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NEWS RELEASES
WHOI scientist joins global Tara Coral expedition to unlock secrets of climate-resilient reefs
A two-year mission across the Coral Triangle will probe how viruses and reef ecosystems could help some corals withstand rising ocean temperatures.
Preliminary results from the first EPA-permitted ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) field trial
LOC-NESS project team shares findings at annual Ocean Sciences Meeting
Scientists outline case for next-generation ocean iron fertilization field trials
A new paper argues that larger, longer studies with rigorous monitoring and clear safeguards are needed to accurately assess OIF as a potential long-term CO2 storage solution.
New study finds rate of U.S. coastal sea level rise doubled in the past century
The study finds that the rate of U.S. coastal sea-level rise has more than doubled in the past 125 years.
New program aims to improve hurricane predictions with ocean data
The coordinated combination of in situ observations, satellites, and high-resolution models will allow us to fill gaps in our knowledge of air-sea interactions.
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…
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.