It is widely believed that Earth’s atmosphere has been rich in oxygen for about 2.5 billion years due to a relatively rapid increase in microorganisms capable of performing photosynthesis. Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, provide a mechanism to explain precursor oxygenation events, or “whiffs,” which may have opened the door for this to occur. Their findings suggest volcanic activity altered conditions enough to accelerate oxygenation, and the whiffs are an indication of this taking place.

Scientists have discovered that whales move nutrients thousands of miles—in their urine—from as far as Alaska to Hawaii. These tons of nitrogen support the health of tropical ecosystems and fish, where nitrogen can be limited. They call this movement of nutrients a “conveyor belt” or “the great whale pee funnel.” In some places, like Hawaii, the input of nutrients from whales is bigger than from local sources. It’s critical to tropical ocean health, therefore, to protect and restore whales.

The megalodon has long been imagined as an enormous great white shark, but new research suggests that perception is all wrong. The study finds the prehistoric hunter had a much longer body—closer in shape to a lemon shark or even a large whale.

An international team of scientists has synchronized key climate records from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to unravel the sequence of events during the last million years before the extinction of the dinosaurs at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. New high resolution geochemical records for the first time reveal when and how two major eruption phases of gigantic flood basalt volcanism had an impact on climate and biota in the late Maastrichtian era 66 to 67 million years ago. Their study was now published in Science Advance.

A modular metabolism may explain the environmental success of certain sulphate-reducing bacteria. This is the result of a study published this week in the journal Science Advances. A research team led by scientists from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, investigated the role of the Desulfobacteraceae family of bacteria that are very active in anaerobic sediments. The team reports that all studied strains possess the same central metabolic architecture for harvesting energy, for example. However, some strains possess additional molecular modules that enable them to utilise diverse organic substances. The results could lead to the development of new analytical tools to measure the activity of sulfate-reducing microbes directly in the seafloor and advance our understanding of their relevance for the climate

A first-of-its-kind study led by William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS is predicting estuaries along the East Coast of the U.S. will experience marine heat wave conditions up to a third of the year by the end of the century.

For the first time, researchers have combined satellite collar data with specialized cameras to shed light on one of the most mysterious and important stages in polar bears’ lives – maternal denning, when bears give birth then emerge with their cubs. 

Researchers at the Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences (Mubadala ACCESS) at NYU Abu Dhabi have found that reef fish from the Arabian Gulf, the world’s hottest sea, exhibit a higher tolerance to temperature fluctuations compared to those from more thermally stable coral reefs. However, the Arabian Gulf hosts fewer fish species overall, indicating that only certain fishes can withstand rising global temperatures.