The open ocean may look like an endless blue expanse, but to a shark, turtle or whale it is a patchwork of constantly shifting habitats. New research shows that three very different marine giants acti...

Modern animal tracking devices reliably record movement in horizontal and vertical dimensions, positioning movement ecology to transition towards true three-dimensional (3D) analyses. True 3D tracking, in which horizontal and vertical positions are paired through time, is particularly valuable for marine megafauna, which traverse coastal, pelagic, and aerial environments, making them ideal for illustrating how 3D data can advance movement ecology. By synthesising early approaches to 3D tracking in these taxa, we show that these studies provide ecological perspectives unobtainable from two-dimensional data, identify key barriers limiting wider adoption, and highlight emerging solutions. Broader adoption of true 3D tracking is critical for addressing remaining knowledge gaps in marine megafauna ecology and for improving conservation frameworks to protect the 3D environments these species occupy.

A feasibility study for the Western Australian project will show the project is uneconomic and requires government subsidies, experts say * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Leading Australian climate policy experts say a new oil refinery in Western Australia would be an investment in “dinosaur technology” that would require public subsidy and do little to solve the country’s fuel security. The Albanese government announced a $4m early-stage feasibility study with the WA government for a new oil refinery in the Pilbara region on Tuesday, but experts said the money would be better spent on green technology to reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels. Experts told Guardian Australia doing the feasibility study was not a bad idea, but would ultimately show the project would be uneconomic and would require government subsidies. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are large filter-feeders that reside in oligotrophic tropical waters. The feeding behaviours that enable these sharks to survive in such nutrient poor environments are n...

New video captures what whale sharks do when nobody is watching.

Increased hydrothermal iron inputs from mid-ocean ridges, triggered by ice-age sea-level falls, supported higher surface primary productivity during the last two glacial terminations, according to pro...

New evidence shows a major climate shift ‘within a lifetime’ 13,000 years ago.

Body size and temperature set metabolic rates and the pace of life, yet our understanding of the energetics of large fishes is uncertain, especially of warm-bodied mesotherms, which can heavily influe...

Social problems may seem intractable in part because reductions in their prevalence lead people to notice more of them.

With the global treaty to safeguard biodiversity in the high seas in effect since 17 January, countries have a legal framework to tackle threats such as overfishing as they strive to meet a target to ...

Residents and experts say they are shocked and concerned after social media images showed a number of endangered and protected marine animals impaled and severed on a stretch of WA coastline in just a few weeks.

A new analysis finds that data centers’ energy demands will drastically increase power plant emissions over the next decade. Renewables, though, could cut them while helping keep prices from rising.

Dolphins can interfere with shark fishing equipment used in bather protection programs by removing bait, which increases program costs and reduces effectiv

Project summary Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, fur seals and walrus) are keystone marine predators, and sentinels for marine ecosystem health. Advances in genomic technology open up the possibility to u...

Has anything really changed in the decade since the Paris Agreement was reached? Actually, quite a lot.

A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

Background Movement of marine predators can connect different habitats and create links that are key for maintaining metapopulation dynamics, genetic diversity, energy flow and trophic links within and between systems. This key ecological process is known as ecological connectivity. Methods We used a combination of acoustic telemetry data, network analysis (graph theory), habitat modelling and machine learning methods to quantify movement patterns and habitat use of three coral reef predators (grey reef shark Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, silvertip shark Carcharhinus albimarginatus and red bass Lutjanus bohar). We also assessed how movements and habitat preference influence connectivity in two remote reef systems (Rowley Shoals and Scott Reef) off Northwest Australia. Results Grey reef shark movements created more substantial connections within reef systems, greater than silvertip sharks and red bass, with occasional long-ranging movement linking distant atolls. Core use areas (nodes with high degree centrality) were represented by low complexity habitats in shallow areas near passages in the reef crest, but varied among species, time of the day and sex. Overall, female sharks had larger networks with greater movement extent than males indicating potential sex-specific patterns in movement and connectivity of sharks at both local (within an atoll) and regional (within reef system) spatial scales. Red bass movements resulted in local-scale connectivity between the lagoon and nearby forereef areas, whereas reef shark connectivity operated at broader scales with movement along the forereef creating stronger connections across distant areas within the reef systems. Conclusions The combination of animal tracking data, network analyses and machine learning allowed us to describe complex patterns of movement and habitat use within and between remote coral reef ecosystems and how they influence ecological connectivity over local and regional scales. Importantly, we suggest that the existing spatial protection across these remote coral reefs is effective in protecting the local-scale connectivity of mesopredators, yet broad-scale protection is required to effectively encompass the seascape connectivity of large predators which is crucial for the long-term health and stability of coral reef ecosystems.

Fishermen worry their boat could be mistaken for a drug-smuggling vessel.

Judah et al. identify 30 species of chondrichthyans that overlap with proposed deep-sea mining activities, nearly two-thirds of which are already threatened with extinction. Precautionary management o...

In his first major statement on climate change, the pontiff criticises those who minimise climate change.

The NOAA has reported a steep increase in large whale deaths by entanglement in fishing gear, news that follows federal budget cut backs

The Gulf of Panama’s (GOP) seasonal upwelling system has consistently delivered cool, nutrient-rich waters via northerly trade winds every January–...

Understanding how marine predators explore dynamic ocean environments is key for assessing the ecological significance of different habitats and for i…

Great hammerhead sharks eat other large sharks. They can survive on a single blacktip shark every few weeks. Here's what you need to know!

Quantitatively assessing mortality post coral bleaching at scale is inherently difficult, yet can be achieved with georeferenced imagery from aerial drones. Here, we assess the coral bleaching mortali...

The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of thre...

A survey of oil and gas industry CEOs ahead of a national conference concedes climate and environmental requirements are “increasingly challenging to meet.”