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.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) is pleased to announce that Lisa Rom has been selected as a Fellow of The Oceanography Society. Established in 2004, the TOS Fellows Program honors members whose careers exemplify scientific excellence, strategic development of the field, and a deep commitment to educating and mentoring the next generation of ocean scientists. Lisa Rom’s long career at the National Science Foundation (NSF) aligns squarely with these goals, with national-scale impacts that have reshaped ocean science education, broadened participation in the ocean sciences, and strengthened connections between research and society.

The Oceanography Society (TOS) has named Professor Dr. Oliver Zielinski a Fellow of the Society, recognizing his outstanding and sustained contributions to oceanography through scientific innovation, leadership, education, and service. The TOS Fellows Program honors members whose careers have significantly advanced understanding and stewardship of the ocean while strengthening the global oceanographic community. Dr. Zielinski will be recognized at The Oceanography Society Honors Breakfast, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Professor Chuanmin Hu, of the University of South Florida College of Marine Science’s Optical Oceanography Laboratory, has been elected a Fellow of The Oceanography Society (TOS), one of the Society’s highest honors, recognizing outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of oceanography through scientific excellence, leadership, service, and commitment to education and public engagement. Dr. Hu will be recognized at The Oceanography Society Honors Breakfast, February 24, 2026, during the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

A new study published in Nature finds human-driven land sinking now outpaces sea-level rise in many of the world’s major delta systems, threatening more than 236 million people.