USF College of Marine Science

🌊🧪 At the 2026 State of Science, Steve Murawski of the University of South Florida College of Marine Science shared insights from the Tampa Bay Surveillance Project, which is studying contaminants in local waters and their impacts on ecosystems and community health.

Where do seashells come from? Seashells are the skeletons of sea creatures – and they’re older than you might think.

🌊🐚 Where do seashells come from? Tom Frazer, dean of the USF College of Marine Science, explains the science behind this familiar beach question and how each shell tells a story in a new article for @theconversation.com @floridamuseum.bsky.social
theconversation.com/where-do-sea...

No new science news from us bc we’ve been “Shackletoned”-stuck and drifting with the ice for a few days now. Hoping a big storm will blow us out tomorrow so we can finally get back to work! Drone photo is by Dr Ellen Buckley, diatoms & filmentous ice algae are from the ice station #oceanography 🐧🇦🇶🌊

Incredible images!

Scientists harness AI to discover a rise in floating algae across the global ocean Authors of the new paper in Nature Communications attributed the bloom expansions to both human activities, such as nutrient runoff into the ocean, and climate variability, such as ocean warming.

🌊AI meets ocean science 🌎 New research led by USF and NOAA reveals a global rise in floating algae, signaling a major shift in ocean conditions with wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems, tourism, and coastal economies.

www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

🎉 Congratulations to Chuanmin Hu on his recent election as a Fellow of The Oceanography Society!

Hu was nominated for his work on optical oceanography and satellite remote sensing. Among Hu’s contributions is his landmark work characterizing the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt.

Applications are still open!

Safe travels 🌊⛴️

B-vitamin requirements and phycosphere interactions for the HAB-forming dinoflagellate, Pyrodinium bahamense var. bahamense Pyrodinium bahamense is a saxitoxin-producing dinoflagellate found in tropical and subtropical estuarine waters globally, with the var. bahamense variety forming recurrent harmful algal blooms (HABs) ...

Happy New Years All! I am so excited to share the very first preprint from my lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... - from @lydiaruggles.bsky.social's thesis-also my first student 😊. tldr: Only bacteria collected during a Pyrodinium bloom rescued Pyro from B12 limitation #microbialsky #microsky 🦠🧪🧬🌊

Public-private partnership tackles seafloor mapping challenge Researchers at the USF College of Marine Science collaborated with Saildrone to improve techniques for hydrography.

🌊 The USF College of Marine Science and Saildrone teamed up to develop more efficient methods of collecting sound speed profiles, critical data that improves seafloor mapping models.

Read more about the collaboration here: www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

🌊We're hiring! The College of Marine Science is seeking a tenure-track faculty member in Geological Oceanography, with an emphasis in hydrography or marine geophysics.

Learn more about the position and how to apply at the link below.

fa-ewkd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

The College of Marine Science is in the big Easy! Come visit our booth at @agu.org to connect! #AGU2026

We were so excited to host the City of St Pete Mayor, Ken Welch, at the USF College of Marine Science outreach center, Clam Bayou Marine Education Center! During his visit, Mayor Welch was able to observe the students as they engaged in hands-on field work.

The study was a collaboration between the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, Sea Education Association, Eckerd College, @whoi.edu, and Florida Atlantic University.

Study reveals dramatic decline in some historic sargassum populations Certain populations of sargassum have plummeted in abundance over the past ten years, raising alarm for marine ecosystems that depend on the seaweed.

A new study published this week in Nature Geoscience found that while tropical Atlantic is experiencing a significant increase in sargassum, abundance of the seaweed is declining in its historic habitats of the Gulf and Sargasso Sea.

www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

🌊At the International GEOTRACES Programme Summer School in Cape Town, College of Marine Science Associate Professor @marmite-usf.bsky.social Tim Conway helped train the next generation of chemical oceanographers, sharing his expertise on trace metals and marine biogeochemistry.

#WCMB2026 #ScientificCommittee

Frank Muller-Karger from @cmarinescience.bsky.social studies coastal and marine ecosystems including water quality, biological production, biodiversity, climate change, and human activities.

www.wcmb2026.org/sccombio#Fra...

@unoceandecade.bsky.social @vliz.be

Seashells from centuries ago show that seagrass meadows on Florida’s Nature Coast are thriving Scientists are using mollusk shells to evaluate the health of Florida’s seagrass ecosystems.

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🐚What can seashells tell us?

A new article in The Conversation co-authored by Tom Frazer, professor and dean of the College of Marine Science, explores how seashells can act as a historical record of seagrass health.

theconversation.com/seashells-fr...

Never mind Antarctica: North American ice sheets caused dramatic rise in sea level after the last ice age The new study calls into question whether glacial melt will be sufficient to collapse or even slow down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

🌊Melting ice sheets in North America drove the rise in global sea level at the end of the last ice age more than scientists previously thought, according to new research published this week in Nature Geoscience.
www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

How ancient plankton point to the resilience of ocean ecosystems The researchers used a cutting-edge approach to predict future ocean conditions by examining the distant past through analyses of microscopic fossils.

🌊In a new study co-led by USF professor @oceanandclimate.bsky.social Patrick Rafter, researchers used forams from the Pliocene to show that warming in the tropical Pacific may not trigger the severe decline in nutrients predicted by earlier models.
www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

Tiny shells with a big story: graduate student develops course exploring microscopic organisms Angelique Rosa Marín designed a free course about foraminifera, which capture oceanic conditions as their shells grow and can be used to monitor the health of the ocean.

🌊CMS graduate student Angelique Rosa Marín is using forams to evaluate water quality in Puerto Rico. To teach others about her research, she developed an educational module for OCELOTS a NSF funded program that provides free and accessible learning resources.
www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

Chuanmin Hu was elected as an AGU Fellow Distinguished University Professor Chuanmin Hu was selected for his fundamental and transformative contributions in optical oceanography and satellite remote sensing.

You can read more about Chuanmin's accomplishment here: www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

🌊 Congratulations to Chuanmin Hu, Distinguished University Professor, on being elected a 2025 Fellow of @agu.org ! 🌎

👏 Chuanmin was selected for his transformative contributions in optical oceanography and satellite remote sensing with profound ecological, economic, and societal impacts.

🌊 Congrats to Frank Muller-Karger, Distinguished University Professor, on his second term with NOAA’s Ocean Exploration Advisory Board!

YouTube video by Tampa Bay 28 Why Hurricanes Ian and Idalia exploded overnight — It wasn't just warm water

🌊Thanks to Michael Paluska of Tampa Bay 28 for visiting our campus and highlighting the College of Marine Science's exciting and important research on rapid intensification!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hXY...

Faculty seminar puts world-class research into focus The seminar occurs annually and features the research of the college’s faculty

🌊 From fresh faces to seasoned experts, the 2025 Faculty Seminar featured faculty whose research is driving meaningful impact.
www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

USF experts lead on sargassum research, monitoring, and prediction As the seaweed plagues the Caribbean, researchers at the USF College of Marine Science publish new findings and refine monitoring efforts.

🌊 At the USF College of Marine Science, experts are hard at work uncovering the causes of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, measuring its impacts, and helping vulnerable communities prepare.
www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

Electron micrograph of two phage infecting a host cell side-by-side, with hearts between them

Do you love phage? I have an opening for a postdoc in my lab at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science (@cmarinescience.bsky.social) looking at interactions between marine phage and iron, which is an important limiting trace metal in the oceans (1/5) 🧵#phagesky 🦠🌊

Hurricanes and heat fluxes: Doctoral graduate explores mechanisms driving tropical storms Combining his background in meteorology with physical oceanography, Sorinas worked with data from buoys and moorings stationed in the Gulf to help improve our understanding of how hurricanes gain stre...

🌊 Meet Luis Sorinas Morales a physical oceanography student who is graduating with his PhD from the College of Marine Science this semester.
www.usf.edu/marine-scien...

Study finds ‘pressure point’ in the Gulf could drive hurricane strength Researchers identify how the absence of a strong current at a critical location in the Gulf led to unusually high subsurface sea temperatures and influenced the rapid intensification of Hurricane Ian.

🌊How did a crucial “pressure point” in the Gulf lead to a stronger Hurricane Ian in 2022? Find out here: www.usf.edu/marine-scien...