URI Graduate School of Oceanography

09/03/2026

🌊 The Synergy Project returns to Studio Blue at the URI Narragansett Bay Campus with Environmental Currents: Art and Science Explore Our Changing World. The new exhibition brings together artwork inspired by research from , College of the Environment and Life Sciences, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Since 2020, The Synergy Project with Art League RI has paired artists and scientists to find creative ways to share ocean research with wider audiences. The result is a collection of works that invite us to see our changing world—and the science behind it—in new ways.

🎨 Environmental Currents opens Sept. 10 and runs through Nov. 18, with special programming on Sept. 26 during Science Saturday!

Read the story to learn more about the artists, scientists, and research behind the exhibition: https://buff.ly/gCp2IB1

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(1) Ocean Tunnels by artist Barbara Danzi and scientist Cora Hersh, Ph.D., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
(2) AMOC by artist Ewa Romaszewicz, faculty at URI and CCRI, and scientist Assistant Professor Ambarish Karmalkar, Ph.D., URI College of Environment and Life Sciences
(3) Denizens by artist Marilu Swett and scientist Alyssa Tsukada, Ph.D. candidate, URI Graduate School of Oceanography

09/02/2026

🌾 Pairing Louisiana’s deltaic wetlands with Rhode Island’s salt marshes, a new project co-led by URI seeks to compare wetland resilience across the two states.

University of Rhode Island recently received a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to co-lead a collaboration with LSU focused on improving coastal wetland management in both states.

Ying Zhang, professor of cell and molecular biology at URI, is the project’s lead principal investigator. Co-PIs include Erin Peck of , Julia Wyman of Roger Williams University, Hui Zhou of URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences, and alum Kenneth Raposa ’93, ’97, ’00 of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

➡️ Read more, from bay to bayou: https://buff.ly/A5kxO8s

09/02/2026

08/31/2026

Last Saturday, hosted an exciting youth advocacy training workshop with Sea Youth Rise Up and World Ocean Day! Rhode Island ocean leaders aged 16-21 from The Ocean Project's inaugural Ocean State Rising Youth Advisory Board gathered on the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus to learn effective communication strategies and how to engage with decision-makers. We're proud to support these local ocean champions as they work to make a difference!

08/28/2026

The best part of Science Saturday? Ocean science in action! 🌊🧪🐙

Meet the researchers studying our ocean and coasts, see the equipment they use, and learn about marine exploration, discovery, science, and management through interactive activities and exhibits.

➡️ Join us for a free, family-friendly day of discovery along the shores of Narragansett Bay on September 26!

Learn more and register: https://web.uri.edu/gso/science-saturday/

08/26/2026

🌊 The tidal sensor on the URI Narragansett Bay Campus pier is part of NEST, a statewide real-time environmental monitoring network led by Brown University.

The sensor tracks tides and water levels in Narragansett Bay, providing data that can be used by researchers, emergency managers, and the public.

NEST is part of the Rhode Island Natural Hazards Tools Collaborative, a partnership among URI — University of Rhode Island, Brown University and Rhode Island Sea Grant that brings together real-time environmental data and modeling to help communities prepare for storms, flooding and sea-level rise.

➡️ Explore the data from the Bay Campus sensor and other NEST sensors around Rhode Island: https://dashboard.nest.brown.edu/

08/25/2026

🌊 From the Bay Campus to the middle of the Pacific!

The University of Rhode Island Admission team recently visited the Bay Campus and got a firsthand glimpse of what it’s like to do ocean science at sea through a special ship-to-shore interaction hosted by the URI Inner Space Center.

The team connected with Rob Pockalny, our Acting Associate Dean of Academic & Student Affairs at and Lead Scientist aboard the E/V Nautilus Live during its expedition. Rob shared his experience as a URI faculty member conducting research at sea, how students can get involved in ocean exploration, and what's happening aboard the ship. High school teacher Rikki Lee Marzan, also onboard, shared her experience as a Science Communication Fellow during the expedition!

The E/V Nautilus is currently exploring the waters around remote Wake Island, one of the least-surveyed regions of seafloor under U.S. jurisdiction. The team is using advanced mapping technology, the , and telepresence to explore deep-sea habitats, seamounts, and potential maritime heritage sites.

A great opportunity for our admissions colleagues to see the kinds of experiences and opportunities that await future students at GSO! 🚢🌊

08/25/2026

Why is the Labrador Sea so important to life in the deep Atlantic? 🌊

New research led by former postdoctoral fellow Una Miller, now at Cornell University, and University of Rhode Island Professor of Oceanography Jaime Palter shows how the region’s churning waters help transport oxygen into the deep ocean, supporting life thousands of meters below the surface.

The study highlights the Labrador Sea as a critical link between ocean circulation at the surface and the deep-sea ecosystems that depend on oxygen-rich waters.

Researchers have pinpointed the source of oxygen that sustains deep-sea life in the North Atlantic Ocean: the churning waters in the Labrador Sea.

The study, published in Nature Geoscience on Aug. 17, gives heightened significance to the Labrador Sea, sandwiched between Greenland and Newfoundland. There, waters from the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the ocean’s major current system, turn in a gyre, and oxygen-rich surface waters mix with deeper waters. Previous research had found that the Labrador Sea has little impact on the strength of AMOC, but the study finds it plays a critical role in oxygen transport.

“We found that the Labrador Sea exports enough oxygen to meet the biological need across a vast part of the deep North Atlantic Ocean, so it’s very likely crucial to sustain these deep sea ecosystems,” said first author Una Miller, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

“Our finding shows that if we’re going to understand the future, especially in the face of these deoxygenation trends, you can’t just look at the strength of AMOC, you also have to understand processes in the Labrador Sea.”

“No one’s successfully sustained multiple years of oxygen measurements on moorings like these before, so that was one breakthrough, along with a machine learning method to fill in gaps so we could map these oxygen values,” said senior author Jaime Palter of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. “Now we know the rate of oxygenation, we know the processes, and we can link it with other work to show that the current needs to take this last step in the Labrador Sea in order for ecosystems to function.”

Read more: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/08/life-deep-atlantic-depends-labrador-sea

08/24/2026

🌉🌊 The fifth cohort of Bridge to Ocean Exploration (B2OE) students recently wrapped up a successful semester of hands-on learning.

Ten students from Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) worked alongside mentors from University of Rhode Island and NOAA OECI on projects spanning oceanography, ocean engineering, and science communication, gaining valuable experience as they explored pathways into ocean careers.

The semester culminated with student presentations at the monthly OECI colloquium. We’re excited to see where these students go next! 🌊

📸 The cohort visiting Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

08/21/2026

🐟 Mystery catch!

Can you name this rare species, caught this week during ’s Fish Trawl Survey?

For 60 years, GSO researchers have trawled Narragansett Bay to track the seasonal occurrences of migratory fish populations, and every once in a while, a warm-water visitor like this one turns up. 👀

What’s your guess? Drop it below! ⬇️ We’ll reveal the answer Monday.

📸 Reese Kober, doctoral student & Fish Trawl Assistant