Led by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the team of citizen scientists used hundreds of high-resolution satellite images of areas of the Antarctica to manually count the seals.

Publishing a paper on their findings in the Science Advances journal, the researchers concluded that there were about 202,000 sub-adult and adult female Weddell seals in Antarctica in November 2011. This number contrasts with previous estimates of female Weddell seals at about 800,000. 

Rather than causing a collapse of biodiversity, the dual stressors of ocean warming and acidification could instead lead to significant changes in the relative abundance of species, resulting in a shuffling of coral reef community structure, according to a new study by researchers from University of Hawai'i.

Sprawling coral reefs are complex ecosystems that are teeming with life and most of this biodiversity consists of tiny organisms living deep within the three-dimensional reef matrix.

Seahorses appear to be slow passive hunters as they use their tail to cling to coral or seaweed. However, this can be deceiving, as they are swift, efficient hunters. 

A recent study by Tel Aviv University, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, documents the speed at they hunt. 

Three species of seahorses with varying snout lengths were chosen for the study: Jayakar's seahorses, sea ponies and short-snouted seahorses.