How Microscopic Ocean Life May Help Make It Rain SAN FRANCISCO—Clouds can carry millions of pounds of water, but that doesn’t mean rain and snow just happen.

Plastic pollution tends to float near the surface and build up in large, rotating ocean currents known as gyres. The ...

Insights from innovative device could provide a new window into secrets of microscopic ocean life and their effects on crucial planetary processes, such as carbon fixation.

Student researchers at the University of San Diego are testing out a new product in order to remove pollutants from water in ...

Studying microscopic phytoplankton: Prototype ready for the open ocean Date: February 10, 2015 Source: NASA Summary: Its name refers to one of the biggest animals in the sea, but ORCA, the Ocean ...

The global ocean covers about 71% of the earth’s surface and contains approximately 97% of all water on the planet. In some ways, the ocean is more important now than it ever has been before.

The world's first microscope capable of imaging the seafloor might change this. The Benthic Underwater Microscope (BUM) was invented at the University of California, San Diego, and named for the ...

It uncovered how some microscopic single-celled organisms that are too light to sink beyond 100 meters or so — like phytoplankton and bacteria — end up going deeper into the ocean where there ...

In spring, the days lengthen, the water warms slightly, nutrients flow into the ocean’s surface layers from land or deeper waters, and the phytoplankton bloom.

At the bottom of the world lies a region as magnificent as it is misunderstood: Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Harsh, ...

Phytoplankton in the Gulf of Maine have been decreasing in production due to increased water temperatures. The phytoplankton make up the base of the ocean's food chain.