The Delicate Balance, Part 2: Climate Destabilization
Global climate change is believed to be created by excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While El Niño is not a reflection of climate change, it does demonstrate the results of unpredictable or unstable weather conditions. Climate...
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...
Living Together: Marine Communities: Change and Bio-Diversity
For communities in the marine environment, change is an ongoing reality. Bio-diversity, which refers to the number of species and relative abundance of different species within a community, offers the best chance for community survival.
Living Together: Threats to Coral Reefs
Symbiosis within a reef community can be threatened by a number of factors. These include severe storms, nutrient discharge from farming and agriculture, and a process known as bleaching, which may be related to global warming.
Dirty Water: Oceanic Clues About Climate Change
Many scientists believe they can better understand today's climate patterns by comparing them to those from the past. One way to do this is by examining ancient sediment samples.
Coasts Are Arbitrary
Geophysicist and geologist Tanya Atwater notes that the line between oceans and continents, commonly known as the coast, is actually very arbitrary and subject to change over time. She also talks about implications of global warming for coastal regi...
Social Responsibility and Profitability
One reason some organizations are hesitant to adopt social responsibility programs is cost. The argument here is that profit is the cornerstone on which a business is built, and that additional responsibilities only jeopardize the efficiency of prof...
Global Warming and Sea Level Change
Renowned oceanographer and geophysicist Walter Munk talks about the relationship between global warming and sea level change. Professor Munk points out that, contrary to popular belief, the melting of floating ice does not change sea level. It is th...
Using Sound to Measure Ocean Warming
Renowned oceanographer and geophysicist Walter Munk talks about efforts to measure ocean warming through the use of sound--a process known as dark acoustic thermometry. Professor Munk notes that since the speed of sound increases in the ocean with t...
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.