Food Web

MIT oceanographers discovered big fish like tuna and swordfish get a large fraction of their food from the ocean's twilight zone — a cold, dark layer about half a mile below the surface.

Researchers at Rice University have uncovered a critical link between rising temperatures and declines in a species' population, shedding new light on how global warming threatens natural ecosystems. The study, published in Ecology and led by Volker Rudolf, revealed that rising temperatures exacerbate competition within populations, ultimately leading to population crashes at higher temperatures. It offers one of…

Under the sea ice during the Arctic's pitch-black polar night, cells power photosynthesis on the lowest light levels ever observed in nature.

Nearly every environment on Earth — and that includes animals — is home to some kind of parasite. We explore parasites not just because they're an

Molted penguin feathers record mercury infiltrating Antarctica's food web

by Issam AHMEDThe common murre, a large black-and-white seabird native to northern waters, has become far less common in Alaska over the past decade due to the impacts of climate change.A study published Thursday in Science reveals that a record-breaking marine heat wave in the northeast Pacific fro...

Once thought to be empty, the water hosts a unique, tiny ecosystem.

Effective fisheries management requires accurate estimates of stock biomass and trends; yet, assumptions in stock assessment models generate high levels of uncertainty and error. For 230 fisheries worldwide, we contrasted stock biomass estimates at the ...

A new study has found that the Great Salt Lake, which has lost 73 percent of its water, is releasing climate-warming emissions.

Spotted hyenas are known for hunting (or scavenging) larger mammals such as antelopes and occasionally feed on smaller mammals and reptiles. Being flexible in the choice of prey is a strategy of generalists—and this even extends to small passerine birds, as scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and the University of Ljubljana observed in Namibia.

A new analysis of zooplankton in western Lake Erie shows that their biomass and seasonal behavioral patterns have been drastically altered by human-driven changes in water temperature and food webs.

Leopard seals are apex predators in the Antarctic region but they generally do not pose a significant threat to humans. Learn more about their behavior and the potential risks regarding human interaction.

In the dark and cold of the months-long polar night, food resources are limited. Some groups of marine organisms in the polar regions overcome this challenge by going into a metabolic resting state in winter, surviving on reserves accumulated during the short growth season.

South of Cape Cod, fiddler crabs and marsh grass have long had a mutually beneficial relationship. It's a different story in the North, where the harms can...

Nineteen million years ago, during a time known as the early Miocene, massive ice sheets in Antarctica rapidly and repeatedly grew and receded. The Miocene is widely considered a potential analog for Earth's climate in the coming century, should humanity remain on its current carbon emissions trajectory.

Though we might think we are, humans aren't even that close to the top of the food chain.

Hefty iceberg D-30A has collided with Clarence Island — an important refuge for breeding penguins in Antarctica. But luckily, the penguins weren't at home when the berg struck.

South Africa is renowned for having one of the world's biggest populations of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Substantial declines have been observed, however, in places where the sharks normally gather on the coast of the Western Cape province. Sharks congregate at these locations to feed, interact socially, or rest.

Antarctica's sea ice levels are plummeting as extreme weather events happen faster than scientists predicted

Coral reefs—the foundation of many aquatic ecosystems—are among the ocean's most vulnerable inhabitants. While natural processes, like animal predation and storms, frequently damage corals, human impact, like ship collisions and global warming, can destabilize these environments beyond their ability to recover.