Tuesday December 23, 2025
Mongabay —
In 1888, researchers aboard the R/V Albatross began the world’s first concentrated marine research expeditions off California’s Pacific coast. The team collected untold plant and animal specimens, including orange cup corals, which they carefully preserved and stored in collections at the Smithsonian Institution.
These specimens have now become rare physical evidence of ongoing changes in the chemistry of the Pacific Ocean as seawater absorbs the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.