Satellites hovering hundreds of miles above earth; underwater autonomous vehicles traveling through the ocean; drones collecting snot above whales; and robots that move like fish; what do all of these things have in common (other than sounding like some futuristic world where robots and computers have completely taken over)?? Turns out, all of these things … Continue reading
By this point, most of our readers are probably pretty well versed in ocean acidification (just type ‘coral reef’ in the UNdertheC search box and you’ll come up with lots of interesting tidbits about ocean acidification). We know that increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (from human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels) is … Continue reading
Top down and bottom up: two ideas often discussed in biology. Specifically, the idea that an organisms population is controlled by both bottom up controls (things like the amount of food around, temperature, freshwater availability) and top down controls (i.e., predation). But today, I’ll be thinking about ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ in a widely … Continue reading
I have recently returned to coastal NC after attending the 2017 Biennial Coastal Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) conference in Providence, Rhode Island. It was an extremely productive conference that allowed me the opportunity to present my research, network with leading experts in my field, get out of the UNC bubble, and see lots and lots … Continue reading
This is a guest post written by STEM education consultant Chris Anderson. Chris writes the science education blog Science Over Everything. 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean. The oceans contain 97% of the Earth’s water and are home to 50% of the Earth’s species. And while 40% of Americans live in … Continue reading
Before writing this post, I did a quick search of UNdertheC looking for any hits related to ‘citizen science’, and surprisingly, nothing came up. I guess this means this will be the first post, tangentially related, to what is known as citizen science. So what is citizen science? The formal definition is: ‘the collection and … Continue reading
Symposia! AKA great, low stakes opportunities to get out of the office, share the results you have been trying to make sense of for months, and hear about the cool research being done by your peers (plus free food). I had the opportunity to go to a few symposia recently and thought I would … Continue reading
This guest post was written by Justin Hart. Justin is a second-year Master’s candidate at UNC-IMS in Rachel Noble’s lab. He collaborates with local stakeholders to study the effects of stormwater on coastal water quality. He was previously a fellow at the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, where he studied beach health policy in … Continue reading
This week I was interested in writing about something wacky in marine systems. Being an ecologist, I tend to discuss organisms and their environment. So as I brainstormed what to write, I thought back to my time as a research technician at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS) with Dr. Emmett Duffy. While working … Continue reading
Reefs keep you and the people/places you care about safe. They also provide you and many others globally with food and money. Reefs are vital for life on this planet. Losing them would be a serious blow to global health and economics. Protecting them on a global scale is hard, but you can do your part with small lifestyle changes (eat sustainable seafood, lower your carbon footprint, and ditch single use items for reusable alternatives. Continue reading
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