Marine biology is the scientific discipline that investigates the biology of organisms inhabiting marine and brackish environments, encompassing molecular to ecosystem scales. It examines physiological, genetic, and behavioral adaptations to saline conditions, pressure, light regimes, and hydrodynamics, as well as population dynamics, trophic interactions, and biogeochemical roles of marine taxa from microbes to megafauna. Marine biologists employ field surveys, experimental manipulations, remote sensing, and omics-based approaches to quantify biodiversity patterns, primary production, nutrient cycling, and responses to natural and anthropogenic stressors, thereby informing ecosystem modeling, conservation strategies, and management of living marine resources.
Deep beneath the icy waters surrounding Antarctica, a small marine organism may hold clues to a future cancer treatment. Researchers from USF recently returned from a six-week expedition in one of the most remote environments ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 8, 2026
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A three-year study has cracked open the hidden biology behind coral reproduction, revealing hormone cycles that echo those of humans and other animals, and a new way to detect reef distress before it's too late.
Ecology
Jun 8, 2026
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A seven-year collaborative study has revealed alarming fluctuations in the health of Hawaii's endangered insular false killer whales, with some individuals losing nearly a quarter of their body weight in just a few months. ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 5, 2026
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Endangered basking sharks aren't fasting during long-distance migrations. A new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows that they may be foraging along the way, and in much deeper areas of the ocean than ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 4, 2026
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New research led by the University of the Sunshine Coast has found that reef manta rays are diving deep in storm events to find food and stay alive. As World Environment Day is celebrated around the globe on June 5, the findings ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 4, 2026
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Canada's government endorsed a plan Wednesday to move the last remaining captive whales from a shuttered theme park in Ontario to aquariums in the United States and Spain—a plan that could save them from mass euthanasia if ...
Ecology
Jun 4, 2026
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Octopuses are remarkably intelligent creatures, as was demonstrated by Inky the Octopus's famous escape from the National Aquarium of New Zealand through a drainpipe back to sea in 2016. A new Dartmouth study shows octopuses ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 3, 2026
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Black abalone once carpeted the rocky shores of California by the millions. The large, long-lived sea snails sustained Indigenous peoples along the coast for thousands of years, anchored a thriving 20th-century commercial ...
Evolution
Jun 3, 2026
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The ocean is full of invisible workers. Trillions of microbes quietly break down carbon-containing organic matter, which helps to regulate Earth's climate. But scientists have long struggled to understand how different microbes ...
Ecology
Jun 1, 2026
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26
Box jellyfish are often feared as dangerous animals, with some species capable of causing severe or even fatal stings. However, box jellyfish nematocysts—organelles responsible for this toxic sting—are theorized to also play ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 1, 2026
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