Smithsonian scientists who documented massive mortality of corals and reef organisms meticulously studied one of the apparent causes: oxygen deficiency. A Smithsonian paleobiologist asks if the recent fossil record shows signs of similar hypoxia events.
Rapid increases in ocean acidity puts crustose coralline algae in a growth predicament, research by a Smithsonian marine scientist shows.
With multiple projects in both the Pacific and the Caribbean, the Collin Lab pieces together the complex life histories of marine invertebrates.
Isla Boná in the Gulf of Panama is an understudied breeding ground for thousands of tropical seabirds. Marine biologist Héctor Guzmán’s newest research program will contribute to understanding their ecology and the conservation of the island for birds and birders alike.
Coral reef fish often see a very different seascape that humans do. Using the evolutionary laboratory created by the Isthmus of Panama, Michele Pierotti is learning exactly how they view their underwater world.
Seemingly far removed from similar ecosystems, research by Smithsonian scientist Harilaos Lessios shows that the diverse marine life of Coiba is connected to the rest of Eastern Tropical Pacific — and beyond.
Whale tracking research contributes to maritime safety and cetacean protection in Costa Rica and the Pacific
Perhaps old species, like some older people, gradually lose their ability to deal with changes in their environment. Aaron O’Dea and colleagues show that when the Caribbean was cut off from the Pacific by the rise of the Panama land bridge, evolutionarily old species took longer to expand into new habitats than evolutionarily younger species did.
Attacks on humpback whales may be on the rise, according to an analysis of scars on humpback whales published in Endangered Species Research.
Long-distance migrations are common for large whales, but when in their evolutionary past did they begin to migrate and why? Fossil whale barnacles may have the answers
