Pacific Ocean
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Study Challenges Popular Idea That Easter Islanders Committed ‘Ecocide’
A popular trope says settlers overtaxed an isolated Pacific island, wrecked the environment and suffered a population collapse. A new study claims the opposite.
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Study Reveals Long-Distance Levers Behind U.S. Southwest Drought—and a Dry Future
The U.S. Southwest has suffered a historic drought over the past two decades. A new study elucidates the drivers, and says conditions will never return to those of the relatively wet 20th century.
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Cordilleran Ice Sheet Retreat Caused Volcanic Eruptions, Deoxygenation Events 10,000 Years Ago
New research shows that retreat of an ice sheet in the Pacific Northwest led to many volcanic explosions and ocean areas with low oxygen that threatened the health of marine ecosystems.
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Part of the Pacific Ocean Is Not Warming as Expected. Why?
Climate models predict that as a result of human-induced climate change, the surface of the Pacific Ocean should be warming. But one key part is not.
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Every (Fifth) Breath We Take: Friends of Phytoplankton and Why They Matter
Tiny microbes called phytoplankton live beneath the ocean’s surface, producing oxygen that is essential to human survival. A new study sheds light on how these all-important diatoms survive and thrive under difficult conditions.
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Eavesdropping on the Ocean’s Mighty Microorganisms
Now, nearing the end of our three-week cruise of the North Pacific off Hawaii, we are working to understand how these tiny bacteria connect and communicate with one another.
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Deep thoughts from the Deep Blue Sea
The sea is a deep blue, so clear that you might think it was devoid of life. We have seen only a few seabirds circling the ship and playing in the air currents we generate. We haven’t seen any whales or sharks, only an occasional flying fish taking to the air in front of our…
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Racing time to Explore Ocean Ecosystems: A Mother’s Work
Scientists like myself are in a race against time to understand the fundamental drivers of ocean ecosystems before climate change pushes them towards a new unknown state.
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A Front Row Seat on the Ocean Floor
Ocean scientists are, in their hearts, explorers. Our group aboard the R/V Atlantis may be more infected with the exploration bug than most. The first goal of our expedition makes that clear: We aim to map regions of the seafloor never before seen by human eyes.
