Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Head and shoulders photo of Denise Breitburg, a woman with glasses and shoulder-length gray hair, with forested mountains in the background.

Wait, the Ocean Is Losing Oxygen? Q&A With Denise Breitburg

Marine ecologist Denise Breitburg explains how oxygen loss is crippling our oceans, and why it needs to be included as the tenth "planetary boundary"

A swarm of yellow fish and silver fish with yellow tailfins swim around a coral reef

Adult Fish Aren't Truly 'Protected' in Many Marine Protected Areas

To replenish adult spawners, marine protected areas need strong enforcement and climate-friendly design

Black monkey perches in a tree staring directly at camera

Eight Weird and Wondrous Discoveries From 2023

Life on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the true power of nature sanctuaries and more wild discoveries from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Orange scalefin anthias fish swarm in front of a fire coral in the Red Sea's Ras Mohammed Marine Park, Egypt. (Credit: Alex Mustard, Ocean Image Bank).

Reef Robots. Predicting Marine Life Like Weather. Meet the Ocean of 2030.

Imagine a world where an indigenous fisher can get forecasts of local marine life from a smart phone, or a team of robots can offer real-time data on coral reef health. That's the vision of two Smithsonian projects highlighted by the United Nations for its Decade of Ocean Science.

North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) at Florida's Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. (Credit: Keenan Adams, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

River Otters Take Party Pooping To A New Level

For river otters, pooping is a social event. And their droppings are providing a heap of information for biologists.

Lontra canadensis, the North American river otter. (Credit: Matthew Fryer)

The Secret Lives of River Otters (And Their Parasites)

If you live along the water but have never seen a river otter, it's probably because they're mostly nocturnal, and very shy. But these secretive creatures, and their parasites, hold lots of clues for scientists looking to understand disease.

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