EurekAlert! Marine Science - News Releases

News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Oct-2026 01:16 ET (21-Oct-2026 05:16 GMT/UTC)

How amateur naturalists are helping scientists track what everything eats

North Carolina State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has created an open-source website to learn what different organisms eat, and what eats them. The site – called Who Eats Whom – draws on data from a worldwide citizen science platform and serves as both a valuable resource for ecological research and an educational tool to advance public understanding of the global food web.

Journal: PLOS Biology

Eat, prey, love: UMass Amherst researchers help reveal the hidden life of sharks

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Peer-Reviewed Publication

While the Discovery Channel's annual shark week event has given the public more familiarity with the species, there is much about sharks—from their mysterious love lives to how their eating habits bring them into conflict with recreational anglers—that remains a mystery to scientists. Now, two new studies led by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst peer into these important aspects of shark biology to help guide real-world conservation strategies.

Journal: Environmental Biology of Fishes

How can seawater batteries survive chloride corrosion?

Science China Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Seawater zinc-air batteries (SZAB) could provide safe, high-energy power for marine applications, but Cl⁻ in seawater can poison the catalysts that drive oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Researchers from Hainan University and collaborators designed an FeSn dual-single-atom catalysts (FeSn-DSACs) in which Sn neighbors tune Fe active sites through p-d orbital hybridization. The catalyst simultaneously accelerates ORR and suppresses Cl⁻ adsorption and corrosion. In SZAB, it delivered a peak power density of 255.6 mW cm⁻² and operated for more than 500 h, offering a design strategy for durable seawater ORR catalysis.

Journal: Science Bulletin

Spatiotemporal patterns, loads, and risks of microplastics in subtropical coastal stormwater system

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study in Macao reveals that stormwater drains carry significant microplastic pollution into coastal waters. Concentrations reached over 53 particles per litre, with hazardous polymers like PVC posing high ecological risks. The research highlights how land use and rainfall drive this pollution pathway in subtropical coastal cities.

Journal: Emerging Contaminants
Funder: Science and Technology Development Fund, Macao SAR

African smoke brightens clouds, but weather patterns offset its cooling effect, new study finds

University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Smoke from African agricultural fires brightens clouds over the southeast Atlantic—but new research from scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science shows that the same weather pattern carrying the smoke also thins and reduces cloud cover, effectively offsetting its cooling effect.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment

New form of plastic pollution discovered on the shores of vulnerable coral reefs

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Plasticorals, the latest type of plastiglomerate to be described, is created when polymers from household plastic melt and seep into the skeletal pores of coral rubble. Found on beaches throughout the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan, including within a protected natural park, they are a lasting reminder of human interaction with these threatened ecosystems and may pose a distinct chemical and physical threat to corals and their reef habitats.

Journal: Marine Pollution Bulletin
Funder: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, University of the Ryukyus

Research news from the Ecological Society of America’s journals

Ecological Society of America
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Where giant salamanders sit in the food web, the conservation value of China’s fengshui forests and more from ESA’s journals.

Study maps where humans are driving harmful nutrient levels along coasts

Washington State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Along a quarter of the planet’s coastal waterways, humans contribute more harmful nitrogen – via agricultural runoff, wastewater discharges and other activities – than all natural sources combined. That is a key finding from a new study, led by Washington State University, that measured and mapped the human impact on nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon inputs to the planet’s coastal waters, which can have a destructive impact on marine life, as well as health risks for people.

Journal: Global Biogeochemical Cycles

AMS Science Preview: High-res global forecasting, tornado emergencies

American Meteorological Society
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Recent research in AMS journals spotlights tornado emergencies, kilometer-scale global weather forecasting, a new normal for polar sea ice, links between Tibetan snow cover and intense tropical cyclones, and more.

Review surveys the ocean's medicine cabinet, from cancer-fighting alkaloids to antiviral compounds

Bentham Science Publishers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new review in Letters in Functional Foods explores how sponges, corals, algae, and marine microbes are shaping the search for novel drugs — and why ocean conservation is vital to that effort Covering more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, the ocean hosts coral reefs, deep‑sea habitats, and mangroves that support extraordinary biodiversity. These ecosystems have adapted to harsh conditions, turning marine organisms into a rich yet still underutilized source of compounds for medicine — a field known as marine pharmacognosy.

Journal: Letters in Functional Foods

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