https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science Explainers on the physics, chemistry and biology of temperate seas — marine heatwaves, upwelling, holdfast biology, trophic cascades, eDNA. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/acoustic-fish-surveys https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/acoustic-fish-surveys Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT How do you count fish you can't see? Acoustic surveys use sonar to turn echoes into biomass estimates. Here's how echosounders work — and their limits. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/amoc-explained https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/amoc-explained Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT How the Atlantic's great overturning circulation works, what the observations say about its strength, and why its slowing matters for climate and coasts. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/annual-vs-perennial-kelp https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/annual-vs-perennial-kelp Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Some kelps live one season, others many years. What annual vs perennial life strategies mean for forest dynamics, storm recovery — and choosing restoration species. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/argo-floats-explained https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/argo-floats-explained Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Nearly 4,000 drifting robots take the ocean's temperature from within. How Argo profiling floats work, what they measure, and why the data is free. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/belt-transects-quadrats https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/belt-transects-quadrats Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Belt transects and quadrats turn a kelp forest into numbers: who lives where, at what density. How these classic survey methods work, and why they endure. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/benthic-pelagic-coupling https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/benthic-pelagic-coupling Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Food produced in sunlit surface water rains down to feed the seafloor, and the seafloor recycles nutrients back up. How benthic-pelagic coupling runs a kelp forest. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/biodiversity-stability-kelp https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/biodiversity-stability-kelp Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Diverse kelp forests ride out marine heatwaves that wipe out simple ones. Here's the ecology of the biodiversity–stability relationship — and how it guides restoration. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/biofilms-settlement-cues https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/biofilms-settlement-cues Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT A marine larva picks its lifelong address in minutes, guided by microbial slime and chemical whispers. How biofilms and settlement cues decide who settles where. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/bioluminescence-explained https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/bioluminescence-explained Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Glowing waves, sparkling wakes and milky seas: the chemistry and ecology of bioluminescence, and how to see the ocean light up yourself. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/brown-algae-evolution https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/brown-algae-evolution Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Kelp is not a plant — it is a brown alga built around a stolen red-algal plastid. Tracing 200 million years of stramenopile evolution that produced the forest. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/canopy-gap-dynamics-kelp https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/canopy-gap-dynamics-kelp Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Storms punch holes in kelp canopies, and those holes are where the next forest begins. The science of gap dynamics, light pulses and the patchwork reef. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/carbonate-buffer-system https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/carbonate-buffer-system Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Seawater carries a built-in shock absorber for acidity: the carbonate buffer. How it works, why it's wearing thin, and what it means for shell-builders and kelp. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/coastal-eutrophication https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/coastal-eutrophication Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT How nutrient pollution from land tips coastal reefs from kelp forest to turf algae, why the shift is so hard to reverse, and what actually brings the canopy back. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/coastal-eutrophication-kelp https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/coastal-eutrophication-kelp Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Nutrient pollution feeds opportunistic algae that shade and smother kelp, while rotting blooms strip oxygen. How eutrophication degrades kelp coasts. https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/coastal-geomorphology-rocky-shores https://nicko170.github.io/tidewright/journal/science/coastal-geomorphology-rocky-shores Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Shore platforms, reef relief and rock type decide where kelp can grow. How coastal geomorphology shapes forests — and why restoration starts with reading rock.