Perspective |
Featured
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Where I Work |
‘I have to use a torch and watch my step’: netting seabirds at night
Kendrew Colhoun tracks the movements of migratory birds in Ireland.
- Chris Woolston
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News & Views |
A whale of an appetite revealed by analysis of prey consumption
Reaching a deeper understanding of the ocean ecosystems that maintain whales might aid conservation efforts. Measurements of the animals’ krill intake indicate that previous figures were substantial underestimates.
- Victor Smetacek
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Article |
Pliocene decoupling of equatorial Pacific temperature and pH gradients
New proxy data for ocean pH and an ocean–atmosphere model show that a radically different ocean circulation led to decoupling of ocean productivity and upwelling in the equatorial Pacific Ocean 3–6 million years ago.
- Madison G. Shankle
- , Natalie J. Burls
- & Pincelli M. Hull
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Article |
Mercury stable isotopes constrain atmospheric sources to the ocean
Mercury deposition pathways from the atmosphere to the ocean remain uncertain, but mercury stable isotope measurements from the Atlantic and Mediterranean show that ocean uptake of gaseous elemental mercury is more important than previously thought.
- Martin Jiskra
- , Lars-Eric Heimbürger-Boavida
- & Jeroen E. Sonke
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Nature Index |
Coral conservation strikes a balance
Fiji–Australia collaboration matches community needs with reef protection.
- Clare Watson
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Nature Index |
How cities are collaborating to help safeguard oceans
Despite missed deadlines in 2020 for key targets in marine conservation, momentum for these Sustainable Development Goals is growing.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Nature Index |
Rising tide of floating plastics spurs surge in research
Strong government policies and research insights are essential to deliver on a pledge to clean up the sea.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Article |
Widespread phytoplankton blooms triggered by 2019–2020 Australian wildfires
Oceanic deposition of wildfire aerosols can enhance marine productivity, as supported here by satellite and in situ profiling floats data showing that emissions from the 2019–2020 Australian wildfires fuelled phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean.
- Weiyi Tang
- , Joan Llort
- & Nicolas Cassar
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News Feature |
Can artificially altered clouds save the Great Barrier Reef?
Australian scientists are rushing to develop new technologies — such as ways to block sunlight — to help preserve corals in the face of climate change.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Article
| Open AccessPossible poriferan body fossils in early Neoproterozoic microbial reefs
Vermiform microstructure in microbial reefs dating to approximately 890 million years ago resembles the body fossils of Phanerozoic demosponges, and may represent the earliest known physical evidence of animals.
- Elizabeth C. Turner
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Research Highlight |
Cruise ships could sail now-icy Arctic seas by century’s end
Without carbon cuts, many cargo ships could ply the Northwest Passage, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in 2040.
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Matters Arising |
Shark mortality cannot be assessed by fishery overlap alone
- Hilario Murua
- , Shane P. Griffiths
- & Victor Restrepo
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Shark mortality cannot be assessed by fishery overlap alone
- Nuno Queiroz
- , Nicolas E. Humphries
- & David W. Sims
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Caution over the use of ecological big data for conservation
- Nuno Queiroz
- , Nicolas E. Humphries
- & David W. Sims
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Research Highlight |
Scraping icebergs trigger sea-floor landslides — and the risk is growing
Climate change will allow more chunks of ice to break away from melting glaciers, with potentially grave effects.
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Where I Work |
Breeding heat-tolerant corals to save the Great Barrier Reef
Kate Quigley is part of an Australian collaboration that aims to create corals that can survive warming ocean waters.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Research Highlight |
Humanity’s fast-food habit is filling the ocean with plastic
Food bags, drink bottles and similar items account for the biggest share of plastic waste near the shore.
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News Feature |
Fevers are plaguing the oceans — and climate change is making them worse
Sudden marine heatwaves can devastate ecosystems, and scientists are scrambling to predict when they will strike.
- Giuliana Viglione
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Book Review |
How Navy money changed the course of sea science
A history of US oceanography reveals the ways in which military funding influenced discovery.
- Ann Finkbeiner
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Article |
Summertime increases in upper-ocean stratification and mixed-layer depth
Oceanographic observations from 1970–2018 reveal substantial changes in the summer upper-ocean structure, showing a thickening of the mixed layer and a density gradient increase at its base.
- Jean-Baptiste Sallée
- , Violaine Pellichero
- & Mikael Kuusela
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Editorial |
Ocean protection needs a spirit of compromise
A proposal that weighs up options for meeting climate, conservation and food-provision goals deserves serious consideration.
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Article |
Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate
Using a globally coordinated strategic conservation framework to plan an increase in ocean protection through marine protected areas can yield benefits for biodiversity, food provisioning and carbon storage.
- Enric Sala
- , Juan Mayorga
- & Jane Lubchenco
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Article |
Enabling conditions for an equitable and sustainable blue economy
The capacity to create an equitable and sustainable ‘blue economy’ from ocean resources will be determined by addressing social conditions, governance and infrastructure, not just resource availability, as shown by a fuzzy logic model incorporating multidisciplinary criteria.
- Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor
- , Marcia Moreno-Báez
- & Yoshitaka Ota
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News & Views |
The Arctic Ocean might have been filled with freshwater during ice ages
A geochemical study of sediments suggests that, during recent glacial periods, the Arctic Ocean was completely isolated from the world ocean, with fresh water filling the basin for thousands of years.
- Sharon Hoffmann
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Article |
Glacial episodes of a freshwater Arctic Ocean covered by a thick ice shelf
Unexpected intervals of low 230Th concentration in marine sediment cores are explained by considering that during at least two such periods, the Arctic Ocean and Nordic seas were composed entirely of fresh water and covered by a thick ice shelf.
- Walter Geibert
- , Jens Matthiessen
- & Ruediger Stein
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Research Highlight |
A deep-sea trench is a plastic dump — and a biodiversity hotspot
Plastic bags and wrappers host a thriving community of ocean creatures.
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Where I Work |
Monitoring the snap, crackle and pop of the sea
A sea-bed buoy in a busy shipping lane helps marine biologist Antonio Codarin to record underwater noise and its impact on marine species.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Research Highlight |
Dredging up fish dinners does lasting damage to the sea floor
Bottom trawling not only erodes the sea bed, but also reduces its carbon-storage capacity.
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Where I Work |
Ocean explorer
Working on a research vessel means John Fulmer is one of the first to see intriguing discoveries.
- Amber Dance
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Nature Podcast |
Norway’s prime minister reveals plans to protect the world's oceans
Erna Solberg on fisheries, fossil fuels and the future of the oceans.
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Editorial |
World leaders are waking up to the ocean’s role in a healthy planet
Fourteen nations have made an unprecedented and welcome commitment to use marine ecosystems sustainably. It is equally important to establish a system to hold them to account.
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World View |
Norway’s Prime Minister: Ocean science can boost jobs and wellbeing
Why I put my political will behind knowledge to benefit the ocean and humanity.
- Erna Solberg
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Comment |
Five priorities for a sustainable ocean economy
Unleash the ocean’s potential to boost economies sustainably while addressing climate change, food security and biodiversity.
- Jane Lubchenco
- , Peter M. Haugan
- & Mari Elka Pangestu
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Research Highlight |
A toxic metal contaminates the ocean’s deepest trenches
Dead fish drifting into the Mariana and Kermadec trenches carry mercury pollution with them.
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Where I Work |
Catching a wave to study coral
Analytical chemist and avid surfer Cliff Kapono takes to his board to study the health of coral reefs off the coast of Hawaii.
- Chris Woolston
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Research Highlight |
Brrrr! ‘Supercooled’ waters make nearby Antarctic seas seem balmy
Elephant seals help to show that tongues of ultra-frigid seawater are relatively common in the Southern Ocean.
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Matters Arising |
Methods matter in repeating ocean acidification studies
- Philip L. Munday
- , Danielle L. Dixson
- & Sue-Ann Watson
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Comment |
Protect the Antarctic Peninsula — before it’s too late
Banning fishing in warming coastal waters and limiting tourism and construction on land will help to protect marine mammals and seabirds.
- Carolyn J. Hogg
- , Mary-Anne Lea
- & Cassandra M. Brooks
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Where I Work |
Flying through an undersea ‘stained-glass window’
Cayne Layton dives into his work on restoring kelp forests in cold-water oceans.
- Kendall Powell
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Career News |
Marine mammalogy must battle against unpaid work, argues petition
Scientists in the discipline and elsewhere say that uncompensated internships and work placements create barriers to inclusion and diversity.
- Madeline Bodin
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Article |
Metabolic trait diversity shapes marine biogeography
A tight coupling between metabolic rate, efficacy of oxygen supply and the temperature sensitivities of marine animals predicts a variety of geographical niches that better aligns with the distributions of species than models of either temperature or oxygen alone.
- Curtis Deutsch
- , Justin L. Penn
- & Brad Seibel
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Article |
Butterfly effect and a self-modulating El Niño response to global warming
Modelling experiments show that the El Niño response to global warming is self-modulating and depends on its historical variability; if current variability is high, future variability will be low.
- Wenju Cai
- , Benjamin Ng
- & Michael J. McPhaden
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Research Highlight |
Bustling seascapes risk collapse as the climate changes
A marine food web recreated in the laboratory provides a sobering look at ocean life in a warming world.
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Article |
The causes of sea-level rise since 1900
Observed global-mean sea-level rise since 1900 is reconciled with estimates based on the contributing processes, revealing budget closure within uncertainties and showing ice-mass loss from glaciers as a dominant contributor.
- Thomas Frederikse
- , Felix Landerer
- & Yun-Hao Wu
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Article |
Heat and carbon coupling reveals ocean warming due to circulation changes
A linear relationship between the storage of heat and carbon in global oceans in response to anthropogenic emissions is used to reconstruct the effect of circulation changes on past and future ocean warming patterns.
- Ben Bronselaer
- & Laure Zanna
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Where I Work |
Mesmerized by maritime marvels
Marine biologist Greg Rouse is elated to have been on a research cruise that discovered the world’s longest creature.
- Chris Woolston
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News & Views |
Metric for marine heatwaves suggests how these events displace ocean life
An innovative metric has been devised to quantify the size and extent of the warm waters during marine heatwaves. It thus reflects how far ocean organisms might travel to find cooler conditions — a key factor in these warming events.
- Mark R. Payne
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Article |
Thermal displacement by marine heatwaves
Ocean heatwaves displace surface isotherms by tens to thousands of kilometres—comparable to shifts associated with long-term warming trends—potentially driving rapid redistributions of marine species.
- Michael G. Jacox
- , Michael A. Alexander
- & James D. Scott
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Research Highlight |
Extreme Arctic waves set to hit new heights
Waves crashing into Arctic coastlines could grow by as much as three metres if global warming continues unabated.