Coralline algae growing near Manawatāwhi (Three Kings Islands) in New Zealand. These calcified seaweeds act as reef-builders, providing habitat for marine biodiversity in coastal seas worldwide. Credit: Peter Southwood
AGU News
“State of Science” report details Trump administration’s disruptions to US science
Eos, the science news magazine of the American Geophysical Union, today released “The State of the Science 1 Year On,” a special report assessing how the Trump administration’s first year in its second term disrupted the U.S. scientific enterprise and what actions may lie ahead this year. The report contextualizes key federal actions taken in 2025 across climate and energy, health and public safety, the federal scientific workforce, academia and research, and environmental protection. [Eos report]
Press registration is open for the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland
Staff, freelance and student journalists, press officers and institutional writers are eligible to apply for complimentary press registration for the conference, which will convene 22-27 February. [media advisory][OSM26 Press][eligibility guidelines][preview conference hotels]
Featured Research
A marine biodiversity habitat may prove unexpectedly resilient to climate change
A crusty, pink seaweed known as coralline algae grows in coastal seas around the world, helping build reef habitats that support a rich diversity of marine life. Scientists expect the impacts of climate change, particularly ocean acidification, to hit these reefs particularly hard. But a recent study found that, for about two-thirds of the year, a coralline algae reef off the west coast of Scotland already experiences pH levels as low as those expected by 2100 under a scenario of at least moderate greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers say this prolonged exposure offers hope that as pH lows get more extreme in the future, these algae — and the ecosystems they underpin — may show more resilience than previously thought. [JGR Biogeosciences study]
Faced with water restrictions, many Americans would willingly pay to reuse water
In water-stressed regions, treating and reusing water can offer a valuable way to meet demand for this precious resource—so much so that rural Americans would pay, on average, $49 a month for water reuse systems if it meant avoiding restrictions on their water usage, according to a recent national-level survey study of over 3,000 individuals. That’s enough to sustainably fund water reuse programs in communities with small water systems, positioning water reuse as a viable solution in rural regions facing water restrictions. [Water Resources Research study]
Canada’s air was cleanest in the 2000s. Massive wildfires have reversed the trend.
Air pollution regulations have cleared the air in industrialized eastern Canada since the 1980s, while in the west, wildfire has made summers increasingly smoky, a new study reports, mirroring previous findings from the United States. The record 2023 fires are part of a trend; as the climate warms, the future will be even smokier for North America. Wildfire smoke is less tractable than vehicle exhaust and industrial pollution, which regulators can tackle at the source tailpipes and smokestacks, and will require new approaches to policy, monitoring, and education as well as air-cleaning technologies to reduce unhealthy exposure. [Earth’s Future study]
Logging too often, even at low intensity, leaves forest soils no time to recover
Forest soils need at least 10 to 15 years to recover after logging, a recent study finds. Some foresters maintain forests with a wide range of tree ages, returning every 5 years or so to take whichever trees are ready for harvesting. This strategy can maintain a healthier forest structure compared to operations that plant trees of the same age and return a decade later to harvest them all at once. However, more frequent visits by heavy logging machinery keep the soil compacted, reducing the diversity of its microbial life and increasing erosion and runoff. Samples from Mediterranean beech forests in southern Italy revealed that while soils recovered somewhat after five years, they hadn’t fully healed. The researchers suggest waiting 10 to 15 years between operations and taking precautions to minimize soil compaction during logging to make forestry operations more sustainable. [JGR Biogeosciences study]
Besides carbon emissions, direct heat from human activities boosts climate warming
Greenhouse gases aren’t the only things warming the planet: industrial facilities, heating and cooling systems, vehicle exhaust, and even our own bodily metabolisms release heat directly into the environment. Under a high-emissions scenario, these heat sources could contribute an additional 0.6 °C (1.08 °F) to average summer temperatures in North America during the end of this century, making heatwaves more frequent, according to a recent modeling study. They would also alter atmospheric conditions and reduce cloud cover to make the eastern and northwestern United States and central Canada hotter and drier, increasing plant stress and wildfire risk. This highlights the need to mitigate heat at its sources through solutions like urban greening, low-emissions transportation, and energy systems that make use of recovered heat, the researchers write. [JGR Atmospheres study]
Successful liquid lake conditions in a cold Martian paleoclimate
Simulations from a new lake model explain how liquid water could have been maintained over Mars in a cold climate, thus resolving a critical scientific gap in our understanding of Mars’ early history. [Eos editors’ highlight][AGU Advances study]
Melting glaciers mix up waters more than we thought
Existing theory underestimates the mixing of freshwater and seawater by up to 50%. [Eos research spotlight][JGR Oceans study]