Our Mission

Climate change and biodiversity loss pose grand, intertwined challenges to nature and society. In the sea, those changes are largely invisible. MarineGEO is a growing network of partner observatories around the world working to reveal how and why coastal marine life and habitats are changing, globally and locally, to inform evidence-based solutions.

Fish swimming above squidpop
Research In Action
MarineGEO is coordinating global seagrass research to gain a baseline understanding of seagrasses and the communities they support, both wild and human.
Seagrasses: A global ocean life support system
Ninoshka Lopez

Ninoshka Lopez

Intern
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn samples a tagged coral colony, while a curious nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) observes her technique (Photo credit: Leah Harper).
Research In Action
The MarineGEO research team revisited the Carrie Bow Cay station in Belize in late 2022 and found that corals were facing their own pandemic, with signs of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) and a decline in coral cover.
In the COVID era, coral reefs face their own pandemic
Experiment deployed at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute at Bocas del Toro, Panama. (credit: Janina Seeman)
Research In Action
Scientists from 36 sites across 110 degrees of latitude ran the same experiment to assess the intensity and impact of predators on local marine invertebrate communities.
PanAmEx reveals that higher ocean temperatures lead to greater predation pressure