Beneath the ice of West Antarctica lie natural records of past climate variability, containing sediments deposited during warmer periods when the region was partly or entirely ice-free. 

An international team co-led by a researcher from ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) has now retrieved the longest sediment core ever drilled from beneath an ice sheet, using a custom-designed drilling system. 

The 228 metre-long core contains geological evidence and fossils of marine organisms that indicate a previously open, ice-free ocean. This archive provides new insights into how sensitive the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is to a warming climate. 

A 40-year study using field data from Projeto Lontra reveals that Neotropical otters act as "living sensors" of ecosystem degradation, with 66% testing positive for land-based pathogens like Toxoplasma gondii carried by runoff. This research, published in Estuarine Management and Technologies, led to the creation of the Otter Health Index (OHI), a low-cost toolkit designed for muncipalities and NGOs to better monitor estuarine health through simple metrics.

Species are disappearing at an alarming rate worldwide – accelerated by climate change, habitat loss and invasive species. Little-studied groups, including many marine worms, are particularly affected: species are threatened with extinction before they have even been scientifically described. Researchers from the University of Göttingen, the Leibniz Institute for Biodiversity Change Analysis (LIB) and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research will build a comprehensive dataset on European “marine annelids” – segmented sea worms – and make it openly accessible for international research. This should advance the discovery of new species and the knowledge of biological diversity worldwide. The project “EuroWorm: Accelerating Global Marine Annelid Biodiversity Research with Open Genomic Data for European Species” is led by the LIB and funded by the Leibniz Association.

First large-scale experiment shows fire whirls burn oil spills faster and cleaner than fire pools, proving their game-changing potential for ocean cleanups.

Tiny plastic particles disrupt the distribution, composition, and function of gut and fecal bacteria in marine copepods, with a shift toward plastic-degrading species and function. This alteration incurs resilience loss, exposing the potential risks of microplastic pollution.