Feature
Cold Comfort for Barnacles
A WHOI research team reports that barnacle larvae can remain frozen up to seven weeks and still revive, settle, and grow to reproduce. The discovery offers a new understanding of barnacle larvae, which are abundant sources of food for larger animals in the coastal ocean. It also provides possible clues to how other intertidal marine invertebrates may settle and survive harsh winters.
Read MoreEarth Can’t Soak Up Excess Fossil Fuel Emissions Indefinitely
Earth?s land and oceans have been soaking up the excess carbon Earth?s land and oceans have been soaking up the excess carbon dioxide that humans have pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. But there are limits.
A new-generation computer model indicates that the capacity of land and ocean to absorb and store the heat-trapping greenhouse gas will reach its peak by the end of the century?removing a brake that has been tempering the effects of global warming.
Nafanua, Eel City, and the Crater of Death
WHOI geochemist Stan Hart and colleagues have discovered a fast-growing volcano, dubbed Nafanua, inside the crater of Vailulu’u, a 14-300-foot active volcano that should begin the next island in the Samoan chain. They also found a novel hydrothermal community, which they named “Eel City,” and a lifeless zone in the caldera, which they call the “Crater of Death.”
Read MoreBig Whale, Big Sharks, Big Stink
A shipping tanker first spotted the whale on Sept. 9 about 24 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass. It floated belly up—species unknown, cause of death a mystery. Like a detective,…
Read MoreFresher Ocean, Cooler Climate
Large and climatically sensitive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean have become less salty since the late 1960s, a trend that could alter global ocean circulation and spur climate changes by the 21st century.
Read MoreBuilding an Automated Underwater Microscope
A conversation with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Heidi Sosik about her work studying phytoplankton ecology in the coastal ocean and the new instrument, the Imaging FlowCytobot, that she and biologist Rob Olson developed. Sosik describes the importance of phytoplankton to the food web and ecology of the coastal ocean, and how this new instrument, which will be deployed this summer, represents a breakthrough in year-round monitoring of coastal phytoplankton communities.
Read MoreThe Improbable Voyage of Al Woodcock
Al Woodcock, perhaps the last man to sail on the maiden voyage of WHOI’s first research vessel Atlantis in 1931, died Feb. 26. He was 99. A self-educated farm boy from Georgia, Woodcock was also a keen observer of the natural world. He ascended to the scientific staff at WHOI and published seminal papers on “Observations of Herring Gull Soaring,” “The Swimming of Dolphins,” and “Sea Salt in a Tropical Storm.? Starting in 1949, he published a series of seven pioneering papers on sea-salt particles and their role in the formation of fog and rain. His research gained the profound respect of the nation’s foremost scientists.
Read MoreAn Experiment to Dye For
WHOI scientists are exploring an experimental technique to track the complex movements of water in the oceans using harmless fluorescent dyes and airplanes equipped with Light Detection and Ranging instruments. To detect motion, LIDAR uses pulses of laser light, which cause the flowing dye to fluoresce.
Read MoreAn Officer and a Graduate Student
Six hundred eighty-two students have earned master?s and doctoral degrees since the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering began in 1968. After shaking hands and accepting their diplomas, 61 of them took off their academic robes and put their Navy uniforms back on. Nine more will do so in the next two years.
Read MoreAnything-But-A-Boat Regatta
Shoveling and splashing toward a finish line ringed with spectators in Woods Hole, WHOI employees and students revived a tradition this summer: the Anything-But-A-Boat Regatta, which was first run to celebrate WHOI?s 50th year in 1980.
Read MoreMeet the Class of 2005-2007
Nine U.S. Navy officers are pursuing graduate degrees in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering through a special arrangement between the institutions.
Read MoreJoyce, Evans Give Testimony on Oceans to Congress
WHOI scientists Rob Evans and Terry Joyce testified June 8 before the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans, chaired by Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) in a continuing effort to help educate the U.S. House of Representatives on the oceans.
Read MoreCartwheeling Grad Student Earns Panteleyev Award
Margaret Boettcher knows a fast stress reliever: turn upside down. “Handstands and cartwheels make people happy,” said Boettcher, who has taught fellow WHOI graduate students and postdoctoral researchers her relaxation…
Read MoreWhere Currents Collide
In January 2005, a research cruise set out aboard R/V Oceanus for the tumultuous witnertime waters off Cape Hatteras—aptly nicknamed “the graveyard of the Atlantic.” During three weeks riding the waves, WHOI Research Associate Chris Linder kept a journal with pen and camera that includes “relentless North Atlantic storms battering our ship, instrument retrievals in the dead of night with blue water washing over the rail, and science gear shattered by 20-foot waves.”
Read MoreDouble Duty for Ensign/Student Allison Berg
Ensign Allison Berg won the first Pittenger Fellowship for naval officers in MIT/WHOI Joint Program. In collaboration with WHOI Research Specialist Eugene Terray, Berg will conduct a field experiment using Sonic Detection and Ranging (SODAR) systems to study winds near the ocean?s surface.
Read MoreA Whole New Kettle of Fish
With most of the world?s fisheries already fully exploited or overexploited, the wild catch will not meet increasing worldwide demand for seafood?which the U.S. Department of Commerce projects will triple by 2025. The United States also imports nearly 70 percent of the seafood Americans consume, resulting in an $8 billion shellfishing industry trade deficit.
Read MoreAnderson Addresses UN Ocean Commission
Senior Scientist Don Anderson of the WHOI Biology Department was invited to deliver the Bruun Memorial Lecture in June at the 23rd annual meeting of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Read MoreIn and Out of Harm’s Way
Just a few more miles or a few more minutes. That’s what scientists and some federal managers think it would take to improve the plight of the highly endangered North…
Read MoreAt the River’s End
In science, some of the most confounding and interesting questions come from the borderlands, where one physical world collides with another. In marine science, one of the most dynamic environments…
Read MoreWhat Is the Alvin Training Program Like?
Like many boys who spend their youths throwing baseballs in Massachusetts parks, Tarantino dreamed of playing for the Red Sox. When not pitching, he liked to take apart his toys…
Read MoreLife After Alvin
‘Ever Get Scared in the Sub?’ and Other Questions
Alvin‘s Pilots
Forty summers ago in the Bahamas, two men climbed inside a 23-foot white submarine named Alvin and drove it to a depth 6,000 feet, a dive that certified them as…
Read MoreA Whale Expert is Called in to Decipher Odd Elephant Calls
An article about work done by WHOI postdoctoral investigator Stephanie Watwood to analyze atypical sounds made by two African elephants, one imitating a truck and one the calls of another elephant species
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