Hands On: Need for More Oceanographers, The
Oceanography's rapid growth requires that sizable numbers of eager young scientists join the ranks of established veterans.
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity and Global Geochemical Cycles
Thanks to recent breakthroughs in our ability to detect and analyze organisms much smaller than any studied in the past, scientists are now looking at a broad range of microbial life forms in the ocean. As part of this process, it's become much more...
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.
First Steps: The History of Marine Exploration: Oceanographic Institutions
The world's first oceanographic laboratory was built not in the United States or Great Britain but in Italy. The two best known marine science institutions today, however, are the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, located in La Jolla, California,...
First Steps: The History of Marine Exploration: Technology and Collaboration
The past hundred years has been a time of explosive growth and change within marine science. Perhaps the greatest change has been the recognition that, if it is to flourish, oceanography must be practiced in a collaborative and multi-disciplinary ma...
Food for Thought: Primary Producers and Photosynthesis
Primary producers are marine organisms so small that most of them can't be seen individually without magnification. But despite their small size, primary producers are extremely important. They take energy from other sources-primarily the sun-and us...
Something in the Air: Meteorological Research: Challenges for the Future
Although a great deal of progress has been made in the field of meteorological research, there is much that remains a mystery, at least in part because the climate system is so unpredictable.
Dirty Water: Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
Many scientists are convinced that there is a connection between global climate change and the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Those who believe that global warming is a real and serious problem often cite sea level rise as one reason ...