A research team led by Prof. QIAN Peiyuan, Chair Professor of the Department of Ocean Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), in collaboration with international partners, has made significant progress in uncovering how deep-sea chemosynthetic symbioses cope with environmental change. The findings reveal that metabolic flexibility in the symbionts, coupled with the host's finely regulated population of bacterial symbionts, mutually sustains the host's energy stability. This provides important in situ evidence of how chemosynthetic holobionts at deep-sea cold seeps remain resilient when energy supplies fluctuate and highlights the key role of a tiered adaptation strategy in sustaining the stability of cold seep ecosystems.

Global study reveals the common ingredients behind conservation success: valuing local knowledge alongside science; community role in decision-making; and management adapting to local social and environmental conditions.

A new study led by researchers at the University of Plymouth (UK) has have produced the first assessment of whether light pollution is posing a threat to 'Good Environmental Status' in our ocean and along out coastlines. The new framework was tested using data available for European waters, with parts of the Adriatic, Baltic, Mediterranean and North seas proving the most likely to be impacted by light pollution.

The size distribution of marine primary organic aerosols, the organic component of sea spray, has been measured for the first time down to 35 nanometres from long-term observations in clean North Atlantic air. It is bimodal, whereas the parameterization in major climate models is unimodal and underestimates particle number threefold. The resulting underestimate in cloud condensation nuclei reaches 16 to 64 per cent at marine supersaturations, assuming 30 per cent lower surface tension.

Brand loyal yet flexible: Small marine worms that live in close symbiosis with various bacteria are always open to new partnerships – and are therefore extremely successful.

A steady “snowfall” of tiny particles carries carbon, nutrients and pollution from the ocean’s surface toward the deep sea. Scientists can see those particles sinking, but determining exactly what they contain is much harder. University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Research Professor Melissa Omand is turning to artificial intelligence to help solve that problem. The National Science Foundation awarded nearly $700,000 to the team for the three-year project, which is scheduled to begin in January 2027 and run through December 2029.