Weird and Wonderful: Coral Symbionts Have a Genome Like No Other
The weird and wonderful genome of dinoflagellates looks nothing like other eukaryotic genomes. The genome of single-celled plankton, known as dinoflagellates, is organized in an…
Plankton
Infected Plankton Hold Secrets to Preventing Pandemics
Whether it’s plankton exposed to parasites or people exposed to pathogens, a host’s initial immune response plays an integral role in determining whether infection occurs…
Global Warming Poses Threat to Food Chains – “Impact Could Be Severe”
Rising temperatures could reduce the efficiency of food chains and threaten the survival of larger animals, new research shows. Scientists measured the transfer of energy…
The Last Mass Extinction Event Occurred 66 Million Years Ago – Here’s How Ocean Ecosystems Recovered
An international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have produced an unprecedented record of the biotic recovery of ocean ecosystems that followed…
Carbon Filled Oceans Affect Tiny But Important Organism
They’re impossible to see with the naked eye. They’re difficult to pronounce. But coccolithophores, a single-celled plankton, have an outsized effect on oceans due to…
Landsat 8 Views Striking Patterns of Blue and Green in the Chukchi Sea
Regardless of the amount of winter ice cover, the waters off of the Alaskan coast usually come alive each spring with blooms of phytoplankton. These…
How Tiny Imbalances Result in Massive Phytoplankton Blooms
New research details how tiny imbalances in the phytoplankton predator-prey relationship, caused by environmental variability, give rise to massive phytoplankton blooms, having huge impacts on…
First Direct Observation of an Under-Ice Algal Bloom in the Arctic
During a NASA-sponsored ICESCAPE expedition, scientists found a massive algal bloom under the Arctic sea ice. Once thought impossible, this marks the first direct observation…
Marine Bacteria Use Bioluminescence to Lure Zooplankton and Fish
Many creatures in the sea glow in the depths of the deepest trenches of the oceans. Bioluminescence is even observed in some marine bacteria, which…
Plankton-Fueled Agulhas Current Ocean Eddy is 93 Miles Wide
Deep below the ocean’s surface, huge eddies are often formed. The depths have their own kinds of weather systems. NASA’s Terra satellite captured this photo…