Oceans | Science News for Students

Oceans

a computer generated image of what the Ocean Cleanup system will look like floating in the North Pacific

This computer rendering shows what the 600-meter-long (2,000-foot) Ocean Cleanup system will look like floating in the North Pacific. Currents will push on the boom to form a u-shape. The system is designed to trap bits of plastic that boats can collect later.

The Ocean Cleanup

Pollution
 
Oct 8, 2018
Enormous floating barrier will corral ocean trash
a blue gloved hand holding a plate with bacteria on it

From the great outdoors to our internal organs, the world is awash in unseen bacteria (some seen growing on plate here). Most people assume (unfairly) that these germs are all dangerous. Biologists know better. Studying these poorly understood microbes could better reveal how they function as the "invisible backbone of life."

jarun011/iStockphoto

Microbes
 
Oct 4, 2018
Bacteria are all around us — and that’s okay
a gentoo penguin jumping into the ocean off a rocky outcropping

Researchers attached cameras to gentoo penguins on the Falkland Islands to see what they ate. The video revealed that some of the birds’ tiny prey can avoid being eaten.

J. Handley

Animals
 
Oct 2, 2018
This penguin prey knows how to fight back
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A bloom of harmful algae can be seen just offshore in this summer 2018 image of a Florida shoreline.

  Robin Hamman/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Oceans
 
Sep 19, 2018
New tools aim to better predict blooms of toxic algae
a red-footed booby chick sitting in a tree

The poop of seabirds, such as this red-footed booby chick, contains nitrogen that leaches into coral ecosystems. That nitrogen helps the reefs stay robust.

N. Graham

Ecology
 
Aug 1, 2018
Bird poop helps keep coral reefs healthy, but rats are interfering
researchers stand in the water with a narwhal

Researchers put a sound recording device on a male narwhal to capture its underwater clicks, buzzes and calls.

S. Blackwell

Animals
 
Jul 20, 2018
Here’s what narwhals sound like underwater
ocean octopuses

Sixteen out of these 17 deep-sea octopuses are brooding young. However, young and old, all are fated to die.

Phill Torres, Geoff Wheat

Animals
 
Jun 18, 2018
Deep-sea expedition led researchers to doomed octopus nursery
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A single swimming brine shrimp moves the water near its body. The green lines trace the movement over time of particles in the water as the shrimp swims. Large numbers of the animals moving together could create currents strong enough to stir oceans.

Isabel Houghton

Oceans
 
May 30, 2018
Small swimmers may play huge role in churning the seas
staghorn coral

Staghorn coral may be able to last 100­ to 250 years thanks to its ability to adapt to warming waters, a new study shows. Here, a healthy staghorn grows off Magnetic Island in the central part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

M. Matz et al/PLOS Genetics 2018

Oceans
 
May 18, 2018
Ocean heat waves are on the rise — and killing coral
beach garbage

Fishing nets and ropes make up nearly half of the mass of plastic in the Pacific Ocean’s notorious garbage patch, a new study suggests.

NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Pollution
 
Apr 30, 2018
Pacific garbage patch may be 16 times bigger than thought