We report regional-scale erosion of coral reef ecosystems in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific oceans determined by measuring changes in seafloor elevation. The magnitude of seafloor elevation loss has increased local sea level rise, causing water depths not predicted until near 2100, placing coastal communities at elevated and accelerating risk from hazards such as waves, storms, and tsunamis. Our results have broad implications for coastal resource and safety management.

We ran a global ocean model to understand manganese (Mn), a biologically essential element. Our model shows that (i) in the deep ocean, dissolved [Mn] is mostly homogeneous ~0.10—0.15 nM. The model reproduces this with a threshold on MnO₂ of 25 pM, suggesting a minimal particle concentration is needed before aggregation and removal become efficient. (ii) The observed distinct hydrothermal signals are produced by assuming both a strong source and a strong removal of Mn near hydrothermal vent.

The results of this study on the organic carbon (OC) stocks of tidal marshes show that variations in OC stocks along estuaries are important and should be taken into account to make accurate estimates of the total amount of OC stored in these ecosystems. Moreover, our results clearly show that most studies underestimate the variation in OC stocks along estuaries due to a shallow sampling depth, neglecting the variation in OC decomposition after burial along estuaries.

Marine biogeochemical models are often used to understand water quality, nutrient and blue-carbon dynamics at scales that range from estuaries and bays, through to the global ocean. We introduce a new methodology allowing for the assimilation of observed remote sensing reflectances, avoiding the need to use empirically derived chlorophyll-a concentrations. This method opens up the possibility to assimilate of reflectances from a variety of missions and potentially non-satellite platforms.

We performed an experiment in the Baltic Sea in order to investigate the consequences of the increasing CO₂ levels on biological processes in the free water mass. There was more accumulation of organic carbon at high CO₂ levels. Surprisingly, this was caused by reduced loss processes (respiration and bacterial production) in a high-CO₂ environment, and not by increased photosynthetic fixation of CO₂. Our carbon budget can be used to better disentangle the effects of ocean acidification.