Credit: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Recent scientific discussions have centered on the unexpected decline of Antarctic sea ice, which was previously considered resistant to climate change. Research indicates that robust winds have stirred warmer deep ocean water, disrupting the protective layer above the ice, leading to its accelerated melt.
While Arctic sea ice has seen a dramatic decrease of approximately 40% over four decades, Antarctic sea ice had shown slight expansion until recent trends reversed this. Since 2015, the extent of sea ice has shifted from record highs to remarkable lows, akin to the area of Greenland.
According to a study conducted by Antarctic researchers, rising temperatures are primary contributors to this melting. Further investigations reveal that ocean warming has played a pivotal role in this significant ‘regime shift’.
As stated by Simon Georgie from the National Marine Center in Southampton, UK, “A thorough analysis reveals a convincing sequence of events where oceans have significantly impacted ice melting, particularly starting in 2016.”
The circumpolar deep water, a warm, salty ocean body, flows southward from tropical regions, encircling Antarctica at depths under 200 meters. Two decades of temperature and salinity data suggest that this warm water is gradually surfacing, contributing to sea ice melt.
Antarctica is flanked by intense winds and storms in the “Roaring 40s,” “Roaring 50s,” and “Screaming 60s.” Climate change is shifting these storm paths southward, increasing precipitation in sea ice regions. Earl Wilson and colleagues from Stanford University highlight that additional precipitation formed a fresh water layer on the surface, temporarily insulating the sea ice from the warmer waters below.
However, these southward-moving storms bring strong winds that push surface water and ice forward. The Earth’s rotation causes this water to disperse at a right angle to the wind direction, facilitating a vortex comparable to the Weddell Sea circulation. As surface water shifts away, deep water replaces it, promoting further ice melt.
From 2014 to 2016, the upwelling of deep water began to outweigh the insulated layer of fresh water created by precipitation. This was evidenced in a simple computer model that mimicked real-world ice expansion and contraction based on observed temperature and salinity changes.
“Indications suggest a continued decline in sea ice,” Wilson remarks. “Although precipitation may reduce deep-sea heat temporarily, that heat remains a factor. A sudden change in conditions could unleash it back into the environment.”
A follow-up study indicates this reversal was instigated by a sequence of storms. Theo Spira and his team at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany found that the intrusion of warmer deep waters, coupled with winter water effects, is exacerbated by increasingly warmer global temperatures.
This warming causes deep water expansion, reducing winter water thickness, and has resulted in flooding of deeper waters over time. Since 2015 and 2016, strong winds have exacerbated these conditions, without allowing the lamellar structure to stabilize.
Importantly, while wind patterns may be a natural phenomenon, global warming has set the stage for these changes, as noted by Spira, emphasizing that the ocean’s reactions to these winds might mitigate the rapid ice decline.
Although melting sea ice will not directly contribute to rising sea levels, it poses risks to species such as krill and penguins that rely on this ice for habitat. Additionally, if sea ice retreats near significant ice shelves, it may disrupt global ocean currents, including the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation critical for maintaining Europe’s climate.
“The reduction of sea ice formation in these areas could lead to diminishing bottom water and decrease the meridional overturning circulation,” explains Wilson, while acknowledging that freshwater from glacier melt has a more pronounced impact on these dynamics.
Rising Sea Levels: Increased Risk of Storm Surge Flooding in Coastal Cities
Credit: Thomas Wyness / Alamy Stock Photo
Many studies on the impact of future sea level rise have neglected to acknowledge that current sea levels are higher than previously estimated, resulting from a significant “methodological blind spot.” This oversight indicates that flooding and erosion may commence sooner than anticipated.
Katarina Seeger and Philip Minderhoud, researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, evaluated 385 peer-reviewed studies addressing coastal vulnerability. They found that 90% of these studies failed to consider critical factors—such as ocean currents, tides, temperature, salinity, and wind—when assessing sea level variations. This oversight led to an average underestimation of coastal water levels by 24 to 27 centimeters.
Addressing this gap could potentially increase projections of individuals likely to experience flooding, estimating an increase of up to 68%, impacting approximately 132 million people by 2100. Areas significantly affected include Southeast Asia and Oceania, which often feature sea levels averaging a meter higher than previously calculated, with some regions seeing several meters’ difference.
“If representatives from these vulnerable regions attend global discussions to seek assistance, it may be frustrating, as their risks are grossly underestimated. This scientific miscalculation could affect outcomes for future generations,” Minderhoud stated during a briefing.
While predictions suggest that sea levels may rise by as much as 1 meter by the century’s end, many studies begin with baselines that are inaccurately low. Thus, the adverse effects will likely manifest sooner than expected.
Of the studies evaluated, 46 were referenced in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the premier source on global warming impacts, including rising sea levels.
The Earth’s rotation causes it to bulge at the equator, while denser mantle sections exert a greater gravitational pull on overlying water. To accurately determine the elevation of a specific area, measurements must be compared to the geoid, which depicts mean sea level worldwide.
However, in some regions, actual sea levels can be several meters above the geoid due to wind and ocean currents accumulating water or thermal expansion caused by rising temperatures. Additionally, coastlines may shift due to sediment deposition in rivers or groundwater extraction beneath coastal areas.
Instead of comparing satellite observations to the geoid for insight into coastal water levels and land elevation, many researchers relied on unadjusted geoid sea levels. Even those who attempted calculations often encountered errors caused by differing geoid models for land and ocean elevations. Alarmingly, less than 1% of surveys accurately determined the current sea level at the coastline in question.
“The Coastal Research Community may not have full access to these critical sea level datasets as we are primarily focused on the coastal land aspect,” Seeger remarked during the briefing.
Climate scientists and oceanographers must collaborate more closely with geographers and environmental scientists who assess coastal impacts, emphasized Matt Palmer from the UK’s Met Office.
“It could be said that the crucial final details got lost in translation,” he noted. “Ensuring that the last mile of information is handled adeptly is vital; otherwise, the integrity of the entire effort is compromised.”
The implications of this issue extend to matters of climate justice, said Palmer. The underestimation of sea levels is particularly critical in low-income nations, including various deltas in Africa and Asia. Limited data on gravity fluctuations and lower geoid accuracy contribute to this challenge in regions that are most susceptible to rising sea levels.
The scientific community advocates for enhanced data collection in low-income regions, particularly through the installation of tide gauges for accurate sea level measurements, according to Joan Williams from the UK National Marine Centre.
“Coastal sea levels are influenced by various local factors, necessitating long-term, well-calibrated regional measurements as the gold standard,” she stated.
For decades, discussions surrounding coastal risk have focused primarily on climate change and sea level rise. However, a significant new global study reveals an even more urgent threat: land subsidence, affecting hundreds of millions of people living in delta regions, including urban hubs like New Orleans and Bangkok.
In various locations around the world, land is sinking at rates that often surpass the rising sea levels.
Utilizing satellite radar technology to monitor minute changes in the Earth’s surface, researchers have discovered that over half of the world’s deltas—low-lying areas where major rivers converge with the ocean—are currently sinking. This gradual subsidence, in conjunction with sea level rise, poses the most significant flood risk in many densely populated delta regions on Earth.
“This is truly a declaration of war,” stated Professor Robert Nicholls, co-author of the study and coastal scientist at the University of Southampton. The findings were reported in BBC Science Focus. “Until now, no one had taken a global perspective on delta subsidence. This study highlights the breadth of the issue and underscores the urgency of addressing it.”
The survey results can be found in the journal Nature.
Subsidence rates in river deltas, displayed as colored circles. The size of each circle reflects the area of the delta sinking faster than sea level rise, represented as a color gradient across the delta’s basin. Photo credit: Ohenhen et al. (2026)
Global Problems Hidden in Plain Sight
Delta regions comprise only 1% of the Earth’s land area but are home to approximately 350 to 500 million people, including some of the world’s most significant cities and productive agricultural zones. These areas serve as economic powerhouses, environmental hotspots, and essential food sources, yet they are inherently fragile.
Deltas are formed by loose, water-saturated sediments deposited over millennia. In their natural state, these sediments compact under their own weight and gradually sink.
Historically, natural subsidence was balanced by periodic flooding that replenished the land with fresh sediment, but modern interventions have disrupted this equilibrium.
The recent study analyzed satellite measurements across 40 major delta regions from 2014 to 2023, creating the first high-resolution global image detailing land elevation changes.
The findings were alarming: currently, at least 35% of delta regions have subsided, with over half of the land surface subsiding in most deltas.
In 18 of the 40 river deltas examined, land is sinking faster than local sea level rise, revealing hotspots where subsidence dominates over regional and global sea level increases.
A similar pattern is evident across continents—Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas—where relative sea levels rise due to both ocean expansion and land subsidence.
“From a risk perspective, it doesn’t matter if sea levels rise or land sinks,” Nichols explained. “The ultimate effect is the same, but the responses to those threats may differ.”
The Ciliund Delta in Indonesia is home to Jakarta, inhabited by over 40 million people, and is sinking at an average rate of 5.6 mm annually. Photo credit: Getty
What is Causing the Sinking?
The study identified three primary causes of anthropogenic land subsidence: groundwater extraction, reduced sediment supply, and urban expansion. Among these, groundwater pumping is the most significant predictor.
When groundwater is extracted, the soft surrounding sediments collapse and compact, a process that is nearly irreversible. Once the sediment is compacted, it will not return, even if water levels recover.
In 10 out of the 40 delta regions studied, groundwater depletion was the main factor driving land subsidence. Additionally, reduced river sediment caused by damming and flood defenses, combined with the weight of growing cities built on soft soils, contribute to this crisis.
As a result, what was once a slow geological phenomenon has transformed into an urgent environmental crisis.
Read More:
US Case: Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi River Delta in New Orleans and Louisiana exemplifies this issue in the United States.
The analysis confirms widespread subsidence across the delta, with over 90% of the region experiencing subsidence at an average rate of 3.3 mm per year. Some localized areas even sink much faster.
While this rate may seem minimal, it accumulates significantly over decades, especially alongside the threats posed by rising sea levels and hurricanes.
The Mississippi Delta has lost thousands of square kilometers of coastal wetlands over the last century, resulting in catastrophic damage. An area the size of a soccer field is lost to open water every 100 minutes.
The Mississippi Delta experiences an average subsidence of 3.3 mm per year, with some hotspots sinking over 10 times faster. Photo credit: NASA Earth Observatory
The lack of fresh sediment is a critical issue. Levees and dams prevent flooding and the natural deposition of new sediments that help rebuild the land. Additionally, drainage systems, oil and gas extraction, and decades of groundwater pumping exert further stress on fragile soils.
While some delta areas display resilience, one proposed solution is relocating populations away from these vulnerable regions. For instance, New Orleans has seen a steady population decline since the 1960s.
“In the United States, people tend to accept the idea of relocation,” Nichols noted, emphasizing that societal mobility and favorable land-use policies make this transition more politically feasible than in parts of Europe and Asia, where long-term protective measures are generally favored.
Warning to Major Cities
While North America grapples with these challenges, the most extreme subsidence rates can be found in parts of South and Southeast Asia, where population density is high and dependence on groundwater for agriculture, industry, and drinking water prevails.
Regions such as the Mekong River (Vietnam), Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers (Bangladesh and India), Chao Phraya River (Thailand), and Yellow River (China) are sinking faster than current global sea level rise in some areas by over a centimeter per year.
Mega-cities like Bangkok, Dhaka, Shanghai, and parts of Jakarta are built on these subsiding foundations.
The good news is that, unlike global sea level rise—which unfolds over centuries—human-induced land subsidence can respond swiftly to policy changes. A notable success story is Tokyo.
Due to strict groundwater extraction regulations, Tokyo has significantly reduced subsidence rates. Photo credit: Getty
In the mid-20th century, unchecked groundwater extraction caused parts of Tokyo to sink more than 4 meters. However, rigorous regulations on groundwater use and investments in alternative water sources resulted in a swift decrease in subsidence rates.
“Authorities have enacted legislation to ensure sufficient alternative water supplies and eliminate groundwater extraction,” Nichols remarked. “And almost overnight, this led to stabilization.”
Additional solutions include managed flooding in agricultural areas to replenish soil sediments. “Sediment is often deemed a pollutant,” Nichols points out. However, when rivers overflow, they deposit valuable materials that built the delta, a process sometimes referred to as “brown gold.”
Urban areas can be fortified with effective engineering solutions such as sea walls, levees, and storm surge barriers. “Addressing subsidence complements efforts to adapt to sea level rise and reduces vulnerabilities,” Nichols added, as reported here.
Shifting Attitudes Towards Coastal Risk
The study’s authors emphasize that land subsidence has been dangerously overlooked in global climate risk strategies, largely viewed as a local rather than a global issue.
However, local does not equate to minor. Even under severe climate scenarios, land subsidence is expected to remain the primary driver of relative sea level rise in numerous delta regions for decades to come.
Financial and institutional barriers often hinder large-scale interventions in many areas, but deferring action only exacerbates the costs and challenges of future adaptations.
Once land subsides, initiating new urban developments is not feasible, leaving communities to face tough decisions about relocation.
As Nichols succinctly states, “The first crucial step is to acknowledge that a problem exists.”
Young Loggerhead Sea Turtle in the Caribbean Sea near the Bahamas
WaterFrame/Alamy
Recent research indicates that sea turtles may be more resilient to climate change than previously believed. Concerns have been raised that rising temperatures could lead to the extinction of these reptiles, as a majority of turtle eggs tend to develop into females. However, scientists have discovered a genetic safety net that maintains a more balanced sex ratio even as temperatures increase.
According to Chris Eizaguirre at Queen Mary University of London, “We believe we have uncovered the ability of turtles to adapt to the environment they find themselves in.”
The gender of baby sea turtles is temperature-dependent rather than determined by chromosomes. Laboratory studies show that cooler nest temperatures favor male hatchlings, while warmer conditions promote female hatchlings. This raises concerns that global warming could result in significantly more female turtles.
For instance, genetic research conducted in 2018 revealed that around 99% of young green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) aged 4 to 20 years in a nesting area off Australia were female. This finding contributed to alarming predictions about male shortages which could lead to a population collapse.
However, due to the challenges of identifying a turtle’s gender before it reaches maturity, field data regarding hatchling sex ratios have been limited.
To address this gap, Eizaguirre and colleagues conducted both laboratory and field experiments focused on loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta).
In one phase of the study, they collected 240 eggs from seven loggerhead nests along Florida’s Palm Beach County coast. These eggs were incubated at three different temperatures: 27°C (81°F) suitable for male hatchling production, 30°C (86°F) for an equal sex ratio, and 32°C (90°F) to promote female hatchlings.
After one to three days, blood samples were taken from the hatchlings, which were kept until mature enough for sex determination via keyhole surgery or laparoscopic imaging.
By comparing genetic data from the blood samples, researchers found distinctive activity patterns in hundreds of genes that indicated sex, attributable to an epigenetic process called DNA methylation. In females, 383 genes were hypermethylated, while males had 394 hypermethylated genes, many of which are known to play roles in sexual development.
Utilizing these findings, the team conducted field research on Sal Island, Cape Verde, collecting 29 newly laid loggerhead sea turtle eggs. The eggs were divided, with half buried in a cooler area and the other half in a warmer spot, and monitored for temperature variations.
Analysis of blood samples from 116 hatchlings revealed a higher number of males than predicted, suggesting previous models had overestimated female hatchling production by 50-60%, likely due to previously unrecognized biological adaptations.
“This discovery highlights that molecular mechanisms exist that help turtles adapt to climate change by modulating the sensitivity of sexual differentiation to temperature,” Eizaguirre explains.
“While feminization is a concern and does occur due to climate change, we are suggesting that if populations are robust and genetically diverse, species can adapt to their environmental conditions,” he adds.
These findings are supported by recent evidence from Graham Hayes at Deakin University, which showed that more male sea turtles are hatching than originally expected if temperature were the sole factor in sex determination. Hayes notes that turtles can adapt their crucial temperature-related sex ratios to local conditions.
In addition, turtles employ other strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change, such as nesting earlier in the season and adjusting their migration patterns to breeding grounds to counteract feminization effects. “While females may not breed annually, males migrate to breeding grounds more frequently, contributing to a more balanced reproductive sex ratio,” Hayes explains.
Despite these behavioral adaptations, Eizaguirre warns that hatchlings still face threats from excessive heat, which can lead to lasting changes in DNA methylation—an indication of molecular adaptation that is promising for these vulnerable reptiles.
Experiment on Oxygen Production with Deep-Sea Nodule
Nippon Foundation
Scientists are set to deploy instruments to the ocean floor to explore the intriguing process of metal nodules producing oxygen in the Pacific Ocean. This unexpected phenomenon has ignited significant debate regarding the ethics of deep-sea mining.
In a surprising revelation from 2024, researchers identified that a potato-sized formation in the depths of the Pacific and Indian Oceans—including the distinguished Clarion-Clipperton Zone—functions as a vital oxygen source. This discovery challenges the conventional belief that large-scale oxygen production derives solely from sunlight and photosynthesis.
Dubbed “dark oxygen,” this phenomenon sustains life within the abyss, including microorganisms, sea cucumbers, and predatory sea anemones thriving thousands of meters beneath the surface. This finding casts doubt on proposals from deep-sea mining companies aiming to extract cobalt, nickel, and manganese by removing nodules from the ocean floor. A controversial deep-sea mining company was involved in this discovery, prompting a call for further scientific investigation.
Now, the team responsible for discovering dark oxygen is returning to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, the prime location for potential deep-sea mining, to verify its existence and comprehend the mechanisms behind its production.
“Where does the oxygen come from for these diverse animal communities to thrive?” asked Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Marine Science Society. “This could be an essential process, and we’re focused on uncovering it.”
The researchers propose that a metallic layer in the nodule generates an electrical current which splits seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. They’ve recorded up to 0.95 volts of electricity on the surface of the nodules—just below the standard 1.23 volts necessary for electrolysis. However, the team suggests that individual nodules or clusters could produce higher voltages.
Plans are underway to deploy a lander, essentially a metal frame housing various instruments, to a depth of 10,000 meters to measure oxygen flow and pH changes, as the electrolysis process releases protons, increasing water acidity.
Research Lander Deployed Into the Ocean
Scottish Marine Science Society
Given the potential role of microorganisms in this process, the lander will also collect sediment cores and nodules for laboratory analysis. Each nodule is home to approximately 100 million microorganisms, which researchers aim to identify through DNA sequencing and fluorescence microscopy.
“The immense diversity of microorganisms is constantly evolving; we are continually discovering new species,” remarked Jeff Marlow from Boston University. “Are they active? Are they influencing their environment in crucial ways?”
Furthermore, since electrolysis is generally not observed under the intense pressures found on the ocean floor, the team intends to utilize a high-pressure reactor to replicate deep-sea conditions and conduct electrolysis experiments there.
“The pressure of 400 atmospheres is comparable to that at which the Titan submarine tragically imploded,” noted Franz Geiger from Northwestern University. “We seek to understand the efficiency of water splitting under such high pressure.”
The ultimate aim is to carry out electrochemical reactions in the presence of microorganisms and bacteria under an electron microscope without harming the microorganisms.
The United Nations’ International Seabed Authority has yet to decide on the legality of deep-sea mining in international waters, with U.S. President Donald Trump advocating for its implementation. The Canadian company, The Metals Company, has applied for authorization from the U.S. government to commence deep-sea mining operations.
A recent paper authored by Metals Company scientists contends that Sweetman and his colleagues have not produced sufficient energy to facilitate seawater electrolysis in 2024, suggesting the observed oxygen was likely transported from the ocean’s surface by the deployed landers.
Sweetman countered this claim, stating that the lander would displace any air bubbles on its descent, and asserted that oxygen measurement would not have occurred if deployed in other regions, such as the Arctic ocean floor, which is 4,000 meters deep. Out of 65 experiments conducted at the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, he noted that 10% exhibited oxygen consumption while the remainder indicated oxygen production.
Sweetman and his colleagues also discovered that the oxidation phase of the electrolysis process can occur at lower voltages than those recorded on the nodule’s surface. A rebuttal presenting this data has been submitted to Natural Earth Science and is currently under review.
“From a commercial perspective, there are definitely interests attempting to suppress research in this field,” stated Sweetman in response to the Metals Company’s opposition to his findings.
“It is imperative to address all comments, regardless of their origin,” added Marlowe. “That is our current predicament in this process.”
Paleontologists have discovered a significant concentration of dugong fossils at Al Masjabiya, an early Miocene dam site in Qatar. These fossils indicate that the Arabian Gulf has undergone various species of sea cows over the past 20 million years. One of these species is Salvacillen catalensis.
An artistic rendering of a group of Salvacillen catalensis foraging on the ocean floor. Image credit: Alex Boersma.
It has a robust body and a downturned snout adorned with sensitive bristles. Dugongs (dugong dugong) are closely related to manatees.
A key distinction between these aquatic herbivores, often referred to as sea cows, is their tails. Manatees possess a paddle-like tail, whereas dugongs feature a fluke-like tail that resembles that of a dolphin.
Dugongs inhabit coastal waters stretching from western Africa through the Indo-Pacific to northern Australia.
The Arabian Gulf hosts the world’s largest dugong population, making sea cows critical to the ecosystem.
As they graze on seagrass, dugongs alter the ocean floor, creating feeding channels that release buried nutrients into the surrounding waters for use by other marine life.
“We uncovered a distant ancestor of the dugong in a rock formation less than 16 kilometers (10 miles) from a bay with seagrass meadows, which is currently the primary habitat for dugongs,” stated Dr. Nicholas Pienson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the National Museum of Natural History.
“This region has served as the main habitat for sea cows for the past 21 million years, with different species occupying this role over time.”
Few locations preserve as many bones as Al Masjabiya, a fossil site in southwestern Qatar.
The bone beds were initially identified in the 1970s during mining and oil exploration, when geologists found a large number of “reptilian” bones scattered across the desert.
Paleontologists revisited the area in the early 2000s and soon realized that these fossils belonged to sea cows, not ancient reptiles.
Using the surrounding rock layers as a guide, Dr. Pienson and his team dated the bone bed to the early Miocene, approximately 21 million years ago.
They found fossils indicating that this area was once a shallow marine habitat teeming with sharks, barracuda-like fish, prehistoric dolphins, and sea turtles.
Researchers identified over 170 different sites containing sea cow fossils throughout the Al Masjabiya location.
This renders the bone bed the richest trove of fossilized sea cow remains globally.
The fossilized bones from Al Masjabiya bore a resemblance to modern dugongs, although ancient sea cows still had hind limb bones, which contemporary dugongs and manatees have lost through evolution.
The prehistoric sea cows found here exhibited straighter snouts and smaller tusks compared to their living counterparts.
Researchers classified Al Masjabiya’s fossil sea cow as a new species: Salvacillen catalensis.
“Using a national name for this species seemed fitting, as it clearly indicates the location where the fossil was discovered,” said Dr. Ferhan Sakal, a researcher at Qatar Museums.
Estimated weight: 113 kg (250 lbs), Salvacillen catalensis would weigh as much as an adult panda or a heavyweight boxer.
Nonetheless, it was among the smaller sea cow species ever found, with some modern dugongs weighing nearly eight times as much as Salvacillen catalensis.
Based on the fossils, scientists theorize that the region was rich in seagrass beds more than 20 million years ago, during an era when the bay was a hotspot of biodiversity, supported by sea cows nurturing these aquatic meadows.
“The density of al-Mashabiya’s bone bed provides a significant clue. Salvacillen catalensis acted as seagrass ecosystem engineers in the early Miocene, much like dugongs do today,” Dr. Pienson added.
“Though the evolutionary agents have completely changed, the ecological roles have remained the same.”
The findings are documented in a published paper available at: Peer J.
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ND Pienson et al., 2025. The abundance of early Miocene sea cows from Qatar demonstrates the repeated evolution of eastern Tethyan seagrass ecosystem engineers. Peer J 13: e20030; doi: 10.7717/peerj.20030
The previous season marked the highest temperatures in the Arctic for the past 125 years. March, typically the month with the greatest sea ice extent, recorded the lowest levels in 47 years of satellite data. The North American tundra exhibited unprecedented greenness, showing more vegetation than ever before.
These findings, released on Tuesday in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s annual Arctic Report Card, illustrate the swift and dramatic changes taking place in the region as global temperatures rise.
“The Arctic is warming at a pace that exceeds the global average, with the last decade being some of the hottest on record,” stated Steve Sarr, NOAA’s acting principal scientist and associate administrator for ocean and atmospheric research.
Due to this warming, “over 200 watersheds in the Alaskan Arctic are turning orange as permafrost thaws, ecosystems evolve, and elements like iron are released into rivers,” Thursday indicated.The research highlighted increased acidity and higher levels of toxic metals in these discolored streams.
This is just one of many consequences of climate change affecting the region detailed in the report. This marks the 20th year that NOAA has published the Arctic report card, which originally surfaced during President Donald Trump’s second term.
The Trump administration has worked to diminish or eliminate other climate change reports, including the National Climate Assessment and the extensive climate disaster database. President Trump has labeled climate change a “swindler” and is actively trying to reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Matthew Druckenmiller, a writer of the report and researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, affirmed during a Tuesday press conference that the team faced “no political interference concerning our findings.”
Independent scientists consulted by NBC News remarked that the report conveys a similarly urgent tone and message as in previous years, with a few minor distinctions.
“Frankly, we haven’t observed a significant shift in tone compared to prior Arctic report cards, which is encouraging,” commented Tom Di Liberto, a climate scientist and media director at Climate Central. “The implications of their conclusions remain consistent with earlier Arctic report cards. The Arctic acts as a warning sign.”
Di Liberto, who previously worked in NOAA’s communications office before his position was cut in March as part of staff reductions, noted that the previous year’s report emphasized reducing fossil fuel production, whereas this year’s report does not mention fossil fuels at all. Otherwise, he identified no major differences.
NOAA unveiled a report at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in New Orleans, highlighting how climate change is disrupting ecosystems and threatening livelihoods in the Arctic. This event is one of the largest scientific gatherings of the year, attracting thousands of scientists.
Mark Alessi, a climate scientist and fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists, remarked that the report card “effectively communicates the realities of what is occurring on the ground in the Arctic.”
“Anyone reading this will understand that we continue to raise the alarm,” he emphasized.
In strong language, the report’s authors point out that proposed budget cuts to scientific programs collecting data in the Arctic, including satellite programs monitoring sea ice, threaten to undermine the data collection essential for this report and related decision-making.
“Aging infrastructure, along with risks to funding and staffing, could further erode existing AONs.” [Arctic Observing Network] Gaps are forming that hinder long-term trend analysis and decision-making,” the report warned.
Specifically, the report highlights several satellites within the Defense Weather Satellite Program set to be decommissioned in 2026. The cessation of these satellites will restrict sea ice measurements. It also mentions that the tundra greenness dataset will remain unchanged due to NASA funding cuts, and other climate datasets may also be jeopardized by proposed federal budget cuts in fiscal year 2026.
The Arctic is warming two to four times quicker than the rest of the globe, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. This process alters ocean currents and the degree of sunlight absorbed by the Earth’s surface at the poles.
“This feedback loop leads to the loss of sea ice and land ice, increased absorption of sunlight, and consequently, more rapid warming,” explained Alessi.
Temperature records are categorized by the Arctic water year, with the latest data ranging from October 2024 to September 2025.
The wolf, the wild ancestor of dogs, stands as the sole large carnivore domesticated by humans. Nonetheless, the exact nature of this domestication remains a topic of debate—whether it was a result of direct human control over wild wolves or a gradual adaptation of wolf populations to human environments. Recent archaeological findings in the Stra Fjärväl cave on the Swedish island of Stra Karsø, located in the Baltic Sea, have revealed the remains of two canids with genetic ties to gray wolves. This island, measuring just 2.5 km2, possesses no native land mammals, similar to its neighboring Gotland, and thus any mammalian presence must have been human-introduced.
Canadian Eskimo Dog by John James Audubon and John Bachman.
“The discovery of wolves on such a remote island was entirely unexpected,” remarked Dr. Linus Gardland Frink, a researcher from the University of Aberdeen.
“They not only had genetic links indistinguishable from other Eurasian wolves but also seemed to coexist and feed alongside humans in areas that were only reachable by boat.”
“This paints a complex picture of the historical dynamics between humans and wolves.”
Genomic analysis of the canid remains indicates they are wolves, not dogs.
However, their traits suggest a level of coexistence with humans.
Isotope analysis of their bones indicates a diet high in marine proteins, such as seals and fish, mirroring the diet of the humans on the island, suggesting they were likely fed.
Furthermore, these wolves were smaller than typical mainland counterparts, and one individual demonstrated signs of low genetic diversity—a common outcome due to isolation or controlled breeding.
This findings challenge long-standing notions regarding the power dynamics between wolves and humans and the domestication of dogs.
While it is unclear if these wolves were domesticated, confined, or managed, their presence in human-occupied areas suggests deliberate and ongoing interactions.
“The fact that it was a wolf and not a dog was a complete surprise,” stated Dr. Pontus Skoglund from the Francis Crick Institute.
“This provocative case suggests that under certain conditions, humans may have kept wolves in their habitats and found them valuable.”
“The genetic findings are intriguing,” noted Dr. Anders Bergström from the University of East Anglia.
“We discovered that the wolf with the most complete genome showed less genetic diversity than any ancient wolf previously analyzed.”
“This resembles what is observed in isolated or bottlenecked populations, or in domesticated species.”
“Although we cannot completely dismiss the idea that low genetic diversity may occur naturally, it implies humans were likely interacting with and managing wolves in ways not previously considered.”
One Bronze Age wolf specimen also presented advanced pathology in its limb bones, which would have restricted its mobility.
This suggests care or adaptation to an environment where large prey hunting was unnecessary for survival.
Professor Jan Stroh of Stockholm University stated: “The combined data offers new and unexpected perspectives on human-animal interactions during the Stone and Bronze Ages, especially regarding wolves and dogs.”
“These findings imply that prehistoric interactions between humans and wolves were more intricate than previously understood, involving complex relationships that extend beyond simple hunting or avoidance, hinting at new aspects of domestication unrelated to modern dogs.”
A study detailing this research was published on November 24th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Linus Gardland-Frink et al. 2025. A gray wolf in the anthropogenic setting of a small prehistoric Scandinavian island. PNAS 122 (48): e2421759122; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2421759122
A newly identified species of hermit crab-associated sea anemone, Paracalliactis, has been described by a group of marine biologists from Japan and Australia. This crab creates and maintains a distinctive shell-like structure known as a carcinodecium, which enhances the living space for its hermit crab host.
Paracalliactis. Image credit: Yoshikawa et al., doi: 10.1098/rsos.250789.
Paracalliactis is the ninth recognized species within its genus, Paracalliactis.
The genus previously included eight species, one of which was unverified; Involves Paracalliactis and one yet-to-be-described species inhabit shells occupied by hermit crabs.
Most Paracalliactis species thrive on the deep-sea floor (at depths of approximately 200 to 4,700 meters), while Paracalliactis rosea and Paracalliactis sinica are noted at varying depths from shallow to deep (50–3,000 m and shallow depths of 39–40 m, respectively).
“Our findings indicate that even simple organisms like sea anemones can exhibit unexpectedly complex behaviors,” stated the first author, Dr. Akihiro Yoshikawa, a researcher at Kumamoto University.
“The capacity of animals to construct shell-like structures offers intriguing insights into how they navigate and perceive their environment.”
The Paracalliactis hermit crabs have been found inhabiting the shells of Oncopagurus monstrosus, which resides at depths ranging from 200 to 500 meters along the Pacific coast of Mie and Shizuoka prefectures.
Unlike typical sea anemones, which lack a hard skeleton, this species secretes a carcinogen that fortifies and enlarges the crab’s shell.
The research team’s stable isotope analysis indicated that the sea anemones derive a portion of their nutrition from organic particles and crab feces, demonstrating an unusual yet effective recycling method on the deep sea floor.
Additionally, 3D imaging using micro-CT scans revealed that sea anemones attach to their shells in a consistent, unidirectional manner, potentially linked to both feeding and shell formation.
Consequently, hermit crabs gain the advantage of increased body size through this association, underscoring a true symbiotic relationship between the two species.
“Our study provides the first quantitative evidence of mutualism within the carcinogen-forming context, illustrating a remarkable case of deep-sea symbiosis and hypothesizing how mutual benefits evolve over time, fostering the development of carcinogen-forming abilities and species-specific mutualisms,” the authors concluded.
Their paper was published on October 22nd in Royal Society Open Science.
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Akihiro Yoshikawa et al.. 2025. Deep seafloor symbiosis: A new shell-forming sea anemone coexists with hermit crabs. R. Soc. Open Science 12(10):250789; doi: 10.1098/rsos.250789
Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, peculiar creatures abandoned their journeys across the ocean floor. They resembled beings adorned with spiked helmets and had eyes positioned on top, along with sharp tails extending behind them.
Today, horseshoe crabs still exist and belong to the animal order known as Xiphosura, derived from ancient Greek, meaning “sword” and “tail.” Despite their name, they are more closely related to spiders than to crustaceans.
Fossils of horseshoe crabs date back to the Upper Ordovician period, approximately 450 million years ago. Their descendants—four existing species—have undergone significant changes in appearance, earning them the title of “living fossils.”
Despite their ancient lineage, horseshoe crabs are crucial in today’s world. Most people eventually come into contact with life-saving doses of bright blue blood derived from these creatures.
Importantly, it also harbors their blood. Amebocytes, a powerful immune cell are exceptionally sensitive to harmful toxins produced by bacteria. Endotoxins, prevalent in the environment, are resistant to standard sterilization methods.
Should a vaccine contain endotoxins, it could trigger a dangerous reaction historically known as “injection fever.”
Previously, tests were conducted by injecting a vaccine batch into a living rabbit; if any exhibited a fever, it signified contamination.
In the 1960s, American marine biologists observed that the blue blood of horseshoe crabs coagulated instantly upon contact with fever-inducing endotoxin. This mechanism allows horseshoe crabs to encapsulate bacteria by forming clots around them, proving beneficial for human applications.
Now, rather than injecting rabbits, hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs are harvested from the ocean each year, with a third of their blood extracted to test for endotoxins in intravenous medications and medical implants.
Many people eventually encounter the vibrant blue blood of a life-saving horseshoe crab – Image credit: Jurgen Freund/Naturepl.com
The demand for blue blood has surged, especially with the competition surrounding the development of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Not all horseshoe crabs survive the blood collection process; approximately 15-30% do not. Conservationists are advocating for synthetic alternatives to blood tests.
In the 1990s, researchers in Singapore developed a method to create synthetic endotoxin detection using a compound based on horseshoe crab DNA. Currently, various alternative compounds mimic this reaction without utilizing horseshoe crab blood.
Although regulatory processes have been sluggish, these new compounds received approval for use in Europe in 2016 and 2024. Nowadays, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly opting for synthetic methods.
This development bodes well not just for horseshoe crabs but also for other species reliant on them. Each year, thousands of horseshoe crabs come ashore on sandy beaches along North America’s East Coast, particularly in Delaware Bay, where eggs are laid near Philadelphia.
A single female lays around 4,000 eggs, many of which become vital sustenance for migratory birds like the red knot, which journey between South America and the Canadian Arctic.
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Recent studies indicate that elevated temperatures have led to increased groundwater infiltration, exacerbating drought conditions and accelerating evaporation, thereby significantly decreasing the availability of freshwater.
The concept of “continental aridity” reallocates oceanic water to an extent, outpacing the melting of ice sheets as the primary factor contributing to global sea level rise, according to the research.
Loss of land water can severely affect access to safe drinking water and the ability to cultivate crops in some of the most fertile agricultural areas worldwide.
“We consume a significant amount of water for food production,” stated Jay Famiglietti, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability and one of the study’s authors. “If conditions remain unaltered, we anticipate that this will influence food security and overall water availability.”
The findings should be viewed as a primary concern by the public, resource managers, and global decision-makers, the researchers asserted. Research indicates that the identified trends convey a profoundly concerning message regarding the past effects of climate change.
“The continent is becoming drier, freshwater sustainability is diminishing, and the pace of sea level rise is accelerating,” the authors noted.
Published on Friday in the Advances in Journal Science, the study examines shifts in terrestrial water sources, including lakes, subterranean aquifers, and soil moisture over the last two decades. The researchers discovered that various elements, notably climate change, are disrupting Earth’s natural water cycle and complicating its flow between land, oceans, and the atmosphere.
Utilizing data from four NASA satellite suites, researchers analyzed terrestrial water storage modifications over the past 22 years. The satellites are specifically designed to monitor Earth’s water movement, including variations in ice sheets, glaciers, and underground reserves.
For instance, researchers found that arid regions of the world have been rapidly drying since 2014, with these drought-impacted areas expanding annually by regions twice the size of California.
In certain instances, areas experiencing drought have grown into large interconnected “megadry” spaces, as indicated by the research. One such vicinity encompasses Central America, Mexico, California, the southwestern United States, the lower Colorado River basin, and segments of the Southern Plateau.
“The essential takeaway here is that water is indeed a crucial factor influencing changes observed on both land and at sea,” remarked Benjamin Hamlington, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who was part of the science team facilitating decades of data used in this new investigation.
The study revealed that all major land masses, except Greenland and Antarctica, have witnessed unprecedented dryness since 2002.
This widespread continental aridity is anticipated to have significant ramifications for humanity, with researchers noting that three-quarters of the global population resides in nations where freshwater resources are diminishing.
Simultaneously, rising oceans threaten coastal areas globally, decreasing habitability and increasing vulnerabilities to extreme storms and flooding. In the U.S., severe weather has contributed to insurance crises in coastal cities prone to these extreme events.
The correlation between sea level rise and the depletion of groundwater is a consequence of disrupting the planet’s water cycle. Many of these changes, such as excessive groundwater extraction, are regarded as permanent and could remain irreversible for millennia, according to Alexander Sims, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“When water is extracted from the land, the only viable destination is the ocean,” he explained. “This water then enters the atmosphere, with 88% eventually returning as precipitation on Earth, leading back to the ocean.”
Sims acknowledged that while the study is significant for estimating the global scale of water losses, he harbors doubts about the assertion that these continental water losses outweigh ice sheet melting as the primary contributor to sea level rise.
However, Hamlington emphasized that this study illustrates how the movement of water around the Earth generates substantial ripple effects. It also suggests that further groundwater depletion could diminish freshwater supplies further and exacerbate drought conditions, with implications for the future.
“Monitoring terrestrial water storage is a crucial piece of the puzzle,” he added. “Understanding where that water is moving will aid us in predicting future droughts, floods, and the availability of water resources.”
The land on Earth is drying out quickly, contributing to sea level rise even more than melting glaciers, according to new research.
Researchers have discovered that water loss from soil, lakes, and underground aquifers accelerates the rise in sea levels. This trend of drying is spreading at an alarming rate.
Areas around the globe that are drying are merging into vast interconnected regions known as “megadry” zones. One such area now spans from the southwest coast of the US to Mexico.
Previously, dryness in certain regions was balanced by wetness in others. However, dry areas are now expanding at a faster pace than wet areas, covering an expanse that grows annually by an area twice the size of California.
At present, 101 countries are consistently losing freshwater, putting 75% of the world’s population (almost 6 billion people) at risk.
“In many locations where groundwater is being depleted, it will not be replenished within human timescales,” a recent study noted. Advances in science, “Safeguarding the global groundwater supply has become increasingly crucial in a warming world, especially in regions known to be drying.”
Utilizing satellite data gathered from 2002 to 2024, the research monitored water storage across Earth’s surface, in lakes, rivers, snow, soil, groundwater aquifers, and even plant life.
The findings indicate that human activities worsen the situation, while climate change also plays a significant role. As landscapes dry out, humans extract more water from sources such as underground aquifers.
These water reserves are not replenished at the same pace, which leads to an accelerated growth of dry areas and their eventual connection.
For instance, the study identified declining groundwater levels in California’s Central Valley and the Colorado River Basin, resulting in these arid regions merging with similar areas in Central America to create a massive dry zone.
Dryness is also encroaching upon previously wet regions like Canada and Russia. – Credit: Getty Images
“In certain areas such as California, the continuous overextraction of groundwater is threatening water and food security in ways that are not fully acknowledged globally,” the study asserts.
Moreover, they emphasize the urgent need for crucial decisions at both national and international levels to “preserve this vital resource for future generations.”
Spider-like organisms dwelling near methane seepage seem to infiltrate the seabed, consuming microbes within their bodies that oxidize energy-dense gas. This discovery broadens the understanding of entities that rely on symbiotic associations with microorganisms in these alien settings.
Shana Goffredi from Occidental College, California, along with her team, has investigated marine arthropods named for their resemblance to ahinides, which thrive near three distinct methane seeps in the Pacific Ocean. They previously identified three new species from the sea spider genus Celico Sura, noted to be plentiful exclusively near these gas seepages.
In contrast, other sea spider species, which do not inhabit methane seep regions, primarily feed on various invertebrates. However, researchers have found that these newly identified sea spiders primarily acquire nutrition by ingesting a specific range of bacterial species residing in their bodies. These bacteria are capable of converting methane and methanol from the seepage into energy, something the sea spiders alone would not access.
Scientists observed that bacteria remained confined to the spiders’ exoskeletons, resembling “microbial fur coats,” and formed clusters that Goffredi describes as “volcanic-like.” The bacterial layer exhibited patterns resembling marks from a lawnmower, indicative of feeding by the spider’s robust “lips” and three tiny teeth.
To confirm that ocean spiders were actually consuming the bacteria, researchers employed radioactive labeling techniques to monitor the assimilation of methane carbon by laboratory sea spiders. “I observed methane being absorbed into the microorganisms on the spider’s surface, and subsequently traced carbon molecules migrating into the spider’s tissues,” Goffredi explains.
Researchers believe that ocean spiders do not consume all microorganisms growing on their exoskeletons. The species inhabiting the exoskeleton differ from those typically found in their surroundings, indicating a selection process is at play, Goffredi remarks. “The spiders are clearly cultivating and nurturing a unique microbial community.”
Sea spiders are not the first to cultivate microorganisms for chemical energy. “With every observation of these ecosystems near methane seeps, this phenomenon becomes increasingly evident,” notes Eric Cordes from Temple University, Pennsylvania. He previously collaborated with Goffredi on related studies, revealing a similar symbiosis in tube worms. The rich biodiversity near methane seepage is sustained not by solar energy but rather through methane and other chemicals. “That’s truly remarkable,” he remarks.
Cordes emphasizes that bacteria might also be transported along the surface of sea spiders. Unlike livestock on a farm, they gain superior protection and access to pastures. For instance, if methane seepage shifts to another area of the seabed, sea spiders could transfer bacteria to new locales. “Sea spiders maintain these organisms in an ideal habitat,” he adds.
Is this the future in a world where the oceans are rising?
Deep R&D Ltd
The Bajau are indigenous marine people of Southeast Asia, often referred to as sea nomads. For millennia, they have thrived along coastlines, relying on foraging underwater without the aid of diving gear, holding their breath for astonishing durations. Yet, the early 21st century introduced multiple crises that jeopardized their way of life—industrial overfishing, pollution, coral bleaching diminished food sources, and rising sea levels consumed coastal dwellings.
In 2035, a Bajau community near Saba, North Borneo, initiated fundraising for a contemporary floating and underwater settlement. They collaborated with deep, a manufacturer of submarine habitats, to create interconnected rafts and underwater homes, developing business models that could be emulated by other maritime communities facing similar threats from rising seas. Revenue streams included extreme adventure tourism, scientific research facilities, and longevity clinics.
The first habitat comprised a network of platforms and rafts, with tunnels leading to underwater levels. While residents occupied surface structures, they increasingly utilized submerged areas for storage, sustenance, and sleep. This habitat was constructed using a 3D printing technique known as Wire arc additive manufacturing, which allowed the most effective pressure distribution in areas experiencing strain.
The deeper sections were maintained at both ambient water pressure and the corresponding atmospheric pressure from the surface. In modules situated less than 20 meters deep, occupants, referred to as Aquanauts, inhaled a unique gas mixture to prevent nitrogen narcosis. Those exiting deep modules required decompression when returning to normal atmospheric conditions. An advantage of these surrounding modules was the incorporation of a moon door, enabling Aquanauts to swim directly into the deep sea for leisure, research, and farming activities.
Undersea hotels catering to extreme tourism have surged in popularity. In the Galapagos, tourists reside in submerged hydroelectric hotels, exploring hot springs and observing some of the planet’s rarest life forms. Simultaneously, scientists harness these modules to investigate deep-sea ecosystems. Undersea mapping technologies have evolved, enabling researchers to explore vast ocean territories that were previously unreachable, fostering understanding and interactions with whales and other deep-sea creatures, leading to significant advancements in marine biology.
Aquanauts can swim directly into the deep sea for recreational, research, and agricultural activities
The Bajau have long been adapted to marine environments. With thousands of years at sea, they possess enlarged spleens that provide a higher quantity of oxygen-retaining red blood cells compared to typical humans. Some Bajau divers can spend five hours underwater, diving freely to depths of 70 meters without oxygen tanks, holding their breath for up to 15 minutes. After transitioning to seabed habitats, many Bajau began to leave behind surface living, opting instead to spend more time submerged, even resorting to gene editing to enhance their aquatic capabilities, including intentional eardrum puncturing to facilitate deeper dives, and utilizing surfactants in their lungs to aid their decompression, akin to adaptations found in diving marine mammals.
Bajau’s Diver
Marco Rayman/Alamie
Numerous communities have established depth clinical treatments. Previous research has demonstrated that exposure to intermittent daily sessions of pressurized oxygen therapy can alleviate various medical conditions and age-related diseases. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, for instance, has proven beneficial, leading individuals who underwent consistent high-pressure sessions to possess longer telomeres and enhanced clearance of senescent cells, both of which are linked to increased longevity. The deep habitat has attracted affluent seniors looking to extend their lives, simultaneously providing a lucrative income source.
The majority of marine communities have become self-sufficient, cultivating their own food through aquaculture of fish, mollusks, and seaweed, while also growing other crops on the surface. Energy sources include a combination of solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energy, tailored to local conditions. Some communities focus on tourism, whereas others specialize in carbon capture within medical facilities. A significant amount of seaweed is harvested, sunk into the ocean depths, and sold as carbon credits.
Living beneath the waves isn’t for everyone. Nonetheless, these habitats empower those most vulnerable to climate change, giving them the tools to redefine their livelihoods and lifestyles, even in the face of rising sea levels that threaten their homes.
Rowan Hooper is the podcast editor for New Scientist and author of *How to Spend $1 Trillion: These are 10 Global Issues That Can Be Actually Fixed*. Follow him on Bluesky @rowhoop.bsky.social
Characterized by pale greening, a timeline of ancient handwritten manuscripts—like the scroll of death—is vital for reconstructing the progression of ideas. However, there is an almost complete absence of manuscripts with dates. To address this challenge, an international team of researchers developed an AI-driven date prediction model named Enoch, inspired by biblical figures.
Dead Sea Scroll 4Q7, fragment Genesis Wadi Qumran Cave4. ImageCredit: Ketefhinnomfan.
While some ancient manuscripts include dates, facilitating precise dating by archaeologists, many do not provide this information.
Researchers can estimate the age of certain undated manuscripts by analyzing the evolution of handwriting styles, but this requires a sufficient number of manuscripts with known dates for creating an accurate timeline.
In the recent study, the University of Groningen and Dr. Mladen Popović assessed the historical periods of manuscripts from various locations in contemporary Israel and the West Bank through radiocarbon dating and utilized machine learning to explore the handwriting styles of each document.
By merging these two datasets, they developed the Enoch program, which objectively estimates the approximate age range by comparing handwriting styles from other manuscripts in the area.
To validate the program, ancient handwriting specialists reviewed age estimates for 135 Ennochs from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Experts concluded that around 79% of the AI-generated estimates were credible, while the remaining 21% were considered too old, too young, or uncertain.
Enoch has already aided researchers in uncovering new insights about these ancient manuscripts.
For instance, both Enoch and radiocarbon dating techniques estimated an older age for more Dead Sea scrolls compared to traditional handwriting analyses.
“While additional data and further investigation could enhance our understanding of the timeline, our findings offer novel perspectives on the creation periods of these documents,” the researchers stated.
“The Enoch tool serves as a gateway to an ancient world, akin to a time machine, permitting the exploration of biblical handwritten texts.
“It is thrilling to establish significant steps in developing new tools that can tackle the dating challenges of the Dead Sea Scrolls and examine other partially dated manuscript collections from history.”
“This achievement would not have been feasible without collaboration across diverse scientific fields and genuine teamwork.”
A paper detailing this study was published in the journal PLOS 1.
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M. Popovich et al. 2025. Dating ancient manuscripts using radiocarbon and AI-based writing style analysis. PLOS 1 20 (6): E0323185; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0323185
Locating one of the ocean’s most charming mollusks requires a diver with exceptionally keen vision. This tiny sea slug, Costa Sierra Crosimae—commonly referred to as a leaf sheep—reaches only a few centimeters in length, approximately the size of a fingernail. Their exquisite camouflage makes them hard to spot.
Their vibrant green bodies blend seamlessly with the seaweed they inhabit, which also happens to be their primary food source. An incredible transformation occurs when they consume it.
Similar to terrestrial plants, seaweed contains small structures called chloroplasts within its cells, which facilitate the process of photosynthesis. These chloroplasts harness sunlight energy to convert carbon dioxide into sugars.
When the leaf sheep feed on seaweed, akin to sheep grazing in a meadow, they can digest the sugars they consume. Alternatively, they can retain the entire chloroplasts without damaging them and incorporate them into their bodies for later use.
The features along the back of the leaf sheep resemble small leaves and are known as cerata. Each ceratum houses an extension of the sea slug’s digestive system, filled with chloroplasts, giving it a textured appearance.
Remarkably, these engulfed chloroplasts continue to photosynthesize, generating additional sugars. Therefore, as long as these sea slugs dwell in shallow tropical waters with abundant sunlight, they have a sustainable food source.
The scientist who first discovered this species in the early 1990s on Japan’s Kuroshima Island named it Black Himae.
Since then, divers have been diligently searching for the specific type of seaweed that these leaf sheep prefer, which is exclusively Avrainvillea green algae. These delightful sea slugs have been located in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Costasiella Nudibranch (Sheep Nudibranch) can be found in the Philippines and Indonesia. – Photo Credit: Getty Images
Like other sea slugs that maintain various seaweed species, leaf sheep lay their eggs in a meticulous helix, allowing them to hatch into larvae that drift through the water. Initially, the young sea slugs possess small shells before eventually discarding them to live shell-free.
The process of adopting chloroplasts from seaweed is known as keratoplasia, which can be observed in many other types of ocean slugs. For example, the green Elysian sea slugs (found along the British and other European coasts, Elysia viridis) utilize Codium seaweed (also known as the dead man’s fingers).
While these slugs lack the leaf-like projections seen in leaf sheep, they possess two wing-like extensions that unfold to maximize sunlight absorption for their self-sustaining food factories.
In this position, these marine slugs resemble drifting leaves. Another species, Elysia marginata, not only captures chloroplasts but also performs astonishing feats. Similar to geckos that shed their tails, these sea slugs can separate their heads from their bodies.
This process takes several hours, and while the detached body can survive for days, it does not regenerate a new head. Meanwhile, the original head roams for a while before growing a new body.
This behavior of severing the head may have evolved as a drastic but effective method for eliminating parasite-infected bodies.
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An unusual ancient marine reptile has been formally recognized, decades after its fossil was initially found in Canada.
This 12-meter creature, Traskasaura Sandrae, was a type of predator contemporaneous with dinosaurs. It resembled a long-necked plesiosaurus with peculiar anatomy and a distinct top-down hunting approach.
“The presence of its bizarre characteristics — it was an animal that appeared quite unusual — made it nearly impossible for researchers to classify it,” said Professor F. Robin O’Keefe, a paleontologist at Marshall University and the lead author of the study, as reported by BBC Science Focus.
The original fossil was found along the Pantledge River on Vancouver Island in 1988, having remained on the ground for 85 million years. Surprisingly, it was nearly complete, with the skull, neck, limbs, and tail, although one side had deteriorated. “It appeared well-preserved from a distance,” O’Keefe noted.
It wasn’t until certain elements were uncovered that the pieces began to align.
“The remarkable preservation allowed us to investigate some of the odd features of the adult fossils and to interpret what we were observing,” O’Keefe explained. “The discovery of this second skeleton permitted its classification as a new species.”
The juvenile fossilized remains aided scientists in identifying the new species. – Courtney and District Museum and Paleontology Center
Among its unique traits is its shoulder structure, which diverges from that of known plesiosaurs, facing downward.
In contrast, its flipper resembles an inverted airplane wing, featuring a more curved underside rather than the top. “This emphasized the animal’s upside during its unique hunting approach,” O’Keefe noted.
This is significant as it implies that Traskasaura hunted in an atypical manner: by descending upon its prey from above.
“Normally, reptiles swim in water where light comes from above, leading animals to hunt upwards as they spot prey silhouetted against the surface light,” O’Keefe explained. “This animal approached it differently.”
Its potential prey likely included creatures related to modern squids and octopuses, as well as extinct coiled-shelled ammonites, which were crushed with its sharp teeth.
Despite its formidable size and appearance, Traskasaura was by no means the apex of the ancient seas. “It was substantial, yet it didn’t possess a notably large neck or head,” O’Keefe remarked. “If a Mosasaur, known for its large teeth, were to seize it, it could inflict serious damage.”
Nevertheless, Traskasaura would have thrived in the ocean, feasting on abundant resources. Unfortunately, like all plesiosaurs, the species faced extinction during the mass extinction event approximately 66 million years ago.
“They were flourishing, and their ecosystems were relatively robust until an asteroid impact decimated all the large animals,” O’Keefe stated.
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About our experts
F. Robin O’Keefe received his Honorary Biology degree from Stanford University in 1992 and a Ph.D. in 2000, specializing in evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago. He has been a professor at Marshall University since 2006, teaching over 200,000 undergraduate students across various subjects, from human anatomy to comparative zoology and Earth’s history.
A recognized expert in marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs, O’Keefe was awarded the 2013 Drinko Distinguished Research Fellowship for his work on the reproduction of plesiosaurs.
Rising seas pose a significant threat to coastal cities.
Hugh R Hastings/Getty Images
A recent review of the latest scientific data indicates that capping global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels won’t halt sea level rise for centuries to come.
“There seems to be a widespread belief that reaching 1.5°C will solve all our problems,” explained Chris Stokes from Durham University, UK. “While it should certainly be our goal, it won’t prevent sea level rise caused by the melting ice sheets.”
At present, global warming is on track for approximately 2.9°C by 2100, noted Jonathan Bamber from the University of Bristol, UK. “In terms of long-term impacts, we’re looking at a potential sea level rise of over 12 meters,” he stated.
Stokes, Bamber, and their colleagues have compiled data from satellite observations of ice loss and rising sea levels over the last three decades, historical data from warm periods, and satellite insights from models of ice sheets.
Older models that fail to incorporate crucial processes suggest that ice sheets take a significant amount of time to respond to warming, according to Bamber. However, satellite data indicates that the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are reacting much more swiftly.
“The data presents a very different narrative,” Bamber remarked. “The mass loss observed in Greenland is astonishing and truly unprecedented compared to model predictions.”
Both Greenland and West Antarctica are not only losing ice, but their rates of loss are increasing, said Stokes. “And this is occurring with just 1.2 degrees of warming,” he pointed out. “The notion that limiting warming to 1.5°C would resolve this is misleading.”
Research on previous warm spells over the past three million years reveals that sea levels were significantly higher during those times, as stated by Stokes.
The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2021, forecasts a sea level rise of 1 to 2 meters over the coming centuries if global temperature rise is curtailed to 1.5°C, according to Stokes.
“We are pushing these projections forward,” he said. “It’s becoming evident that we are witnessing some of the worst-case scenarios manifesting right before us, based on mass balance satellite data.”
The team estimates that merely mitigating the pace of sea level rise from melting ice sheets to manageable levels will require the average global temperature to remain below 1°C above pre-industrial levels.
While wealthier nations may bolster their coastlines against rising seas, as ocean levels continue to escalate, this becomes more challenging and costly, Bamber warned. “Certain countries simply lack the financial resources for such measures.”
This highlights the urgency of taking action, according to Stokes. “Every fraction of a degree is crucial to the ice sheet,” he stated. “While I may alter certain points and thresholds, it’s vital to recognize that all degrees matter.”
AMOC is a system of ocean currents that circulates water in the Atlantic Ocean.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The decline in significant Atlantic currents is contributing to flooding linked to rising sea levels in the northeastern United States, which are already affected by climate change. As global temperatures increase, a total collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could exacerbate sea level rise.
“If AMOC collapses, this will greatly increase flood frequency along the US coastline, independent of major storms,” states Liping Chan from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in New Jersey. “Even a partial reduction in current strength can have significant consequences.”
The warm waters melting ice sheets and rising sea levels are influenced by climate change, which leads to uneven rates of sea level rise across different regions. For instance, some coastal areas have subsided, increasing the relative rate of sea level rise there. Local sea levels are also affected by the circulation of heat, water, and salt in the ocean, with warm, fresh water occupying more volume than cold, salty water.
Over the past few decades, sea levels along the northeastern US coast have risen 3-4 times faster than the global average. The slowing of AMOC—responsible for transporting warm water from lower latitudes to the North Atlantic, where it cools and sinks—has long been considered a potential cause of this phenomenon. As this circulation weakens, warm deep water expands, pushing more water onto the shallow continental shelf.
AMOC strength varies naturally over different timescales, and climate change has contributed to its slowdown as the North Atlantic and its waters have become warmer and clearer in recent decades. However, it remained uncertain whether this decrease significantly affected sea levels.
Chang and her team utilized tidal gauge measurements from the New England coast to reconstruct local sea levels dating back over a century. Alongside a steady rise due to climate change, they identified significant fluctuations between low and high sea levels every few decades. Low sea levels correlated with periods of weak AMOC, while high sea levels were also aligned with these intervals, which brought more frequent coastal flooding.
The researchers then employed two distinct ocean models to quantify the impact of AMOC intensity variations on local sea levels. While the primary driver of change was the steady rise due to climate change, they discovered that weakened AMOCs significantly increased sea-level-related flooding. In multiple coastal regions, they noted that the slowdown in AMOC has contributed to delaying flooding by 20-50% since 2005.
Given that the natural cycle of AMOC strength is largely predictable, Zhang asserts that these findings enable researchers to forecast potential flooding events up to three years in advance. This foresight can guide long-term infrastructure planning and emergency preparedness.
“This highlights the critical role of AMOC in [sea level rise],” remarks Chris Hughes, who was not involved in the research, from the University of Liverpool in the UK. “It’s not merely theoretical; it’s evident in the real world.”
It remains unclear how much of the recent AMOC weakening is attributable to climate change versus natural variability. Nevertheless, the findings bolster predictions that if AMOC were to completely collapse due to climate change, significant portions of the US East Coast could experience a surge in sea levels.
Hughes warns that if AMOC nearly collapses, sea levels could rise by around 24 centimeters. “While it may not seem dramatic, even a small increase can have a substantial effect.”
Humans have visually documented around 1,470 square miles of the ocean floor, which represents only 0.001%. As per recent research. This area is slightly larger than Rhode Island.
The report, released on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, raises questions about whether the nation will pursue underwater mining for essential minerals.
Some researchers argue that our knowledge about the seabed is limited, suggesting that more exploration is necessary to responsibly advance extraction efforts.
“More information is always beneficial for making informed decisions,” said Katie Krovbell, a deep-sea explorer and founder of the Ocean Discovery League, a nonprofit focused on seabed exploration.
Understanding the deep sea is crucial for grasping how climate change and human actions impact the ocean, she mentioned. Nonetheless, the study also emphasizes the fundamental excitement that motivates many marine scientists.
“Just think about what lies in the remaining 99.999%,” Dr. Bell commented.
Visual documentation efforts began in 1958 with the deep-sea Trieste. Images collected since then have led biologists to discover new species and understand their interactions within marine ecosystems.
Studying deep-sea organisms on the surface is challenging, as few, if any, are adapted to high-pressure environments. Hence, photos and videos are invaluable.
“Certain habitats cannot be sampled from ships,” said Craig McClain, a marine biologist at the University of Louisiana who was not part of the study. “You need to utilize ROVs for that,” he added.
Visualizing the seafloor is also beneficial for geologists. Prior to the advent of remotely operated vehicles and crewed submersibles, researchers had to drag heavy buckets from their ships to see what they contained.
“They will just handle rocks without context,” stated Emily Chin, a geologist at the Institute of Oceanography, who was not involved in the current study. “It’s akin to studying meteors and attempting to understand another planet’s processes.”
By analyzing rock formations on the seabed through photos and videos, scientists gain insights into basic Earth processes. This knowledge also aids businesses in evaluating potential mining and oil and gas sites.
However, accessing the ocean floor is costly in both financial and temporal aspects. Dr. Bell mentioned that exploring a one-square-kilometer area of the deep seabed could cost between $2 million and $20 million. Planning can take years, while things can go wrong in a matter of hours. During a dive, progress is slow, and ROVs tethered to the ship have limited operational ranges, making repositioning tedious.
Given numerous obstacles, Dr. Bell sought to determine how much of the seafloor had been observed and documented.
Dr. Bell and her team compiled records from over 43,000 deep-sea dives, assessed the resulting images, and estimated the extent of the areas documented.
They estimated that 2,130-3,823 square kilometers of the deep seabed have been imaged, equating to about 0.001% of the total seabed.
“I anticipated the figure would be small, but I didn’t expect it to be quite so limited,” Dr. Bell remarked. “We’ve been conducting these efforts for nearly 70 years.”
The study excluded dives in regions where data isn’t publicly accessible, such as military operations and oil exploration. Even if additional documented areas are included, Dr. Bell expressed, “I doubt it would significantly change the current understanding.”
Much of what marine biologists know about the deep seabed is derived from limited areas. The authors argue that this situation mirrors extrapolating data from a smaller area than Houston to represent the entire planet’s land surface.
The survey also indicated that high-income nations conduct 99.7% of all deep-sea dives, led by the US, Japan, and New Zealand. Most dives occur within 200 nautical miles of these countries. This means that the focus of exploration might skew the representation of the studied marine environments.
“Many experts around the globe possess deep ocean knowledge,” Dr. Bell stated. “However, they lack the necessary tools to perform the research and exploration they aspire to.”
The findings reveal that dives are often concentrated in specific areas, such as the Mariana Trench and Monterey Canyon, focusing on similar features like hydrothermal vents. Since the 1980s, most deep dives have been in shallower coastal waters, leaving vast expanses of the deep ocean uncharted.
“This study provides a valuable overview of our current status and emphasizes where we still need to explore in the deep sea,” Dr. McClain noted.
Recent studies have revealed that sea lions, specifically one named Ronan, possess a timing ability that surpasses many humans when it comes to music.
Ronan gained attention over a decade ago when she astonished researchers. Now, new findings indicate her sense of rhythm has not only remained stable but has actually improved.
At her most practiced tempo, she consistently stays within 15 milliseconds of the beat. For perspective, a typical blink occurs roughly every 150 milliseconds.
“Compared to other non-human animals, Ronan shows remarkable accuracy and consistency,” stated Professor Peter Cook, the lead author of the study and comparative neuroscientist at New College, Florida, in BBC Science Focus.
“However, Ronan’s accuracy and consistency have significantly improved over time.”
Cook and his team initially trained Ronan to recognize rhythms in 2012, when she was just three years old. At that point, she was already a record-holding non-human beatkeeper.
Yet, some scientists were skeptical about whether her performance was on par with adult humans. Ronan demonstrated more variability between beats and tended to drift ahead at faster tempos while lagging behind at slower ones—contrary to humans who typically hit just before the beat.
“Most rhythm studies focus on adults who have years of informal rhythmic experience—like dancing or tapping their feet,” Cook explained.
“We evaluated Ronan when she was essentially a juvenile… Now that she’s a mature adult sea lion, how does she compare to humans?”
To explore this, the team asked undergraduate students from the University of California, Santa Cruz, to mimic Ronan’s head bobbing using large, fluid arm movements. Their movements were then compared to Ronan’s performance at three different tempos.
Surprisingly, she outperformed the students in both consistency and accuracy, ranking in the 99th percentile of a model simulating 10,000 individuals performing the same task.
The findings challenge the long-held belief that precise rhythmic synchronization relies on vocal learning, a trait shared by humans and certain birds, but not sea lions.
Additionally, the research implies that rhythmic perception may be deeply embedded in fundamental brain timing mechanisms.
“Rhythms create patterns in time, and the natural world is filled with such patterns,” Cook stated.
“Recognizing these patterns is advantageous for animals as it allows them to anticipate what follows and adjust their actions accordingly.”
“For instance, they can modify their swimming strokes to sync with wave patterns, reach for moving branches while trees shake, or arrange their vocal outputs to align or overlap with those of other animals.”
(L-R) co-authors Andrew Rouse, Peter Cook, Carson Hood, and California Sea Lion – Colleen Reichmut. NMFS 23554
Ronan’s rhythmic skills may open doors for further research. The team is currently examining whether she can track more complex and irregular patterns.
They are also employing game-based training to assess whether Ronan is a unique case or the beginning of something more widespread.
Ultimately, the question remains: will we see a sea lion performing live alongside a musician on stage?
“I believe we can teach a sea lion to maintain a basic 4/4 beat,” Cook remarked. “When we tested her with live music, Ronan adapted her rhythm dynamically like a band, even with tempo shifts.”
However, before anyone rushes to sign a record deal with Ronan, there’s a minor hurdle: “The sea lion only has one ‘hand’,” Cook noted. “And their flipper control isn’t quite suited for the precise movements required for playing hi-hats or bass drums.”
That said, Cook expressed enthusiasm about the possibility, adding, “It’s definitely something we want to explore, though I suspect the fish might need regular breaks.”
About Our Experts
Peter Cook is an associate professor of marine mammal science at New College, Florida. His research focuses on animal cognition and comparative neuroscience across various species. Cook is particularly interested in discovering new and ecologically effective methods for studying brain and behavior beyond traditional laboratory settings.
Recent findings from the Institute of Marine Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz indicate that the capability to perceive time is not exclusive to humans.
Ronan is recognized as the most consistent and accurate mammalian beatkeeper in experimental conditions. Image credit: Joel Saltore.
While certain mammals and birds have demonstrated the ability to synchronize their movements to rhythmic cues during laboratory experiments, most vertebrate species show minimal evidence of beat synchronization.
“Despite extensive research involving a wide array of species, no comprehensive scientific agreement exists regarding whether complex stimuli perception, such as music and beat maintenance, is underpinned by unique biological mechanisms,” researchers noted.
“The most comprehensive comparative data set on sensorimotor synchronization actually originates from invertebrates, with certain insects like fireflies and crickets displaying rate-sensitive synchronization with signals pertinent to their species.”
“The precision and tempo range of these insects can rival human performance in synchronized rhythms.”
“However, unlike humans, who are proficient at synchronizing with a range of rhythmic stimuli, including music, invertebrate synchronization tends to be limited to a narrow scope of specific cues.”
“Studies of beat maintenance in non-human vertebrates primarily derive from the Psittacinae subfamily (parrots), yet these often exhibit lower consistency and accuracy compared to humans, making robust beat keeping challenging for other primates,” they added.
“An exceptional case is Ronan, who has been trained to perform continuous head bobbing in sync with metronomic sounds, illustrating the capability to adapt to new tempos and stimuli.”
In their latest study, Dr. Cook and colleagues examined Ronan’s consistency in timing to snare drum beats at 112, 120, and 128 beats per minute (bpm).
The same beats were then presented to 10 undergraduate students aged 18 to 23.
The team assessed the participants’ timing accuracy using video tracking software, finding that Ronan’s overall timekeeping was less reliable and varied compared to human counterparts.
Ronan’s accuracy improved with tempo; at 128 bpm, his average with a tempo was 129 bpm (±2.94), while human subjects averaged 116.2 bpm (±7.34).
After the experiment, Ronan received toys filled with fish and ice as rewards.
This study examined only one trained sea lion and ten humans, necessitating further research to validate these findings through larger studies.
“The sensorimotor synchronization in sea lions appeared accurate, consistent, and sometimes outperformed that of a typical adult,” the researchers concluded.
“These results challenge the notion of unique neurobiological adaptations for maintaining human beats.”
The study’s findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports on May 1, 2025.
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PF Cook et al. 2025. Sensory motor synchronization in sea lions rivals that of humans. Sci Rep 15, 12125; doi:10.1038/s41598-025-95279-1
Meet Ronan, a California sea lion who probably has better rhythm than you do.
Researchers have demonstrated that Ronan, a resident at the Long Marine Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was the first non-human mammal trained to keep the beat through movement to music. This took place back when Ronan was young, in 2013. Recently, scientists decided to reassess the skills of this now 15-year-old sea lion, revealing not only an enhancement in her ability to bob her head in sync with the music but also that she outperformed most humans in doing so.
“This ultimately shows that humans aren’t the only mammals that can sustain a beat,” said Tecumse Fitch, a cognitive biologist studying biomimetics at the University of Vienna, who was not involved in the new research. The findings were published on Thursday in Scientific Reports.
Parrots are known to keep the beat through their movements, and recent studies have highlighted similar rhythmic abilities in monkeys and other mammals such as rats. However, over a decade later, “the rhythmic abilities of sea lions are distinctly recognized among non-human vertebrates,” Dr. Fitch stated.
Researchers worked with Ronan for several months, focusing on enhancing her accuracy with the original tempos she had learned. They then compared her ability to maintain the beat now to when she was three years old.
The team evaluated Ronan’s ability to move her head to a tempo of 112, 120, and 128 beats per minute, contrasting her head movements with those of 10 individuals aged 18-23 moving their arms. “The hands function similarly to a sea lion’s head, and their arms resemble the necks of a sea lion in size, making it a valid comparison for measuring movement capabilities.”
Across all assessment parameters analyzed by Dr. Cook and his team, Ronan topped the class.
“Ronan outperformed everyone on every measure of accuracy and consistency,” stated Dr. Cook. “In all respects, she excelled beyond most people, truly setting herself apart.”
Ronan’s headbanging abilities sparked debate in 2013 regarding whether her skills could truly be compared to those of humans, as well as whether such behavior is common in the animal kingdom or restricted to species capable of learning complex vocalizations, like humans and parrots, which allow spontaneous rhythmic movement.
“What Ronan does appears indistinguishable from what humans are adept at,” Dr. Cook remarked. He believes that the new findings about Ronan’s capabilities further challenge the assumption that rhythmic timing is inherent only to vocal learners.
Some scientists challenge this conclusion.
Aniruddh D. Patel, a cognitive neuroscientist at Tufts University, maintains that the ability to naturally synchronize with music is exclusive to certain species that can inherently learn complex vocal patterns.
He suggests further research into the vocal learning abilities of sea lions would corroborate this hypothesis. Nonetheless, he emphasizes that the “crucial distinction” lies in the fact that Ronan has been trained to keep the beat.
Moving forward, Dr. Cook and his colleagues aim to investigate whether Ronan can maintain rhythm with less predictable beats.
“Can she adjust her tempo by speeding up or slowing down? Can she handle variations that aren’t steady?” Dr. Cook questioned. “These are things that humans excel at. Can non-humans do them?”
Ronan, the sea lion, continues to keep the rhythm even after all these years.
She can create grooves with rocks and electronic music. However, her talent truly shines as she bobs along to classic hits like “Boogie Wonderland.”
“She’s absolutely nailing it,” said Peter Cook, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Florida, who has dedicated a decade to studying Ronan’s rhythmic talents, observing her shake her head in sync with tempo changes.
While many animals lack the ability to recognize the beat, humans, parrots, and some primates can. Ronan, however, is prompting scientists to reconsider what music means.
Rescued years ago, she rocketed to fame about a decade ago when researchers highlighted her musical abilities. Since she was three, she has called the Ocean Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz her home, where she has assisted researchers, including Cook, in recognizing rhythms.
Ronan is part of a group of remarkable animals, including cockatoos, challenging the long-held belief that only humans excel in responding to music and identifying beats.
Notably, Ronan learned to dance to the beat without needing to learn how to sing or produce music.
“Previously, it was thought that only vocal learners, like humans and parrots, could discern beats,” noted Hugo Merchant, a researcher at the Institute of Neurobiology in Mexico.
However, after Ronan became a star, questions emerged regarding her sustained abilities. Was her previous acclaim a fluke? Could she even outperform humans in maintaining the beat?
A chef and fellow researchers devised a plan to tackle this question. Their findings, detailed in new research published in the journal Scientific Reports, confirm that Ronan remains a star.
This time, researchers focused on lab tempos using percussion instruments, rather than recorded music. During the study, Ronan shook her head to three distinct tempos: 112, 120, and 128 beats per minute. These tempos were unfamiliar to her, enabling scientists to test her adaptability to new rhythms.
Ten university students participated in a similar task, showcasing their abilities as well.
Ronan emerged as the top performer.
“No one outperformed Ronan across the various tests for beat keeping,” Cook shared, adding, “she’s significantly improved since childhood.”
Hencan Horning, a music cognition researcher at the University of Amsterdam and not involved in the study, stated that the findings reinforce Ronan’s status as one of the leading examples of animal musicality.
Researchers plan to train and evaluate other sea lions. Cook believes others might also have beat-keeping abilities, but Ronan remains a standout star performer.
Tabular icebergs are away from Antarctica ice shelves
James Kirkham
When the ice sheets covering much of Northern Europe were rapidly retreating about 18,000-20,000 years ago, urban-sized icebergs once drifted through the British coast.
James Kirkham During a survey in the Antarctic of England, his colleagues discovered preserved scour marks created by these giants, which were created when they ploughed underwater sediments. The long comb-like features are buried under the mud of the North Sea, but are still visible in seismic survey data collected for searches for oil and gas.
“We know about the degree of scouring and ancient sea level, so we can estimate that these bergs are probably five to tens of kilometers wide, and perhaps hundreds of meters thick.
In Antarctica, table-form or table-top icebergs are a spectacular sight. Some will rival even small states in the US from a regional standpoint, like the recent giants known as the A23A and A68A. They listen from the ice shelf – a wide floating protrusion of a glacier flowing from the glacier.
Therefore, the perception that tabular icebergs once existed in the North Sea clearly shows that they had both the sea edges of the British and Ireland ice sheets and ice shelves. And that means there may be some lessons for the future decline of Antarctica, says Keycam.
In the North Sea, the large iceberg’s straight trams are written by wavy valleys made by narrow keels of much smaller blocks of ice. In other words, there is a “change of administration” in which large icebergs are replaced by countless small icebergs when ice shelves are crushed in response to rising temperatures, says Keekam.
Radiocarbon dating of sediments indicates that this shift occurs between 20,000 and 18,000 years ago.
Observations question the idea that labours of megabergs like the A23A and A68A may signal the widespread collapse of Antarctic ice shelves.
Emma Mackey The University of Florida tracks tabular iceberg sizes with satellite data since the mid-1970s, finding this trend to be inherently flat.
“James’ research highlights the mines, which means that major birth events are not necessarily signs of instability or cause of alarm,” says McKee. “In fact, ice shelves are disintegrated by death by 1,000 cuts. You need to worry when you stop watching large-scale birth events.”
According to satellite measurements from the European Union’s Climate Service Copernicus, there is less sea ice covering the ocean this February.
“One of the consequences of a warm world is to melt sea ice, and both Poles’ records or near-recorded low-sea ice covers have pushed the world’s sea ice cover to the lowest ever.” Samantha Burgess The European Middle Distance Centre is forecast in a statement. According to the service, global temperatures in February this year rose 1.59°C above the pre-industrial average, making it the third security in March on record.
These high temperatures have affected the global sea ice range, including both the Arctic and Antarctic, which is currently close to the largest in the year. Satellite records from both regions date back to 1979.
In the Arctic, sea ice was 8% below average throughout February, missing an area of nearly the size of the UK ice. This was the three consecutive months of successive months that set a low monthly new record in the Arctic.
This decline in the Northern Hemisphere is combined with the long-term decline in Antarctic sea ice seen over the past two years. Antarctic ice appeared to recover to near average levels last December, but then again fell rapidly. In February, the ice reached the fourth-lowest range on record for the month, 26% below the average.
Record low ice in both hemispheres is a “cause of serious concern,” he said. Robert Larter In a statement in the UK Antarctic Survey. He says that ice shortages could harm the polar ecosystems, expose ice shelves to more seawater, and accelerate melting and rising sea levels.
The lack of ice also affects beyond the poles. Less ice means less solar radiation is reflected in the universe, increasing warming. It can also weaken global ocean currents, relying on the dense salt water that is generated when sea ice forms.
A massive flood called the Zanclean Flood ended the Messinian salinity crisis that lasted from 5.97 million to 5.33 million years ago, according to a new study led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
One of the scenarios being discussed for ending the Messinian Salinity Crisis 5.33 million years ago is the catastrophic backfilling of the Mediterranean Sea by the Zanclean Flood. Micallef others. They present clear onshore and offshore evidence that this deluge spilled over a shallow marine corridor in southeastern Sicily into the nearby underwater Noto Gorge. This aerial photo shows a ridge eroded by a major flood, located northeast of Masseria del Volpe, in southeastern Sicily. Image credit: Kevin Sciberras and Neil Petroni.
“The Zanclean Flood is an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, with flows and velocities that seem dwarfed by any other known flood in Earth’s history,” said the study’s lead author, C.A. said Dr. Aaron Micallef, a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
“Our study provides the most convincing evidence yet of this unusual event.”
During the Messinian salinity crisis, the Mediterranean Sea was isolated from the Atlantic Ocean and evaporated, creating vast salt deposits that transformed the region’s landscape.
Scientists have long believed that this dry period would gradually end and that the Mediterranean Sea would be reclaimed over 10,000 years.
However, the discovery in 2009 of an eroded channel stretching from the Gulf of Cadiz to the Alboran Sea called this idea into question.
The discovery points to a single major flooding event lasting between two and 16 years, which became known as the Zanclean Flood.
Estimates indicate that the outflow of this megaflood was between 68 and 100 Sverdraps (Sv), where 1 sievert is equivalent to 1 million cubic meters per second.
In their research, Dr. Micallef and his colleagues combined newly discovered geological features with geophysical data and numerical modeling to provide the most comprehensive picture of the megaflood to date. did.
The researchers investigated more than 300 asymmetric streamlined ridges in the corridor across the Sicilian Sil, a submerged land bridge that once separated the western and eastern Mediterranean basins.
“The morphology of these ridges corresponds to erosion by large-scale turbulence, mainly in a north-easterly direction,” said Professor Paul Carling from the University of Southampton.
“They reveal the immense power of the Zanclean Flood and how it changed the landscape and left a lasting mark on the geological record.”
Scientists sampled the ridge and found that it was overlain by a layer of rock debris containing material eroded from the sides of the ridge and surrounding areas. This indicates that it was deposited there rapidly and with great force.
This layer lies right on the boundary between the Messinian and Zanclean periods, where the Great Flood is thought to have occurred.
Using seismic reflection data, a type of geological ultrasound that allows scientists to see layers of rock and sediment beneath the Earth’s surface, the authors found a “W-shaped” shape on the continental shelf east of Sicily’s Sill. discovered a waterway.
This channel, dug into the ocean floor, connects the ridge to the Noto Gorge, a deep underwater canyon located in the eastern Mediterranean.
The shape and location of the channel suggest that it functioned like a giant funnel.
When the mega-flood flowed into Sicily’s Sill, this channel is thought to have carried the water towards the Noto Valley and into the eastern Mediterranean.
The research team developed a computer model of the flood to simulate how the water behaved.
The model shows that floodwaters change direction and increase their strength over time, reaching speeds of up to 32 meters per second (72 miles per hour), carving deeper channels, eroding more material, and increasing their length. This suggests that they may have been transported over long distances.
“These discoveries not only reveal a critical moment in Earth’s geological history, but also prove that landforms persist for five million years,” Dr. Micallef said.
“This opens the door to further research on the Mediterranean coast.”
of study Published in a magazine Communication Earth and Environment.
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A. Micallef others. 2024. Land-to-sea indicators of the Zanclean Flood. common global environment 5,794;doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01972-w
Ocean acidification is penetrating to depths of 1,500 meters, posing new threats to creatures such as sea butterflies, sea snails and cold-water corals.
The ocean is the largest natural sink of carbon dioxide, absorbing about a quarter of our annual emissions. The uptake of CO2 makes the ocean surface more acidic, which affects sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs. But until now, researchers didn’t know how far acidification was reaching the deep ocean.
jens daniel müller Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in Switzerland have developed a 3D reconstruction of how CO2 moves through the ocean, based on global measurements of ocean currents and other circulation patterns. They used this model to estimate how the carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean has affected deep-sea acidity since 1800, around the beginning of the industrial revolution.
They found clear acidification signals down to 1,000 meters deep in most of the ocean. In some regions, such as the North Atlantic, where the powerful Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC) transports carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, acidification was observed down to 1500 meters. Some pockets of deep water, which are more acidic in nature, showed even more acidification than the surface. Their high natural acidity reduces their ability to absorb added CO2, Mueller says.
This is more or less what researchers expected would happen as the oceans absorbed more carbon dioxide. Wang Hongjie at the University of Rhode Island. “But it’s another thing to actually see the data coming in that affirms this.”
Remarkably, about half of all acidification since 1800 has occurred since 1994, as CO2 emissions have increased exponentially. “We’re seeing this progress be quite rapid,” Muller says.
The scale of acidification is sufficient to threaten the survival of a wide range of life in the oceans. Chiropods such as sea snails and sea butterflies are particularly at risk because their shells are made of calcium, which dissolves when water becomes too acidic. Increasing acidification has doubled the number of areas where it is difficult for cold-water corals to survive.
And ocean acidification will continue as seawater absorbs more carbon dioxide. “Even if we were able to stop carbon dioxide emissions immediately, we would still see ocean acidification processes inland for hundreds of years,” Muller said.
Meta’s content moderation board decided that implementing a complete ban on pro-Palestinian slogans would hinder freedom of speech. They supported the company’s choice to allow posts on Facebook that include the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
The oversight committee examined three instances of Facebook posts featuring the phrase “from the river to the sea” and determined that they did not break Meta’s rules against hate speech or incitement. They argued that a universal ban on the phrase would suppress political speech in an unacceptable manner.
In a decision endorsed by 21 members, the committee upheld Meta’s original decision to keep the content on Facebook, stating that it expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and did not promote violence or exclusion.
The committee, whose content judgments are binding, mentioned that the phrase has various interpretations and can be used with different intentions. While it could be seen as promoting anti-Semitism and the rejection of Israel, it could also be interpreted as a show of support for the Palestinians.
The majority of the committee stated that the use of the phrase by Hamas, although banned from Meta’s platform and considered a terrorist organization by the UK and the US, does not automatically make the phrase violent or hateful.
However, a minority within the committee argued that as the phrase appeared in Hamas’s 2017 charter, its use in the post could be construed as praising the banned group, particularly following an attack by Hamas. The phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” refers to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Opponents of the slogan claim it advocates for the elimination of Israel, while proponents like Palestinian-American author Yousef Munayyer argue it supports the idea of Palestinians living freely and equally in their homeland.
The ruling pointed out that due to the phrase’s multiple meanings, enforcing a blanket ban, removal of content, or using the phrase as a basis for review would impinge on protected political speech.
In one of the cases, a user responded to a video with the hashtag “FromTheRiverToTheSea,” which garnered 3,000 views. In another case, the phrase “Palestine will be free” was paired with an image of a floating watermelon slice, viewed 8 million times.
The third case involved a post by a Canadian community organization condemning “Zionist Israeli occupiers,” but had fewer than 1,000 views.
A Meta spokesperson, overseeing platforms like Instagram and Threads, remarked: “We appreciate the oversight committee’s evaluation of our policies. While our guidelines prioritize safety, we acknowledge the global complexities at play and regularly seek counsel from external experts, including our oversight committee.”
Sergio Pitamitz/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Uplifting the land beneath the Antarctic ice sheet could help slow ice loss and limit sea level rise over the coming centuries, but if emissions continue to rise, it could cause more sea levels to rise than the ice melt alone.
The findings come from models that simulate Earth’s mantle, the layer beneath the crust, in greater detail than ever before. When Antarctica loses its weight as ice melts, the elastic mantle beneath it bounces back, causing the land above it to rise. When ice melts and the continents lose their weight, Earth’s elastic mantle bounces back, causing the land above it to rise. The bounced back land can slow the flow of ice sheets where they meet the ocean. This “sea-level feedback” occurs primarily because the uplifted land changes the shape of the ocean floor, limiting the thickness of the ice sheet’s edges. Thinner ice there reduces the overall inflow of ice into the ocean.
Researchers have long suspected that this effect plays a role in slowing ice loss, but it was unclear when this effect begins or how it varies in different parts of the ice sheet.
Natalia Gomez Gomes and his colleagues at McGill University in Canada modeled the relationship between the melting ice and the rebounding land, and also simulated the mantle, capturing the different viscosities beneath the continents: East Antarctica sits on a more viscous mantle and thicker crust, while West Antarctica’s rapidly melting glaciers sit on a less viscous mantle and thinner crust. This more detailed picture of Earth’s interior is based on precise measurements of ice sheet elevation changes over decades, as well as data about the mantle beneath Antarctica from seismic waves generated by earthquakes. “This is hard-earned,” Gomes says.
The researchers found that under a very low emissions scenario, compared to a model that considered the ground beneath the ice solid, land uplift would reduce Antarctica’s contribution to global mean sea level rise by more than 50 centimeters by 2500. This effect was less pronounced under a moderate emissions scenario, but still led to a large reduction in sea level rise, with effects starting to be felt as early as 2100.
But in a very high emissions scenario, the team found that land uplift in Antarctica would raise sea levels by an additional 0.8 meters by 2500. This happened because the ice sheet retreated faster than land uplift, and the rising sea floor pushed more water into the rest of the ocean.
“From a modeling perspective, this is a huge step forward.” Alexander Bradley The British Antarctic Survey’s Bradley says it’s always been thought that land uplift would limit sea-level rise, but this high-resolution modeling shows that the effect depends on emissions. “The changes that occur in the 21st and 22nd centuries will depend very much on what we do now,” he says.
Alexander Lovell Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta call it a “very good simulation,” but the scenario in which land uplift drives sea level rise is based on worst-case assumptions about emissions and the rate at which ice sheets are retreating.
Nodules taken from the ocean floor being examined in a laboratory
Camille Bridgewater (2024)
Metallic nodules scattered across the floor of the Indian and Pacific Oceans provide a source of oxygen for nearby marine life, a discovery that could upend our understanding of the deep ocean.
In some areas, the abyssal plains are dotted with potato-sized nodules rich in valuable cobalt, manganese and nickel that are targets for deep-sea mining activities.
Andrew Sweetman Researchers from the Scottish Institute for Marine Science in Oban, UK, were conducting research in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean (a region rich in nodules) in 2013 when they first noticed something odd about these waters.
Sweetman and his colleagues sent a machine to the ocean floor, sealed off a 22-square-centimeter section of the seafloor, and measured the flow of oxygen. Far from decreasing, the data suggested that oxygen content was actually increasing in the monitored areas.
But in the absence of any noticeable vegetation, Sweetman says, that didn’t make sense. “I was taught from an early age that oxygen-rich ecosystems were only possible through photosynthesis,” he says. He came to the conclusion that the machine he was using was flawed. “I literally ignored the data,” he says.
Then, in 2021, Sweetman went on another research cruise in the Pacific Ocean, and the machine made the same discovery: elevated oxygen levels at the ocean floor, even using a different measurement method.
“We were seeing the same oxygen production in these two different data sets,” Sweetman says, “and suddenly we realized that we’d been ignoring this incredibly innovative process for the last eight or nine years.”
He and his colleagues speculated that the metal nodules must play a role in boosting oxygen levels in the deep ocean, and laboratory tests of contaminating sediments and nodules ruled out the presence of oxygen-producing microorganisms.
Instead, Sweetman says the material in the nodules acts as a “geo-battery,” generating an electrical current that splits seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. “The reason these nodules are mined is because they contain everything you need to make electric car batteries,” he says. “What if the nodules themselves were acting as natural geo-batteries?”
When the team examined the rocks, they found that each nodule generated an electrical potential of up to 1 volt — when they combined together they could generate enough voltage to electrolyze seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, explaining why oxygen levels rise.
“We may have discovered a new natural source of oxygen,” Sweetman said, “We don’t know how widespread it is in time and space, but it’s very intriguing.”
Many questions remain unanswered. For example, the source of energy that creates the current remains a mystery. It’s also unclear whether the reaction occurs continuously, under what conditions, or how this oxygen contributes to maintaining the surrounding ecosystem. “We don’t have all the information yet, but we know it’s happening,” Sweetman says.
In deep-sea environments without sunlight or vegetation, some life forms get their energy from chemicals spewing from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Some scientists believe life on Earth first emerged at these vents, but these early organisms would have needed a source of oxygen to make food from inorganic compounds. The new discovery suggests that the nodules could have been the oxygen source that helped life begin, Sweetman said.
That interpretation may be unreasonable, Donald Canfield The University of Southern Denmark researcher points out that oxygen is needed to produce the manganese oxides found in nodules. “Oxygenic photosynthesis is a prerequisite for the formation of nodules,” he says. “Therefore, oxygen production by nodules is not an alternative oxygen production equivalent to oxygenic photosynthesis. It is highly unlikely that nodules played a role in oxygenating the Earth.”
but, Ruth Blake The Yale researchers say the idea of producing oxygen in the deep sea remains “exciting” and that further study is needed into the phenomenon and its potential impact on deep-sea ecosystems.
Sweetman’s research was funded in part by The Metals Company (TMC), a deep-sea mining company that is targeting metal nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton field. Patrick Downs TMC’s Downs said he had “serious concerns” about the findings, adding that his company’s analysis suggested Sweetman’s results were due to outside oxygen contamination. “We intend to write a rebuttal,” Downs said in a statement. New Scientist.
But the findings are likely to strengthen calls for a ban on deep-sea mining, backed by many oceanographers who say their understanding of these regions is still evolving. Paul Dando Researchers from the British Marine Biological Society said the paper reinforced the view among deep-sea scientists that “we shouldn’t mine these nodules until we understand their ecology”.
Sweetman said the discovery isn’t necessarily a “say-tale” move for deep-sea mining, but it could limit mining in places where oxygen production is low, and more research is needed to explore how sediments disturbed by the mining process affect oxygen production, he said.
Saturn’s moon Titan was explored by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft between 2004 and 2017. Although Cassini revealed much about this Earth-like world, its radar observations provided limited information about Titan’s liquid hydrocarbon oceans: Kraken, Ligeia, and Punga Mare. New paper In the journal Nature CommunicationsCornell University researcher Valerio Poggiali and his colleagues reported the results of their analysis of data from the Cassini radar experiment on Titan’s polar oceans.
Artistic depiction of Kraken Mare, a giant ocean of liquid methane on Titan. Image courtesy of NASA John Glenn Research Center.
“The Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, between 2004 and 2017, revealing an Earth-like world with a strange yet very familiar diversity of surface morphologies formed by a methane-based hydrological system operating in a dense nitrogen atmosphere,” said Dr Poggiali and his co-authors.
“Winds in the lower atmosphere move the sediments, forming the vast sand dunes that encircle Titan’s equator.”
“At mid-latitudes, flat, relatively featureless plains form the transition between the eolianite-dominated equator and the lacustrine-dominated poles.”
“In the polar regions, large oceans and small lakes of liquid hydrocarbons dominate the landscape.”
“The channels created by precipitation drain into the ocean, forming estuaries and sometimes deltas and other familiar coastal deposits.”
“Cassini has revealed much about Titan, but this discovery raises even more questions.”
For the study, scientists used data from four bistatic radar observations collected by Cassini during four flybys in 2014 (May 17, June 18, and October 24) and 2016 (November 14).
For each, surface reflections were observed when the probe was closest to Titan (approach) and when it was moving away (exit).
The authors analyzed data from outflow observations of Titan’s three large polar oceans: Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare, and Punga Mare.
“In a bistatic radar experiment, a spacecraft directs a radio beam towards a target, in this case Titan, where the beam is reflected towards a receiving antenna on Earth,” the researchers explained.
“This surface reflection is polarized, which means it provides information gathered from two independent perspectives, as opposed to the perspective provided by monostatic radar data, where the reflected signal is sent back to the spacecraft.”
“The main difference is that the bistatic information is a more complete data set and is sensitive to both the composition of the reflective surface and its roughness.”
The team found that the composition of the ocean’s surface layers of hydrocarbons varies depending on latitude and location (for example, near rivers or estuaries).
Specifically, the southernmost parts of Kraken Mare exhibit the highest dielectric constant, a measure of a material’s ability to reflect radio signals.
For example, water on Earth is highly reflective and has a dielectric constant of about 80, while Titan’s ethane and methane oceans have a dielectric constant of about 1.7.
The researchers also determined that ocean conditions in all three areas were fairly calm during the flyby, with surface waves measuring less than 3.3 mm.
Slightly higher levels of roughness, up to 5.2 mm, were found in coastal areas, near estuaries and straits, which could be an indication of tidal currents.
“There are also indications that the rivers that feed the oceans are pure methane until they flow into the open ocean liquid, which is rich in ethane,” Dr Poggiali said.
“It’s the same as when freshwater rivers flow into the saltwater of the ocean on Earth and mix together.”
“This fits well with weather models of Titan, which predict that the ‘rain’ falling from Titan’s skies is almost pure methane, with traces of ethane and other hydrocarbons,” said Professor Philip Nicholson of Cornell University.
“Further studies of the data Cassini has collected during its 13-year exploration of Titan are already underway.”
“There’s still a mountain of data waiting to be fully analyzed in a way that will lead to further discoveries. This is just the first step.”
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V. Poggiali others2024. Surface characteristics of Titan’s ocean as revealed by the Cassini bistatic radar experiment. Nat Community 15, 5454; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49837-2
This article is a version of a press release provided by Cornell University.
Broken sea ice in Lancaster Sound, part of the Northwest Passage
Allison Cook
Shipping companies had hoped that melting sea ice would open up shorter shipping routes through the Canadian Arctic, but thicker ice moving in from further north may dash those hopes.
“North [of the Northwest Passage] “No new routes are expected to open anytime soon.” Allison Cook At the Scottish Association for Marine Science.
For over a century, sailors have navigated the icy waters of the Canadian Arctic along the Northwest Passage, a dangerous but efficient sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As climate change melts the sea ice, the southern part of the passage is less dangerous, and since 1990, voyages through the Northwest Passage have quadrupled.
The North Strait is expected to be an even shorter route, but it is ice-bound for longer periods than the South Strait, and so fewer ships use it. But because the entire route was almost ice-free in the summer of 2007, and the climate has continued to warm since then, many believe the North Strait route will soon become regularly navigable. This possibility has spurred ideas of a boom in Northern Sea Routes.
Cook and his colleagues assessed whether this vision was working using ice charts provided by the Canadian government to ship captains between 2007 and 2021. For each leg of the Northwest Passage, they calculated the number of weeks per year when ice was light enough for moderately ice-hardened ships to navigate safely.
Map showing the route of the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic Islands
Allison Cook
The detailed images of the ice reveal that rather than the passage opening, the safe passage window shortened at several “choke points” along the route, particularly along the northern route. For example, the passage window in the eastern Beaufort Sea shortened from 27 weeks to 13 weeks. The passage window in McClure Strait shortened from 6.5 weeks per year to just two weeks. In other areas, passage windows increased by a few weeks or remained unchanged, but the passage window that determines the overall passage window is determined by the shortest passage window, Cook said.
Researchers believe the shortened season is primarily due to an increase in thicker sea ice flowing in from an area known as the “last ice field” north of Greenland, which is expected to become the last remaining bastion of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean as the climate warms. “Climate change is making the sea ice a little less intense and a little more mobile,” Cook says.
The findings are consistent with expectations that ice will remain in the Canadian Arctic the longest, he said. Amanda Lynch The bigger geopolitical and economic question now is how the melting ice will affect shipping on the Russian side of the Arctic, said Robert G. Schneider, a researcher at Brown University in Rhode Island who was not involved in the study.
The Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia physalis) is named after an 18th-century sailing ship due to its resemblance to a ship under full sail.
In the open ocean, they appear as floating pink party balloons with long trailing blue ribbons.
The balloon part is a life buoy filled with carbon monoxide gas, which acts like a sail, rising above the water and catching the wind.
This is how Portuguese man-of-war travel across the ocean, sometimes in groups numbering in the thousands. They rely entirely on wind power and are not active swimmers.
Depending on which way the sail is facing in relation to the wind, it can be right-handed or left-handed.
They share some similarities with jellyfish, such as their appearance up close and the fact that they have a painful sting.
If you come across a deflated pale balloon with a blue string on the beach, be cautious – it’s likely a deceased Portuguese man-of-war, which loses its color when it dies but retains its ability to sting.
The Portuguese man-of-war is a tubular animal related to jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals.
There are about 175 species of cetaceans. Some live on the ocean floor, others swim in the depths, but the Portuguese man-of-war is the only one that floats on the surface.
What sets weevils apart is their unique construction. Unlike other animals that grow larger and develop specialized tissues and organs, tubular algae replicate themselves to create genetically identical zooids that form colonies and tubular bodies.
These zooids come together in specific arrangements to carry out tasks like feeding, digestion, reproduction, and defense.
Portuguese man-of-war play a crucial role in the Pulston ecosystem, which exists at the boundary between sea and air. As they drift, they capture fish and larvae with their tentacles, which can extend up to 30 meters and paralyze prey with venomous spines.
Other creatures that prey on Portuguese man-of-war include the blue dragon sea slug, which eats the tentacles and uses its stingers for defense, and the Blanketed Octopus, which waves its tentacles to find food and deter threats.
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The ancient ship and its cargo are estimated to date to the 13th century BC, making it one of the oldest shipwrecks ever discovered.
Canaanite amphorae discovered in a 3,300-year-old shipwreck. Image courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The 3,300-year-old shipwreck was discovered 90 kilometers (56 miles) off the coast of Israel, on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles).
“The ship appears to have sunk due to a storm or an attempted pirate attack,” said Dr Jacob Sharvit, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s maritime department.
“This is the first ship ever found in the deep waters of the eastern Mediterranean, 90 kilometres from the nearest coast, and also the oldest.”
“This is a history-changing discovery of global scale. It sheds light like never before on the navigational skills of ancient sailors who were able to cross the Mediterranean without ever seeing the coast. From this geographical point, all you can see is the horizon.”
“It seems likely that celestial objects were used to navigate by observing the positions and angles of the sun and stars.”
The discovery was made by a team from Energene, a London-based natural gas producer, during an environmental survey of the seabed.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to discover and extract natural gas from the deep sea, we are carrying out surveys to check various parameters using advanced submersible robots to explore the seabed,” said Dr Karnit Bahartan, head of Energean’s environmental staff.
“About a year ago, while surveying, we came across an unusual sight: a large pile of water jugs on the seabed.”
“We have been in constant contact with the Israel Antiquities Authority and when we sent them the images, it turned out to be a sensational find, far beyond our imagination.”
A 3,300-year-old shipwreck on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Image courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“Robotic investigation and mapping of the site revealed that the ship was a wreck approximately 12-14 metres (39-46 feet) long and was carrying hundreds of passengers. Late Bronze Age Canaanite storage vesselsOnly a small fraction of it is visible above the ocean floor,” Dr Sharbit said.
“There appears to be a second level of ship hidden in the muddy bottom, with the wooden beams of the ship also buried in the mud.”
“The type of vessel identified in the shipment was designed as the most efficient means of transporting relatively cheap, mass-produced products, such as oil, wine, and agricultural products such as fruit.”
“The discovery of such a large number of amphorae on a single ship attests to important commercial links between their country of origin and the ancient Near Eastern countries along the Mediterranean coast.”
“This is a truly stunning discovery. There are only two other known cargo-laden shipwrecks from the Late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean – the Cape Gelidnja ship and the Uluburun ship, both found off the coast of Turkey.”
“But both wrecks were found relatively close to shore and were accessible using standard diving equipment.”
“Based on these two discoveries, the previous academic hypothesis was that trade at that time was carried out by flying safely from port to port, keeping eye contact along the coastline.”
“The discovery of this ship completely changes our understanding of the capabilities of ancient seafarers. It is the first time that a ship has been found so far away that land is completely out of sight.”
“There is great potential for research here. Because the ship has been preserved at great depth, time has stopped since the moment of the disaster. The hull and the surrounding conditions have not been disturbed by human hands (divers, fishermen, etc.), nor have they been subject to the waves and currents that affect shipwrecks in shallow waters.”
“The significance of these discoveries has led to the decision to open the archaeological campus for ‘tasting’ tours this summer, to display these Canaanite ships excavated from the seabed and to tell the public their story,” said Dr. Eli Eskseed, Director General of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“This visit will allow visitors to get a glimpse of this unique building, its mosaics and laboratories ahead of the official opening of the vast visitor centre, scheduled for two years from today.”
“We are extremely grateful to Energiaan for their swift response in identifying this ancient cargo and for committing resources to enable this initial understanding to be gained from this unusual shipwreck.”
Extreme cases can confuse even trained professionals: Joanna Glengarry and Melanie Archer of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Science in Australia warn that forensic pathologists and anthropologists “need to be prepared to face a wide range of remains and objects presented to them.”
Glengarry and Archer shared their first-hand experience, in their words, of “discovering what appeared to be a severed leg on a beach and, upon examination, determining it to be a marine animal called a sea squirt.”
Write a diary Forensic Medicine, Medicine, Pathologythey give step by step details of the adventure. What is the title of the report?Marine mimicry in progress.
Holy Ghostwriter
Certainly, some are dismayed that senior department members are automatically credited as co-authors on research done by lower-ranking people (Feedback, May 11), but perhaps senior department members should be given more credit.
Reader Bob Masta writes about two doctoral students who sought his advice after he developed a procedure that greatly improved the success rate of an incredibly difficult experiment: recording signals from auditory hair cells in the inner ears of guinea pigs. [B]However, the lab's principal investigator and department head insisted on participating as authors, even though they knew nothing about the study beforehand.
“I was appalled,” Masta wrote, “but eventually came to realize that this was wise: students who were unknown in the field might have had a harder time getting published. [Their] Having a respected name on a paper gives you a lot of credibility in the field, and everyone in research expects the first author on a paper to do the actual research, with subsequent senior authors providing facilities and consultation.”
And, Masta explains, “Laboratories need grant funding to conduct research and train students, so publications that elevate the status of senior authors, who have to get grant funding, help everyone.”
The feedback we've received is that some feel that credit-grabbing corrupts the system from below. But if we're going to do it, why not do it all the way? Give credit to everyone and everyone who stands to benefit from it. Give co-author credit to all senior officials at the institutions who employ the actual researchers (deans, department chairs, vice-presidents, presidents, provosts, corporate executives, emperors, etc.).
The feedback is that these high-powered people, non-authors, should be informally known as “holy ghostwriters.”
Totally ghostwritten
Reader Max Perkins suggests another way to deal with the issue of who gets listed as an author. He writes: [a person from a] I work in a faculty position at a university in New South Wales, Australia, and I wanted to provide feedback on a case in which two graduate students from my alma mater had written their names, simply “et al,” on their office door.
“I think this speaks strongly about professors' citation metrics and perhaps also a comment on the use of citation metrics as a measure of a university's value.”
Infection failure
“Everyone is trying hard to avoid catching coronavirus, but in this study, all 35 volunteers who tried their best to get infected (with a lot of help from scientists) failed miserably,” reader Chittaranjan Andrade wrote. Lancet Microorganism.
The team that produced the report – Susan Jackson of the University of Oxford and a number of collaborators – aimed to test the efficacy of new vaccines to help people who become infected with new variants of the coronavirus long after they had been vaccinated with an earlier version of the vaccine.
The researchers struggled to complete the first major step of the project: infecting volunteers. In their paper, they wrote:Maximize the inoculum size… We were unable to induce persistent infection in seropositive individuals.”
COVID-19 has been disrupting the world for years, but now it is causing problems when it shouldn't.
Windsor, a researcher at Australia's James Cook University, called the news “Ongoing collaboration In collaboration with Professor JL Justin of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, and Professor Roman Gastynow of the University of Szczecin in Poland, we studied invasive terrestrial planarians in France and French territories.
The bad taste lasts a long time. Windsor Manokwari He tasted it (or, as he calls it, “personal observation”) in 1994.
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.
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You can submit articles for Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week's and past Feedback can be found on our website.
berry Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) The Canadian-grown fruit shows promising health benefits driven by its rich and diverse polyphenol profile and should be considered for further commercial expansion as a bioactive-loaded superfruit.
Sea buckthorn is a deciduous, spiny plant that grows along the coasts of northwestern Europe and in temperate regions of central Asia.
Its fruits and leaves are widely used Sea buckthorn oil has nutritional, medicinal, and functional properties and is rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, vitamins E, B, A, and polyphenols.
The plant was introduced in Canada in the early 2000s following research into the crop's commercial potential by government agencies.
“Sea buckthorn is a unique crop with great potential for use,” said Dr. Renan Danielski. student at the University of Newfoundland.
“Popular in Asia and northwestern Europe, there is an opportunity to replicate this success in North America by leveraging the unique qualities of locally grown varieties.”
Danielski and Professor Fereydoun Shahidi of Memorial University of Newfoundland were motivated by the experimental status and limited commercialization of sea buckthorn in North America to date, and research on the antioxidant properties of Canadian cultivars. We set out to characterize the unique composition of polyphenols, a type of chemical compound.
“Understanding how our varieties compare globally will help us communicate our benefits to consumers and establish our presence in the market,” Professor Shahidi said.
The findings highlight the presence of key polyphenolic compounds in sea buckthorn pomace and seeds, each boasting potential health benefits ranging from cardiovascular protection to anti-inflammatory properties. .
Importantly, geographic factors influence the polyphenol profile of sea buckthorn berries, and researchers found that several different compounds with enhanced bioactivity are present only in sea buckthorn varieties grown in Newfoundland. is that we have identified.
Additionally, sea buckthorn extract has demonstrated promise in vitro It has anti-diabetic and anti-obesity potential, paving the way for further research into its mechanisms and potential therapeutic applications.
“This is a first step toward understanding how sea buckthorn polyphenols can modulate our physiology in beneficial ways,” Danielski said.
“Future research should focus on understanding the mechanisms behind those effects and further experiments using animal models and humans.”
“If these effects are confirmed, in vivoWe can imagine using sea buckthorn polyphenols for therapeutic and pharmacological purposes to help prevent and treat diabetes, obesity, and many other conditions. ”
of result Published in Journal of Food and Agriculture Science.
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Renan Danielski & Fereydoun Shahidi. Phenolic composition and biological activity of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) Fruits and Seeds: Non-Conventional Sources of Natural Antioxidants in North America. Food and Agriculture Science Journal, published online on February 15, 2024. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.13386
○One evening many months ago, Mike Chapman, the creative director of the cooperative pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves, sat down to play the game with producer Joe Neato. This wasn’t just a standard playtest. The players participating online were players who had never played together before. It was a team from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Plans to make Xbox exclusive to the PS5 had just been launched. Now it was time to dive into the details. “We educated them about the game and had thorough discussions about what made the game special,” Neet says. “It was a surreal experience,” Chapman says of the encounter. “Trying to find treasure on the island with another group of platform holders…”
The PS5 launch is set for April 30th, and pre-orders are now open, but this is just the latest step in the evolution of this captivating game. Launched on March 20, 2018, it was the most ambitious project in the long history of the veteran British studio Rare. Marketed as a cooperative pirate adventure, Sea of Thieves provides players with access to a vast multiplayer world of ocean exploration, buried treasure, ship-to-ship battles, and more. The game’s design philosophy was simple but risky: it was a tool, not a rule. Players are equipped with everything they need to embark on their own pirate adventures, including musical instruments and virtual grog, but there is no elaborate story, skill tree, or complex character growth system. The story comes from the players themselves as they form a crew and compete with other pirates for fame and fortune.
“We’ve done our best to stay true to it”…Sea of Thieves. Photo: Microsoft
After a shaky start plagued by technical issues, Sea of Thieves found its audience and grew. Since that day in 2018, there have been approximately 100 updates and expansions, including adventures based on Pirates of the Caribbean and Monkey Island. New mechanics like commodities and captaincy add depth to the experience, but Chapman believes the key to the game’s longevity lies in ensuring player agency and supporting roleplay. “We provide players with simple tools and allow them to unleash their creativity,” he says. “We’ve done our best to stay true to that.”
Supporting diverse communities is also crucial. “I think it’s part of the hidden work of creating a shared world,” he says. “When adding a mechanic to a game, the mechanic itself may be simple, but you have to consider how it fits into the shared world, what motivates players, and how players with different styles (PvP or PvE) will use it. Whenever we design a mechanic, we think about how it integrates into the world and how it can potentially create a new meta that will thrive for months and years. Our design team is increasingly focused on this.”
So what was it like facing the prospect of publishing a game to a whole new community? “At a leadership level, when I first heard this as a possibility, I was initially excited. Then I thought, ‘Okay. How do we do this?'” says NEET. “The fact that we had already migrated to another platform, Steam, helped us tackle the technical challenges and engage with different communities in different locations.”
“We’ve really expanded the boundaries of the Sea of Thieves experience”…Sea of Thieves. Photo: Microsoft
“This is the first time in Rare’s 40-year history that we’ve developed on a Sony platform, which is incredible. It was very surreal for us to be presented with a series of slides. But honestly, for our technical team, it was like, ‘Let’s deploy the kit and start experimenting and figuring it out.’ That kind of feeling. I kept it in a secret spot in my studio with a fogged-up window so no one could see. It was more about excitement.”
Nate said Rare was collaborating with co-developers with PlayStation experience, and Sony itself was very supportive, holding regular catch-up calls even when the project was still top secret. The company was ready to dispatch its technical staff whenever needed. “If we had to visit their studio, you guessed it, we had to wear their Sea of Thieves T-shirt,” Neet says.
One of the great benefits of preparing to welcome a new community is that it gives your team a chance to rethink the structure of your game. Season 11 of the game, launched in January, was developed with the knowledge that PS5 players would soon join, so the onboarding system was revamped. Content is now unlocked at a more manageable pace, and a quest board that shows where to find new items that were previously hidden in artifacts and maps offers a more engaging pirate journey. Additionally, Rare is planning to introduce an offline solo mode in its March update. “You don’t need Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus,” says Neate. “If you just want to play solo, you can experience all the content and company advancements in Tall Tales. It’s another way to get hooked on the game before you decide to start.”
However, Rare indicates that while recent efforts have been focused on creating a more user-friendly experience with an eye on the upcoming PS5 community, there are more ambitious plans in the works. “We’ve been expanding the boundaries of the Sea of Thieves experience throughout the last year,” Chapman says. “You can have your own ship. You can join the Pirate Guild. There’s a quest table. A revised tutorial allows you to play Safer Seas and explore all the story content. We’re expanding the game’s boundaries and building on this new foundation. We’ve gained a lot of experience, and it’s crucial to capitalize on it. Enhance your captaincy, strengthen your guild. The upcoming year is all about the sandbox for us.”
Since its launch six years ago, it’s been a long journey, but Chapman and Neet, who have been there from the start, seem as dedicated as ever. “Working on this on a new platform is incredibly exciting,” Chapman affirms. “I believe we’ve positioned ourselves for many more years of game evolution.”
Clownfish and sea anemones have a symbiotic relationship
Wildlife/Getty Images
The secret is in the runny nose. Chemical changes in the mucus that coats the clownfish’s body can blunt the sting of its symbiotic sea anemone.
Researchers have long suspected that something special in the mucus of the clownfish, also known as the clownfish, protects it from the microscopic stingers of the sea anemone’s tentacles. But the exact mechanism remained a mystery, he said. karen burke da silva At Flinders University, Australia.
To investigate, she and her colleagues bred orange clownfish (Amphiprion percula) and bubble tip sea anemone (Entacmaea four colors) at the Institute. Some fish and sea anemones live in pairs, while others live separately. The researchers collected mucus samples from the fish at various times before and after they had adapted to the anemone, and then placed the mucus on a microscope slide and pressed it against the anemone’s tentacles.
Sea anemones sting by firing small coiled venomous harpoons explosively from their stinging cells called stinging cells. The researchers used a microscope to count and compare the number of stinging cells that fired during the mucus treatment. They found that mucus from a clownfish’s partner, but not mucus from an unknown fish, reduced the firing of stinging cells.
To find out why, the researchers analyzed how the glycans (chains of sugar attached to proteins) and fats in the clownfish’s mucus change as they adapt to their hosts. Three weeks after the symbiotic partnership began, the chemical profile of the mucus changed significantly. In particular, the concentrations of seven types of glycans were changed. Removing glycans or otherwise tweaking them could be one way he suppresses line cell firing, Burke da Silva says.
Alonso Delgado At Ohio State University, the sea anemone shrimp (Ansiromenes Magnificus), using similar glycan methods or evolving different strategies to thwart sting.
Additional strategies may also be at work for clownfish. Glycan changes are slow, and after a partner splits, he grows back within a day. Instead, fish may use an unknown chemical strategy at the very beginning to gain initial access to sea anemones.
New Orleans is at risk of more flooding than expected due to land subsidence
William A. Morgan/Shutterstock
Sea levels are rising faster than expected in U.S. coastal cities, primarily due to land subsidence from groundwater and fossil fuel extraction. This means up to 518,000 additional people living in these areas could be at risk of major flooding by 2050 if adequate protection is not in place.
Coastal cities often experience subsidence, where the land gradually sinks over time. One of the biggest factors causing this is the compaction of the earth by extracting resources such as water and fossil fuels from the ground.
To investigate how land subsidence and sea level rise will impact coastal communities. leonard owenhen The Virginia Tech researchers created a model based on land elevation changes in 32 major coastal cities, including Boston and San Francisco, and sea level rise projections through 2050.
Researchers found that cities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, such as New Orleans, have lower elevations and are sinking faster. It is sinking at least two millimeters more per year than other cities in the region, increasing the risk of future flooding. . Urban areas along the Pacific coast are better protected from rising sea levels because of their higher elevations.
“We were surprised to see that Biloxi, Mississippi, experienced the most rapid subsidence,” Owenhen says.
They also found that existing flood risk assessments in the United States do not take into account the combined effects of land subsidence, underestimating its threat. Researchers have found that nearly 1,400 square kilometers more land will be at risk of flooding by 2050 than current estimates. That means, in total, 1 in 50 people and 1 in 35 homes in 32 cities are at risk. .
This would put an additional 518,000 people and more than 288,000 homes at risk of flooding.
The study looked at flood risk for dozens of coastal U.S. cities by 2050.
Image courtesy of Leonard Owenhen
These findings highlight the urgent need to strengthen U.S. flood protection now, team members say Manuchel Shirzai, also at Virginia Tech. “Individual cities will need to adapt differently. New Orleans will need to strengthen city-wide flood protection, while San Francisco will probably only need to protect its critical infrastructure.”
Other things could be done to reduce the threat. “If land subsidence is being caused by groundwater extraction, oil and gas development, or other human-induced stresses, we need to do everything we can to reverse these trends before it’s too late.” he says. Simon Anisfeld At Yale University.
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