UNCW Center for Marine Science

Building a Unified Research-Informed Approach! UNCW's Center for Marine Science Receives $500,000 Planning Grant to Advance Flooding Research from The New Hanover County Endowment!
uncw.edu/news/2025/12...
📸 Courtesy of Brian Donovan/etc. media (video still)

UNC Wilmington's community commitment includes educational outreach. Recently, Michael Tift, Biology & Marine Biology, presented at Trinity Landing on marine mammal research. From cetaceans to crabeater seals and manatee rescues. Internationally known Marine Mammal Stranding Program: bit.ly/UNCWMMSP

UNCW Leads Research in Flooding Risks & Coastal Resilience with Living Laboratory! Led by Lynn Leonard & Phil Bresnahan with support from the UNC System, the project features high-tech sensor stations tracking weather & water resources on campus. Classes, Sustainability team & more use the data.

Haunting Ghost Forests! We've all seen them! Ever wondered, "What killed all the trees?” UNCW research conducted by Andrea Hawkes, Monica Rother, Kendra Devereux and team seeks answers to questions of saltwater intrusion on freshwater ecosystems. 📸 courtesy of Monica Rother bit.ly/4oLCplK

Klotsko with two UNCW grad students

Award-winning - A Map of the World in Time - premiered at the Raw Science Film Festival in NYC, spotlighting UNCW’s pivotal role in the 2023 BADEX expedition to Greenland. Led by Assoc. Prof. Shannon Klotsko and an intern'l team who explored the retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet. bit.ly/BADEX_Map

Curious about the ethics of science? Genetic engineering debates? How does research sit at the intersection of biology, tech and culture in the modern world?
Join us for our Planet Ocean Seminar with Dr. Nathan Crowe, UNCW History Dept. Nov. 11 6:30 p.m.
In-person: CMS_EA@uncw.edu
lnkd.in/enM6gFvK

Our OPEN HOUSE welcomed 1,000+ to explore the many aspects of why science matters! UNCW's Center for Marine Science had a beautiful day for all ages to support science.

Congrats to Prof. Joanne Halls, Earth & Ocean Sciences, on her most recent paper published in "Remote Sensing." The paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the contribution of river sediment to the different rates of sediment build-up in tidal wetlands across the U.S. doi.org/10.3390/rs17...

New paper by Dr. Joe Pawlik, Biology & Marine Biology, & alum Dr. Steve McMurray in "Ecology." "Competition for waterborne food resources among tropical shallow-water sponges." Sponges help link ocean surface waters to the seafloor by filtering LPOM & DOM. 📸 Mark Butler
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-14840-0

🚨New Pub in Nature! Highly collaborative work! This article describes the anatomical features associated with a functional glymphatic system in bottlenose dolphins. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
@uncwtiftlab.bsky.social

image of article about the Marine Mammal Protection Act

UNCW's Michael Tift shares, "There are some critical cuts being proposed to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) by the current administration which could have devastating impacts." He discusses some of these impacts on marine mammals in North Carolina waters.
bit.ly/3JgVZXl

Image announcing the annual CMS Open House on Oct. 4, rain or shine.

Join us for the UNCW Center for Marine Science OPEN HOUSE on October 4, 2025! Tours, family-friendly with hands-on activities and science fun!

POV: then and now as we celebrate 25 Years at the Myrtle Grove location. Marine science research has been SOARING at UNCW for 54 YEARS!!! On the water 24/7/365!

CONGRATS to Peng Gao, in UNCW's Earth and Ocean Sciences, who is one of 19 global experts contributing to a new article published in @nature.com, outlining how nature-based climate solutions (NBS) can be more effective in fighting climate change. bit.ly/GaoForest

The mini-Secchi disk and (B) the midi-Secchi disk.

@insituphile.bsky.social recent paper: Water color & clarity: key indicators of aquatic health. New hand-held device—mini & midi formats—developed to measure parameters easily & ideal for citizen science. >900 devices thru 6 projects w/shared data. Methods. Data. Validation. doi.org/10.3389/fenv...

The TODAY new paper that is a collaboration b/w UNCW's DrugDiscovery & National Institutes of Health. They discovered aridomycin, a natural compound made by bacteria that strongly fights dangerous Staphylococcus aureus infections & the emerging fungus Candida auris. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Alumna Liz Farquhar with Phil Bresnahan, PhD, recently published a paper on how to cost-effectively measure how much CO₂ moves between the air and the water for locally guided decisions. Contributors: Michael Tydings, Jessie Jarvis, Rob Whitehead & Daniel Portelli. www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25...

Context-dependent allelopathy in algal interactions: Insights from laboratory and natural phytoplankton communities A key aspect of algal biology is the production of chemicals used for communication and regulation of interactions. Allelopathic chemicals can facilit…

Congrats to post-doc Kristy Syhapanha (1st-author) & Remington Poulin’s, Chem & Biochem, paper w/an intern'l team who looked at the impact of lab-based culture conditions of phytoplankton & how conditions influence chemically mediated competition amid naturally co-occurring species.
lnkd.in/eb4zsK_M

Congrats to the UNCW's Professor Patrick Erwin, Biology & Marine Biology, doctoral student Brenna Hutchings and Dr. Susanna Lopez-Legentil on the recent paper about how delayed preservation may change the diversity & comp of microbiome in marine invertebrates. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

PNAS News published Matthew McLean's research on protecting the beauty of coral reefs. Reef beauty depends on number of species and colorful or uniquely shaped fish, highlighting the need for marine protection for fish species and economic benefits. 📸 Rick Stuart-Smith bit.ly/McLeanPNAS

#TEALSHIPS Expedition #2! @tolarchaeota.bsky.social is at the forefront of research of the critical habitats that span from the NC coastal shelf to the Gulf Stream, ~50 miles. 🌊 Gulfstream
🐙 collected samples from 1400m below
🔬interdisciplinary science - multi-institutes & programs
bit.ly/TolarTEAL

Researchers race to understand new disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit, regularly monitors the s...

"Mongabay" article with important updates about the race with SCTLD. The article highlights @vibriosoup.bsky.social's research on identifying the cause of this disease. 🪸https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/

Another FIRST! Microbiologist Blake Ushijima @vibriosoup.bsky.social developed a probiotic paste treatment for SCTLD. The research team at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Fla. tested the paste in the wild with success! Here's the study! CONGRATS team!

Big Eyes, Blurry Vision: Why Humpback Whales Struggle to See Clearly Learn more about why humpback whales can’t really see that well and how it is putting them in danger.

Discover Magazine features how Dr. Lori Schweikert, University of North Carolina Wilmington, & colleagues found that humpback whales can’t see as well as previously believed. It all started when undergrad Jacob Bolin, chose to research whale vision for his Honors thesis. bit.ly/DiscoverWhal...

Last week, grad student Ali Zelaya & members of Dr. Nikki Fogarty's REEF lab outplanted >300 preconditioned brain coral in the FL Keys. Changing the world one coral at a time… Zelaya shares, "The coral have been preconditioned and exposed to thermal stress in the lab (32°C)." www.nicolefogarty.com

What BIG eyes! Study by Dr. Lori Schweikert & colleagues find new knowledge of the humpback whale eye, revealing that these iconic giants possess surprisingly limited visual acuity—raising important questions about how they see (or don't see) in their open ocean environment. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

https://bit.ly/45kbrLc

Congrats to Dr. Andrea Hawkes, recent paper -"Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems," ‘Elemental Geochemistry of Tidal Marsh Sediment & Its Potential as an Indicator of Sea‐Level Change in Cascadia.’ Shows that elemental composition of marsh sediment reliably reflects tidal elevation. bit.ly/45kbrLc

A new study from Microbial Ecophysiology Group, Dr. Alison Taylor lab, reveals the 1st evidence of chlorophagy in marine phytoplankton, showing how coccolithophores like "Scyphosphaera apsteinii" use a novel organelle to digest prey and recycle nutrients. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

https://agupubs-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.liblink.uncw.edu/doi/full/10.1029/2024JC022047

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/phoc/aop/JPO-D-24-0144.1/JPO-D-24-0144.1.xml

Check out 2 Papers from Office of Naval Reasearch-funded study of rocky shorelines by our Coastal & Estuarine Hydrodynamics Group! The papers show that rocky seabeds create more friction than sandy ones, reducing wave energy and weakening nearshore currents. 1) bit.ly/3EQfAvG 2) bit.ly/3YAeOts