of Maryland traces a 120-million-year-old “super-eruption” to its source, offering new insights into Earth’s complex geological history.

A good wildlife management plan must include information on their migratory processes if the conservation of a species, particularly an endangered species, is to be improved. In the marine environment, for example, regulating fishing activity in certain wintering areas could improve and complement conservation and protection measures carried out on the breeding grounds. These are some of the conclusions of the study featured on the cover of the journal Diversity and Distributions and led by experts from the Seabird Ecology Lab of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.

According to a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, the change in calcium carbonate dynamics in the ocean appears to have influenced the evolutionary trajectory of tiny but mighty sea creatures: foraminifera.

Imagine a natural fortress standing strong against raging storms. That’s what mangroves and other forested wetlands do for our coastlines. But how well do they protect us, and against which storms? Researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University, China and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) have uncovered a new and easy method to predict the effectiveness of these natural barriers during extreme weather events. This is an important new insight and tool for coastal managers and policymakers.