It begins as a trickle high on the Tibetan Plateau—icy, remote, and pure. By the time it reaches the Three Gorges, the Yangtze River has grown into a force of nature, carrying not just water, but the chemical fingerprint of an entire continent. Now, a groundbreaking study from Peking University reveals the invisible story hidden in the river’s flow: the molecular evolution of dissolved organic matter (DOM) along a 3,500-kilometer stretch of the upper Yangtze—the world’s third-longest river. Published on August 11, 2025, in Carbon Research as an open-access original article, this research was led by Dr. Dongqiang Zhu from the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Earth Surface Processes at Peking University, Beijing. Using a powerful suite of analytical tools—including fluorescence spectroscopy, lignin phenol markers, and ultra-high-resolution Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS)—Dr. Zhu’s team traced how organic carbon changes as it travels from the river’s high-altitude headwaters to its densely populated downstream reaches. And what they found is a dynamic, ever-changing mosaic of carbon chemistry shaped by glaciers, grasslands, wildfires, forests, and sunlight.

A new study shows that warming in the tropical Pacific — home to some of the world’s most productive fisheries — may not trigger the severe declines predicted by earlier models. Instead, the region’s fisheries could remain productive even as ocean temperatures rise.

The habitat of thirty species of sharks, rays, and chimaeras, also called ghost sharks, overlap with areas where proposed deep-sea mining may occur, according to new research. Nearly two-thirds of these species are already threatened with extinction due to human impacts, so deep-sea mining, which will disrupt the seafloor and discharge large plumes of sediment into the water above, has the potential to elevate their extinction risk.

Swansea University has led an international team of marine scientists and practitioners—spanning 18 countries—in calling for urgent reform to the licensing and regulation of marine and coastal restoration projects.

A research group in Japan has suggested that ash from volcanic eruptions on Nishinoshima Island—part of Japan's Ogasawara Islands—led to a temporary surge in phytoplankton levels in the seawater around Mukojima Island, which is located 130 km northeast of Nishinoshima. The study indicates that ash from the eruptions was transported by wind and ocean currents to the waters around Mukojima, serving as a nutrient source for phytoplankton growth in that area. The findings suggest that volcanic ash can enhance the productivity of marine waters even at considerable distances from the volcanic site.

The University of Gothenburg is establishing the Crown Princess Victoria Professorship in Biodiversity. The professorship is a gift ahead of the Crown Princess's 50th birthday in 2027, in collaboration between Carl Bennet AB and the University of Gothenburg.

The Research Centre in Robotics and Underwater Technologies (CIRTESU) at the Universitat Jaume I conducted this week, at the PortCastelló facilities, wireless communication tests between a surface robot and the award-winning robot fish, recognized as the best work in marine automation nationwide during the Spanish Automation Committee conference held in early September in Cartagena.

The jury particularly valued the combination of advanced mechatronic design and the integration of different systems, which make the robot fish a leading research and aquatic environment inspection platform, tested in real experiments both in the CIRTESU pool and in the waters of the Port of Castelló. With this recognition, the UJI consolidates the research excellence of its teams and projects its impact on sustainable applications in the aquaculture sector.

According to CIRTESU researcher Raúl Marín, “It is essential for us to carry out cyclic and gradual research, first in university facilities and then in a realistic environment, like the Port of Castelló, where the collaboration of the Port Authority staff has been key to achieving the progress made.”

Climate change poses a major threat to the organisms such as plankton that form the base of the marine food web. A team of scientists from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen have used the fossil record to show that only a relatively minor amount of climatic change is needed to affect plankton communities. They have published their findings in Communications Earth & Environment.

Scientists digging through data collected by the Cassini spacecraft have found new complex organic molecules spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is a clear sign that complex chemical reactions are taking place within its underground ocean. Some of these reactions could be part of chains that lead to even more complex, potentially biologically relevant molecules.

Published today in Nature Astronomy, this discovery further strengthens the case for a dedicated European Space Agency (ESA) mission to orbit and land on Enceladus.

A newly described fossil reveals that leeches are at least 200 million years older than scientists previously thought, and that their earliest ancestors may have feasted not on blood, but on smaller marine creatures.