The Ocean Brief
Ocean stories and insights covering science, policy, innovation, and the ocean community
Data collected by record-breaking rowers shows Great Britain’s warming seas
The data reveals UK coastal seas were on average 0.39 Celsius warmer in 2023 than in 2022.
BLUE-X: harvesting Earth Observation data for offshore renewables
Seven European partners, including offshore renewable energy and Earth Observation specialists, have teamed up for the BLUE-X project. Together, they will develop a satellite-based decision support tool to accelerate offshore renewable energy deployments. This is the first blue energy Horizon Europe project funded by the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).
Are climate negotiations... colonial?
Juan Auz and Phillip Paiement (Tilburg Law School) argue that "global climate negotiations embody neocolonialism because the Global North introduced insidious temperature targets, enabling silent yet significant devastation in the Global South at and below the 1.5°C threshold."
How deep sea knowledge can support climate policies
Young Researchers from La Laguna to join Ocean Census expedition in Tenerife, providing data and knowledge that could support climate policies.
Bacteria linked to mass death of sea sponges weakened by warming Mediterranean
In 2021, divers off the Turkish Aegean coast first observed dark stinging sponges dying in great numbers. Researchers have now sampled three species of pathogenic Vibrio bacteria, previously known to infect unrelated marine animals, from diseased and dying sponges. Evidence suggests that vibriosis may be a secondary illness that affects already weakened sponges, but is not necessarily the primary agent of the novel disease.
Dolphins, seals, and whales managed by the US are highly vulnerable to climate change
As oceans warm, acidify, and lose oxygen, marine mammals likely to lose food, habitat.
More than 90% of global aquatic food production faces substantial risk from environmental change
Despite their importance to global diets, the vulnerability of aquatic foods to environmental change has been vastly understudied, with the US and major producers in Asia most at risk.
Warming climate could turn ocean plankton microbes into carbon emitters
New research finds that a warming climate could flip globally abundant microbial communities from carbon sinks to carbon emitters, potentially triggering climate change tipping points.
Sea butterfly’ life cycle threatened by climate change may impact Southern Ocean ecosystem
Scientists examining pteropod life cycles in the Southern Ocean find that some species might be more vulnerable to ocean change than others.