Paleoceanography is the scientific study of past ocean states, processes, and variability on geological timescales, using physical, chemical, biological, and isotopic proxies preserved in marine sediments, microfossils, corals, and other archives. It reconstructs parameters such as sea-surface and deep-water temperatures, salinity, circulation patterns, biogeochemical cycles, ice volume, and sea level, often through analyses of stable and radiogenic isotopes, trace metals, and sedimentological characteristics. Paleoceanography is central to understanding ocean–climate feedbacks, carbon cycle dynamics, and the response of the ocean system to external forcings, and it provides critical boundary conditions and validation targets for climate and Earth system models.
Earth's temperature has been much cooler in the past than previously thought, meaning it could be moving toward the warmest it's ever been.
Earth Sciences
Jul 9, 2026
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65
Whether mussels, crustaceans or fish, marine animals have been responding to environmental crises with a reduction in body size for hundreds of millions of years. A new study by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ...
Evolution
Jul 3, 2026
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20
High-resolution sediment analyses from the Arabian Sea reveal, for the first time, that summer and winter monsoons respond differently to global climate change. The study enhances understanding of past precipitation patterns ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 30, 2026
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7
An international expedition including University of Sydney researchers has pieced together the clearest picture yet of how the Great Barrier Reef responded to dramatic environmental change over the past 30,000 years. Multiple ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 29, 2026
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29
The eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is known for its large low-oxygen zones that are increasing in size, putting marine life at risk. New research shows that 15 million years ago, the opposite was true.
Earth Sciences
Jun 26, 2026
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71
To understand where Earth might be headed, it's important to know where it has been. Throughout its existence, especially over the past couple of million years, Earth has experienced periodic cold and warm intervals, known ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 25, 2026
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16
Coral reef ecosystems, widely seen as a climate change bellwether, are more complex than previously understood. A new international study by the universities of Bristol, Wuhan in China, and Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany reveals ...
Evolution
Jun 23, 2026
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23
"What goes on in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica—it has global implications," Geology tauira Natalie-Jane Reid says. Reid is one of two Otago Ph.D. candidates who contributed to an Antarctic sediment core workshop at ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 22, 2026
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56
Scientists have uncovered new evidence from one of Earth's most extreme ancient warming events, revealing how the climate may recover long after human-driven CO2 emissions cease.
Earth Sciences
Jun 17, 2026
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41
It is becoming increasingly urgent to study the effects of climate change on the global ocean system. Future projections indicate significant changes in the Mediterranean and Atlantic circulation systems, which could have ...
Environment
Jun 16, 2026
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47
