EurekAlert! Marine Science - News Releases

News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 3-Jul-2025 06:10 ET (3-Jul-2025 10:10 GMT/UTC)

Complex drivers of phytoplankton bloom

Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

06 January 2025/Kiel. The ocean is vital for oxygen, food supply, and carbon storage. At its core is phytoplankton - microscopic algae that produce biomass through photosynthesis, using nutrients, CO2, and sunlight. Researchers from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, in collaboration with Oregon State University and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, have identified how a complex interplay of wind and current patterns affect nutrient delivery and phytoplankton growth in the equatorial Atlantic. Their study, published today in Nature Geoscience, reveals the seasonal nutrient dynamics critical for marine productivity and potential impacts of climate change.

Journal: Nature Geoscience

Protection against viruses – the passive version

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study, published in Nature Microbiology by researchers from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, reveals a previously unknown mode of resistance. The study was led by Prof. Debbie Lindell, former Ph.D. student Dr. Sofia Zborovsky (currently a postdoctoral fellow in the UK), and Ph.D. student Ran Tahan. Prof. Lindell’s research group has been exploring this field for years and has already made dramatic discoveries about bacteriophage-bacteria interactions in marine environments. Their new study uncovers a passive defense mechanism based on an exceptionally low level of molecules involved in translation of genetic material, the process that leads to protein formation.

Journal: Nature Microbiology

Microplastics widespread in seafood people eat

Portland State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The tiny particles that shed from clothing, packaging and other plastic products are winding up in the fish that people eat, according to a new study from Portland State researchers, highlighting a need for technologies and strategies to reduce microfiber pollution entering the environment.

Journal: Frontiers in Toxicology
Funder: Oregon Sea Grant

Study reveals oldest-known evolutionary “arms race”

American Museum of Natural History
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History presents the oldest known example in the fossil record of an evolutionary arms race. These 517-million-year-old predator-prey interactions occurred in the ocean covering what is now South Australia between a small, shelled animal distantly related to brachiopods and an unknown marine animal capable of piercing its shell.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: Australian Research Council, American Museum of Natural History, University of New England

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