• Energy Research
• 2025-2025close
• biological sciences close
• Energy Research close

Scenarios to stabilize global climate and meet international climate agreements require rapid reductions in human carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, often augmented by substantial carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere. While some ocean-based removal techniques show potential promise as part of a broader CDR and decarbonization portfolio, no marine approach is ready yet for deployment at scale because of gaps in both scientific and engineering knowledge. Marine CDR spans a wide range of biotic and abiotic methods, with both common and technique-specific limitations. Further targeted research is needed on CDR efficacy, permanence, and additionality as well as on robust validation methods—measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification—that are essential to demonstrate the safe removal and long-term storage of CO2. Engineering studies are needed on constraints including scalability, costs, resource inputs, energy demands, and technical readiness. Research on possible co-benefits, ocean acidification effects, environmental and social impacts, and governance is also required.

Oyster reef loss represents one of the most dramatic declines of a foundation species worldwide. Oysters provide valuable ecosystem services (ES), including habitat provisioning, water filtration, and shoreline protection. Since the 1990s, a global community of science and practice has organized around oyster restoration with the goal of restoring these valuable services. We highlight ES-based approaches throughout the restoration process, consider applications of emerging technologies, and review knowledge gaps about the life histories and ES provisioning of underrepresented species. Climate change will increasingly affect oyster populations, and we assess how restoration practices can adapt to these changes. Considering ES throughout the restoration process supports adaptive management. For a rapidly growing restoration practice, we highlight the importance of early community engagement, long-term monitoring, and adapting actions to local conditions to achieve desired outcomes.

Gypsum use in agriculture has a longstanding history, yet there remains a critical need for research to understand better its impact on plant development and plant nutrient availability. This study evaluated the impact of flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGDG) amendments on the physical and chemical properties of pine bark substrates and the growth and nutrient uptake of chrysanthemum ‘Wanda Red’. Pine bark was incorporated with controlled-release fertilizer, micronutrient fertilizer, dolomitic limestone, and varying FGDG rates (0%, 2.5%, 5%, and 10% v:v). Plant growth metrics, including dry weight, canopy volume, and foliar nutrient concentrations, were recorded at bud initiation and peak bloom. Flue gas desulfurization gypsum amendments did not significantly affect plant dry weight at bud initiation, although plants without FGDG had greater canopy volumes. By peak bloom, plants without FGDG exhibited greater dry weights, but no difference in growth indices was observed (P = 0.8648). Although the 0% gypsum plants recorded a larger size at bud initiation, there were no differences by full bloom. Foliar nutrient analyses revealed that FGDG amendments influenced nutrient uptake, with notable reductions in nitrogen (P = 0.0035) and potassium (P < 0.0001) at bud initiation but no significant differences at peak bloom. Conversely, phosphorus and calcium concentrations increased with FGDG amendments, suggesting improved retention and availability. Overall, although FGDG amendments led to reduced uptake of some nutrients and minor delays in bloom, all treatments produced marketable chrysanthemums, indicating that FGDG can be integrated into production practices without compromising plant quality. Further studies are recommended to explore lower gypsum rates and their interactions with nutrient retention and crop demand.

Engineered thin-layer algal catalysts optimise light utilisation, achieving up to 4% efficiency in light-to-hydrogen conversion.

As emerging marine technologies lead to the development of new infrastructure across the ocean, they enter an environment that existing ecosystems and industries already rely on. Although necessary to provide sustainable sources of energy and food, careful planning will be important to make informed decisions and avoid conflicts. This paper examines several techniques used for marine spatial planning, an approach for analyzing and planning the use of marine resources. Using open source software including QGIS and Python, the potential for developing wave-powered offshore aquaculture farms using the RM3 wave energy converter along the Northeast coast of the United States is assessed and several feasible sites are identified. The optimal site, located at 43.7°N, 68.9°W along the coast of Maine, has a total cost for a 5-pen farm of \$56.8M, annual fish yield of 676 tonnes, and a levelized cost of fish of \$9.23 per kilogram. Overall trends indicate that the cost greatly decreases with distance to shore due to the greater availability of wave energy and that conflicts and environmental constraints significantly limit the number of feasible sites in this region.

Coral reef islands are low-lying, wave-deposited sedimentary landforms. Using an eco-morphodynamic framework, this review examines the sensitivity of islands to climatic and environmental change. Reef island formation and morphological dynamics are directly controlled by nearshore wave processes and ecologically mediated sediment supply. The review highlights that reef islands are intrinsically dynamic landforms, able to adjust their morphology (size, shape, and location) on reef surfaces in response to changes in these processes. A suite of ecological and oceanographic processes also indirectly impact hydrodynamic and sediment processes and thereby regulate morphological change, though the temporal scales and magnitudes of impacts on islands vary, leading to divergent morphodynamic outcomes. Climatic change will modify the direct and indirect processes, causing complex positive and negative outcomes on islands. Understanding this complexity is critical to improve predictive capabilities for island physical change and resolve the timescales of change and lag times for impacts to be expressed in island systems.

The relationship between climate and human evolution is complex, and the causal mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we review and synthesize what is currently known about climate forcings on African landscapes, focusing mainly on the last 4 million years. We use information derived from marine sediment archives and data-numerical climate model comparisons and integration. There exists a heterogeneity in pan-African hydroclimate changes, forced by a combination of orbitally paced, low-latitude fluctuations in insolation; polar ice volume changes; tropical sea surface temperature gradients linked to the Walker circulation; and possibly greenhouse gases. Pan-African vegetation changes do not follow the same pattern, which is suggestive of additional influences, such as CO2 and temperature. We caution against reliance on temporal correlations between global or regional climate, environmental changes, and human evolution and briefly proffer some ideas on how pan-African climate trends could help create novel conceptual frameworks to determine the causal mechanisms of associations between climate/habitat change and hominin evolution.

Parasitological investigations of anadromous Dolly Varden ( Salvelinus malma) (Walbaum, 1792) harvested along the Canadian Beaufort Sea coast in summer 2021 and 2022 revealed infections by the parasitic cestode Nybelinia surmenicola (Okada in Dollfus, 1929) (2% and 0.8% prevalence, respectively) whose only documented final host is salmon shark ( Lamna ditropis) (Hubbs and Follett, 1947), which to date has been documented only once in the Arctic. Infection rates were low as only two fish, captured in consecutive years, were infected with a single worm at the plerocercoid stage in their stomach. These infections are the first record of the parasite in the Arctic Ocean and for Dolly Varden in North America. The source of infection in both fishes was likely from consuming a euphausiid, presumably Thysanoessa raschii (M. Sars, 1863), which is an infrequent prey of Dolly Varden and a known first host of the parasite, that became infected by consuming N. surmenicola eggs expelled by salmon shark. The euphausiids presumably originated from the Bering Sea and were actively transported by currents into the Arctic Ocean yet it is unknown where their infection occurred. Given the amount of time for exogenous feeding to begin, the presumed rate of transport and time spent feeding in Arctic waters (i.e., Chukchi and Beaufort seas), we infer the infection of euphausiids most likely occurred in the Arctic, which suggests the presence of salmon shark. Additionally, the findings provide evidence that salmon shark may becoming increasingly prevalent in Arctic waters in recent years due to climate change. Our observation underscores the utility of parasitological information for surveillance for detecting climate-related change in Arctic marine biodiversity.