Author: Ocean Studies Board

As the Gulf of Mexico recovers from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, natural resource managers face the challenge of understanding the impacts of t...

Many coastal areas of the United States are at risk for tsunamis. After the catastrophic 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, legislation was passed t...

An estimated 8 million metric tons (MMT) of plastic waste enters the world's ocean each year - the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic...

As of 2021, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached historically unprecedented levels, higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years. W...

Hurricane- and coastal-storm-related losses have increased substantially during the past century, largely due to increases in population and develo...

The ocean is a fundamental component of the earth's biosphere. It covers roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and plays a pivotal role in the cycl...

The world's ocean has already experienced a 30% rise in acidity since the industrial revolution, with acidity expected to rise 100 to 150% over pre...

In May 2012, the National Park Service (NPS) asked the National Research Council to conduct a scientific review of a Draft Environmental Impact St...

Many factors contribute to variability in Earth's climate on a range of timescales, from seasons to decades. Natural climate variability arises fro...

The U.S. Gulf Coast provides a valuable setting to study deeply connected natural and human interactions and feedbacks that have led to a complex, ...

The ocean is central to the health of the planet and the well-being of human societies, but ongoing depletion, disruption, and pollution threaten i...

U.S. mariculture production of bivalve molluscs-those cultivated in the marine environment-has roughly doubled over the last 25 years. Although mar...

U.S. Arctic waters north of the Bering Strait and west of the Canadian border encompass a vast area that is usually ice covered for much of the yea...

The sea ice surrounding Antarctica has increased in extent and concentration from the late 1970s, when satellite-based measurements began, until 20...

Gulf Coast communities and natural resources suffered extensive direct and indirect damage as a result of the largest accidental oil spill in US hi...

The ocean is an integral component of the Earth's climate system. It covers about 70% of the Earth's surface and acts as its primary reservoir of h...

Ocean science connects a global community of scientists in many disciplines - physics, chemistry, biology, geology and geophysics. New observationa...

Oil and natural gas represent more than 50 percent of the worldwide energy supply, with high energy demand driven by population growth and improvin...

Increasing renewable energy development, both within the United States and abroad, has rekindled interest in the potential for marine and hydrokine...

Research supported by scientific ocean drilling has fundamentally transformed our understanding of the planet with key contributions to the discove...

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is responsible for collecting informatio...

Through direct exploration of the subseafloor, U.S.-supported scientific ocean drilling programs have significantly contributed to a broad range of...

Marine mammals face a large array of stressors, including loss of habitat, chemical and noise pollution, and bycatch in fishing, which alone kills ...

The Earth system - the atmospheric, hydrologic, geologic, and biologic cycles that circulate energy, water, nutrients, and other trace substances -...

Improved observations of the atmospheric boundary layer (BL) and its interactions with the ocean, land, and ice surfaces have great potential to ad...

The United States has jurisdiction over 3.4 million square miles of ocean in its exclusive economic zone, a size exceeding the combined land area o...

Whether the result of an oil well blowout, vessel collision or grounding, leaking pipeline, or other incident at sea, each marine oil spill will pr...

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) manages the energy and mineral resources on the outer continental shelf. BOEM's environmental program,...

Coral reefs are critical to ocean and human life because they provide food, living area, storm protection, tourism income, and more. However, human...

Sediments, ice, corals, and trees are just some of the natural storehouses of information that help tell the complicated history of Earth's climate...

Coral reef declines have been recorded for all major tropical ocean basins since the 1980s, averaging approximately 30-50% reductions in reef cover...

To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, negative emissions technologies (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the air will...

Marine recreational fishing is a popular activity enjoyed by more than 9 million Americans annually and is a driver of the American ocean-or blue-e...

A central goal of U.S. fisheries management is to control the exploitation of fish populations so that fisheries remain biologically productive, ec...

Regular use of sunscreens has been shown to reduce the risk of sunburn and skin cancer, and slow photoaging of skin. Sunscreens can rinse off into ...

The growing problem of changing environmental conditions caused by climate destabilization is well recognized as one of the defining issues of our ...