The melting ice from glaciers worldwide is leading to an increased loss of regional freshwater resources. And it is causing global sea levels to rise at ever-greater rates. Since the year 2000, glaciers have been losing 273 billion tons of ice annually, according to estimates by an international research community led by researchers of the University of Zurich.

Tiny algae darken the surface of glaciers and thus accelerate their melting. This is the case, for example, on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which plays an important role in our climate and is already melting increasingly fast due to global warming. A study by the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, and the University of Aarhus, Denmark, now shows that the ice algae grow extremely efficiently, despite the fact that there are hardly any nutrients available to them on the ice.

In a recent paper published in National Science Review, a jointed team of scholars from China and UK has made significant progress in understanding the genesis of volcanic rocks in subduction zones. By analyzing the magnesium and boron isotopic compositions of volcanic rocks and forearc serpentinites from the South Sandwich Island arc, a globally representative island arc, the team proposed a novel mechanism for island arc magma formation. Their findings suggest that island arc volcanic rocks can originate from the partial melting of serpentinite-dominated mélanges. This breakthrough significantly advances the understanding of the processes and mechanisms of material recycling in subduction zones.

Citizen scientists have the chance to join world-renowned microplastic experts on an expedition off the Atlantic coast.

 

University of Staffordshire’s Professor Claire Gwinnett and colleagues have joined forces with Basking Shark Scotland to conduct four expeditions this September – and members of the public can sign up to take part.

 

Lasting four days, each trip will leave from Inverness in Scotland and focus on monitoring microplastic pollution in feeding sites of endangered basking sharks.

With a recent publication in the journal Scientific Data, NIOZ researchers have made the data from the SIBES research programme from 2008 to 2021 available to the scientific community. In SIBES, all tidal flats in the Dutch Wadden Sea are sampled annually for biomass and sediment characteristics. ‘Thanks to this long time series and the complete coverage of the Wadden Sea, SIBES offers a wealth of information that will provide new insights for science and management,’ says SIBES scientific coordinator Allert Bijleveld from NIOZ.

The clownfish-anemone living arrangement is one of the most widely recognized examples of symbiosis. Researchers have made a breakthrough in understanding how anemonefish can live safely among sea anemones without being stung by their venomous tentacles, solving a century-long mystery. Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and their international collaborators have discovered that anemonefish have evolved to maintain very low levels of sialic acid in their skin mucus to avoid triggering the release of nematocysts (stinging cells) in their sea anemone hosts. The researchers found that sea anemones also lack these sugar compounds in their own mucus, likely to avoid stinging themselves. Their findings, published in the journal BMC Biology, suggest anemonefish might be using a similar protective strategy to their hosts.