The good news is, pygmy blue whales appear to be thriving in the Indian Ocean. But not-so-good is that climate change may be threatening their food sources.
By following moisture from the oceans to the land, researchers worked out exactly how three oceans conspire to deliver deluges of rain to eastern Australia.
A research team has used coral records to reconstruct the variability of the Indian Ocean Dipole – a big player in the severe drought and record hot temperatures last year – over the last millennium.
When a positive Indian Ocean dipole is coupled with an El Niño event, rainfall decreases dramatically across Australia, and such an event could be on the way, write Agus Santoso and Wenju Cai.
Scientists on a UNSW-led expedition to study microbes in the Indian Ocean have weathered huge seas, encountered giant whales and collected lots of data during the first leg of their voyage from South Africa to Mauritius.
In a surprise finding, research led by UNSW scientists has revealed the causes of south-eastern Australia's most severe droughts originate far away in the Indian Ocean.
