Journals

Explore Mediterranean Sea geography, circulation, salinity and biodiversity—and why an almost enclosed sea is highly exposed to human pressure.

The ocean absorbs most excess heat from human-driven warming. The result is marine heatwaves, sea-level rise, habitat shifts and coral stress.

Global sea level rises mainly because warmer seawater expands and land ice melts. Local change also depends on land movement, currents and…

Marine food webs begin with primary producers such as phytoplankton, then connect grazers, fish and predators through many overlapping pathways.

Phytoplankton are drifting photosynthetic organisms at the base of most marine food webs. They produce oxygen and move carbon through the ocean.

The ocean produces roughly half of Earth’s oxygen, mainly through photosynthetic plankton—but marine organisms consume a comparable amount.

Deep-sea creatures survive darkness, cold, scarce food and high pressure through bioluminescence, slow metabolism and specialised bodies and senses.

Bioluminescence is light made by a living organism through a chemical reaction. In the ocean it helps animals hunt, hide, defend and…

Seagrasses are underwater flowering plants that create nurseries, stabilise sediment and store blue carbon. Posidonia oceanica is a Mediterranean endemic.

Mangroves provide nurseries for marine life, store carbon in waterlogged soils, filter water and reduce waves and erosion along tropical coasts.