A new review led by the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen – highlights how hydrothermal vents on the seafloor shape iron availability and influence the global oceanic element cycles. The review study, titled “Iron’s Irony,” has been published in Communications Earth & Environment.

Swarms of krill in the Southern Ocean form the second tier of the Antarctic food pyramid, following plant plankton. If stocks were to shrink due to over-intensive fishing, this would incur direct consequences for many animal species that feed almost exclusively on krill. From 20 to 31 October, the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) will take place in Hobart, Australia, where the future regulation of krill fishery will represent a central topic. Prior to this, an international research team headed by Bettina Meyer from the Alfred Wegener Institute presented the sustainable management concept in the scientific journal PNAS, which involves the krill industry in the research and could thereby secure the stocks for the future.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible. This phenomenon could have implications for the food chain and the carbon budget in the cold north.

Some ancient marine organisms produced mysterious magnetic particles of unusually large size, which can now be found as fossils in marine sediments. An international team has succeeded in mapping the magnetic domains on one of such ‘giant magnetofossils’ using a sophisticated method at the Diamond X-ray source. Their analysis shows that these particles could have allowed these organisms to sense tiny variations in both the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling them to geolocate themselves and navigate across the ocean. The method offers a powerful tool for magnetically testing whether putative biological iron oxide particles in Mars samples have a biogenic origin.

Climate models suggest that climate change could reduce the Southern Ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂). However, observational data actually shows that this ability has seen no significant decline in recent decades. In a recent study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute have discovered what may be causing this. Low-salinity water in the upper ocean has typically helped to trap carbon in the deep ocean, which in turn has slowed its release into the atmosphere – until now, that is, because climate change is increasingly altering the Southern Ocean and its function as a carbon sink. The study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Many measures have been initiated to reduce plastic pollution in Norway. Only a few of them will lead to extensive change and cleanup, a new study shows. 

A new species of bacteria has been discovered off the coast of Oʻahu, shedding light on how unseen microbial life connects Hawaiʻi’s land and sea ecosystems.

Fossilized fish ear stones – known as otoliths – can reveal far more than previously thought. In a recent study, a team of palaeontologists from the University of Vienna demonstrated that a refined electron microscopy technique can make even the finest growth rings visible. These microscopic structures may reflect a fish's life story down to just a few hours – an important breakthrough for understanding fish growth, biomineralization, and environmental change across millennia. The study was recently published in Limnology and Oceanography: Methods.

The deal is done for the new underwater vehicle that will replace Ran, the submarine that was lost under a glacier in Antarctica in 2024. A large donation means that researchers at the University of Gothenburg can plan for new expeditions.

An exceptional “dual feeding” strategy underlies a Mediterranean coral’s resilience to rising sea temperatures, according to a study in Nature. The stony coral Oculina patagonica is known to feed itself with or without algae. Now, the first direct comparison of algae-hosting cells in O. patagonica and other coral species reveals how this flexibility works at the genetic and cellular level. The study is a window into how marine species are adapting to climate change, and also explains why the stony coral has expanded eastwards since it was first discovered in 1966.