A new study led by researchers at the University of Oxford has shown that the shape and orientation of coastlines significantly influenced extinction patterns for animals living in the shallow oceans during the last 540 million years. In particular, animals living on convoluted or east-west orientated coastlines (such as those found in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico today) were more likely to go extinct than those living on north-south orientated coastlines.

The findings, published today in Science, provide new insight towards understanding patterns of biodiversity distribution throughout Earth history to the present day, and highlight which modern species may be more at risk of extinction due to climate change.

Environmental research in the tropics is heavily skewed, according to a comprehensive study led from Umeå University. Humid lowland forest ecosystems receive a disproportionate amount of attention, while colder and drier regions that are more affected by climate change are severely underrepresented.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Corday Selden, an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, as a recipient of the TOS Early Career Award, recognizing her outstanding early-career research contributions, leadership in ocean sciences, and exceptional promise for future impact in oceanography. Dr. Selden will be recognized at The Oceanography Society Honors Breakfast, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has selected Dr. Seth Zippel, Assistant Professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, as a recipient of the TOS Early Career Award, recognizing his significant early-career research contributions, impact, and exceptional potential for future achievement in oceanography. Dr. Zippel will be recognized at The Oceanography Society Honors Breakfast, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined, with soil microorganisms playing the main role. As a result, the global soil carbon cycle—by which carbon enters, moves through, and leaves soils worldwide—exerts a significant impact on climate change feedback. Now an important study led by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sheds new light on this cycle by overturning assumptions about the relationship between microbial respiration and carbon storage.

A new study suggests that, with low to moderate levels of global greenhouse emissions in coming decades, more of India could become suitable for growing avocados. However, with high enough emissions, growing zones could shrink and destabilize by 2070. G. Karunakaran of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s Indian Institute of Horticultural Research and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 14, 2026.