University Communications and Public Affairs
A marine ecologist known for his work on community ecology and chemical ecology has been selected to receive the 2012 Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody Award in Ocean Sciences from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Mark Hay, Teasley Professor of Environmental Biology and co-director of the Center for Aquatic Chemical Ecology at Georgia Tech, will be awarded the prestigious prize during a private ceremony on June 14.
A 100-fold upsurge in human-produced plastic garbage in the ocean is altering habitats in the marine environment, according to a new study led by a graduate student researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
The world can significantly slow the pace of climate change with practical efforts to control so-called “short-lived climate pollutants” and by bringing successful Western technologies to the developing world, according to three UC San Diego scientists in the journal Foreign Affairs.
One of the challenges James Cameron faces in exploring the Mariana Trench is that no light is able to penetrate its extreme depths. That’s where the engineering know-how of Kevin Hardy and other Scripps researchers comes into play. Hardy, a Scripps research engineer, has developed telephone-booth-size landers that are dropped to the seafloor.
Doug Bartlett was there to explore an alien world, possibly filled with unknown marine life. Kevin Hardy was there to fulfill a lifelong dream of developing instruments he designed to reach the world’s deepest point. After years of meticulous preparations, they waited. Finally, they were part of a team that made history.
Eddie Bernard, scientist emeritus for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and former director of NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, will present “Tsunamis: Are we underestimating the risk?” during the 13th annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture, presented by the Ocean Studies Board, part of the U.S. National Research Council.
The water flowing through Venice’s famous canals laps at buildings a little higher every year – and not only because of a rising sea level. Although previous studies had found that Venice has stabilized, new measurements indicate that the historic city continues to slowly sink, and even to tilt slightly to the east.
Among the many intriguing aspects of the deep sea, Earth’s largest ecosystem, exist environments known as hydrothermal vent systems where hot water surges out from the seafloor. On the flipside the deep sea also features cold areas where methane rises from “seeps” on the ocean bottom.
Come to Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to hear about a research adventure to the Caribbean islands and explore the mysteries of lizard evolution.
The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) has announced the shipyard responsible for constructing the next chapter in ocean exploration for Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. The new research vessel will be owned by ONR for the Department of the Navy and operated by Scripps under charter party agreement.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego received a string of major private donations in early 2012 that exceeded $5.2 million.
Marine scientists and a commercial telecommunications company are exploring partnerships that could dramatically advance scientists’ ability to observe and study ocean processes, provide early alerts for potential disasters and study deep Earth geodynamics.
Like a stream of air shooting out of an airplane’s broken window to relieve cabin pressure, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego say lava formations in eastern Oregon are the result of an outpouring of magma forced out of a breach in a massive slab of Earth. Their new mechanism explaining how such a large volume of magma was generated is published in the Feb. 16 issue of the journal Nature.
From prediction of algal blooms that could poison seafood to identification of subseafloor oil deposits to an effort for the military to borrow camouflage techniques from octopi, the cross-section of research presented at Scripps Institution of Oceanography Jan. 19 ran the gamut from practical to fantastical.
Internet information giant Google updated ocean data in its Google Earth application this week, reflecting new bathymetry data assembled by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, NOAA researchers and many other ocean mapping groups from around the world.
Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While ocean warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold events can also cause large-scale coral bleaching events.
Scripps’ Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (CMBC) celebrates its 10-year anniversary and looks forward to the decades ahead with two special events (both events are free but reservations are required).
Jeffrey B. Graham, a research physiologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, died of cancer at his home in San Diego Dec. 8. He was 70 years old.
The lineup of presentations at an extreme weather workshop taking place today at Scripps Institution of Oceanography sounds like an overview of biblical plagues, but in fact the event’s conveners said California needs to expect more episodes of what insurers would consider “acts of God.”
Margaret Leinen recalls that when Nobel Prize-winning physicist Paul Crutzen wrote a 2006 essay exploring the feasibility of geoengineering, the late Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider noted that in Crutzen, “the messenger was the message.”
