EurekAlert! Marine Science - News Releases

News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 5-Nov-2025 15:11 ET (5-Nov-2025 20:11 GMT/UTC)

Tiny architects, titanic climate impact: scientists call for October 10 to become International Coccolithophore Day

Ruđer Bošković Institute
Business Announcement

Microscopic organisms that regulate Earth’s climate and sustain ocean ecosystems take centre stage in a new awareness campaign. Five European research organisations propose 10 October as International Coccolithophore Day, highlighting the calcite-plated plankton that drive the ocean's carbon cycle, shape the climate, and support food webs. Their plates sink to archive climate history, while European projects track how warming, acidification, and ecology affect carbon storage.

Lessons from Ascension’s shark troubles could help boost conservation

University of Exeter
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Understanding people’s attitudes to interactions with sharks could help halt the global decline of shark numbers, according to new research carried out on Ascension Island.

Journal: People and Nature
Funder: Save Our Seas Foundation, Darwin Initiative

Climate change may increase the spread of neurotoxin in the oceans

Umea University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Climate-driven oxygen loss in the Black Sea thousands of years ago triggered the expansion of microorganisms capable of producing the potent neurotoxin methylmercury. That is shown in a new study published in Nature Water, led by Eric Capo at Umeå University, which suggests that similar processes could occur in today’s warming oceans.

Journal: Nature Water

North American ice sheets drove dramatic sea-level rise at the end of the last ice age

Tulane University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Tulane University-led study published in Nature Geoscience reveals that melting North American ice sheets were the primary driver of dramatic sea-level rise at the end of the last ice age, overturning long-held assumptions that Antarctica played the larger role. Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, retreating North American ice sheets caused more than 30 feet (10 meters) of global sea-level rise, reshaping scientists’ understanding of Earth’s climate history.

Journal: Nature Geoscience
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Losing Nemo: Almost all aquarium fish in the US are caught in the wild

University of Sydney
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Research has revealed that about 90 percent of marine aquarium fish sold by online retailers in the United States are sourced directly from wild populations. This reliance on wild capture threatens the sustainability of coral reef ecosystems and puts endangered and threatened species at greater risk of extinction.

Journal: Conservation Biology
Funder: Princeton University, High Meadows Foundation

New ocean research alliance to boost national collaboration

University of British Columbia
Business Announcement

The Pacific Marine Science Alliance Society (PMSA) has announced a three-year agreement with the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) designed to strengthen national ocean research collaboration across Canada’s three coasts.

UBC is one of five member universities of the PMSA, which owns and operates the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, and works to advance marine and coastal research, education and sustainability.

The new partnership, backed by $300,000 in funding from PMSA and MEOPAR, will help researchers better collaborate at regional, national and international levels to address crucial research challenges, including climate resilience, marine hazard prediction and sustainable ocean resource use. The collaboration will also prioritize Indigenous-led stewardship, student mobility and new international research partnerships.

Blackwater photos suggest new symbiosis between fish and anemones

Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new manuscript in the Journal of Fish Biology reveals that relationships between fish and sea anemones are more diverse than those portrayed in Finding Nemo. Captured through breathtaking blackwater photography, the images featured in the article show rarely seen encounters between these creatures that may provide mutual benefits.

Journal: Journal of Fish Biology

2023 ocean heatwave ‘unprecedented but not unexpected’

University of Exeter
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The June 2023 heatwave in northern European seas was “unprecedented but not unexpected”, new research shows.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment
Funder: Natural Environment Research Council

Twin threat: Cascadia and San Andreas faults may be seismically linked

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two fault systems on North America’s West Coast – the Cascadia subduction zone and the San Andreas fault – may be synchronized, with earthquakes on one fault potentially triggering seismic events on the other, a new study found.

Journal: Geosphere

Lake Tahoe algae experiment suggests seasonal shifts ahead

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As the climate warms and nutrient inputs shift, algal communities in cool, clear mountain lakes like Lake Tahoe will likely experience seasonal changes, finds a UC Davis study.

Journal: Water Resources Research
Funder: Lahontan Regional Quality Control Board

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