Research Highlights
Oceanus Magazine
Danielle Haas Freeman draws on the language of chemistry to solve an oil spill puzzle
News Releases
For the past few decades, scientists have offered several competing theories for what led to the extinction of the Neanderthals, with much of the debate focusing on the relative roles of climate change versus conflict with modern humans. Now one theory can be ruled out. New research by a multidisciplinary, international team?including paleoclimatologist Konrad Hughen of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution?shows that Neanderthals did not die out at a time of extreme and sudden climatic change, as some researchers have suggested.
The release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere by power plants and agricultural activities plays a minor role in making the ocean slightly more acidic on a global scale, but the impact is greatly amplified in the shallower waters of the coastal ocean, according to new research by atmospheric and marine chemists.
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found a new and substantial pathway for mercury pollution flowing into coastal waters. Marine chemists have detected much more dissolved mercury entering the ocean through groundwater than from atmospheric and river sources.
News & Insights
WHOI marine radiochemist Ken Buesseler weighs in on the discharge of wastewater from Fukushima
In case you missed it… From plastic to oil spills, experts discuss ways to control ocean pollution in our last Ocean Encounters
An op-ed in the national news outlet The Hill by WHOI senior scientist Ken Buesseler reinforces the power and importance of the ocean in carbon dioxide removal strategies