It has long been known that cuttlefish hold their breath when threatened by a predator like a shark. But only recently did researchers learn that when cuttlefish stop water flow over their gills (breathing) they decrease electrical activity that can betray their presence to foraging sharks. Notice the cuttlefish in the photo has its tentacles clasp together – this is what they […]
I never would have thought it, but chitons have eyes. If you walk at low tide on any rocky shore in the Caribbean or in most oceans for that matter, you will see these little guys attached to rocks. They feed, by scraping algae off the rocks, when fully submerged during high tide. Their eyes help them avoit predation. This short film explains their […]
I came across this amazing photo recently, demonstrating some exciting and positive outcomes from coral restoration efforts by researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Southern Japan.
A recent study has shown that fish can assist in coral nurseries and transplantation processes by eating the algae and invertebrates that threaten to smother and kill the young polyps.
This make a lot of sense given that coral and fishes have evolved complex relationships over time, many of which are mutually beneficial. It is exciting to see researcher […]
“The Blob” is a peculiar and persistent warm-water mass that has been hovering over the Northern Pacific on and off for the past few years. Scientist don’t full understand how or why it is there, but it is having marked effects on both weather patterns (largely in the Pacific Northwest) and on local ecosystems. In particular, the warm water prevents […]
Move over spiders, make way for limpets. Previously spider silk has been thought to be the strongest material in nature – measuring up to 1.3 gigapascals (GPa), but new research suggests that limpet teeth, which are used to […]
The first recorded mass coral bleaching even occurred in 1998 when global ocean temperatures soared to record highs due to an abnormally strong El Nino event. The second global-scale bleaching occurred in 2010, in the wake of another El Nino. Though 2015 is not predicted to have a strong El Nino signal, some scientist still believe a third mass bleaching […]
A recent article in Climactic Change reported an economic analysis that suggests that climate change will cost the US twice as much as previous analyses estimated – increasing the estimate from $500 million to $1 trillion. Just to reiterate, that is 1,000,000,000,000 – lots of zeros. While there are always myriad considerations when attempting to predict such outcomes, this […]