Life on the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing big changes in the face of climate change and other human-caused pressures, a new study reveals. From food security to controlling seaweed and even making sand for beaches, reef fish are a hugely important part of marine ecosystems providing a range of benefits to humans and coral reef ecosystems. New research reveals significant transformations in fish communities on the Great Barrier Reef, the World's largest coral reef ecosystem ..read more

To help rare elkhorn corals survive in Florida waters, coral researchers should place them in shallow ocean locations with fast currents, scientists explained in a recent publication ..read more

The Great Salt Lake has lost more than 15 billion cubic yards of water over the past three decades, is getting shallower at the rate of 4 inches a year, and an analysis of its water budget suggests reducing irrigation is necessary for saving it ..read more

The tiny particles that shed from clothing, packaging and other plastic products are winding up in the fish that people eat, highlighting a need for technologies and strategies to reduce microfiber pollution entering the environment ..read more

A new study presents what is believed to be the oldest known example in the fossil record of an evolutionary arms race. These 517-million-year-old predator-prey interactions occurred in the ocean covering what is now South Australia between a small, shelled animal distantly related to brachiopods and an unknown marine animal capable of piercing its shell ..read more

A new species of black, slender moray eel has chosen the road less traveled, thriving in dim and muddy river mouths, unlike most of its marine relatives. It is found across the Central Indo-Pacific, including within the cave of the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River. This new moray eel is named after the underworld god Hades for its distinctive habitat, unique behaviors, and most notably, its deep, dark coloration ..read more

Artificial light can wake sleeping fish and attract predators, changing nighttime coral reef communities, according to new research using novel underwater infrared cameras ..read more

A new study examines the correlation between fish yield and live coral habitats. Researchers analyzed the yields of nine fisheries dependent on Australia's Great Barrier Reef from 2016 to 2020. Results show that substantial losses could occur if the restoration of coral reefs is not prioritized ..read more

After several years of service under harsh weather conditions, the rotor blades of offshore wind parks are subjected to degradation and surface erosion, releasing sizeable quantities of particle emissions into the environment. A team of researchers has now investigated the effects of these particle on blue mussels -- a species also being considered for the multi-use of wind parks for aquaculture ..read more

Which microbes thrive below us in darkness -- in gold mines, in aquifers, in deep boreholes in the seafloor -- and how do they compare to the microbiomes that envelop the Earth's surfaces, on land and sea? The first global study to embrace this huge question reveals astonishingly high microbial diversity in some subsurface environments, pointing to vast, untapped, subsurface reservoirs of diversity for bioprospecting new compounds and medicinals, for understanding how cells adapt to extremely low-energy environments, and for illuminating the search for extraterrestrial life ..read more