A multi-institutional team of researchers have successfully conducted the first comprehensive exploration of the intertidal and subtidal rocky ecosystems of Inútil Bay. The expedition, supported by the Marine Program of Rewilding Chile, brought together specialists from CADIC-CONICET and the Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) to conduct the first survey of benthic macroalgae in a region that had never been systematically studied before.

In recent years, marine heatwaves have been taking an ever-greater toll on the world’s oceans and their ecosystems. Amplified by increasing global warming, these events are occurring more frequently and lasting longer. The Arctic is not spared from this trend either, as it is warming faster than any other region on our planet. However, due to local processes and conditions, marine heatwaves in the Arctic differ fundamentally from those in non-polar oceans. A recent study, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, summarizes how these events have developed over recent decades, what science knows about the driving forces behind them, and where there are still knowledge gaps to be filled. 

Arabian Sea humpback whales have, at some point during their evolutionary history, adapted to living hyper-locally within the confines of the Arabian Sea. Now, researchers monitored their dives using satellite tags which allowed them to track their movement across the Arabian Sea. The results showed most whales are homebodies – moving within a narrow latitudinal band spanning just a few hundred kilometers. Just one whale broke the pattern and travelled across the Arabian Sea. This is the first direct evidence of a long-distance journey made by an Arabian Sea humpback whale. The team said better understanding of these whales’ movement could provide important insights for the endangered species’ conservation.

Genes are not passed on exclusively from parents to their offspring. Some are mobile and can also jump to other species, as researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen have now shown. The direct observation of a jumping gene provides the first evidence that such genes can transfer from one species to another – from predator to prey.

In a new study scientists reveal up to 38-fold higher DMSP concentrations in Southern Ocean sea-ice versus the surrounding seawaters during the Southern Ocean austral winter. DMSP is known for protecting organisms against environmental stressors. Its degradation yields dimethylsulfide (DMS) and methanethiol (MeSH) which are important climate-cooling gases. The study underscores the role of this seemingly uninhabitable environment as a dynamic reservoir and transformation hub influencing climate-cooling cycles in the polar region.

A global study of more than 5,100 species of plants and animals challenges long-held assumptions about which species are most threatened by climate change. Almost half the species included in the study went locally extinct at the warmest part of the region where they were previously found.