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Raising Awareness

Ocean-Climate News and Publications from Across WHOI

News

NEWS RELEASES
Mountain Erosion May Add Carbon Dioxide to Atmosphere

Mountain Erosion May Add Carbon Dioxide to Atmosphere

Scientists have long known that steep mountain ranges can draw carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere as erosion exposes new rock, it also starts a chemical reaction between minerals on hill slopes and CO2 in the air, weathering the rock and using CO2 to produce carbonate minerals like calcite.


Penguins Go Through the Flow

Penguins Go Through the Flow

Colonies of breeding king penguins behave much like particles in liquids do, according to new study by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and international colleagues. This “liquid ” organization and structure enables breeding colonies to protect themselves against predators while also keeping members together.


Monitoring Bacteria on Whale Skin

Monitoring Bacteria on Whale Skin

Just like with humans, the skin on marine mammals serves as an important line of defense against pathogens in their environment. A new study sheds light on the skin microbiome – ”a group of microorganisms that live on skin – ”in healthy humpback whales, which could aid in future efforts to monitor their health.


Feeling the Heat in the NW Atlantic

Feeling the Heat in the NW Atlantic

Rising temperatures along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean will force American lobsters (H. americanus) farther offshore and into more northern waters, according to a new study led by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).


Scientists Find Surprising Evidence of Rapid Changes in the Arctic

Scientists Find Surprising Evidence of Rapid Changes in the Arctic

Scientists have found surprising evidence of rapid climate change in the Arctic: In the middle of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, they discovered that the levels of radium-228 have almost doubled over the last decade.


WHOI | OCEANUS
COP 29

5 Takeaways for the Ocean from the COP29 Climate Conference

Explore the key outcomes from this year’s UN Climate Conference


Gulf Stream ocean currents

Ocean in Motion

How the ocean’s complex and chaotic physics defines life on our planet


For Ben Santer, the fingerprints of the climate crisis are very human

WHOI distinguished scholar explains the art of climate fingerprinting


Tom Bell

The 10,000-foot view

WHOI’s Tom Bell tracks changes to vulnerable coastal ecosystems with aerial imagery


Paul Salem

A new champion for ocean science

Gift from WHOI’s board chair Paul Salem to jump-start ocean-based climate solutions


Publications

IN THE NEWS - RESEARCH HIGLIGHTS

Study offers first definitive proof that Gulf Stream has weakened

“New research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution offers the first conclusive evidence that the Gulf Stream has weakened. The powerful ocean current off the East Coast influences regional weather, climate and fisheries, and the finding could have significant implications both for New England and the global climate.”


What Happens to Marine Life When There Isn’t Enough Oxygen?

In September of 2017, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution postdoctoral scholar Maggie Johnson was conducting an experiment with a colleague in Bocas del Toro off the…


Maine’s having a lobster boom. A bust may be coming.

The waters off Maine’s coast are warming, and no one knows what that’s going to mean for the state’s half-billion-dollar-a-year lobster industry—the largest single-species fishery in North America. Some fear that continued warming could cause the lobster population to collapse. To understand what’s happening to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Maine, says Glen Gawarkiewicz, an oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Massachusetts, you have to look beyond it—see how it’s affected by the atmosphere, ocean currents, and rivers that flow into it.


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