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NEWS RELEASES
WHOI scientists aim to improve the study of marine heatwaves
Researchers call for regional and context-specific approaches to these extreme events
Coastal retreat in Alaska is accelerating because of compound climate impacts
Observations have shown coastal erosion as an increasing Arctic hazard, but other hazards—including sea level rise and permafrost thaw subsidence—have received less attention.
A new report on coastal resilience
New report released during NY Climate Week and upcoming UN General Assembly high-level plenary meeting on threats posed by sea level rise
Can adding iron to the ocean help it absorb CO2?
A newly published article spells out the work needed to assess the potential of ocean iron fertilization as a low cost, scalable, and rapidly deployable method of mCDR.
Sea Surface Temperature Research Provides Clear Evidence of Human-Caused Climate Change
New oceanic research provides clear evidence of a human “fingerprint” on climate change and shows that specific signals from human activities have altered the seasonal cycle amplitude of sea surface temperatures.
WHOI | OCEANUS
Follow the Carbon
“Carbon is the currency of life,” said David Griffith, a marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “Where carbon is coming from, which organisms are using it, how they’re giving off carbon themselves—these things say a lot about how an ocean ecosystem works.” Scientists have had a hard time understanding how the Arctic Ocean’s ecosystem works, stymied by the region’s ice cover and remoteness, said Griffith, an MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate student. Now he…
Mentors for Budding Scientists
For the fourth consecutive year, local high school students interested in science spent part of their summer vacations working on projects undertaken with Delia Oppo’s lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This year, they teamed up to reconstruct the last 13,000 years of a crucial ocean circulation phenomenon. The ten students, from Falmouth Academy, Falmouth High School, and Sandwich High School, tracked changes in upwelling near the Galápagos Islands by counting the shells of tiny…
Climate Change Spurred Fall of Ancient Culture
The Harappans may be the most advanced ancient civilization that most Westerners have never heard of. They flourished in the Indus River basin on the Indian subcontinent around the same time the Egyptians were building the pyramids along the Nile and the Mesopotamians were digging irrigation channels fed by the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Harappans farmed the soil of the plains, soaked annually when the Indus and its tributaries flooded with rainwater and snowmelt….
Coral Sanctuaries in a Warming World?
Climate scientists have predicted that ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific will rise significantly by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on coral reef ecosystems. But a new study shows that climate change could cause ocean currents to operate in a surprising way that mitigates the warming near some islands right on the equator. As a result these Pacific islands may become isolated refuges for corals and fish, according to the study by Woods…
To Catch a Hurricane
On Aug. 25, 2011, the line projecting Hurricane Irene’s path up the East Coast barreled smack into Woods Hole, Mass., spurring a whirlwind in Jeff Donnelly’s lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Scientists and students hustled to create a network of instruments that would capture a hurricane in action. They scurried to get their supplies: 100 bottles of soda pop and a few dozen pairs of ladies’ nylon stockings. Donnelly is a coastal geologist…
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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.