Kyoto, Japan -- Northern fur seals are long-distance migrants, moving seasonally between breeding colonies and wintering grounds. After leaving breeding colonies in autumn, they travel south for winter foraging, returning in early spring. This allows them to avoid sea ice and harsh conditions in northern waters while relocating to ice-free areas.

The southward migration of these seals has been relatively well-documented. One of their primary wintering areas is the Sea of Japan, where they can find abundant prey. They have also been reported to damage fishing gear and remove catch directly from nets, potentially competing with local fisheries.

The seals' northbound migration from wintering grounds back to breeding colonies in spring remains poorly understood, however. Factors such as tag loss, limited battery life, and the difficulty of capturing animals at sea pose particular challenges.

In dog drinking water sampled from wells across the country, 64 percent contained excessive levels of at least one potentially toxic heavy metal.

Analysis of ocean sediments has surfaced geochemical clues in line with the possibility that an encounter with a disintegrating comet 12,800 years ago in the Northern Hemisphere triggered rapid cooling of Earth’s air and ocean. Christopher Moore of the University of South Carolina, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on August 6, 2025.

A recent study in Nature Geoscience offers important new insights into the hidden role of ancient groundwater beneath the ocean floor – and how it may have interacted with ice sheets and rising sea levels during past climate changes. Groundwater is a vital source of fresh water, supplying nearly half of global domestic needs. But a large portion of this water – between 42 per cent and 85 per cent – is actually fossil groundwater, which flowed into the ground more than 11,700 years ago, before the start of the current geological period known as the Holocene. This ancient groundwater is not only difficult to replenish, but also increasingly vulnerable to modern pollution or salinization through seawater mixing. To protect this vital resource, it is important to understand how long it stays underground and how it moves and changes over time.

Kyoto, Japan -- The region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field is the magnetosphere. Observations have shown that, within this region, an electric force acts from the morning side to the evening side as seen from Earth. This large-scale electric field is known to be a key driver of various disturbances such as geomagnetic storms.

Since electric forces act from positive charge to negative, it has been thought by some that the magnetosphere is positively charged on the morning side and negatively charged on the evening side. Yet recent satellite observations have revealed that this polarity is actually the opposite.

This discovery prompted a team of researchers from the universities of Kyoto, Nagoya, and Kyushu to reexamine the underlying mechanisms of the magnetosphere.

Findings show the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer in the Northern Territory, a critical water source, has experienced significant water loss since 2014, with the impacts visible from space.