Beneath the Surface: Water and the Speed of Sound
Sound in the ocean travels about five times as fast as it does in the atmosphere. As with light, absorption plays a major role.
Subject: ocean
Transcript: [narrator:] just as seawater has a significant impact Mon light in the ocean, so too, does it affect sound. With not a very loud source-- a couple
Beneath the Surface: Use of Sound by Marine Mammals
Marine mammals use sound in much the same way that animals on land use their sight and, to some extent, their hearing. It offers the best means by which to detect their prey at a distance.
Subject: ocean
Transcript: [narrator:] the utilization of sound Min the marine environment extends beyond human applications. [worcester:] marine mammals use sound in the ocean
Survivors: Predators and Prey
The ocean provides home to a dazzling variety of life. Yet there was a time when early life forms faced a multitude of struggles that threatened
Subject: ocean
Transcript: [narrator:] the ocean is home to a dazzling variety of life. yet there was a time when life struggled to survive. intense ultraviolet light
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity and Climate
Phytoplankton play an important if indirect role in regulating the chemistry of the ocean and the atmosphere system. They do this through their
Subject: ocean
Transcript: productivity in the ocean is That the plankton play an important role In regulating the chemistry of the ocean And the atmosphere system. Photosynthesis uses
Food for Thought: Global Patterns of Primary Productivity
Phytoplankton tend to concentrate in areas where the conditions for their growth and reproduction are optimal. Some of the most productive waters include the Antarctic and the North Atlantic during the springtime.
Subject: ocean
Transcript: globe gives us an idea of where we're likely To find high areas of exploitable production. They're most abundant in the coastal ocean. That's where
Due West: Ventura, California Marina
The Ventura, California marina was built in the 1950s with little or no understanding of the dredging that would be necessary to counteract the accumulation of sediment underwater. As a result the harbor has not functioned effectively for much of th...
Subject: ocean
On the Coast: Living with Erosion and Sea Level Rise
While the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are considered to be relatively gentle coastlines, erosional problems can pose problems in these areas, just as they do on the west coast. In Massachusetts, for example, the combination of erosion and sea level ris...
Subject: ocean
The Water Planet: Origin of the Solar System
Several billion years following the "Big Bang," a cloud of dust and gas began to condense and rotate, taking on a spherical shape. Eventually, the dust grains within this rotating cloud would coalesce and become the sun and planets of the solar syst...
Subject: ocean
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity, Carbon Dioxide and the Role of Humans
matter decomposes and sinks into the deeper layers of the coastal ocean, it uses up the available oxygen, resulting in a condition known as anoxia or lack
Subject: ocean
Transcript: humans play. [zimmerman:] we are changing the chemical composition Of the atmosphere by increasing co2, and its impact On ocean productivity is a subject
Survivors: The Oxygen Revolution
At one time, Earth's atmosphere had a far smaller percentage of oxygen than it does today. Only when that percentage began to rise, thanks to the oxygen production of photosynthetic plants and organisms, was it possible for animals to come into bein...
Subject: ocean
Transcript: . Ultimately, when photosynthetic plants And other photosynthetic organisms began to make oxygen, The oxygen immediately was released into the ocean-- There were