I am willing to bet most people have never heard of paleotempestology before. I hadn’t heard of it before I took a marine geology course. In a course I am taking this semester, we decided to reexamine the topic because a lot of individual studies are debatable. So, if the title of this post didn’t already give it …
Have you ever noticed a rip current at the beach? If you or someone you know was caught in a rip current, would you know what to do? If you’ve been paying attention to the coastal news along North Carolina recently, you may have noticed recent stories about rip currents and rip current safety. Dr. …
Having no publications to my name and only nebulous drafts of several (hopefully) publishable papers, I am not an expert on how to get published. This is why I attended a student workshop on this very topic at the 2018 ASLO summer meeting in Victoria, BC. In this workshop a panel of editors in chief …
Martín Benavides is a PhD student in Marine Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the variability of coastal shark communities in both time and space. He is also interested in the movement ecology of sharks in estuarine systems. Martín is a proud father of two boys and provides a unique prospective to …
Applications have been submitted. Recruitment weekends are near (or have already come and gone). Funding source notification dates are coming up. And most exciting of all–graduate school acceptances are around the corner. It is an exciting time to see your hard work pay off. But wait. Hold your horses. Here are some things you should …
The ocean is home to some strange and mysterious critters – including some that could give the Justice League a run for their money. From immortal invertebrates to flying fish, here are four super powered ocean animals. The one that can walk on land While there are a number of amphibious fish out there, …
The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) application season is here. I was fortunate enough to receive a fellowship for my application is 2017 after an unsuccessful one in 2016. From one rejected and one accepted, here is a list of resources that helped get me through it, a bit of my personal …
Most productivity gurus say that when you hit a wall, you should switch tasks. This is how I ended up reading a paper about beavers who managed to hijack a wetland restoration for their benefit. So congratulations! You’re in the right place to learn some fancy philosophy terms and think about wetlands from a whooole …
As modern marine scientists, we spend a lot of time learning to effectively communicate science to various audiences. That’s mostly so we can make friends at parties, but has some nice side benefits like educating the general public, whatever. Sometimes though, and I’m probably admitting to a cardinal sin of outreach here, there’s a certain …
What is that yellow-spined thing? This is a species of sea slug, one of the strangest groups of organisms present on reefs worldwide. Sea slug is a pretty all encompassing term that includes groups such as Nudibranchs and Cephalaspidea. They are part of the “cryptic” fauna present on coral reefs. These interesting and strange creatures … Continue reading
Joint post by Justin Baumann and Serena Hackerott The main goal of UNdertheC is to make science accessible and interesting to the general public. Recently, there has been a discussion on Coral List following a plea from a coral scientist for the diving industry to be more aware and active against threats to coral reefs. … Continue reading
When I was younger, I was obsessed with disasters of all kinds (yeah, I was a strange kid). I avidly read books about the bubonic plague and had a recurring dream that involved a black hole appearing in our solar system, ready to suck the earth into its depths. One of my favorite disasters, however, … Continue reading
Though America has numerous conventional inland wind farms, there are currently zero operational offshore farms. There are several proposed projects: the Cape Wind proposal off the coast of Massachusetts, as well as other schemes in the northeast and in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the timeline from proposal to a site becoming operational can be … Continue reading
Oceanographers the world over have done without everyone’s favorite submarine since 2011, when the submersible Alvin went in for a major makeover. But after a two-year-long spa day, the sub that discovered hydrothermal vents and first surveyed the wreck of the Titanic is back in the water and expected to be certified to dive in a … Continue reading
Lionfish are beautiful fish, but they are invasive in Atlantic and Caribbean waters. They are harming invaded ecosystems by eating too many juvenile fish which leads to smaller adult fish populations, less food for native predators, and changes in important ecosystem processes upon which both marine animals and humans depend. So what can we do about … Continue reading
The following are guest posts from undergraduate students in the Marine Ecology class that I am a TA for this semester. See the entire student blog at http://marineecologyblog.web.unc.edu/ By Courtney Grigsby If you’re a Disney fan, you’ve probably seen the movie Finding Nemo. Besides the memorable catch phrases in the movie such as “Fish are … Continue reading
The following are guest posts from undergraduate students in the Marine Ecology class that I am a TA for this semester. See the entire student blog at http://marineecologyblog.web.unc.edu/ By Tyler Hodges, Abigail Brewer, and Cathy Wood People have always said, “There are other fish in the sea.” What they don’t tell you is that those … Continue reading
The following are guest posts from undergraduate students in the Marine Ecology class that I am a TA for this semester. See the entire student blog at http://marineecologyblog.web.unc.edu/ By Katie Myrick and Olivia Wilson Cue Jaws theme song…but instead of it being an unrealistically huge shark that you have to worry about, it’s jellyfish. Swarms … Continue reading
” How the world is failing at its climate goals” “Put the heat on subsidizing climate change” “Remember the government shutdown? It is still screwing over scientists in Antarctica” “Did climate change cause typhoon Haiyan?” These are just a few of the many headlines that have caught my eye over the past week. Everywhere I … Continue reading
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