In the 1970s, when public interest in the oceans and what lives in them was picking up speed, Dr Mary Elizabeth Livingston graduated with degrees in Zoology and Oceanography before taking up a PhD position in New Zealand to study flatfish. Opportunities for careers in marine science expanded, but for women, gaining access remained difficult. Livingston, however, persisted and now looks back on a career spanning more than four decades. She is the author of a new Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability article in which she chronicles the highs and lows of her career, changes in the field, and what has remained the same.

While scientists have long studied currents of large eddies, the smaller ones — called submesoscale eddies — are notoriously difficult to detect. These currents, which range from several kilometers to 100 kilometers wide, have been the “missing pieces” of the ocean’s puzzle — until now. Using data from the new Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, a Texas A&M researcher and his collaborators at JPL, CNES and Caltech finally got a clear view of these hard-to-see currents, and they are a lot stronger than anyone thought.

Haptophytes—the unicellular photosynthetic marine algae—are one of the major contributors to marine biomass. Scientists at Okayama University, Japan, unveil the first high-resolution structure of the photosystem II–FCPII (photosynthetic supercomplex) in a marine haptophyte, Chrysotila roscoffensis. This discovery sheds light on the unique approach of sunlight capture and energy management by the complex, offering new insights into marine biology and potential advances in artificial photosynthesis technology.

If global temperatures rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius – in line with current climate policy – only a quarter of the glacier masses will be left. This is the result of an international study involving the University of Bremen, which has been published in Science journal. If global temperatures rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius – in line with current climate policy – only a quarter of the glacier masses will be left. This is the result of an international study involving the University of Bremen, which has been published in Science journal.

A new Science study warns that if temperatures rise to 2.7°C by 2100, only 24% of glacier mass would remain, contributing over nine inches to sea-level rise. Even with no further warming, 39% of glaciers are projected to vanish. However, if global targets like the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal are met, more than half of that loss could be avoided. The findings highlight what’s at stake for water, coastlines, and ecosystems in the UN’s International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.

A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals that the aerobic nitrogen cycle in the ocean may have occurred about 100 million years before oxygen began to significantly accumulate in the atmosphere, based on nitrogen isotope analysis from ancient South African rock cores.

These findings not only refine the timeline of Earth’s oxygenation but also highlight a critical evolutionary shift, where life began adapting to oxygen-rich conditions—paving the way for the emergence of complex, multicellular organisms like humans.