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    Study protected waters newly opened up to fishing

    In April, the United States opened up one million square kilometres of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. Before then, for a decade, the region had been a marine protected area — in which all fishing was prohibited. Courts reclosed the area this August as part of an ongoing legal battle. Other protected areas, including the Papahānaumokuākea, Rose Atoll and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts marine national monuments, are under review (see go.nature.com/44Zambm).
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    A humidity measure that accounts for redistribution of water across the landscape

    RESEARCH BRIEFINGS
    13 August 2025

    A humidity index has been developed that considers lateral flow along rivers and groundwater systems, as well as precipitation, potential evaporation and plant transpiration. It performs better than a conventional humidity index when describing water availability for ecosystems and societies in arid regions. More

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    How does a forest return to abandoned land? I travel to find out

    “In this picture, I’m working with my four-legged companion, Yang Mei (Little Sheep) near a small village called Nanxi on the eastern coast of Taiwan. I’m an ecologist studying lowland evergreen subtropical forests. I’ve been conducting research here for the past three years and have known Yang Mei since she was a puppy.Not all forest areas are safe for her. In some places, local people have set traps for deer and wild pigs, so she has to stay behind, which she hates.My research is on secondary forest succession, for my doctorate at the University of Melbourne, Australia. I want to understand how forests grow back after agricultural abandonment. The plot I’m studying in this photo was once a citronella plantation (Cymbopogon nardus), then a rice paddy (Oryza sp.), then an orchard. For the past 16 years, it’s been regenerating back into forest.To select areas to survey, I use a compass to get a bearing, and measuring tapes to mark out a specific plot across the slope. When this photo was taken, besides Yang Mei, my team members were Chance, a volunteer from Utah, and Mr Lai, a local landowner. He’s extremely knowledgeable about local plants.

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    Underwater glue shows its sticking power in rubber duck test

    Download the Nature Podcast 06 August 2025In this episode:00:45 Researchers develop a new glue and test it on a rubber duckAided by machine learning, researchers have developed a super-sticky compound that works as an underwater adhesive. Inspired by animals like barnacles, the team developed a new kind of a material called a hydrogel. The material is capable of securely fastening objects together even when immersed in salty water— a challenge for existing adhesives. To show off its properties the researchers applied it to a rubber duck, which stuck firmly to a rock on a beach despite being battered by waves.Research Article: Liao et al.News and Views: AI learns from nature to design super-adhesive gels that work underwater07:37 Research HighlightsThe tomato-infused origins of the modern potato — plus, a specific group of stem cells that may help to drive osteoarthritis.Research Highlight: Potato, tomato: the roots of the modern taterResearch Highlight: Ageing stem cells in the knees drive arthritis damage09:46 The diversity of microbes within living treesBy taking samples from more than 150 trees in a forest in the United States, researchers have revealed a previously unknown community of microorganisms living there. Although the microbiomes of animals have been well explored, studies looking at the microbes living inside trees are limited. In this work, the team shows distinct populations of microbes living within different parts of a tree, and huge diversity in populations between trees. The team behind the work hopes these findings will lead to a greater understanding of tree physiology and the role these microbes play in broader ecosystems.Research Article: Arnold et al.18:46 The ‘de-extinction’ debateBack in April, the company Colossal Biosciences claimed to have de-extincted dire wolves, a large-bodied wolf species that once roamed North America. We discuss the science behind this technology, and the debates within the research community surrounding Colossal’s announcement.News Feature: This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started.Subscribe to Nature Briefing, an unmissable daily round-up of science news, opinion and analysis free in your inbox every weekday.Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too. More

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    Breed giant prawns to withstand disease and climate change

    Farming of giant prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) is a booming industry, worth more than US$2.45 billion. But the gene pool from which prawns are bred is narrowing. China farms more than half of all giant prawns, depending entirely on cultured strains that have substantially less genetic diversity than do wild populations (Q. Shen et al. Aquac. Rep. 38, 102356; 2024) — and so are more susceptible to disease. By contrast, countries such as India, which mainly uses wild, genetically diverse prawns, rather than strains bred for desirable traits, are struggling with low larval survival and yields (B. R. Pillai and D. Panda J. Aquac. 33, 1–14; 2024).
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    Conserve marine migratory species to protect ecological links between land and sea

    At the third United Nations Ocean Conference in June, UN member states committed to reducing the flow of pollutants from rivers to oceans (see go.nature.com/44yengt). But discussions missed a key factor in how land and sea are connected — through the migratory fish, birds and marine mammals, such as seals, that move between oceans or rivers and land (S. A. Sandin et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2122354119; 2022).
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    What it’s like fighting racism and sexism in shark science

    Growing up in the forests of Chicago, Illinois, and the deserts of Phoenix, Arizona, Jaida Elcock never had much access to the ocean — and was even afraid of sharks. But the more she learnt on TV documentaries, the more she realized that we should be advocating for their conservation. “I really don’t want to know what an ocean without sharks looks like,” she says. Having earnt a biology degree at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and worked her way up through various internships and laboratory technician positions, Elcock is now a graduate student based in Falmouth, Massachusetts, studying the movement ecology of basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus). Along the way, she faced racism, sexism and discrimination, she says.In 2020, the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, sparked civil unrest in the United States. On the same day as Floyd’s murder, a white dog walker falsely reported Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper after he asked her to put her dog on a lead. This inspired many Black naturalists, including Elcock, to speak out on social media about their right to exist and occupy outdoor spaces, she says. It also led to the #BlackInNature hashtag, through which Elcock started chatting with fellow shark researchers Amani Webber-Schultz, Jasmin Graham and Carlee Jackson-Bohannon. Pleasantly surprised to realize there were other Black women working in shark science, the four came together and founded Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), registered in Bradenton, Florida. Its mission is to advance marine sciences by challenging the status quo of what people think a scientist looks like. MISS works to support under-represented and historically excluded communities to help them to feel confident and accepted in science by providing them with access to a community, knowledge and training opportunities. Five years later, the organization has around 400 members in more than 30 countries. What was it like for you as a young Black shark scientist?I got a lot of pushback for wanting to become a marine scientist. I was once told that I got my university scholarship because of affirmative action, not because I deserved it. People would say things like “Black people can’t swim. How are you going to work with sharks?”. These ridiculous stereotypes exist because of systemic racism that has led to a generational fear of water in a lot of Black communities, and that is not our fault. (When public swimming pools became popular in the United States in the 1920s and 30s, segregation meant that Black people had less access and so less opportunity to learn to swim.)I was also told that, as a woman, I wouldn’t be strong enough to handle sharks and I should be in the kitchen or raising a family. The Minorities in Shark Science team.Credit: Julia Wester, Field SchoolFor many people, encountering racism and sexism is incredibly discouraging. Why would you want to start a career in which you might hear those things all the time? But I used this pushback as fuel. If you tell me I can’t do something because of a terrible and irrational reason that’s based in hate, racism and sexism, I’m going to say: ‘Okay, watch me’. When we co-founded MISS, we wanted to create a community of people with shared experiences who would support each other, provide a safe space and create opportunities to help them further their careers. Breaking down the social and financial barriers to getting opportunities in the field of marine science was a key goal.We launched on Juneteenth (19 June) 2020. This is a really important day for the Black community in the United States: it’s the day that the last enslaved people received word that they had been freed, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, in which president Abraham Lincoln declared that all slaves in the Confederate states were now considered free. Launching on this day was a way of showing our dedication, support and pride in who we are. Do you feel like the perception of what a shark scientist looks like is changing?Yes, at least in the spaces I’m in. With MISS, we now have a community of minority scientists that people can contact when they want to highlight certain people in science, whether that’s for a TV show or a school talk. TV production teams now have somewhere to go to when most shark scientists on their shows are white dudes and they want to highlight the amazing work of other scientists as well. That’s not to say that these white guys aren’t also good at their job, but we want to remind people that there are other scientists out there. For younger people, seeing themselves represented is so important, and I think we’re seeing a shift. Young people are now more exposed than before to all these diverse people in science. Seeing someone else who looks like them doing it shows that it could be an option for them, too. Do you see any parallels between the stereotypes of who can be a shark scientist and which of the 500 or so shark species typically get more attention, such as great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)? On nature shows, you always see the same thing — great whites breaching — and that’s cool. But what about the swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum), which swallows seawater to prevent itself from getting eaten by predators? What about the pocket shark (Mollisquama parini) that spews bioluminescent goo out of a pocket behind its fins? There are parallels with diversity in science, for sure. You often see this one type of scientist — in the same way you see this one type of shark — but there are so many other cool options. We can show appreciation for all these other sharks and shark scientists as well. The more diversity we have in people, the more diversity we’ll get in thought. That’s going to lead to more innovation, more discovery and better science as a whole.How does MISS help its members?We run webinars and pair people up with mentors to help them apply for funding opportunities, fellowship programmes or graduate school. We also fundraise and apply for grants to support marine scientists from minority groups. We also run collaborative working groups, opportunities such as shark-tagging workshops and our Diversifying Ocean Sciences programme, in which people can learn lab and fieldwork techniques. Jaida Elcock handling a shark tail while at sea.Credit: Jackson Coles, Field School

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