Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique: Researchers from the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) Ocean Observatory have documented ancient forests that grew on the Mozambican coast thousands of years ago and have been found beneath the sea, where they now serve as hotspots teeming with marine life similar in biodiversity to coral reefs. The discovery raises the question of how many more of these hidden peat reefs exist around the world’s coastlines and how to evaluate them as a carbon store and develop policies to protect them and their biodiversity.

Protecting seabirds and restoring natural vegetation could give low-lying tropical atoll islands a fighting chance against the threat of sea-level rises, a new study reveals.

As Earth’s atmosphere continues to warm, sea levels are projected to rise, threatening to swamp ‘tropical paradise’ atoll islands, such as those found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Publishing today in the journal Science Advances, an international team of researchers, led by marine scientists at Lancaster University, show how seabird nutrient flows affect atoll islands and the coral reefs that surround them – influencing their ability to adapt to rising sea levels.

Researchers at the University of Basel have investigated how fine particles in exhaust emissions from aircraft and marine engines change in the atmosphere. Their findings show that aircraft emissions in particular become more toxic over time.

In Biointerphases, researchers study the genetic characteristics of various bacteria species responsible for their survival on copper surfaces, a step toward inhibiting copper-resistant genes and managing biofouling on ship hulls. The researchers sequenced the genomes of bacterial colonies that grew on PVC panels placed in the Chesapeake Bay to identify the copper-resistant genes and tested each colony’s tolerance against copper-based water treatments. They hope to use their findings to target the molecular pathways that help bacteria express copper-resistant genes, weakening their ability to survive in copper-rich environments.