Today, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is embarking on the last leg of NOAA’s three-year mission to explore the deep Pacific Ocean when it heads to the Musicians Seamounts and the Hawaiian Islands.

Starting September 7, you, too, can join the expedition virtually by following the live video streamed by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) diving down to the seafloor near Musicians Seamounts. Dives will continue through September 29, usually between 2:00 p.m.–12:00 a.m. Eastern, depending on weather and ocean conditions.

As the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the planet, the range and distribution of at least some fish stocks found in places like the Bering Sea will likely extend northward. That could bring some big changes to the region. More than 60 percent of all seafood caught in the United States comes from the waters off Alaska and generates billions of dollars in revenue each year.

As previously ice-covered areas of the Arctic become seasonally ice-free, there will be pressure to expand US fishing north of the Bering Strait. That can’t happen under the Arctic Management Plan, established in 2009, which prohibits commercial fishing until scientists and fisheries managers understand what’s going on with the ecosystem.

Heatwaves are intensifying in cities due to the double whammy of the urban heat island effect and global warming, according to a new study.

City life is tough for young birds. But if they survive their first year, they are less susceptible to the effects of stress, according to research from Lund University in Sweden.

Hurricane response crews from the U.S. Geological Survey are installing storm-tide sensors at key locations along Florida’s southeast and southwest coastlines in advance of Hurricane Irma.

Under a mission assignment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the USGS is currently deploying approximately 58 storm tide sensors, 24 barometers and five rapid deployment gauges, and is consulting with federal and state partners about the need for similar equipment for other coastal areas farther north along the coastlines.

The back deck of the Healy is a tough place to work.  It’s wet, it’s cold, and the scientists slogging away there are always covered in mud.  That’s because getting samples off the bottom of the Chukchi Sea is an important part of our mission this year.

From record heat, fires and floods to hurricanes, tropical storms and even an eclipse, August brought a dramatic and — for those along the Gulf Coast — devastating end to summer as Mother Nature demonstrated her power and ability to awe.

For a few weeks over the summer in 2011, teams of scientists from around the world converged on a small patch of ponderosa pine forest in Colorado to carry out one of the most detailed, extended survey of atmospheric chemistry ever attempted in one place, in many cases using new measurement devices created especially for this project. Now, after years of analysis, their comprehensive synthesis of the findings have been released this week.

Monarch butterfly populations from western North America have declined far more dramatically than was previously known and face a greater risk of extinction than eastern monarchs, according to a new study in the journal Biological Conservation.

“Western monarchs are faring worse than their eastern counterparts,” said Cheryl Schultz, an associate professor at Washington State University Vancouver and lead author of the study. “In the 1980s, 10 million monarchs spent the winter in coastal California. Today there are barely 300,000.”

Marine restoration, rather than protection, might be the most cost-effective solution for coastal marine ecosystems suffering from human activities, a new study has found.