The vast genetic diversity of corals means there are some that may survive warming waters. Now scientists just need to find them.
animals
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Jet-Propelled Tunicates Pump Carbon Through the Oceans
New research reveals that blooms of the widespread gelatinous zooplankton—along with their feces, daily vertical migrations, and carcasses—increase marine carbon export.
Posted inNews
El Niño Varies More Intensely Now Than in the Past Millennium
Researchers found evidence for a strengthening El Niño in living and fossilized Galápagos corals.
Posted inNews
In the Deepest Ocean Reaches, a Potent Pollutant Comes to Rest
Surprising amounts of mercury settling into deep-sea trenches may provide a fuller picture of the metal’s path through the environment, but pulling it to the surface is no easy feat.
Posted inNews
Glacial Ice Offers Polar Bears a Precarious Climate Refuge
An isolated polar bear population in southeastern Greenland survives in fjords, despite spotty sea ice. But this pocket of bears is not a sign of how the species could be saved.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Fluid Dynamics of Tiny, Ancient Marine Animals
Water flow simulations using 3D models of fossils yield new clues to the evolution of organisms known as medusozoans.
Posted inNews
Scientists Tune In to Blue Whale Feeding Rhythms
New acoustic sensing technology is allowing scientists to track blue whale movements in real time, a breakthrough that could help save whales’ lives.
Posted inNews
Rain Makes Skulls Bigger—in Mice
New research shows how regional weather, shaped by towering mountain ranges, might influence the size and shape of local rodents.
Posted inScience Updates
A Post-Impact Deep Freeze for Dinosaurs
New research supports the hypothesis that dinosaurs were done in by climate change after an asteroid impact kicked up a massive plume of sulfur gases that circled the globe for several decades.
Posted inNews
Volcanic Winters Ushered in the Jurassic Reign of the Dinosaurs
Sediment cores from northwestern China reveal freezing conditions during the Late Triassic killed off many forms of life—but not dinosaurs.