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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

Lifetime of plastics illustration

Does plastic last for thousands of years in the environment?

March 13, 2025

WHOI marine chemist Collin Ward weighs in on the lifespan of plastics and innovations to address this pollution

The R/V Acadiana

Looking to the Mighty Mississippi for climate solutions

December 16, 2022

Researchers measure alkalinity flowing into the Gulf of Mexico to assess a carbon dioxide removal strategy

Why Indigenous perspectives matter in the climate conversation

November 21, 2022

Wampanoag Tribal Member Leslie Jonas talks WHOI, Native rights, and a timely partnership

The teetering balance of coastal CO2

October 18, 2022

WHOI scientists Matt Long and Aleck Wang explain the incredibly important role of coastal seagrasses and rivers in the global carbon cycle

A ship floats in the the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Photo by Kris Krug, Wikimedia Commons)

Sunlight and the fate of oil at sea

September 29, 2022

Danielle Haas Freeman draws on the language of chemistry to solve an oil spill puzzle

News Releases

OTZ's role in climate change

The ocean twilight zone’s role in climate change

February 16, 2022

A new report from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Twilight Zone (OTZ) project team offers a detailed look at the climate-altering processes that take place within the zone, in particular those that are driven by animals that migrate between the twilight zone and the surface each night to feed. This phenomenon is likely the biggest migration on Earth—yet it remains incredibly vulnerable to human exploitation.

WHOI’s Ken Buesseler named Geochemistry Fellow

February 15, 2022

Dr. Ken Buesseler has been selected as a Geochemistry Fellow by the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry.

Ben Van Mooy awarded by Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography

February 10, 2022

WHOI senior scientist and Dept. Chair honored for phosphorus and lipid cycling research

Study finds bio-based cellulose acetate plastic used in consumer goods disintegrates in ocean much faster than assumed

December 8, 2021

Woods Hole, MA – Cellulose diacetate (CDA), a bio-based plastic widely used in consumer goods, disintegrates, and degrades in the ocean far quicker than previously assumed, according to a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. “These findings…

Study outlines challenges to ongoing clean-up of burnt and unburnt nurdles along Sri Lanka’s coastline

November 29, 2021

When a fire broke out on the deck of the M/V XPress Pearl cargo ship on May 20, 2021, an estimated 70-75 billion pellets of preproduction plastic material, known as nurdles, spilled into the ocean and along the Sri Lankan coastline. That spill of about 1,500 tons of nurdles, many of which were burnt by the fire, has threatened marine life and poses a complex clean-up challenge. A new peer-reviewed study characterizes how the fire modified the physical and chemical properties of the nurdles and proposes that these properties affected their distribution along the coast.

News & Insights

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

Wave Glider provides gateway to remote exploration

November 10, 2020

WHOI geochemist Chris German pairs an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) called a Wave Glider with other vehicles to expand research here and on other Ocean Worlds

Sea Dust

Mining ancient dust from the ocean’s loneliest spot

September 24, 2020

Researchers investigate dust from the ocean’s farthest point from land to reconstruct the climactic history of the Southern Hemisphere, and understand how micronutrients have influenced biological productivity in this oceanic desert.

Working from Home: Mallory Ringham

July 2, 2020

WHOI-MIT joint program student outfits her basement to do vital work on a marine carbon sensor

plastics by the numbers

The many lifetimes of plastics

June 15, 2020

Infographics strive to give us a sense of how long plastic goods will last in the environment. But is this information reliable? The findings of a new study from WHOI may surprise you.