How an influx of salt may affect microbial ecosystems
As sea levels rise and saltwater seeps into freshwater, stressed aquatic populations may retain overall growth even as diversity declines, MIT scientists find.
What happens when environmental change outpaces life’s ability to adapt?
A new model links Earth’s mass extinctions to mismatches between rates of environmental change and biological adaptation.
An engineer’s guide to birds
In her new book, “Birds Up Close,” MIT materials engineer Lorna Gibson explores feathers, bones, bills, eggs, and flight, and the mechanics behind birds’ extraordinary abilities.
Climate change may produce “fast-food” phytoplankton
With warmer ocean temperatures, the composition of marine plankton could shift from protein-rich to carb-heavy, a new study suggests.
Augmenting citizen science with computer vision for fish monitoring
MIT Sea Grant works with the Woodwell Climate Research Center and other collaborators to demonstrate a deep learning-based system for fish monitoring.
How Joseph Paradiso’s sensing innovations bridge the arts, medicine, and ecology
From early motion-sensing platforms to environmental monitoring, the professor and head of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences has turned decades of cross-disciplinary research into real-world impact.
3 Questions: How AI is helping us monitor and support vulnerable ecosystems
MIT PhD student and CSAIL researcher Justin Kay describes his work combining AI and computer vision systems to monitor the ecosystems that support our planet.
Darcy McRose and Mehtaab Sawhney ’20, PhD ’24 named 2025 Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering
McRose, an environmental microbiologist, is recognized for researching the ecological roles of antibiotics in shaping ecosystems, agriculture, and health.
The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests
MIT researchers traced chemical fossils in ancient rocks to the ancestors of modern-day demosponges.
Students and staff work together for MIT’s first “No Mow May”
With advocacy from GSC Sustain, the No Mow May project supports pollinator habitats and provides educational opportunities.
Deep-dive dinners are the norm for tuna and swordfish, MIT oceanographers find
These big fish get most of their food from the ocean’s “twilight zone,” a deep, dark region the commercial fishing industry is eyeing with interest.
How nature organizes itself, from brain cells to ecosystems
McGovern Institute researchers develop a mathematical model to help define how modularity occurs in the brain — and across nature.
Streamlining data collection for improved salmon population management
Assistant Professor Sara Beery is using automation to improve monitoring of migrating salmon in the Pacific Northwest.
Seeking climate connections among the oceans’ smallest organisms
MIT oceanographer and biogeochemist Andrew Babbin has voyaged around the globe to investigate marine microbes and their influence on ocean health.
A new way to determine whether a species will successfully invade an ecosystem
MIT physicists develop a predictive formula, based on bacterial communities, that may also apply to other types of ecosystems, including the human GI tract.