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.
How can bacteria that forage on organic particles survive in vast ocean regions where such particles are extremely sparse? A new study by researchers from ETH Zurich and Queen Mary University of London shows that variability ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 10, 2026
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13
Somewhere in the North Atlantic, more than a kilometer beneath its surface, a cold-water coral reef stretches across an unnamed seamount. Despite never appearing on a chart, this underwater forest has existed for centuries, ...
Ecology
Mar 9, 2026
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22
The growth form of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is composed of shoots known as stipes instead of branches. From one parent holding fast to the hard bottom might come as many as 150 stipes. Typically, the tips of the ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 5, 2026
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31
Drones flying above the waters of Shetland have captured rare footage of harbor porpoises gathering in unusually large groups and engaging in mating behavior. The footage, gathered between 2019 and 2023, provides one of the ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 5, 2026
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33
The coastline of South Australia has been affected for nearly a year by an unprecedented harmful algal bloom which has led to the deaths of millions of fish and sharks, impacted marine mammals and birds and affected the health ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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30
In 2022, a Russian whale researcher made a remarkable discovery on Bering Island off Russia's Pacific coast: a severed killer whale fin marked with the teeth of another killer whale. In 2024, it happened again. The two finds ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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98
The deep sea is a dark, cold place. It's just a few degrees above freezing, subject to immense pressure, and beyond the reach of the sunlight needed for photosynthesis. The life that does survive in such a hostile place must ...
Evolution
Mar 2, 2026
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98
Coral reefs are teeming with life: they are home to over a third of all marine animal and plant species on Earth, despite covering less than one percent of the ocean floor. However, this immense diversity is under threat ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 25, 2026
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25
Bottlenose dolphins usually live in small to medium-sized groups in coastal and open-sea waters, but every once in a while, a dolphin might leave its pod behind, flock to coastal areas and approach human settlements. While ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 25, 2026
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29
A new study from NYU Abu Dhabi has found that small coral reef fish in the Arabian Gulf are facing a hidden but growing source of stress. When oxygen levels drop at night, a common occurrence on some of the world's hottest ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 24, 2026
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