This study delved into the pollution levels and spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of 31 endocrine disrupting chemicals in three marine protected areas and the adjacent coastal areas, evaluating their partitioning patterns, estrogenic potency, and potential ecological risks they posed.

Research led by University of Utah and Stanford analyzed thallium isotopes to show oxygen was slow to reach Earth’s ocean depths during the Paleozoic. O2 levels rose and fell at the ocean floor long after marine animals appeared and diversified half billion years ago, according to study of ancient marine sediments exposed by river cuts in Canada's Yukon.

Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that functional diversity can be accurately inferred from the marine fossil record.

In the next 75 years, surface sea temperatures may rise by up to 4°C, with increasingly frequent short-term marine heatwaves also predicted. This could cause significant damage to our essential marine ecosystems, for example with corals widely known to be vulnerable to bleaching. But how will fish fare in these changing climates? In iScience, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) describe the metabolic and molecular changes that can support young clownfish to adapt to climate change and warming seas. Through genomic and transcriptomic studies across multiple tissues within young clownfish, the team identified the biological processes affected by rising water temperatures. And the outlook is more positive than we may have thought.

Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, a popular Hawai’i snorkeling destination that attracts nearly a million annual visitors, underwent a remarkable and rapid recovery when tourism ceased during the 2020 pandemic.

Along the coast, waves break with a familiar sound. The gentle swash of the surf on the seashore can lull us to sleep, while the pounding of storm surge warns us to seek shelter.

Yet these are but a sample of the sounds that come from the coast. Most of the acoustic energy from the surf is far too low in frequency for us to hear, traveling through the air as infrasound and through the ground as seismic waves. 

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have recently characterized these low-frequency signals to track breaking ocean waves. In a study published in Geophysical Journal International, they were able to identify the acoustic and seismic signatures of breaking waves and locate where along the coast the signals came from. The team hopes to develop this into a method for monitoring the sea conditions using acoustic and seismic data.