Ocean Life
Why are emperor penguins an indicator of climate change?
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced a proposal to list the emperor penguin as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), based on evidence that the animal’s sea ice habitat is shrinking and is likely to continue to do so over the next several decades. Research from penguin scientists is key to informing policy around much-needed protections for the emperor penguin. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s additional collaborative research efforts suggest how conservation actions can help to increase species’ resilience to climate stress, including protecting habitat, increasing habitat connectivity, and reducing non-climate stressors, such as overfishing and ocean pollution.
Read MoreEmperor penguins, increasingly under siege by climate change, recommended as threatened species under Endangered Species Act
Today, the U. S Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a proposal to list the emperor penguin as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) based on evidence that the animal’s sea ice habitat is shrinking and is likely to continue to do so over the next several decades.
Read MoreNew Study Finds Emperor Penguins Increasingly Threatened by Climate Change
A new study published today in Global Change Biology provides valuable new data that highlights how species extinction risk is accelerating due to rapid climate change and an increase in extreme climate events, such as glacial calving and sea ice loss.
Read MoreEmperor Penguins
Emperor Penguins are threatened by climate change, but steps are being taken to protect the species New details on the…
Read MoreReef Solutions Seminar Series: Considering the Variability and Evolution of Coral Reef Systems
Stuart Sandin, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Sponsored by: Reef Solutions Catalyst Group This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting:…
Read MorePenguins: Canaries in the mine of climate warning.
The Paris Agreement objectives will likely halt future declines of Emperor Penguins
Emperor penguins are uniquely adapted to the harsh conditions of their sea ice home. This video outlines how emperor penguins are indicator species whose population trends can illustrate the consequences of climate changes.
Read MoreWhat happens to marine life when oxygen is scarce?
A new study co-led by WHOI postdoctoral scholar Maggie Johnson looks closely at the changes occurring in both coral reef and microbial communities near Bocas del Toro during sudden hypoxic events, which occur when there is little to no oxygen in a given area of water.
Read MoreLarge vessels failing to obey speed limits to protect endangered whales, report finds
Physical Oceanography Department Virtual Seminar: Physical Controls on the Macrofaunal Benthic Biomass in the Northeast Chukchi Sea
Robert S. Pickart, WHOI Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom meeting: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/97073458686?pwd=U01aa2FpRStyVzFFbEREeG9laUF6QT09 Meeting ID:…
Read MoreRare, ghostly glass octopus photographed on recent Pacific Ocean expedition
“Expeditions like these teach us why we need to increase our efforts to restore and better understand marine ecosystems everywhere — because the great chain of life that begins in the ocean is critical for human health and well being,” Schmidt said.
Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: Assessing Anthropogenic Noise Impacts and Relevant Soundscape Cues for Marine Invertebrates: Leveraging Squid and Coral Reefs as Model Systems
Ian T. Jones, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office This will be held virtually. To register, visit https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0kcumurjIpHN3lZLsk8PEyvAKFxRe7D02_
Read MoreDoctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: Environmental Drivers of the Abundance and Distribution of Forage Fishes on the Northeast US Shelf, with a Particular Emphasis on Northern Sand Lance
Justin J. Suca, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office This will be held virtually. To register, visit: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcvce-urToiGdDfz7jhcwbvM1k6pAZ-MpeF
Read MoreFalling in love with deep-sea parasites
At hydrothermal vents there are body-snatchers, intestinal hitchhikers, and chest-bursters, but something about them is still alluring to Lauren Dykman
Read MoreSharks and the ocean’s twilight zone: Some female great white sharks can deep dive for hours
Much of the shark focus around the Cape is on great whites roaming close to the shoreline as they prowl for seals, but researchers are finding out that several sharks are actually diving deep into the twilight zone out in the middle of the ocean. Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod are researching the sharks’ deep diving behavior and how sharks’ bodies have evolved to handle these deeper conditions. They’re learning that deep diving is far more frequent and extensive across species than previously thought, said Simon Thorrold, a senior scientist in the biology department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Shark Week 2021: Sharks and the Ocean’s Twilight Zone
How large marine predators use the twilight zone to thrive, and survive Woods Hole, MA (July 11, 2021) — Sharks…
Read More‘The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52’ Review: An Enthusiastic, Anticlimactic Personal Quest to Find a One-of-a-Kind Whale Yields Mixed Results
Biology Department Virtual Seminar: Chasing the Mechanistic Bases of Stress Adaptation in Northern Elephant Seals
José Pablo Vazquez-Medina, University of California, Berkeley Sponsored by: Biology Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/95561978308…
Read MoreDoctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: A Metabolic Lens on Phytoplankton Physiology
Craig McLean, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office This will be held virtually. Join Zoom meeting: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMpcOuopz4sG9w2hmED7oSMw1V7mo1CKQK6
Read MoreStudy shows that lobsters can detect sound, and raises concern about impact of anthropogenic noise
This is the first study demonstrating sound detection in the American lobster using what’s known as auditory evoked potential (AEP) methods, which use electrodes placed near the brain of the animal to detect neuron responses to sounds.
Study Shows that Lobsters Can Detect Sound
A new study demonstrates that lobsters can detect low-frequency sound and suggests that anthropogenic noise could affect lobsters. The study comes out at a time when the construction of more offshore wind farms, with their associated underwater pile driving noise, is being considered in New England.
Read MoreNew Ocean Buoy Monitors Whales Off MD.’s Atlantic Coast
The buoy is equipped with a hydrophone to record marine mammal calls, and thanks to an algorithm, researchers will be able to determine whether they belong to a humpback, fin, sei, or a critically-endangered North Atlantic Right whale.
‘What we know now is how much we don’t know’: Enter the strange world of the ocean twilight zone
A difficult area to study and often overlooked by science, new technology is aiding its exploration, forcing researchers to re-evaluate just how much life is down there. Researchers now believe there is 10 times, maybe 100 times the biomass previously thought, says Heidi Sosik, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Explorer Robert Ballard’s memoir finds shipwrecks and strange life forms in the ocean’s darkest reaches
In the early 1970s, when Ballard was doing his graduate work in marine geology and geophysics, scientists were still refining the basics of plate tectonics theory.
