Featured
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Article |
Emergent constraint on Arctic Ocean acidification in the twenty-first century
Sea surface density observations in the Arctic Ocean reveal a relationship between the present-day surface water density and the anthropogenic carbon inventory and coincident acidification, suggesting that recent acidification projections are underestimates.
- Jens Terhaar
- , Lester Kwiatkowski
- & Laurent Bopp
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Comment |
Ocean data need a sea change to help navigate the warming world
Open up, share and network information so that marine stewardship can mitigate climate change, overfishing and pollution.
- Annie Brett
- , Jim Leape
- & Mari S. Myksvoll
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Article |
Revealing enigmatic mucus structures in the deep sea using DeepPIV
Advanced deep-sea imaging tools yield insights into the structure and function of mucus filtration houses built by midwater giant larvaceans.
- Kakani Katija
- , Giancarlo Troni
- & Bruce H. Robison
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Where I Work |
Face to face with squat lobsters and swimming worms
Museum curator Andrew Hosie gets a close-up introduction to beautiful and bizarre organisms from the depths of the ocean.
- Chris Woolston
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News Feature |
These researchers spent a winter trapped in Arctic ice to capture key climate data
After three months adrift on a ship, scientists with the MOSAiC mission returned with crucial information about the rapidly warming far north.
- Shannon Hall
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Review Article |
Rebuilding marine life
Analyses of the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions indicate that substantial recovery of the abundance, structure and function of marine life could be achieved by 2050 if major pressures, including climate change, are mitigated.
- Carlos M. Duarte
- , Susana Agusti
- & Boris Worm
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Comment |
The oceans’ twilight zone must be studied now, before it is too late
Exploitation and degradation of the mysterious layer between the sunlit ocean surface and the abyss jeopardize fish stocks and the climate.
- Adrian Martin
- , Philip Boyd
- & Lionel Guidi
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Where I Work |
Transfixed by the glow of Arctic ice under starlight
Maria Josefa Verdugo ships into the bitter cold of far-northern waters to measure ice-core properties as part of a year-round climate project.
- Chris Woolston
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News Feature |
Why a landmark treaty to stop ocean biopiracy could stymie research
Several cancer and HIV drugs have come from marine organisms, but scientists worry that a new agreement to save species could hinder some research.
- Olive Heffernan
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News Feature |
How a small nuclear war would transform the entire planet
As geopolitical tensions rise in nuclear-armed states, scientists are modelling the global impact of nuclear war.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
These microbial communities have learned to live at Earth’s most extreme reaches
Researchers are uncovering the survival strategies of microorganisms found in rocks buried deep beneath the ocean floor.
- Monique Brouillette
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Article |
Recycling and metabolic flexibility dictate life in the lower oceanic crust
Analyses of microbial communities that live 10–750 m below the seafloor at Atlantis Bank, Indian Ocean, provide insights into how these microorganisms survive by coupling energy sources to organic and inorganic carbon resources.
- Jiangtao Li
- , Paraskevi Mara
- & Virginia P. Edgcomb
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News Round-Up |
Coronavirus nixes conference, twilight zone beckons and a faded star brightens
The latest science news, in brief.
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News |
Enter the twilight zone: scientists dive into the oceans’ mysterious middle
The vast, wild depths between light and shadow face increasing threats from climate change and overfishing.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Article |
Ice front blocking of ocean heat transport to an Antarctic ice shelf
The front of the Getz Ice Shelf in West Antarctica creates an abrupt topographic step that deflects ocean currents, suppressing 70% of the heat delivery to the ice sheet.
- A. K. Wåhlin
- , N. Steiger
- & S. Viboud
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Where I Work |
Growing baby corals in a broom cupboard
Marine biologist Jamie Craggs studies coral reproduction in a tight, dark space as he prepares to reseed reefs damaged by climate change.
- Kendall Powell
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Research Highlight |
Earth’s deepest ‘blue hole’ holds a cache of ancient carbon
The Yongle marine cavern provides a window onto unusual ocean chemistry.
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News |
First look under imperilled Antarctic glacier finds ‘warm water coming from all directions’
Thwaites Glacier’s collapse could raise sea levels worldwide by more than half a metre.
- Jeff Tollefson
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News & Views |
30 years of the iron hypothesis of ice ages
In 1990, an oceanographer who had never worked on climate science proposed that ice-age cooling has been amplified by increased concentrations of iron in the sea — and instigated an explosion of research.
- Heather Stoll
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News & Views |
From the archive
How Nature reported an investigation into the origin of maize in 1920, and a paean to the work of the sea from 1870.
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News & Views |
Human activities have changed the shapes of river deltas
A model has been devised that quantitatively describes how the shape of a river delta is affected by sediments, tides and waves. It reveals that the area of delta land is increasing globally, as a result of human activities upstream.
- Nick van de Giesen
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Article |
Global-scale human impact on delta morphology has led to net land area gain
A global study of river deltas shows a net increase in delta area by about 54 km2 yr−1 over the past 30 years, in part due to deforestation-induced sediment delivery increase.
- J. H. Nienhuis
- , A. D. Ashton
- & T. E. Törnqvist
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: How to save coral reefs as the world warms
Listen to an audio version of our feature article by Amber Dance.
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Book Review |
The truth in Moby-Dick, what makes science trustworthy, and the board game that won a war: Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Nature Video |
Researchers replanting reefs one coral at a time
Lab-bred coral larvae could provide stopgap for damaged reefs
- Dan Fox
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News Feature |
These corals could survive climate change — and help save the world’s reefs
Ocean warming threatens to wipe out corals, but scientists are trying to protect naturally resilient reefs and are nursing some others back to health.
- Amber Dance
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Article |
Global satellite-observed daily vertical migrations of ocean animals
Satellite-derived analysis of daily vertical migrations of ocean animals shows that the relative abundance and total biomass of these animals differ between different regions globally, depending on the availability of food and necessity to avoid predators.
- Michael J. Behrenfeld
- , Peter Gaube
- & Scott C. Doney
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Article |
Twofold expansion of the Indo-Pacific warm pool warps the MJO life cycle
Since the 1980s, rapid warming of the Indo-Pacific warm pool has altered global rainfall pattern by changing the residence time of the Madden–Julian Oscillation, decreasing it by 3–4 days over the Indian Ocean and increasing it over the Indo-Pacific by 5–6 days.
- M. K. Roxy
- , Panini Dasgupta
- & Daehyun Kim
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News |
Trump’s pick to lead US oceans agency withdraws
Former AccuWeather chief Barry Myers cites health concerns, after waiting more than two years for Senate approval.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Book Review |
Shared consciousness, artificial imagination, and the Universe’s first seconds: Books in brief
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
- Andrew Robinson
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Outlook |
Physical oceanography
As the seas rise, our understanding of the processes within them must deepen.
- Richard Hodson
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Outlook |
Ocean explorers delve beneath the ice
To predict how much climate change will raise sea level, researchers are studying ice shelves — where vast expanses of ice meet the ocean.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Outlook |
A sharper view of the world’s oceans
Models of the behaviour of the oceans with higher spatial resolution could lead to more accurate climate predictions.
- Conor Purcell
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Perspective |
Sex and gender analysis improves science and engineering
The authors discuss the potential for sex and gender analysis to foster scientific discovery, improve experimental efficiency and enable social equality.
- Cara Tannenbaum
- , Robert P. Ellis
- & Londa Schiebinger
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Books & Arts |
Total immersion: re-imagining the ocean
Two timely, urgent books offer different takes on the state of the seas. Boris Worm lauds both.
- Boris Worm
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News |
Coral-tracking satellites monitor reef bleaching in near-real time
The system is helping scientists in Hawaii monitor what could be the state’s most damaging ocean heat wave ever.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Editorial |
Let fishers in Africa and Asia keep more of their catches
Fish farms are depriving children of essential micronutrients.
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News |
World’s oceans are losing power to stall climate change
United Nations report predicts more powerful storms, increased risk of flooding and dwindling fisheries if greenhouse-gas output doesn’t fall.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Letter |
Harnessing global fisheries to tackle micronutrient deficiencies
Nutrient content analyses of marine finfish and current fisheries landings show that fish have the potential to substantially contribute to global food and nutrition security by alleviating micronutrient deficiencies in regions where they are prevalent.
- Christina C. Hicks
- , Philippa J. Cohen
- & M. Aaron MacNeil
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World View |
To solve climate change, remember the ocean
This year offers nations their best chance yet to protect oceans and coasts, and to capitalize on the carbon-capturing potential of these environments, says Janis Searles Jones.
- Janis Searles Jones
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Comment |
Save reefs to rescue all ecosystems
An approach that tackles the underlying causes of coral-reef decline could be applied to other habitats, argue Tiffany H. Morrison, Terry P. Hughes and colleagues.
- Tiffany H. Morrison
- , Terry P. Hughes
- & Maria Carmen Lemos
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Letter |
Deep learning for multi-year ENSO forecasts
A statistical forecast model using a deep-learning approach produces useful forecasts of El Niño/Southern Oscillation events with lead times of up to one and a half years.
- Yoo-Geun Ham
- , Jeong-Hwan Kim
- & Jing-Jia Luo
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Books & Arts |
Making the planetary personal: the roots of climate science
Ruth A. Morgan lauds a book chronicling the evolution of Earth-systems science through the stories of its luminaries.
- Ruth A. Morgan
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News |
Ocean drilling revolutionized Earth science — now geologists want to plumb new depths
International panel lays out an ambitious vision of exploring the planet through to 2050.
- Alexandra Witze
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Letter |
Constraints on global mean sea level during Pliocene warmth
Using phreatic overgrowths on speleothems, sea level during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period, which was about two to three degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial period, is shown to have been about 16 metres higher than today.
- Oana A. Dumitru
- , Jacqueline Austermann
- & Bogdan P. Onac
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Editorial |
Write rules for deep-sea mining before it’s too late
The International Seabed Authority must commit the mining industry to a sustainable future.
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News Feature |
Seabed mining is coming — bringing mineral riches and fears of epic extinctions
Plans are advancing to harvest precious ores from the ocean floor, but scientists say that companies have not tested them enough to avoid devastating damage.
- Olive Heffernan
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Article |
Global spatial risk assessment of sharks under the footprint of fisheries
A global dataset of the satellite-tracked movements of pelagic sharks and fishing fleets show that sharks—and, in particular, commercially important species—have limited spatial refuge from fishing effort.
- Nuno Queiroz
- , Nicolas E. Humphries
- & David W. Sims
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News & Views |
Marine heatwaves in a changing climate
Heatwaves in the ocean can rapidly disrupt marine ecosystems and the economies that depend on them. A global analysis of these events casts light on their causes and sets the stage for revealing how they might change in the future.
- Michael G. Jacox