World Oceans Day 2022

Engulfing two-thirds of the blue planet, our oceans are the habitat of over 50% of all life on Earth.
Experts estimate that between 50–80% of the world’s oxygen bubbles up from the seven seas. However, human activity has detrimentally impacted marine life, with associated rising global temperatures, pollution, and overfishing wreaking havoc on fragile oceanic ecosystems. The 8th of June marks the United Nation’s World Oceans Day – a celebration of the ocean; this year’s theme is Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean. Join collective efforts to #RevitalizeTheOcean and delve into the celebratory selection of articles underneath for an odyssey into the oceans.

One ocean, many minds: Collaborative science in the Arctic
The Arctic Ocean is undergoing a period of significant change. In collaboration with an international, multidisciplinary team of scientists, Professor Igor Polyakov from the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the lead scientist of an observational programme monitoring climatic changes in the Arctic Ocean. The data he and his team have collected is proving instrumental in understanding the ongoing and fundamental changes experienced in the Arctic.

Conveyor belts of the Atlantic Ocean: Moving particles, organisms and litter around the globe
Ocean currents are a conveyor belt spanning the entire globe; they are transporting minerals, nutrients, organisms and other particles across vast distances. However, the full extent of the roles played by these flows is still poorly understood. Dr Rui Caldeira, Director of the Oceanic Observatory of Madeira in Portugal, and his collaborators Dr Iria Sala, Cláudio Cardoso and Maria João Lima use the latest computer modelling techniques to understand how ocean currents interact with four archipelagos in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. The team’s discoveries are shedding new light on how the region is affected by the growing problem of plastic pollution, and how similar processes are unfolding worldwide.

Carbon capture utilisation in the deep ocean: The hydrothermal fuel cell
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are one of the most hostile environments on Earth, and yet they support complex ecosystems. Dr Ryuhei Nakamura of the RIKEN Centre for Sustainable Resource Science and Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, has been researching how hydrothermal vents operate as a fuel cell for microbial life, their potential for deep-sea carbon capture through electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction, and how electric currents may have provided the spark for the origin of life on Earth.