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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

A Small Sip from a Big Gusher

A Small Sip from a Big Gusher

April 20, 2011

How much oil gushed out of the Deepwater Horizon well and into the Gulf of Mexico? For all stakeholders in the oil spill, that is a critical starting point for any discussions of fair settlements. For scientists, it is the…

Oil, Microbes, and the Risk of Dead Zones

Oil, Microbes, and the Risk of Dead Zones

April 15, 2011

In the scramble to get to the Gulf of Mexico to study the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Ben Van Mooy found out firsthand why the National Science Foundation called its emergency research funds “Rapid Response” grants. Within two weeks of…

After the Oil Spill, Finding a Drop in the Ocean

After the Oil Spill, Finding a Drop in the Ocean

January 26, 2011

In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April, marine chemist Elizabeth Kujawinski recognized that a technique she had developed for entirely different reasons could readily be adapted to track the chemical components of oil from the spill, as…

Recycling Rare, Essential Nutrients in the Sea

Recycling Rare, Essential Nutrients in the Sea

January 10, 2011

In the vast ocean where an essential nutrient—iron—is scarce, a marine bacterium that launches the ocean food web survives by using a remarkable biochemical trick: It recycles iron. By day, it uses iron in enzymes for photosynthesis to make carbohydrates;…

Microbes Hitch Rides on Plastics in the Sea

Microbes Hitch Rides on Plastics in the Sea

November 5, 2010

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the International Census of Marine Microbes initiative.

News Releases

Ben Van Mooy and a Sediment Trap

Microbe Dietary Preferences Influence the Effectiveness of Carbon Sequestration in the Deep Ocean

September 13, 2024

A series of seemingly small processes helps carry carbon dioxide from the ocean’s surface to the deep sea, where it can be stored away for decades.

Can adding iron to the ocean help it absorb CO2?

September 9, 2024

A newly published article spells out the work needed to assess the potential of ocean iron fertilization as a low cost, scalable, and rapidly deployable method of mCDR.

Open Ocean

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Announces Shift of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Field Trials to Summer 2025

August 14, 2024

Change was made in response to changing ship availability and to resulting changes in ocean conditions later in the year

USVI Reef

WHOI Scientists ‘read’ the messages in chemical clues left by coral reef inhabitants

June 10, 2024

What species live in this coral reef, and are they healthy? Chemical clues emitted by marine organisms might hold that information

A Kids Book

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Chemist Authors ‘A Kids Book About Being a Scientist’

May 21, 2024

In his new book, A Kids Book About Being a Scientist, award-winning author and WHOI chemist Chris Reddy encourages young people to explore the world around them

News & Insights

Japan releases treated water from ruined nuclear plant

August 24, 2023

WHOI marine radiochemist Ken Buesseler weighs in on the discharge of wastewater from Fukushima

What happens to natural gas in the ocean?

October 6, 2022

WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy weighs in on a methane leak in the Baltic Sea

Ocean Encounters: Ocean Pollution

March 2, 2022

In case you missed it… From plastic to oil spills, experts discuss ways to control ocean pollution in our last Ocean Encounters

The power of the ocean

December 23, 2021

An op-ed in the national news outlet The Hill by WHOI senior scientist Ken Buesseler reinforces the power and importance of the ocean in carbon dioxide removal strategies

Rapid microbial methanogenesis during CO2 storage in hydrocarbon reservoirs

December 22, 2021