Wonder why you should spend a glorious day in the summer or a cold, windy day in the winter collecting beach-cast seabird carcasses for a citizen science group? Julia K. Parrish, the Executive Director of COASST—a citizen science group that organizes volunteers to monitor beach-cast seabird carcasses—explains why it would all be worthwhile. Visit COASST's website: https://depts.washington.edu/coasst/ Credits at end of video

The Congo basin is an unruly ribbon of tropical forest, over a million square miles spanning six countries in Central Africa. It is the second-largest contiguous tropical forest in the world. The basin is home to the classics of African wildlife – chimpanzees, elephants, gorillas – along with thousands of other less well-known species. This wealth of flora and fauna, much of it native to the region, is enough to qualify the Congo basin as a biodiversity hotspot: a biologically rich...

Aim: To determine microbial profiles that discriminate periodontal health from different forms of periodontal diseases. Methods: Subgingival biofilm was obtained from patients with periodontal health (27), gingivitis (11), chronic periodontitis (35) and aggressive periodontitis (24), and analysed for the presence of >250 species/phylotypes using HOMIM. Microbial differences among groups were examined by Mann–Whitney U-test. Regression analyses were performed to determine microbial...

Jellyfish swarms in the Gulf of Mexico help researchers identify environmental changes in the water. Dr. Monty Graham at the University of Southern Mississippi studies these massive jellyfish swarms that can stretch for up to 100 miles.

For the last two decades, Michael Heithaus has been studying how tiger sharks affect one particular ecosystem – Shark Bay, Australia, one of the world’s most pristine seagrass ecosystems. The Florida International University biologist explains how his team studies these top predators and their prey, and why tiger sharks are so important to the health of Shark Bay.

Coral reefs are dying. Harboring some of the most diverse species of marine life, corals are ecologically important. Paul Sikkel, a marine ecologist from Arkansas State University, explains why many coral reefs are dying and how we can save them. For more information, visit: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129643 http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124768 http://www.livescience.com/40687-gnathia-marleyi-controversy-nsf-ria.htm...