Close up with a beautiful nudibranch on a rocky reef. The lower half of the image is a palette of swatches made from the nudi's vibrant colours.
Once upon a time I just admired nudis and sea slugs.
But it was not enough. Now apparently I'm creating an R package to celebrate their colour palettes? 😅
First up, my Sydney fave, Hypselodoris bennetti.
#rstats #nudibranch #dataviz 🦑🐙🧪 #marinelife #invertebrates
New paper out in @natureportfolio.nature.com @commsearth.nature.com!
A major bottleneck in coral restoration is that newly settled corals rarely survive.
We show that simple engineered substrates can increase early-stage survivorship by ~4×.
Link to paper: rdcu.be/femTN
The red dots indicate the daily records broken at Scripps Pier in 2026. Scripps Pier, La Jolla, Shore Stations
📈 Record temperatures in our ocean = not the records we want to be setting 🌡️
Since November 2025, scientists with Scripps Oceanography have recorded many daily, all-time record highs for water temperature. @sfgate.com shares more: https://bit.ly/4co3hoj
Persistent Legacy Effects of Marine Heatwaves on Coral Symbioses
🔗 buff.ly/L81eLEP
Here are some seaweed samples I found washed ashore. I dried and pressed them so that I can study them. So many beautiful shapes, colors, and textures. #seaweed #pacificocean
Wonderful visit to the National Marine Sanctuary offices in American Samoa today to meet with collaborators and explore the exhibits 🪸
Just touched down in Hawaii prior to our first NOAA Coral Reef Watch expedition in American Samoa! 🪸🐠
Close up shot of Solaster endeca surface pink and bubbly. By Alexander Semenov: https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_semenov/4371752155/
Red and orange projections as a close up shot of Crossaster papposus surface. Photo by Alexander Semenov: https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_semenov/4372503348/
Closeup of sea star skin, unknown species. Alexander Semenov: https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_semenov/8447618289/
Close up of Crossaster papposus sea star skin. By Alexander Semenov: https://www.flickr.com/photos/a_semenov/8448703898/in/photostream/
My god. Have you ever seen close-ups of sea star skin? 🧪🌊🌿
I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.
“The snowpack is extremely low across much of the West, not because precipitation was extremely low … but specifically because temperatures were record warm. That is the classic signature of a warming climate on mountain snowpack,” @weatherwest.bsky.social told @edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social
🚨 Paper Alert!
In 2023, Mexican coral reefs experienced an unprecedented bleaching event.
But bleaching wasn’t the biggest issue.
Our study in Proceedings B @royalsociety.org shows a marine heatwave caused massive coral mortality and pushed reefs from production to net erosion
#Reefs
A thread 🧵
Sargassum natans: Sargassum is a floating, fast-growing algae that constantly extracts CO2 from the atmosphere
🚨 Post-doctoral position alert! 🚨
The Bhattacharya Lab at Rutgers University is seeking a postdoc in the field of algal multi-omics and metabolic engineering 🌊 🦠 🧬
Ideal start by June. Applications will be reviewed as received. Please share widely :)
jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/269...
#evobio
Calling all researchers working on *Genomics of Adaptation to Extreme Thermal Environments*
I'm serving as a guest editor of an upcoming collection in BMC Genomics and am eager to read your submission! More on scope and how to contribute here: bit.ly/4kH3PIx 🧪 @springer.springernature.com
‼️ ‼️ Paper alert ‼️ ‼️
Our latest study from the @oceanecol.bsky.social Lab in the @icrs.bsky.social journal @springernature.com shows why high-resolution temperature monitoring matters for assessing bleaching impacts.
doi.org/10.1007/s003...
Thanks to @hkust.bsky.social, it is #openaccess
Pressings of brown seaweeds from San Diego #SciArt
🪸 A recent study by WHOI Reef Solutions scientists shows that microbes and genetic material in seawater change when nearby corals are sick. Seawater was a better indicator of disease than sampling the corals themselves.
@amiposts.bsky.social has the scoop: go.whoi.edu/microbio-coral
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!
Follow these awesome women ocean scientists, many of whom I'm proud to call colleagues and delighted to call friends.
🧪🦑🌍🐟
go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo
GBE | Genome Skimming Illuminates Hidden Species Diversity and Symbiodiniaceae Associations in East Pacific Pocillopora Corals
@michaeltconnelly.bsky.social et al. sequenced 342 Pocillopora coral samples from the Eastern Tropical Pacific, revealing four distinct species; algal symbiont community profiling identified dominant symbionts that varied according to host species.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf235
#genome #evolution
📣 Call for proposals to support locally driven coral conservation 🪸🪸🪸. ➡️ cordap.org/clip-award/
#OceanGrants 💶🌊 thanks to @cordap.bsky.social
ALERT - Funding opportunity for coral researchers! @cordap.bsky.social just launched its Call for Proposals under the Coral Local Innovation Program. 🪸
cordap.org/clip-award/
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/coast-to-coast-coral-assessment-reveals-thailands-reefs-losing-complexity/
Last year, ATMEC produced one of the largest assessments of Thai coral reefs to date. A new article in Mongabay has explored the findings from our work in the context of larger issues, reinforcing the value of foundational research to conservation!
Link in the comments!
#MarineEcology 🌐🌏🪸🌊🦑
This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.
This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
🚨 Job Alert! TT Assistant Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks! Looking for a candidate with a focus on coastal ecology. Come be my colleague! Please share.
careers.alaska.edu/jobs/assista...
Some latest seaweed pressings: branching reds #SciArt #PhycologyFriday
New paper on using #coral nurseries as experimental units for studying host x symbiont genotype interactions. Congrats to recent PhD student (now Dr.) Matt Gamache! @cmarinescience.bsky.social
rdcu.be/eVA2C
🧪📍🌊 🦑🍎 Marine Scientist Position – Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), full-time, permanent Marine Scientist position based in Panama. Application review begins February 15, 2026 (open until filled). Early-career researchers are strongly encouraged to apply. www.stri.si.edu
🚨 Two funded PhDs (one int'l, one UK) - study coral restoration & corporate sustainability with us in Lancaster! Enquiries welcome, January 30, please share widely! 🚨
🪸🐠 Coral restoration (int'l): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
🌴📊 Corporate sustainability (UK): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
