Tag: sustainability

Oceans could reach a dangerous tipping point by 2050

Source:University of California – Santa Barbara

Summary:UC Santa Barbara researchers project that human impacts on oceans will double by 2050, with warming seas and fisheries collapse leading the charge. The tropics and poles face the fastest changes, and coastal regions will be hardest hit, threatening food and livelihoods worldwide.Share:

    

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Oceans Near Breaking Point by 2050
By 2050, ocean impacts from climate change and overuse could double—unless urgent action is taken. Credit: Shutterstock

The seas have long sustained human life, but a new UC Santa Barbara study shows that rising climate and human pressures are pushing the oceans toward a dangerous threshold.

Vast and powerful, the oceans can seem limitless in their abundance and impervious to disturbances. For millennia, humans have supported their lives, livelihoods and lifestyles with the ocean, relying on its diverse ecosystems for food and material, but also for recreation, business, wellness and tourism.

Yet the future of our oceans is worrying, according to researchers at UCSB’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS).

“Our cumulative impact on the oceans, which is already substantial, is going to double by 2050 — in just 25 years,” said marine ecologist and NCEAS director Ben Halpern, who led the effort to forecast the future state of marine environments as they bow under the combined pressures of human activities, which include ocean warming, fisheries biomass loss, sea level rise, acidification and nutrient pollution, among other impacts. “It’s sobering. And it’s unexpected, not because impacts will be increasing — that is not surprising — but because they will be increasing so much, so fast.”

The research team, which includes collaborators from Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, also finds that the tropics and the poles will experience the fastest changes in impacts, and that coastal areas will feel the brunt of the increased impacts.

Their research, supported in large part by the National Science Foundation, is published in the journal Science.

A comprehensive global model of human impacts

As human activity on the ocean and along the coast has intensified, so have impacts on the marine environment. Halpern and a group of scientists first tackled the challenge of understanding how these pieces fit together to affect the ocean nearly 20 years ago, laying the groundwork for the current study.

“People tracked one issue at a time, but not everything together,” Halpern said. “More importantly, there was a pervasive sense that the ocean is so huge the human impacts couldn’t possibly be that bad.”

Their quest to build a comprehensive model of human impacts on the ocean led to a 2008 paper in the journal Science, a landmark study that synthesized 17 global data sets to map the intensity and extent of human activity on the world’s oceans. That initial view revealed startling results: No place was untouched, and 41% of the world’s marine environments were heavily impacted.

“The previous paper tells us where we are; the current paper tells us where we are headed,” Halpern said.

Ocean warming and biomass loss due to fisheries are expected to be the largest overall contributors to future cumulative impacts. Meanwhile, the tropics face rapidly increasing rates of impact, while the poles, which already experience a high level of impact, are expected to experience even more. According to the paper, the high level of future impacts “may exceed the capacity of ecosystems to cope with environmental change,” in turn posing challenges for human societies and institutions in a variety of ways.”

The world’s coasts are expected to bear the brunt of these increasing cumulative impacts — an unsurprising reality, the researchers say, given most human uses of the ocean are near coasts. Yet it’s also a “worrisome result nonetheless,” according to the paper, because the coasts “are where people derive most value from the ocean.” Additionally, many countries are dependent on the ocean for food, livelihood and other benefits. “Many of these countries will face substantial increases,” Halpern said.

The authors contend that enacting policies to reduce climate change and to strengthen fisheries management could be effective ways to manage and reduce human impacts, given the outsize roles that ocean warming and biomass loss play in the estimate of future human impacts on the ocean. Likewise, prioritizing management of habitats that are expected to be heavily impacted — such as salt marshes and mangroves — could help reduce the pressures on them.

In presenting these forecasts and analyses, the researchers hope that effective action can be taken sooner rather than later to minimize or mitigate the effects of increased pressures from human activity.

“Being able to look into the future is a super powerful planning tool,” Halpern said. “We can still alter that future; this paper is a warning, not a prescription.”

Research in this paper was also conducted by Melanie Frazier and Casey C. O’Hara at UCSB, and Alejandra Vargas-Fonseca and Amanda T. Lombard at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250905180728.htm

Even the toughest corals are shrinking in warming seas

Resilient coral growth predicted to decrease over next 3 decades, study finds.

Source:Ohio State University

Summary:Scientists found that Red Sea corals can endure warming seas but grow much smaller and weaken under long-term heat stress. Though recovery is possible in cooler months, rising global temperatures may outpace their resilience, endangering reefs and the people who depend on them.Share:

    

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Even the Toughest Corals Are Shrinking
Resilient Red Sea corals survive extreme heat but shrink and weaken, raising alarms about the future of marine life and reef-dependent communities. Credit: Shutterstock

As coral reefs decline at unprecedented rates, new research has revealed that some coral species may be more resilient to warming temperatures than others.

By studying how six months of elevated ocean temperatures would affect a species of coral from the northern Red Sea called Stylophora pistillata, scientists found that although these organisms can certainly survive in conditions that mimic future warming trends, they don’t thrive.

Stylophora pistillata tend to be tolerant of high ocean temperatures, but when continuously exposed to temperatures of 27.5 and 30 degrees Celsius (81.5 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit) — baseline warming expected in tropical oceans by 2050 and 2100 — scientists saw various changes in coral growth, metabolic rates, and even energy reserves. For instance, coral in 27.5 degrees Celsius waters survived, but were 30% smaller than their control group; those placed in 30 degrees Celsius waters wound up being 70% smaller.

“In theory, if corals in the wild at these temperatures are smaller, reefs might not be as diverse and may not be able to support as much marine life,” said Ann Marie Hulver, lead author of the study and a former graduate student and postdoctoral scholar in earth sciences at The Ohio State University. “This could have adverse effects on people that depend on the reef for tourism, fishing or food.”

Overall, the team’s results suggest that even the most thermally tolerant coral species may suffer in their inability to overcome the consequences of warming seas.

The study was published on September 3 in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

While current predictions for coral reefs are dire, there is some good news. During the first 11 weeks of the experiment, researchers saw that corals were only minimally affected by elevated baseline temperatures. Instead, it was the cumulative impact of chronic high temperatures that compromised coral growth and caused them to experience a higher metabolic demand.

The coral later recovered after being exposed for a month to 25 degree Celsius waters, but had a dark pigmentation compared to corals that were never heated. This discovery implies that despite facing ever longer periods of threat from high ocean temperatures in the summer months, resilient coral like S. pistillata can bounce back when waters cool in the winter, researchers say.

Still, as ocean temperatures are expected to increase by 3 degrees Celsius by 2100, expecting coral reefs to predictably bend to projected climate models can be difficult, according to the researchers.

This team’s research does paint a more detailed picture of how coral reefs may look and function in the next 50 years, said Andrea Grottoli, co-author of the study and a professor in earth sciences at Ohio State.

“Survival is certainly the No. 1 important thing for coral, but when they’re physiologically compromised, they can’t do that forever,” said Grottoli. “So there’s a limit to how long these resilient corals can cope with an ever increasing warming ocean.”

Gaining a more complex understanding of how warming waters can alter coral growth and feeding patterns may also better inform long-term conservation efforts, said Grottoli.

“Conservation efforts could focus on areas where resilient coral are present and create protected sanctuaries so that there are some ecosystems that grow as high-probability-success reefs for the future,” she said.

For now, all coral reefs are still in desperate need of protection, researchers note. To that end, Hulver imagines future work could be aimed at investigating the resilience of similar species of coral, including replicating this experiment to determine if sustained warming might cause trade-offs in other biological processes, such as reproduction.

“For coral, six months is still a very small snapshot of their lives,” said Hulver. “We’ll have to keep on studying them.”

Other Ohio state co-authors include Shannon Dixon and Agustí Muñoz-Garcia as well as Éric Béraud and Christine Ferrier-Pagès from the Centre Scientifique de Monaco, and Aurélie Moya, Rachel Alderdice and Christian R Voolstra from the University of Konstanz. The study was supported by the National Science Foundation and the German Research Foundation.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250905112308.htm

Wildfires threaten water quality for up to eight years after they burn

A study of 100,000 water samples from 500 river basins found elevated levels of contaminants persist for years after a fire.

Source:University of Colorado at Boulder

Summary:Wildfires don’t just leave behind scorched earth—they leave a toxic legacy in Western rivers that can linger for nearly a decade. A sweeping new study analyzed over 100,000 water samples from more than 500 U.S. watersheds and revealed that contaminants like nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbon, and sediment remain elevated for up to eight years after a blaze.Share:

    

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Wildfires Leave Rivers Polluted for 8 Years
Wildfires leave a hidden trail: rivers tainted by long-lasting pollution. New research shows water contamination can linger up to eight years, with storms often triggering delayed surges of toxic runoff. Credit: Shutterstock

Years after wildfires burn forests and watersheds, the contaminants left behind continue to poison rivers and streams across the Western U.S. — much longer than scientists estimated.

A new study, published on June 23 in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, analyzed water quality in more than 500 watersheds across the Western U.S., and is the first large-scale assessment of post-wildfire quality.

The research was led by scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“We were attempting to look at notable trends in post-wildfire water quality across the entire U.S. West, to help inform water management strategies in preparing for wildfire effects,” said Carli Brucker, lead author and former CU Boulder and Western Water Assessment PhD student.

The results showed contaminants like organic carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment can degrade water quality for up to eight years after a fire. Water managers can use this data to help them plan for the future and respond appropriately when wildfires strike.

CIRES Fellow and Western Water Assessment Director Ben Livneh was the principal investigator and co-author of the study. Much of his research focuses on hydrology, or water supply, on a continental scale. When he realized he could use the same approach to understand large-scale trends in water quality, he was excited to test the method.

“There’s been a lot of work, for example, in the National Climate Assessment and the International Panel on Climate Change talking about changes in global water supply,” said Livneh, associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. “But those assessments point to this gap in water quality assessments in a continental scale context, whereas people like me in physical hydrology have been thinking about the continental scale challenges for a while.”

Researchers have long known that fire ash and soil destruction contribute to degraded water quality. Yet, past research has largely been limited to state and municipal studies — cities and towns test water quality in local streams and rivers following large fires.

For the new study, the team analyzed more than 100,000 water samples from 500 sites: half from burned river basins and half from unburned. They measured levels of organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment as well as turbidity, or cloudiness, of each sample.

To understand wildfire-driven impacts, the team built data-driven models to measure how much contaminants changed in each basin before and after wildfires. In the final step, they compiled data to find the average across the burned basins for each pre- and post-wildfire year, and then compared those to the unburned basins.

The results showed watersheds take longer to recover after wildfires than previous studies found. Organic carbon, phosphorus, and turbidity are significantly elevated in the first one to five years post-fire. Nitrogen and sediment show significant increases up to eight years post-fire. Fire-driven impacts were worse in more forested areas.

“It can take two years, up to eight years, for the effect to be fully felt,” Livneh said. “Sometimes it can be a delayed effect, meaning, it’s not all happening right away, or sometimes you need a big enough storm that will mobilize enough of the leftover contaminants.”

Each watershed in the study felt the impacts differently. This is likely tied to where the fire struck — a fire closer to the river would be worse than an upstream fire. Different soils, vegetation, and weather also change the impact in each watershed, making it difficult to plan for the future.

“There’s a huge amount of variability in sedimentation rates,” said Brucker, who now works as a consultant. “Some streams are completely clear of sediment after wildfires, and some have 2000 times the amount of sediment.”

Despite variability across river basins, the study provides concrete numbers that give insight to water managers across the Western U.S. Researchers hope the results provide better direction on informing future planning efforts for increasing wildfire resilience.

“I’m hoping that providing concrete numbers is very impactful to water managers,” Brucker said. “You can’t fund resilience improvements on general concerns alone. Water managers need real numbers for planning, and that’s what we’re providing,” Brucker said.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250624044332.htm#google_vignette

Protected seas help kelp forests bounce back from heatwaves

Date:August 20, 2025

Source:British Ecological Society

Summary:Kelp forests bounce back faster from marine heatwaves when shielded inside Marine Protected Areas. UCLA researchers found that fishing restrictions and predator protection strengthen ecosystem resilience, though results vary by location.Share:

    

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Protected Seas Help Kelp Forests Bounce Back
Marine Protected Areas give kelp forests a recovery edge after heatwaves, showing that local protections can buffer global climate pressures. Credit: Shutterstock

New research finds that Marine Protected Areas can boost the recovery of globally important kelp forests following marine heatwaves. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology.

Using four decades of satellite images, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers have looked at impacts Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are having on kelp forests along the coast of California.

They found that although the overall effect of MPAs on kelp forest cover was modest, the benefits became clear in the aftermath of marine heatwaves in 2014-2016, when kelp forests within MPAs were able recover more quickly, particularly in southern California.

“We found that kelp forests inside MPAs showed better recovery after a major climate disturbance compared to similar unprotected areas.” Explained Emelly Ortiz-Villa, lead author of the study and a PhD researcher at UCLA Department of Geography.

“Places where fishing is restricted and important predators like lobsters and sheephead are protected saw stronger kelp regrowth. This suggests that MPAs can support ecosystem resilience to climate events like marine heatwaves.”

Professor Rick Stafford, Chair of the British Ecological Society Policy Committee, who was not involved in the study said: “It’s great to see these results and they clearly show that local action to protect biodiversity and ecosystem function can help prevent changes caused by global pressures such as climate change.

“However, it also demonstrates the need for effective MPAs. In this study, all the MPAs examined regulated fishing activity, and this is not the case for many sites which are designated as MPAs worldwide – including many in the UK.”

Kelp forests: a globally important and threatened ecosystem

Kelp forests our found around coastlines all over the world, particularly in cool, temperate waters such as the pacific coast of North America, The UK, South Africa, and Australia.

These complex ecosystems are havens for marine wildlife, including commercially important fish, and are one of the most productive habitats on Earth. They’re also efficient in capturing carbon and protect coastlines by buffering against wave energy.

However, kelp forests across the west coast of North America have declined in recent yeadue to pressures such as marine heatwaves, made more frequent and intense with climate change, and predation from increasing numbers of sea urchins, which have benefitted from population collapses of sea stars, which predate them.

Kyle Cavanaugh, a senior author of the study and professor in the UCLA Department of Geography and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability said: “Kelp forests are facing many threats, including ocean warming, overgrazing, and pollution. These forests can be remarkably resilient to individual stressors, but multi-stressor situations can overwhelm their capacity to recover. By mitigating certain stressors, MPAs can help enhance the resilience of kelp.”

Marine protected areas as a conservation tool

MPAs are designated areas of the ocean where human activity is limited to support ecosystems and the species living there. However, protections vary widely and while some areas are no-take zones, others have few restrictions or lack comprehensive management and enforcement. Many even allow destructive practices like bottom trawling.

Effective MPAs form a key part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed at COP15 in 2022, which commits nations to protecting at least 30% of oceans and land by 2030.

“Our findings can inform decisions about where to establish new MPAs or implement other spatial protection measures.” said Kyle Cavanaugh. “MPAs will be most effective when located in areas that are inherently more resilient to ocean warming, such as regions with localized upwelling or kelp populations with higher thermal tolerance.”

Emelly Villa added: “Our findings suggest that kelp forests could be a useful indicator for tracking the ecological health and climate resilience of protected areas and should be included in long-term monitoring strategies.”

Measuring the impact of marine protected areas

To understand the effects MPAs were having on kelp, the researchers used of satellite data from 1984-2022 to compare kelp forests inside and outside of 54 MPAs along the California coast.

By matching each MPA with a reference site with similar environmental conditions, they were able to test whether MPAs helped kelp forests resist loss or recover from extreme marine heatwaves which took place in the North pacific between 2014 and 2016.

The researchers warn that while their findings show that MPAs can help kelp recovery after marine heatwaves, the effect was highly variable depending on location.

“On average, kelp within MPAs showed greater recovery than in the reference sites. However, not all MPAs outperformed their corresponding reference sites, suggesting that additional factors are also play a role in determining resilience.” said Kyle Cavanaugh.

The researchers say that future work could look to identify these factors to better understand where and when MPAs are most effective at enhancing kelp resilience.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250820000805.htm#google_vignette

Monsoon Season, Water Shortages Worsen Health Conditions in Nepal

The Nepalese government plans to improve sanitation access to combat water-borne diseases, while the monsoon season further complicates health problems in the country.

Monsoon in Nepal

Photo by Eileen Delhi

“Colours of Monsoon.” Click to enlarge.

Twenty people have died from water-borne diseases while more than 400 cases of acute watery diarrhea have been recorded so far this year in Nepal, according to IRIN.

While the South Asian country has the second largest freshwater resource in the world it suffers from limited drinking water sources due to pollution and disease. Roughly 15 million people, about half the population, face drinking water shortages, while another 5 million don’t have access to safe drinking water, according to the Federation of Drinking Water and Sanitation Users Nepal, an organization that monitors water and sanitation. And with monsoon season in full effect–it runs from about mid-April to mid-October–major drinking water problems are worsening. In 2009, Nepal recorded 370 deaths and 67,000 cases of AWD during the six-month period, according to the Nepal Red Cross. Women, children and the elderly are often the most effected.

To combat these illnesses, the Nepalese government intends to expand access to toilets from 14.4 million to 19 million people by 2011, the The Himalayan reports.

Flooding, unsanitary dumping, agriculture and political confrontation have lead to further pollution of ground and surface water as well as a damaged water infrastructure.

“With water sources drying up, erratic rainfall and poor management of water resources, the problems are worsening every year,” said Prakash Amatya the director of NGO Forum for Urban Water & Sanitation.

More than 80 percent of diseases reported in Nepal stem from unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene, according to a 2009 report released by Water Aid, an international NGO that strives to improve water access and sanitation for communities. The report, End Water Poverty, reveals that 10,500 children die before the age of five every year from diseases contracted from unsafe water, which includes dysentery, hepatitis and cholera.

“This situation could affect a large number of families who have already been reeling under the immense water shortage situation over the last many years,” Ajaya Dixit, director of the Nepal Water Conservation Foundation, a non-partisan NGO that researches water issues in the Himalaya-Ganga region, told IRIN.

Meanwhile communities higher up in the Himalayas have limited access to the five tributaries of the River Ganges that serve as Nepal’s main water sources. These people live on less than 5 liters of water per person per day, according to a 2004 report from the University in Kathmandu.

Water deficiencies contribute to political turmoil both within Nepal and the region itself, according to Dan Smith, the secretary general of International Alert, an independent peace building organization that works in more than 20 countries.

Nepal is embedded between India and China, which also have large agriculture demands that consume a majority of the Himalayan water. A recently proposed Indian dam project on the trans-boundary Kosi River that is a tributary of the Ganges river, has caused political and social uproar within Nepal, reports The Himalayan.

Sources: The Himalayan, International Alert and IRIN.

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Monsoon Season, Water Shortages Worsen Health Conditions in Nepal

This plastic disappears in the deep sea—and microbes make it happen

An environment-friendly plastic lost over 80% of its mass after 13 months underwater real-time deep-sea conditions.

Summary:A new eco-friendly plastic called LAHB has shown it can biodegrade even in the extreme environment of the deep ocean, unlike conventional plastics that persist for decades. In real-world underwater testing nearly a kilometer below the surface, LAHB lost more than 80% of its mass after 13 months, while traditional PLA plastic remained completely intact. The secret? Colonies of deep-sea microbes actively broke down the material using specialized enzymes, converting it into harmless byproducts like CO and water.

Researchers submerged LAHB films at a depth of 855 m near Hatsushima Island to test real-world deep-sea biodegradation. After 13 months, the LAHB plastic lost over 80% of its mass, showing its potential as a safer alternative to conventional plastics that persist in marine ecosystems. Credit: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)

Researchers have demonstrated a new eco-friendly plastic that decomposes in deep ocean conditions. In a deep-sea experiment, the microbially synthesized poly(d-lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) (LAHB) biodegraded, while conventional plastics such as a representative bio-based polylactide (PLA) persisted. Submerged 855 meters (~2,800 feet) underwater, LAHB films lost over 80% of their mass after 13 months as microbial biofilms actively broke down the material. This real-world test establishes LAHB as a safer biodegradable plastic, supporting global efforts to reduce marine plastic waste.

Despite the growing popularity of bio-based plastics, plastic pollution remains one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues. According to the OECD’s Global Plastics Outlook (2022), about 353 million metric tons of plastic waste were produced globally in 2019, with nearly 1.7 million metric tons flowing directly into aquatic ecosystems. Much of this waste becomes trapped in large rotating ocean currents, known as gyres, forming the infamous “garbage patches” found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

To tackle this, researchers have been searching for plastics that can be degraded more reliably in deep-sea environments. One promising candidate is poly(d-lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) or LAHB, a lactate-based polyester biosynthesized using engineered Escherichia coli. So far, LAHB has shown strong potential as a biodegradable polymer that breaks down in river water and shallow seawater.

Now, in a study made available online on July 1, 2025, and published in Volume 240 of the journal Polymer Degradation and Stability on October 1, 2025, researchers from Japan have shown for the first time that LAHB can also get biodegraded under deep-sea conditions, where low temperatures, high pressure, and too limited nutrients make breakdown of plastic extremely difficult. The study was led by Professor Seiichi Taguchi at the Institute for Aqua Regeneration, Shinshu University, Japan, together with Dr. Shun’ichi Ishii from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Japan and Professor Ken-ichi Kasuya from Gunma University Center for Food Science and Wellness, Japan.

“Our study demonstrates for the first time that LAHB, a microbial lactate-based polyester, undergoes active biodegradation and complete mineralization even on the deep-sea floor, where conventional PLA remains completely non-degradable,” explains Prof. Taguchi.

The research team submerged two types of LAHB films — one containing about 6% lactic acid (P6LAHB) and another with 13% lactic acid (P13LAHB) — alongside a conventional PLA film for comparison. The samples were submerged at a depth of 855 meters near Hatsushima Island, where deep-sea conditions, cold temperatures (3.6 °C), high salinity, and low dissolved oxygen levels make it hard for microbes to degrade plastic.

After 7 and 13 months of immersion, the LAHB films revealed clear signs of biodegradation under deep-sea conditions. The P13LAHB film lost 30.9% of its weight after 7 months and over 82% after 13 months. The P6LAHB film showed similar trends. By contrast, the PLA film showed no measurable weight loss or visible degradation during the same period, underscoring its resistance to microbial degradation. The surfaces of the LAHB films had developed cracks and were covered by biofilms made up of oval- and rod-shaped microbes, indicating that deep-sea microorganisms were colonizing and decomposing the LAHB plastic. The PLA film, however, remained completely free of biofilm.

To understand how the plastic decomposes, the researchers analyzed the plastisphere, the microbial community that formed on the plastic’s surface. They found that different microbial groups played distinct roles. Dominant Gammaproteobacterial genera, including Colwellia, Pseudoteredinibacter, Agarilytica, and UBA7957, produced specialized enzymes known as extracellular poly[3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB)] depolymerases. These enzymes break down long polymer chains into smaller fragments like dimers and trimers. Certain species, such as UBA7959, also produce oligomer hydrolases (like PhaZ2) that further cleave these fragments, splitting 3HB-3HB or 3HB-LA dimers into their monomers.

Once the polymers are broken down into these simpler building blocks, other microbes, including various Alpha-proteobacteria and Desulfobacterota, continue the process by consuming the monomers like 3HB and lactate. Working together, these microbial communities ultimately convert the plastic into carbon dioxide, water, and other harmless compounds that ideally return to the marine ecosystem.

The findings of this study fill a critical gap in our understanding of how bio-based plastics degrade in remote marine environments. Its proven biodegradability makes it a promising option for creating safer, more biodegradable materials.

“This research addresses one of the most critical limitations of current bioplastics — their lack of biodegradability in marine environments. By showing that LAHB can decompose and mineralize even in deep-sea conditions, the study provides a pathway for safer alternatives to conventional plastics and supports the transition to a circular bioeconomy,” says Prof. Taguchi.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250724232418.htm

The oceans are overheating—and scientists say a climate tipping point may be here

Summary:In 2023, the world’s oceans experienced the most intense and widespread marine heatwaves ever recorded, with some events persisting for over 500 days and covering nearly the entire globe. These searing ocean temperatures are causing mass coral bleaching and threatening fisheries, while also signaling deeper, system-wide climate changes.

Marine heatwaves surged to record-breaking levels in 2023, disrupting ecosystems and fisheries across 96% of the ocean. Scientists warn this may mark the beginning of a fundamental climate shift. Credit: Shutterstock

The global marine heatwaves (MHWs) of 2023 were unprecedented in their intensity, persistence, and scale, according to a new study. The findings provide insights into the region-specific drivers of these events, linking them to broader changes in the planet’s climate system. They may also portend an emerging climate tipping point. Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are intense and prolonged episodes of unusually warm ocean temperatures.

These events pose severe threats to marine ecosystems, often resulting in widespread coral bleaching and mass mortality events. They also carry serious economic consequences by disrupting fisheries and aquaculture. It’s widely understood that human-driven climate change is driving a rapid increase in the frequency and intensity of MHWs.

In 2023, regions across the globe, including the North Atlantic, Tropical Pacific, South Pacific, and North Pacific, experienced extreme MHWs. However, the causes underlying the onset, persistence, and intensification of widespread MHWs remain poorly understood.

To better understand the MHWs of 2023, Tianyun Dong and colleagues conducted a global analysis using combined satellite observations and ocean reanalysis data, including those from the ECCO2 (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean-Phase II) high-resolution project.

According to the findings, MHWs of 2023 set new records for intensity, duration, and geographic extent, lasting four times the historical average and covering 96% of the global ocean surface. Regionally, the most intense warming occurred in the North Atlantic, Tropical Eastern Pacific, North Pacific, and Southwest Pacific, collectively accounting for 90% of the oceanic heating anomalies.

The researchers show that the North Atlantic MHW, which began as early as mid-2022, persisted for 525 days, while the Southwest Pacific event broke prior records with its vast spatial extent and prolonged duration. What’s more, in the Tropical Eastern Pacific, temperature anomalies peaked at 1.63 degrees Celsius during the onset of El Niño.

Using a mixed-layer heat budget analysis, the scientists discovered diverse regional drivers contributing to the formation and persistence of these events, including increased solar radiation due to reduced cloud cover, weakened winds, and ocean current anomalies. According to the researchers, the 2023 MHWs may mark a fundamental shift in ocean-atmosphere dynamics, potentially serving as an early warning of an approaching tipping point in Earth’s climate system.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250724232417.htm

Lebanon’s Worst Drought on Record Drains Largest Reservoir

QARAOUN, Lebanon (Reuters) -Water levels at Lebanon’s largest reservoir on the Litani River have fallen to historic lows amid what experts describe as the country’s worst drought on record, threatening agriculture, electricity production, and domestic water supplies.

The Litani River National Authority said inflows to Lake Qaraoun during this year’s wet season did not exceed 45 million cubic metres, a fraction of the 350 million cubic metres annual average.

Last year, the figure stood at 230 million. The water currently available in Lake Qaraoun – around 61 million cubic meters – was unusable due to severe pollution, the authority said.

“There were dry years in 1989, 1990 and 1991, but this year is the driest,” said Sami Alawieh, head of the river authority. “We are facing a water scarcity problem across all Lebanese territories and water basins.”

Drone footage of Lake Qaraoun shows a dramatically receded shoreline, exposing cracked earth and dead vegetation.

Lebanon’s hydroelectric plants tied to the Litani basin have been shut down, Alawieh said, causing financial losses and intensifying electricity rationing by Electricite du Liban.

“We have two factors: the decline in rainfall and the pressure on groundwater,” he said.

A study by the authority found climate warming and shifting weather patterns have contributed to more frequent dry seasons and higher temperatures, exacerbating soil moisture loss and reducing the recharging of groundwater reservoirs.

The state utility has slashed supply in some areas from 20 hours a day to as little as 10.

In the fertile area around Qaraoun village, in the Bekaa Valley, farmers were already feeling the impact.

“I have never seen such drought or scarcity of rain as this year,” said Safa Issa. “We used to get snow up to a metre high. Now, it’s been 10 years since we’ve seen any.”

The strain has been compounded by erratic supply of electricity needed to run irrigation systems.

“You irrigate for three hours, then stop for three,” said Fayez Omais, another local farmer.

Suzy Hoayek, an adviser to the Ministry of Energy and Water in Beirut, said a nationwide awareness campaign to reduce consumption would be launched within 10 days.

“The most important thing is to manage demand,” she said.

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https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-07-15/lebanons-worst-drought-on-record-drains-largest-reservoir

Corals in crisis: A hidden chemical shift is reshaping Hawaiian reefs

Summary:Hawaiian coral reefs may face unprecedented ocean acidification within 30 years, driven by carbon emissions. A new study by University of Hawai‘i researchers shows that even under conservative climate scenarios, nearshore waters will change more drastically than reefs have experienced in thousands of years. Some coral species may adapt, offering a glimmer of hope, but others may face critical stress.Share:

    

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Can Hawai‘i’s Reefs Survive What’s Coming?
Coral and red urchin in Maui, Hawai’i. Credit: Andre Seale

Across the globe, oceans are acidifying as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, threatening coral reefs and many other marine organisms. A new study, led by oceanographers at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, revealed that unprecedented levels of ocean acidification are expected around the main Hawaiian Islands within the next three decades.

Increased ocean acidification has the potential to harm marine life by weakening the shells and skeletons of organisms such as corals and clams, amplifying the effects of existing stressors, and threatening ocean-based ecosystems. However, researchers have hope, as some organisms have shown signs of adapting to the changing waters. The study helps researchers, conservationists and policymakers understand the future challenges facing Hawaiian coral reefs and provides information for preserving these critical ecosystems for future generations.

Researchers within the laboratory group of Brian Powell, professor in the Department of Oceanography at the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), used advanced, fine-scale computer models to project how ocean chemistry around the main Hawaiian Islands might change over the 21st century under different climate scenarios based on how much carbon dioxide societies continue to emit.

“We found that ocean acidification is projected to increase significantly in the surface waters around the main Hawaiian Islands, even if carbon emissions flatline by mid-century in the low emission scenario,” said Lucia Hošeková, lead author of the paper and research scientist in SOEST. “In all nearshore areas these increases will be unprecedented compared to what reef organisms have experienced in many thousands of years.”

Emissions shape coral reef future

The extent and timing of these changes vary depending on the amount of carbon added to the atmosphere. In the high‐emission scenario, the team found that ocean chemistry will become dramatically different from what corals have experienced historically, potentially posing challenges to their ability to adapt. Even in the low‐emission scenario, some changes are inevitable, but they are less extreme and occur more gradually.

The team calculated the difference between projected ocean acidification and acidification that corals in a given location have experienced in recent history. They refer to this as ‘novelty’ and discovered that various areas of the Hawaiian Islands may experience acidification differently. Windward coastlines consistently exhibited higher novelty, that is, future conditions deviate more dramatically from what coral reefs have experienced in recent history.

“We did not expect future levels of ocean acidification to be so far outside the envelope of natural variations in ocean chemistry that an ecosystem is used to,” said Tobias Friedrich, study co-author and research scientist in the Department of Oceanography. “This is the first ocean acidification projection specifically for Hawaiian waters to document that.”

Coral’s potential to adapt

Previous studies have shown that a coral that is exposed to slightly elevated ocean acidity can acclimatize to those conditions, thereby enhancing the coral’s adaptability.

“The results show the potential conditions of acidification that corals may experience; however, the extremity of the conditions varies based on the climate scenario that the world follows. In the best case, corals will be impacted, but it could be manageable. This is why we continue new research to examine the combined effects of stresses on corals,” said Powell. “This study is a big first step to examine the totality of changes that will impact corals and other marine organisms and how it varies around the islands.”

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250716000851.htm

The Oceans Are Getting Darker

Colorado River Basin Suffers from a Warm and Dry Spring

Officials, farmers, and others who depend on the Colorado River received a grim prediction last week that Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir in the basin, will receive less than half of the yearly median amount of water over the next three months, which could mean cutbacks in the future. 

The Colorado River carves through the Grand Canyon  |  Credit: Grand Canyon NPS

The snowpack at the beginning of April was less than normal, and the spring has been very warm and dry in the Rocky Mountains, which has led to low runoff.  

Currently, Lake Powell is at 31 percent capacity, and Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country, is at 32 percent after about 25 years of severe drought. A study done three years ago showed that the drought in the Western U.S. was the driest two decades in the last 1,200 years.

Officials in the seven states of the Colorado River Basin, including Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, met last week and have yet to come to an agreement on how they will share water in the coming years after the existing guidelines expire at the end of 2026. If no agreement is reached, the federal government will likely impose its own plan, which could lead to much litigation.

Meanwhile, a new study is showing that ground and surface water in the Colorado River Basin have been depleted during the last 20 years by an amount that is equivalent to the total capacity of Lake Mead. NASA satellite imagery shows the severity of the region’s crisis. Jay Famiglietti, the senior author of the study and a professor at Arizona State University, toldthe Guardian that groundwater is disappearing nearly 2.5 times faster than surface water. He added that everyone in the U.S. should be worried about the crisis in the Southwest, because much of the country’s food is grown there. In addition, the river provides drinking water to 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico.

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

High Court Decision Could Allow Oil Trains along the Colorado River 

A controversial plan to transport crude oil by rail along portions of the Colorado River is much closer to becoming a reality after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s decision blocking it. 

Amtrak’s California Zephyr train travels along the Colorado River near McCoy, Colorado. |  Credit: Tony Webster/Creative Commons

Environmental groups and Eagle County, Colorado, home of Vail Ski Resort, had challenged an agency decision that permitted the two-mile-long trains to ship crude oil from Utah’s Uintah Basin to the Gulf Coast. They argued that the Surface Transportation Board did not weigh the downstream effects should a tanker derail and pollute the Colorado River, threatening the environment and communities. Additionally, they said the agency had not considered how refining five billion gallons of additional oil per year would exacerbate global warming.

An appellate court agreed, but the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, with Justice Gorsuch recusing himself, decided that some judges have incorrectly reviewed an agency decision under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and used it to block or slow down many projects. All three of the Court’s liberal justices agreed with the decision, which has a much broader effect than just the potential of endangering people and the environment by oil tankers that could derail. 

Justice Kavanaugh, writing for the Court, said that overly intrusive judicial review has led to delay upon delay and higher costs. NEPA, he continued, is to inform decision-making, not paralyze it. NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of proposed major actions prior to making decisions. However, this case narrows the scope of all environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects like highways and pipelines.

Earlier, the Supreme Court severely reduced environmental regulation by limiting rules on water pollution and runoff and allowing long-standing agency actions to be challenged in court, according to the Washington Post. The Court has also cut away at the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Darkening Oceans Raises Concerns about Food Webs and Fisheries

The world’s oceans are getting darker. That’s the conclusion of a new study out last week that says there’s cause for concern. 

According to researchers from the University of Plymouth, 21 percent of the global ocean—an area spanning more than 75 million sq km—has darkened over the past two decades.  |  Credit: Naja Bertolt Jensen / Unsplash

“Ocean darkening” occurs when sunlight and moonlight can’t penetrate the upper layers of the ocean called the “photic zone,” which is home to 90 percent of all marine life and one of the most productive habitats on Earth. According to researchers from the University of Plymouth in the UK, over one-fifth (21 percent) of the global ocean—around 75 million square kilometers—has darkened over the past two decades.

Typically, darkening can occur near coastlines because of agricultural runoff and increased rainfall making the waters murkier. However, this new research shows that it’s happening in the open ocean, which they suggest could be from hotter temperatures causing increased algal blooms that reduce light penetration below the surface. It could also be the result of changes in ocean circulation patterns driven by global warming.

The researchers used data from NASA’s Ocean Color Web, which breaks the global ocean down into a series of 9km pixels, to assess the changes and found that the most prominent shifts in photic zone depth in the open ocean were at the top of the Gulf Stream and around both the Arctic and Antarctic—areas of the planet experiencing the most pronounced shifts as a result of climate change. Conversely, the team also found around ten percent of the ocean had become lighter during the same study period.

The authors suggest that a shrinking photic zone in the upper ocean where marine organisms grow, hunt, reproduce, and photosynthesize, would create intense competition for resources and negatively affect food webs and global fisheries.

The study was published in Global Change Biology.

A New Tax in Hawai’i That You Can Feel Good About

The word kuleana in the Hawai‘an language means a responsibility, right, or privilege to take care of one another—and to take care of the ‘āina—the land. Those terms were invoked when, on May 27, Governor Josh Green, MD, signed into law Act 96 (Senate Bill 1396) that establishes a “Green Fee” that will add a tax on hotel stays to protect the environment in the face of climate change. It’s a first for the state—and for the country.

On May 27, Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green signed into law Act 96 (Senate Bill 1396) that establishes a “Green Fee” that will add a tax on hotel stays to protect the environment in the face of climate change. |  Credit: Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green, M.D./Flickr

The new “climate impact fee” is a response to the increased risk of natural disasters driven by global warming, like the wildfires on Maui in 2023. The revenue will provide a stable source of funding for environmental stewardship, hazard mitigation, and sustainable tourism, which together will enhance the islands’ resiliency.

The new law raises the amount of the current transient accommodations tax or TAT by 0.75 percent, or roughly $3 on a $400 hotel room per night. It will also apply to short-term rentals as well as to cruise ships—a sector that has long gone untaxed. The Green Fee is projected to generate $100 million annually, when it goes into effect in January 2026. 

As the online publication Travel And Tour World reports, Hawai‘i joins a list of places around the globe like Greece, Bali, and the Galápagos Islands, where fees are being implemented in recognition that tourism, while economically vital, must be managed responsibly to protect the fragile ecosystems—that many people come to see—from the growing impacts of climate change.