A defining characteristic of marine coccolithophores is the ability to produce nanopatterned calcite biominerals (coccoliths), which profoundly impact the marine carbon cycle. These coccoliths, which are produced intracellularly and extruded through the cell membrane upon maturation, are incorporated into a surrounding coccosphere and serve to ballast photosynthetically-fixed carbon to ocean...
Scientists’ findings suggest corals will withstand climate change
Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who championed the theory of evolution, noted that corals form far-reaching structures, largely made of limestone, that surround tropical islands. He didn’t know how they performed this feat. Now, Rutgers scientists have shown that coral structures consist of a biomineral containing a highly organized organic...
Slocum Glider “Silbo” Circumnavigates the Atlantic Ocean – Part 3
This episode is the third in a four-part series on "Silbo", Teledyne Webb Research's autonomous underwater glider that recently made the first ever circumnavigation of the Atlantic Ocean by an unmanned underwater vehicle. In this episode of Marine Tech Talk, Joe Gradone, Rutgers graduate student, discusses Silbo's journey from St....
Atlantic invertebrates are going the wrong way
Rutgers Faculty Heidi L. Fuchs (Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences), Robert J. Chant (Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences) , and Enrique N. Curchitser (Department of Environmental Sciences) along with researchers Elias Hunter (Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences - Rutgers), Emily Chen (Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences...
How Stable is Deep Ocean Circulation in Warmer Climate?
While instabilities of the Atlantic meridional ocean circulation (AMOC) are known to occur during cold glacial periods, warm interglacials such as the last 10,000 years were considered to be more stable. However, a new study now shows that short-term disruptions of deep ocean circulation also occurred during the warm interglacial...
The simple protein that started all life
By Natalie Parletta Scientists believe they have discovered a simple protein that started all life 3.5 to 2.5 billion years ago, publishing their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We think we have found the building blocks of life – the Lego set that led,...
Melting Glaciers in Alaska
Rebecca Jackson has been working at LeConte Glacier in Alaska to investigate the submarine melting of glaciers. Ocean warming has been linked to widespread retreat of marine-terminating glaciers, with submarine melting as the presumed trigger for glacier changes. However, submarine melting of glaciers is rarely measured and we have limited...
Ecology and Conservation of Sharks
(above) A tagged male pelagic thresher shark returns to a seamount in the Philippines to be cleaned of parasites. Two cleaner fish (wrasse) can be seen grooming the shark’s flank and cloaca. The acoustic transmitter tag is visible trailing from the dorsal fin, where it was inserted by a diver...
Horseshoe Crabs on Oyster Farms
We know that fences around farms and homes can change how wildlife species move across a landscape, but what happens if the farms are under water? In 2018, the Munroe Lab began experiments and surveys to look at this question on oyster farms in the lower Delaware Bay. The wildlife...