Biology Marine biology

News

25 Mar 2024
A marine biologist is inching closer to conquering science’s over 120-year pursuit to farm lobsters by letting these “dragons of the sea” get real weird.
09 Nov 2023
New shrimp species in ancient hot spring, Super sprouts, How "warm-ups" work, New antiviral candidate, Solving voltage decay and from our blog: A sustainable future shines in TIE 2023. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.
Hyalella yashmara amphipod
13 Oct 2023
A new amphipod species thrives at record temperatures in nearby hot spring pools of an ancient Inca city, defying norms for these typically cold-dwelling animals. Unraveling its key adaptations can give clues for the survival of other freshwater creatures in our warming world.
An acoel (top) with two types of symbionts collected in Kochi, Japan (bottom left). The green-colored spots in the acoel are green algal (Tetraselmis) symbionts (middle right) and the brown-colored spots are dinoflagellate symbionts (bottom right). (Photos: Kevin Wakeman and Siratee Riewluang)
05 Oct 2023
Acoels have been found to host a wide diversity of symbiotic, photosynthetic microalgae.
Map of the eight Arctic marine areas included in the study (Irene D. Alabia, et al. Scientific Reports. March 11, 2023).
04 Apr 2023
Marine predators have expanded their ranges into the Arctic waters over the last twenty years, driven by climate change and associated increases in productivity.
14 Dec 2022
Using cryogenic electron microscopy, a research team from the Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (ReCAP) at Osaka Metropolitan University has revealed, for the first time, the structures and binding environments of pigments bound to a protein called a photosynthetic antenna of the marine green macroalga Codium fragile. The team’s results extend our knowledge about the molecular mechanism by which blue-green light—the only light available in deep seawater—is efficiently utilized for photosynthesis.
17 Feb 2022
An international team of researchers respond to criticisms on previous work that demonstrated Mirror Self-Recognition (MSR) in the cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus, by 1) successfully repeating the mark test with a larger sample size, 2) showing the MSR behaviour to be the visual result of the mark not a physical response to it, and 3) showing that MSR-trained fish do not show aggression to spatially varied mirror images of themselves. Additionally, they further demonstrate potential self-awareness in L. dimidiatus by showing that they do not demonstrate MSR behaviour when visually presented with the mark on other fish and solidify the importance of ecologically relevant marks presented in previous work by showing MSR behaviour of L. dimidiatus with brown marks, meant to resemble a main food source of the fish, as opposed to no such behaviour in fish with green or blue marks.
Head regeneration of the hemichordates, Ptychodera flava
15 Feb 2022
Better understanding of regeneration in hemichordates may eventually lead to advances in reparative medicine
19 Oct 2021
An ambitious project using cutting edge environmental DNA, known as eDNA, to understand the richness of biodiversity of UNESCO’s marine World Heritage sites launches today.
Collecting coral probiotics from seawater instead of coral
13 Oct 2021
Coral reefs, comprising some of the most diverse and delicate ecosystems under water, are under immense stress. From global warming to pollution to pathogens, many of the reef-building coral species are listed as threatened or endangered. But, according to researchers in Japan, the corals may have an unlikely ally: bacteria.
Masahiro Nakaoka, Rommel Llanillo, Muammar Princess Soniega
03 Sep 2021
Social vulnerabilities of coastal communities and their reliance on blue carbon ecosystem services may be improved by addressing three major factors, according to a study led by Hokkaido University researchers.
Two distinct biodiversity refugia (inset map, top panel) for marine communities (159 fish and invertebrate species) in the Eastern Bering Sea from 1990-2018
17 May 2021
Scientists from Hokkaido University have used species survey and climate data to identify two marine biodiversity refugia in the Eastern Bering Sea – regions where species richness, community stability and climate stability are high.
10 May 2021
Deep sea animals face greater risks compared to those nearer the surface as they become less able to maintain their preferred thermal habitats with climate change.
19 Mar 2021
Through a series of prosocial choice tasks, researchers reveal prosocial and antisocial characteristics in male convict cichlid fish. The fish distinguish between female breeding partners, unknown females, and rival males by adjusting their actions to either provide food for both them and the females or avoid providing food for the rival males.
11 Dec 2020
Recognizing species is important for understanding regional biodiversity and for environmental conservation. However, taxonomic identity is sometimes obscure even with the organisms that are closest to human life.
25 Nov 2020
Scientist's understanding of this microscopic invertebrate has grown after the second discovery of Loricifera near Japan.
27 May 2020
Scientists could gain insight into atypical sex development in vertebrates, including humans, by studying how nutrition affects sex changes in fish larvae.
23 Jan 2020
During the early summer, corals simultaneously release tiny balls composed of sperm and eggs, known as bundles, that float to the ocean surface. Here the bundles open, allowing the sperm to fertilize the eggs where they eventually settle on the seafloor and become new coral on the reef.
25 Nov 2019
Global simulations suggest plankton and fish species are showing resilience to climate change by going deeper underwater or moving to higher latitudes.
03 Sep 2019
A new beaked whale species Berardius minimus, which has been long postulated by local whalers in Hokkaido, Japan, has been confirmed.
27 Aug 2019
A group of biologists from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) have discovered a new fireworm species in Hong Kong waters and named it Chloeia bimaculata. It is the fourth named species to be added to the fireworm genus Chloeia during the last century. The team also identified Chloeia parva as the fireworm species that caused the outbreak in Hong Kong last year. The discovery shows how little people know about the biodiversity of this group of animals.
27 Aug 2019
A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has analyzed the genetic map of Nomura’s jellyfish, scientifically known as Nemopilema nomurai, for the first time.
05 Aug 2019
Malaysia seeks alternative solutions to prevent and treat infectious diseases in shrimp.
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13 Dec 2018
Direct electrolysis has mixed results for extracting fuel sources from microalgae.
Determining fish age using inner ear structures
07 Dec 2018
Biologists in Japan have identified four distinct zones in the otolith, a calcium carbonate structure in the inner ear, which can be used to determine age in fish.
Researchers
14 Nov 2018
Investigating plankton communities' reaction to rising water temperatures may improve modeling of marine ecosystem responses to global warming.
Whale Shark
12 Jul 2018
Investigations of prey patterns fail to explain why whale sharks aggregate off the coast of Saudi Arabia.
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28 Jun 2018
The techniques that make industrial pearl culturing possible were developed over a century ago at the Misaki Marine Biological Station in Japan.
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11 Jun 2018
A molecular process that signals distress could also help corals adapt to climate change.
Dolphin Liberation in Korea
24 May 2018
A international team of researchers, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has carried out a scientific investigation on dolphin liberation in South Korea.

Events

01 Jun 2021 to 30 Jun 2021
The Ocean Celebration event runs 1-30 June 2021 and is organized by the Borneo Marine Research Institute of Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Researchers

Jorge García Molinos is an aquatic ecologist broadly interested in global change ecology and macroecology.
Associate Professor Sitti Raehanah Muhamad Shaleh is the director of Borneo Marine Research Institute at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
Professor Qiu Jianwen currently works at the Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University. He is interested in ecology and adaptation of apple snails, biodiversity and systematics of polychaetes, stress responses in shallow-water corals, and deep-sea biology. His research involves the use of various molecular tools including transcriptomics, proteomics and genomics.

Giants in history

The techniques that make industrial pearl culturing possible were developed over a century ago at the Misaki Marine Biological Station in Japan. The station’s first director, Professor Kakichi Mitsukuri, emphasized to Kokichi Mikimoto in 1890 that stimulating pearl sac formation was important for pearl growth, and they went on to successfully develop methods for culturing pearls.
Osamu Shimomura (27 August 1928 – 19 October 2018) was a Japanese organic chemist and marine biologist who dedicated his career to understanding how organisms emitted light.
Edgardo Dizon Gomez (7 November 1938 – 1 December 2019) was a Filipino marine biologist who recognized the need to protect marine resources, especially coral reefs, in the Philippines.