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.
An international study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain, has investigated how marine ecosystems responded to past episodes of ocean deoxygenation. ...
Ecology
Jul 31, 2025
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In the first and only reconstruction of ocean pH ever carried out, new research from the University of St Andrews and the University of Birmingham has discovered that a rapid acidification of oceans, due to a massive and ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2025
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A new study reveals a bright spot for shellfish populations in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Combining paleontological tools and archaeological data with conservation research, the paper finds that, for the past 3,000 years, ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 9, 2025
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For years, scientists have debated whether a giant thick ice shelf once covered the entire Arctic Ocean during the coldest ice ages. Now, a new study published in Science Advances challenges this idea as the research team ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 4, 2025
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A study of 7000-year-old exposed coral reef fossils reveals how human fishing has transformed Caribbean reef food webs: as sharks declined by 75% and fish preferred by humans became smaller, prey fish species flourished—doubling ...
Ecology
Jul 1, 2025
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23
Squids first appeared about 100 million years ago and quickly rose to become dominant predators in the ancient oceans, according to a study published in the journal Science.
Ecology
Jun 26, 2025
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169
In a first-of-its-kind study, Stanford researchers have measured how the abundance of ocean life has changed over the past half-billion years of Earth's history.
Earth Sciences
Jun 25, 2025
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New research from the University of California, Davis, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Texas A&M University reveals that massive emissions, or burps, of carbon dioxide from natural Earth systems led to significant decreases ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 23, 2025
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101
The Earth is rapidly warming, and similar climate upheavals over 300 million years ago once triggered massive fluctuations in marine life.
Earth Sciences
Jun 20, 2025
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139
Coastal planners take heed: Newly uncovered evidence from fossil corals found on an island chain in the Indian Ocean suggests that sea levels could rise even more steeply in our warming world than previously thought.
Earth Sciences
Jun 13, 2025
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