News by Subject Agriculture

New research by the University of Plymouth represents one of the first studies to examine the effectiveness of targeted lionfish removals from both an ecological and a socio-economic perspective.

Scientists have developed a new way to model and map the health of coral reef ecosystems using data collected on the Global Reef Expedition. This innovative method, presented today at the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS), can determine which natural and anthropogenic factors are most likely to lead to persistently vibrant coral and fish communities. Their findings can help scientists identify the reefs most likely to survive in a changing world.

Researchers created a simulation of a deep-sea sponge and how it responds to and influences the flow of water. The work revealed a profound connection between the sponge's structure and function, shedding light on both the basket sponge's ability to withstand the dynamic forces of the surrounding ocean and its ability to create a vortex within the body cavity "basket." These properties may help for the design of ships, planes and skyscrapers of the future.

A landmark scientific study involving marine biologists from Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Libya, Italy, Tunisia, the UK, the US and even Malta, documenting instances where native Mediterranean species have preyed upon two highly invasive marine fish - the Pacific red lionfish and the silver-cheeked toadfish - has just been published.

Scientists from UC Davis have developed a tool that is able to differentiate the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse from its non-endangered doppelgänger with up to 99% accuracy.

Sweeping changes in marine nutrients may seem to be a likely consequence of increasing global temperatures; however, new research suggests that processes below the ocean surface could play a larger role than previously thought.

Whether summer or winter, midnight sun or polar night - the sand on the ocean floor is always inhabited by the same bacteria. Although the microbial communities differ between different ocean regions, they do not change between the seasons. Presumably, there is simply no room for change. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, now describe this phenomenon in a study published in the journal ISME Communications.

To better understand how familiarity impacts social fishes, a group of research scientists studied this idea using schooling coral reef fish.