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Categories: Ecology: Sea Life, Energy: Batteries

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A new article has analyzed another understudied behavior in baleen (filter-feeding) whales such as humpback whales in different populations across the northern and southern hemispheres. They appeared to roll around and 'play' with clumps of kelp and seaweed at the water's surface. The research also emphasizes that the behavior was similar in different individuals, regardless of where in the world it occurred.

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Past cycles of climate change, along with human exploitation, have led to only small and isolated stocks of Atlantic walrus remaining. The current population is at high risk of the same issues affecting them severely, according to a new study.

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What makes for a successful climate-resilient fishery, one that sustainably produces resources for human benefit despite increasing climate stressors and human impacts? It's a question that faces present and future fisheries, their practitioners and fishing communities as the world turns to the ocean to feed its growing population.

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New research has validated at scale, one of the theories that has underpinned ecology for over half a century. In doing so, the findings raise further questions about whether models should be revised to capture human impacts on natural systems.

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New research represents the first combined analysis of microplastics in water, sediment and air around a major river system. It found significant quantities of microplastics trapped in riverbed sediments, and also found they were being transported through the air and the flow of the river.

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Ocean acidification will likely almost triple by the end of the century -- a drastic environmental change that could impact important marine species like fleshy seaweeds, algae that grow vertically and promote biodiversity in more than a third of the world's coastline. To get a better idea of how seaweeds might fare in a rapidly acidifying ocean, a team of marine scientists subjected a common fleshy seaweed species to the acidification levels expected by the end of the century. They report that increased acidification impacted the seaweed's chemical balance, made both its structure and its tissues weaker, and reduced its overall chances of survival.

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Even without a central brain, jellyfish can learn from past experiences like humans, mice, and flies, scientists report for the first time. They trained Caribbean box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) to learn to spot and dodge obstacles. The study challenges previous notions that advanced learning requires a centralized brain and sheds light on the evolutionary roots of learning and memory.

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Scientists have mapped the reproductive strategies and life cycle of an endangered coral species, the purple cauliflower soft coral Dendronephthya australis. Lab-grown larvae have been successfully introduced back into the wild.

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New research shows that mussels are pretty crafty sea creatures: able to withstand marine heatwaves by adjusting their heart rate and other physiological functions, boding well for their survival in future decades as the world heats up.

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Researchers created nanoribbons made of phosphorus and tiny amounts of arsenic, which they found were able to conduct electricity at temperatures above -140 degrees Celsius, while retaining the highly useful properties of the phosphorus-only ribbons.

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Scientists and industry leaders worldwide are looking for answers on how to make aviation sustainable by 2050 and choosing a viable sustainable fuel is a major sticking point. Aerospace engineers took a full inventory of the options to make a data-driven assessment about how they stack up in comparison. He reviewed over 300 research projects from across different sectors, not just aerospace, to synthesize the ideas and draw conclusions to help direct the dialogue about sustainable aviation toward a permanent solution.

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Marine virologists analyzed sediment from the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth, and identified a new bacteriophage.

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An international group of researchers have discovered a previously unknown species of large foraminifer, shedding new light on the ecological evolution and biodiversity of coral reefs in the Ryukyu Islands.

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Aqueous potassium-ion batteries are a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries owing to their safety and low cost. However, not much is known about the properties of the solid-electrolyte interphases (SEI) that form between the electrode and the aqueous electrolyte. To address this knowledge gap, researchers from Japan have now conducted a study using advanced scanning electrochemical microscopy and operando electrochemical mass spectrometry. Their findings provide a deeper understanding of SEI in next-generation batteries.

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A new study sheds new light on the origins of modern brain cells. Researchers find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in placozoans, tiny sea creatures the size of a grain of sand, have many similarities to the neuron, such as the genes required to create a partial synapse. From an evolutionary point of view, early neurons might have started as something like these cells, eventually gaining the ability to create a complete synapse, form axons and dendrites and create ion channels that generate fast electrical signals -- innovations which gave rise to the neuron in more complex animals such as jellyfish. Though the complete story of how the first neuron appeared remains to be told, the study demonstrates that the basic building blocks for our brain cells were forming in the ancestors of placozoans grazing inconspicuously in the shallow seas of Earth around 800 million years ago.

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Rivers are warming and losing oxygen faster than oceans, according to a new article. The study shows that of nearly 800 rivers, warming occurred in 87% and oxygen loss occurred in 70%.

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Scientists are trying to raise as many urchins as possible because they eat algae that could otherwise smother reef ecosystems and kill corals. Researchers have identified algae on which larval sea urchins grow into juveniles in a lab setting.

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Sitting calmly in their webs, many spiders wait for prey to come to them. Arachnids along lakes and rivers eat aquatic insects, such as dragonflies. But, when these insects live in mercury-contaminated waterways, they can pass the metal along to the spiders that feed on them. Now, researchers have demonstrated how some shoreline spiders can move mercury contamination from riverbeds up the food chain to land animals.

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By mining X-ray images, researchers have made significant new discoveries about the reactivity of lithium iron phosphate, a material used in batteries for electric cars and in other rechargeable batteries.

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A new article uses environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to analyze fish and zooplankton communities. The study found that the movement of water between freshwater bodies, or freshwater connectivity, can transport eDNA. This highlights the potential of eDNA to provide a comprehensive view of freshwater biodiversity.