The Research Centre in Robotics and Underwater Technologies (CIRTESU) at the Universitat Jaume I conducted this week, at the PortCastelló facilities, wireless communication tests between a surface robot and the award-winning robot fish, recognized as the best work in marine automation nationwide during the Spanish Automation Committee conference held in early September in Cartagena.

The jury particularly valued the combination of advanced mechatronic design and the integration of different systems, which make the robot fish a leading research and aquatic environment inspection platform, tested in real experiments both in the CIRTESU pool and in the waters of the Port of Castelló. With this recognition, the UJI consolidates the research excellence of its teams and projects its impact on sustainable applications in the aquaculture sector.

According to CIRTESU researcher Raúl Marín, “It is essential for us to carry out cyclic and gradual research, first in university facilities and then in a realistic environment, like the Port of Castelló, where the collaboration of the Port Authority staff has been key to achieving the progress made.”

Climate change poses a major threat to the organisms such as plankton that form the base of the marine food web. A team of scientists from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen have used the fossil record to show that only a relatively minor amount of climatic change is needed to affect plankton communities. They have published their findings in Communications Earth & Environment.

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within its underground ocean. Some of these reactions could be part of chains that lead to even more complex, potentially biologically relevant molecules.

Published today in Nature Astronomy, this discovery further strengthens the case for a dedicated European Space Agency (ESA) mission to orbit and land on Enceladus.

A newly described fossil reveals that leeches are at least 200 million years older than scientists previously thought, and that their earliest ancestors may have feasted not on blood, but on smaller marine creatures. 

The brains of beached bottlenose dolphins in Indian River Lagoon, Florida, show the presence of both cyanobacterial toxins and Alzheimer's-like neuropathology. The concentration of the cyanobacterial toxin 2,4-DAB is 2,900 times greater during cyanobacterial bloom season than other times of the year. During blooms, 536 different genes associated with Alzheimer's are expressed in the dolphin brains. Since dolphins are sentinels for marine toxic exposures, there may be implications of this discovery for human health.

Rising sand temperatures threaten hatchlings by skewing sex ratios and increasing deformities. But could this heat also impair their brains? In a first of its kind study, hatchlings were trained in a maze using visual cues to test their learning and ability. Surprisingly, even those from hotter nests showed no cognitive deficits. In some cases, they adapted to changes faster than they learned the original task. This unexpected behavioral flexibility offers a rare glimmer of hope for their survival in a rapidly changing world.

What processes have regulated climate over the course of Earth’s history? Researchers are addressing this question in the face of anthropogenic climate change. Dr. Dominik Hülse of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, and Dr. Andy Ridgwell of the University of California (USA) have uncovered a previously missing part of the puzzle in describing the global carbon cycle and climate regulation. In a new issue of the professional journal Science, they introduce an expanded Earth System model that shows how global warming can be overcorrect into an ice age.