OCB Science Highlights

OCB Science Highlights

If you would like to have your recent publications featured on the OCB website and eNewsletter please contact ocb_news@whoi.edu. View our guidelines for writing a OCB Science Highlight.

Chasing Sargassum in the Atlantic Ocean

March 25, 2020

The pelagic brown alga Sargassum forms a habitat that hosts a rich diversity of life, including other algae, crustaceans, fish, turtles, and birds in both the Gulf of Mexico and the area of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Sargasso Sea. However, high abundances of Sargassum have been appearing in the tropical Atlantic, in some […]

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Can phytoplankton help us determine ocean iron bioavailability?

March 11, 2020

Iron (Fe) is a key element to sustaining life, but it is present at extremely low concentrations in seawater. This scarcity limits phytoplankton growth in large swaths of the global ocean, with implications for marine food webs and carbon cycling. The acquisition of Fe by phytoplankton is an important process that mediates the movement of […]

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Untangling microbial evolution in the oceans: How the interaction of biological and physical timescales determine marine microbial evolutionary strategies

March 11, 2020

Marine microbes are the engines of global biogeochemical cycling in the oceans. They are responsible for approximately half of all photosynthesis on the planet and drive the ‘biological pump’, which transfers organic carbon from the surface to the deep ocean. As such, it is important to determine how marine microbes will adapt and evolve in […]

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Hurricane-driven surge of labile carbon into the deep North Atlantic Ocean

February 27, 2020

Tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons) are the most extreme episodic weather event affecting subtropical and temperate oceans. Hurricanes generate intense surface cooling and vertical mixing in the upper ocean, resulting in nutrient upwelling into the photic zone and episodic phytoplankton blooms. However, their influence on the deep ocean is unknown. In October 2016, Category 3 […]

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Nitrate enrichment may threaten coastal wetland carbon storage

February 27, 2020

With their high primary productivity and slow decomposition in anoxic soils, salt marshes and other coastal wetlands can store carbon more efficiently than terrestrial uplands. These wetlands also provide critical ecosystem services such as interception of land-derived nutrients before they can enter the coastal ocean. Therefore, it is important to understand how anthropogenic supplies of […]

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Krillin’ it with poop: Highlighting the importance of Antarctic krill in ocean carbon and nutrient cycling

February 4, 2020

Scientists have long known the role of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in Southern Ocean ecosystems. Evidence is gathering about krill’s biogeochemical importance through releasing millions of faecal pellets in swarms and stimulating primary production through nutrient excretion. Here, we explore and synthesise the known impacts that this highly abundant and rather large species has on […]

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Diatoms commit iron piracy with stolen bacterial gene

February 4, 2020

Since diatoms carry out much of the primary production in iron-limited marine environments, constraining the details of how these phytoplankton acquire the iron they need is paramount to our understanding of biogeochemical cycles of iron-depleted high-nutrient low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions. The proteins involved in this process are largely unknown, but McQuaid et al. (2018) scientists described […]

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Ocean iron fertilization commercialization: bad idea; Continued research: good idea

January 21, 2020

Amidst little to no substantive global action on climate change mitigation, individuals and companies have been exploring various geoengineering strategies as a possible alternative. Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) is an ocean-based strategy that involves the addition of iron to the sunlit upper layers of the ocean in iron-limited areas such as the Southern Ocean in […]

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The past, present, and future of the ocean carbon cycle: A global data product with regional insights

January 21, 2020

A new study published in Scientific Reports debuts a global data product of ocean acidification (OA) and buffer capacity from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the end of the century (1750-2100 C.E.). To develop this product, the authors linked one of the richest observational carbon dioxide (CO2) data products (6th version of the […]

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Surface bacterial communities respond to rapid changes in the western Arctic

January 7, 2020

During the western Arctic summer open water season, latitudinal differences in the physical and biogeochemical features of the surface water are apparent from the Bering Strait to the Chukchi Borderland. Lower latitude regions (i.e. Bering Strait to Chukchi Shelf) are primarily driven by the inflow of Pacific waters that supply nutrients and heat, leading to […]

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