Oceans | Science News for Students

Oceans

grazing wildebeests

Moonlight affects animals in many different ways. Wildebeests (a herd shown) rely on moonlight to avoid nighttime attacks by hungry lions.

Karann Kalsey/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Animals
 
Nov 7, 2019
The moon has power over animals
a photo of Malin Pinsky

Malin Pinsky, 38, is a marine ecologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Since shortly after finishing college, he’s been curious about the oceans and how people and our changing climate are affecting them.

Jeff Heckman, Courtesy of Rutgers Univ.

Oceans
 
Oct 11, 2019
Cool Job: This ecologist is studying an ocean of changes
tidewater glacier in southeast Greenland in 2018

Climate change creates a whole world of problems, from melting glaciers (a tidewater glacier in southeast Greenland in the summer of 2018 shown) to the ocean floor. It’s probably only going to get worse, according to a new report.

IMAGE COURTESY OF ERIC RIGNOT

Weather & Climate
 
Oct 8, 2019
Report sums up climate's already dramatic impact on oceans and ice
a photo of vast mats of Sargassum seaweed floating on the ocean's surface

Vast mats of Sargassum seaweed can be seen floating off of Florida’s Big Pine Key. These can shelter everything from turtles to eels to fish. But an overgrowth of these mats has begun posing a problem for coastlines.

Brian Lapointe/Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Algae & Fungi
 
Jul 22, 2019
Record seaweed belt spanned from Africa to Gulf of Mexico
a surfer surving on a blue wave

Not just great for surfing, waves may be the next big thing in renewable energy.

EpicStockMedia/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Sustainability
 
May 30, 2019
Ocean energy could be the wave of the future
a pile of haddock fish

Increasing ocean temperatures have caused populations of many fish and shellfish to plummet. As a result, the amount that can be caught without depleting fish populations has declined by an average of 4.1 percent worldwide.

NEFSC/NOAA

Oceans
 
Apr 11, 2019
Oceans’ fever means fewer fish
an underwater photo of a coral reef ecosystem with brightly colored corals and fish

Corals provide the base of a unique community of ocean creatures. But ocean acidification may make it difficult for corals to build their beautiful structures.

iBorisoff/iStockphoto

Chemistry
 
Feb 28, 2019
Shell shocked: Emerging impacts of our acidifying seas
an underwater photo of a little skate

This is a little skate, a fish closely related to sharks and rays. As the oceans get more acidic, little skates may become better walkers.

Page Valentine/USGS; adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang

Animals
 
Feb 28, 2019
Ocean acidification may ground swimming skates
a photo of a building on the coast that has fallen into the ocean and cracked apart

Rising seas eroded the coastline of this resort region in Hoi An, Vietnam, causing its buildings to crack apart and start tumbling into the water. Climate change is threatening low-lying regions across the globe with similar destruction.

xuanhuongho/iStockphoto

Oceans
 
Jan 10, 2019
Climate change makes seas rise faster and faster
an aerial photo of a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City, scooters and cars are driving through the floodwaters

Traffic keeps flowing on a flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Sea levels are rising around the world, but they are rising more quickly in some places than in others.

xuanhuongho/iStockPhoto

Weather & Climate
 
Jan 10, 2019
Explainer: Why sea levels aren't rising at the same rate globally