Ocean acidification, along with increased ocean temperatures, will likely severely reduce the diversity and resilience of coral reef ecosystems within this century, new research suggests....

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With an estimated 34,000 square miles of ice, an area about the size of Maine, Alaska's multitude of glaciers have a global impact. Scientists have now outlined the complexity and influence of Alaska glaciers in the journal Science....

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Current hotspots of marine mammal diversity are concentrated in the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere, and the number of cetacean and pinniped species will likely remain highest in these areas in the coming 40 years -- regardless of climate change. However, on the level of individual species the picture may be different: Whereas about half the species of marine mammals will experience some loss in their habitat, distributional ranges of the other half may increase by up to 40 percent....

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In my job, I wear two hats: As the CRCP’s national education coordinator, I work to increase environmental literacy and incorporate technology to make coral reefs accessible, interesting, and relevant in the classroom, especially in relation to the three main threats to corals that our program addresses: impacts from climate change, fishing, and land-based sources of pollution. As manager of the Coral Reef Management Fellowship, I coordinate a program that places highly qualified individuals, often recent graduates, for two-year fellowships in each of our seven jurisdictional partners: Florida, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. territories of Guam and American Samoa....

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New research casts doubt on a widely publicized study that concluded that a bacterial bloom in the Gulf of Mexico consumed the methane discharged from the Deepwater Horizon well....

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Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic. A debate has long been raging in the scientific community on what changes in our global climate system led to such a major shift from the more tropical, greenhouse climate of the Eocene to the modern and much cooler climates of today. Researchers have now found some of the strongest evidence to date that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) played a key role in the major shift in the global climate that began approximately 38 million years ago....

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Coastal communities hard hit by ocean acidification hotspots have more options than they may realize, says an interdisciplinary team of science and legal experts. Experts make the case that communities don't need to wait for a global solution to ocean acidification to fix a local problem that is compromising their marine environment....

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The health of submerged aquatic vegetation is an important environmental indicator of overall ocean and estuary health....

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Fascinating, elegant, and mysterious to watch in the water, take a jellyfish out of the water, and it becomes a much less fascinating blob. This is because jellyfish are about 95 percent water....

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The first comprehensive study of sea creatures around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia reveals a region that is richer in biodiversity than even many tropical sites, such as the Galapagos Islands. The study provides an important benchmark to monitor how these species will respond to future environmental change....

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