marine

More species in warm watersPast patterns of diversity can be used as a baseline for understanding how current human-induced changes are affecting biodiversity. Womack et al. looked at mollusk fossils from 40 million years ago in New Zealand…

Keeping warm when smallSeveral mammal species live in cold-water environments, enabled by adaptations such as blubber and large size. A notable exception to this rule is the sea otter, a species that is orders of magnitude smaller and…

SummaryMarine margins, where ice sheets flow from land into the ocean, become exposed to environmental conditions and internally generated forces markedly different from those governing the flow of ice further inland. Prior research has…

Cliff collapseTall ice cliffs at the edges of ice sheets can collapse under their own weight in spectacular fashion, a process that can considerably hasten ice sheet mass loss. Bassis et al. used a dynamic ice model to demonstrate that this…