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Here are 5 record-breaking science discoveries from 2022.

This human skeleton (shown from the waist down) from the island of Borneo bears evidence that the lower left leg was amputated roughly 31,000 years ago.

T.R. MALONEY ET AL / NATURE 2022

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By Erin Wayman

December 21, 2022 at 9:00 am

New scientific records are set every year, and 2022 was no exception. A bacterial behemoth, a shockingly speedy supercomputer and a close-by black hole are among the most notable superlatives of the year.

Earliest surgery

The first known surgical operation was a leg amputation ( SN: 10/8/22 & 10/22/22, p. 5 ). That’s the conclusion researchers came to after investigating the skeleton of a person who lived on the Indonesian island of Borneo about 31,000 years ago. Healed bone where the lower left leg had been removed suggests the individual survived for several years after the procedure. The discovery pushes surgery’s origin back by some 20,000 years.

Biggest single-celled bacterium

Bacteria normally dwell in the microscopic world. Not Thiomargarita magnifica . Averaging about a centimeter long, this newfound bacterium is visible to the naked eye ( SN: 7/16/22 & 7/30/22, p. 17 ). T. magnifica , which lives in the mangrove forests of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles, is about 50 times larger than other species of big bacteria and about 5,000 times larger than typical bacteria. Why this species evolved into such a giant is unknown.

Fastest supercomputer

A supercomputer named Frontier crunched numbers with mind-blowing speed this year: 1.1 quintillion operations per second ( SN Online: 6/1/22 ). That makes the machine, run by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the first exascale computer — a computer that can perform at least 10 18 operations per second. The next fastest computer tops out at 442 quadrillion (that’s 10 15 ) operations per second. Exascale computing is expected to lead to breakthroughs in everything from climate science to health to particle physics.

Largest fish colony

Deep off the coast of Antarctica, icefish congregate in a breeding colony as big as Orlando, Fla. Some 60 million nests of Jonah’s icefish ( Neopagetopsis ionah ) stretch across at least 240 square kilometers of seafloor ( SN: 2/12/22, p. 12 ). Previously, nest-building species of fish were known to gather in only the hundreds. An abundant food supply and access to a zone of unusually warm water may explain the exceptionally large group.

Closest black hole

By sifting through data released by the Gaia spacecraft, astrophysicists discovered a black hole that’s just over 1,560 light-years from Earth ( SN Online: 11/4/22 ). Dubbed Gaia BH1, it’s about twice as close as the previously nearest known black hole. But that record may not stand. About 100 million black holes are predicted to exist in the Milky Way. Since most are invisible, they’re hard to find. But when Gaia, which is precisely mapping a billion stars, releases its next batch of data in a few years, even closer black holes may turn up.

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Domesticating horses had a huge impact on human society − new science rewrites where and when it first happened

Assistant Professor and Curator of Archaeology, University of Colorado Boulder

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William Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Colorado provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

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Across human history, no single animal has had a deeper impact on human societies than the horse. But when and how people domesticated horses has been an ongoing scientific mystery.

Half a million years ago or more, early human ancestors hunted horses with wooden spears, the very first weapons , and used their bones for early tools . During the late Paleolithic era, as far back as 30,000 years ago or more, ancient artists chose wild horses as their muse: Horses are the most commonly depicted animal in Eurasian cave art .

Following their first domestication, horses became the foundation of herding life in the grasslands of Inner Asia , and key leaps forward in technology such as the chariot , saddle and stirrup helped make horses the primary means of locomotion for travel, communication, agriculture and warfare across much of the ancient world. With the aid of ocean voyages, these animals eventually reached the shores of every major landmass – even Antarctica, briefly.

As they spread, horses reshaped ecology, social structures and economies at a never-before-seen scale. Ultimately, only industrial mechanization supplanted their near-universal role in society.

Because of their tremendous impact in shaping our collective human story, figuring out when, why and how horses became domesticated is a key step toward understanding the world we live in now.

Doing so has proven to be surprisingly challenging. In my new book, “ Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History ,” I draw together new archaeological evidence that is revising what scientists like me thought we knew about this story.

A horse domestication hypothesis

Over the years, almost every time and place on Earth has been suggested as a possible origin point for horse domestication, from Europe tens of thousands of years ago to places such as Saudi Arabia, Anatolia, China or even the Americas.

By far the most dominant model for horse domestication, though, has been the Indo-European hypothesis, also known as the “Kurgan hypothesis.” It argues that, sometime in the fourth millennium BCE or before, residents of the steppes of western Asia and the Black Sea known as the Yamnaya, who built large burial mounds called kurgans, hopped astride horses. The newfound mobility of these early riders, the story goes , helped catalyze huge migrations across the continent, distributing ancestral Indo-European languages and cultures across Eurasia.

But what’s the actual evidence supporting the Kurgan hypothesis for the first horse domestication? Many of the most important clues come from the bones and teeth of ancient animals, via a discipline known as archaeozoology . Over the past 20 years, archaeozoological data seemed to converge on the idea that horses were first domesticated in sites of the Botai culture in Kazakhstan, where scientists found large quantities of horse bones at sites dating to the fourth millennium BCE.

Other kinds of compelling circumstantial evidence started to pile up. Archaeologists discovered evidence of what looked like fence post holes that could have been part of ancient corrals. They also found ceramic fragments with fatty horse residues that, based on isotope measurements, seem to have been deposited in the summer months, a time when milk could be collected from domestic horses.

The scientific smoking gun for early horse domestication, though, was a set of changes found on some Botai horse teeth and jawbones. Like the teeth of many modern and ancient ridden horses, the Botai horse teeth appeared to have been worn down by a bridle mouthpiece, or bit.

Together, the data pointed strongly to the idea of horse domestication in northern Kazakhstan around 3500 BCE – not quite the Yamnaya homeland, but close enough geographically to keep the basic Kurgan hypothesis intact.

There were some aspects of the Botai story, though, that never quite lined up. From the outset, several studies showed that the mix of horse remains found at Botai were unlike those found in most later pastoral cultures: Botai is evenly split between male and female horses, mostly of a healthy reproductive age. Killing off healthy, breeding-age animals like this on a regular basis would devastate a breeding herd. But this demographic blend is common among animals that have been hunted. Some Botai horses even have projectile points embedded in their ribs, showing that they died through hunting rather than a controlled slaughter.

These unresolved loose ends loomed over a basic consensus linking the Botai culture to horse domestication.

New scientific tools raise more questions

In recent years, as archaeological and scientific tools have rapidly improved, key assumptions about the cultures of Botai, Yamnaya and the early chapters of the human-horse story have been overturned.

First, improved biomolecular tools show that whatever happened at Botai, it had little to do with the domestication of the horses that live today. In 2018, nuclear genomic sequencing revealed that Botai horses were not the ancestors of domestic horses but of Przewalski’s horse , a wild relative and denizen of the steppe that has never been domesticated, at least in recorded history.

Next, when my colleagues and I reconsidered skeletal features linked to horse riding at Botai, we saw that similar issues are also visible in ice age wild horses from North America, which had certainly never been ridden. Even though horse riding can cause recognizable changes to the teeth and bones of the jaw, we argued that the small issues seen on Botai horses can reasonably be linked to natural variation or life history.

This finding reopened the question: Was there horse transport at Botai at all?

Leaving the Kurgan hypothesis in the past

Over the past few years, trying to make sense of the archaeological record around horse domestication has become an ever more contradictory affair.

For example, in 2023, archaeologists noted that human hip and leg skeletal problems found in Yamnaya and early eastern European burials looked a lot like problems found in mounted riders, consistent with the Kurgan hypothesis. But problems like these can be caused by other kinds of animal transport, including the cattle carts found in Yamnaya-era sites .

So how should archaeologists make sense of these conflicting signals?

A clearer picture may be closer than we think. A detailed genomic study of early Eurasian horses, published in June 2024 in the journal Nature , shows that Yamnaya horses were not ancestors of the first domestic horses, known as the DOM2 lineage. And Yamnaya horses showed no genetic evidence of close control over reproduction, such as changes linked with inbreeding.

Instead, the first DOM2 horses appear just before 2000 BCE, long after the Yamnaya migrations and just before the first burials of horses and chariots also show up in the archaeological record.

For now, all lines of evidence seem to converge on the idea that horse domestication probably did take place in the Black Sea steppes, but much later than the Kurgan hypothesis requires. Instead, human control of horses took off just prior to the explosive spread of horses and chariots across Eurasia during the early second millennium BCE.

There’s still more to be settled, of course. In the latest study, the authors point to some funny patterns in the Botai data, especially fluctuations in genetic estimates for generation time – essentially, how long it takes on average for a population of animals to produce offspring. Might these suggest that Botai people still raised those wild Przewalski’s horses in captivity, but only for meat, without a role in transportation? Perhaps. Future research will let us know for sure.

Either way, out of these conflicting signals, one consideration has become clear: The earliest chapters of the human-horse story are ready for a retelling.

• Archaeology
• Domestication
• Archaeozoology
• Przewalski’s horse

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• Review Article
• Published: 03 September 2024

Antarctic benthic ecological change

• Huw J. Griffiths   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1764-223X 1 ,
• Vonda J. Cummings   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1076-3995 2 ,
• Anton Van de Putte 3 , 4 ,
• Rowan J. Whittle 1 &
• Catherine L. Waller 5  

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume  5 ,  pages 645–664 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Biogeography
• Climate-change ecology
• Marine biology

The benthic community around Antarctica is diverse and highly endemic. These cold-adapted species are under threat from local and global drivers, including warming, acidification and changes to the cryosphere. In this Review, we summarize observed, experimental and modelled Antarctic benthic ecological change. Warming, glacial melt and retreat, and reduced ice cover are causing regional benthic biomass to increase or decrease, depending on the additional influences of ice scour, turbidity and freshening. Additionally, the dominance of previously cold-restricted or light-restricted taxa is increasing, and several ecological tipping points have already been breached, leading to ecological phase shifts in some habitats. The largest changes have been observed in communities in the shallows of the West Antarctic Peninsula, notably change to distribution, biodiversity, biomass and trophic structure. Models based on observational and experimental evidence indicate that these changes will spread deeper and eastwards throughout this century. Available data are primarily limited to a handful of shallow-water taxa; thus, future work will need to involve multispecies observations and experiments encompassing multiple drivers to understand community and ecosystem responses, and autonomous monitoring techniques to fill geographical, bathymetric, seasonal and taxonomic gaps; advances in environmental DNA and artificial-intelligence-based techniques will help to rapidly analyse such data.

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Introduction.

The separation of Antarctica from other continents by a vast area of deep water and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current has caused the surrounding ocean to develop a unique and highly endemic fauna and flora 1 that is vulnerable to environmental change 2 . These highly adapted inhabitants of the Antarctic seafloor are facing increasing ecological change owing to the disproportionate impacts of anthropogenic climate change on the Southern Ocean and cryosphere 3 (Fig.  1 ). Benthic communities and species exhibit variable responses to change, with long-lived, cold-water, stenothermal, sessile taxa with long life cycles thought to be most negatively affected, and more eurybathic, eurythermal, short-lived and rapidly responding taxa most likely to take advantage of changes 4 , 5 . Ongoing and predicted changes to the benthic environment are likely to alter the balance of indigenous species while creating new opportunities for non-indigenous predators or competitors that have previously been unable to survive in the region 6 , 7 . Given the highly endemic nature of Antarctic seafloor communities and the restricted options available for migration to suitable habitats, any degradation of the ecology of the region is likely to affect global biodiversity and ecosystem services 4 , 5 .

The network of drivers affecting Antarctic benthos, including the depth and intensity (yellow shading) and geographical scope (small maps, where red, orange and white indicate regions with intense change, some change, and little effect or evidence of change, respectively) of each driver. Shallow regions (<200 m) and the West Antarctic Peninsula are affected by a greater range and intensity of drivers than deeper waters and East Antarctica.

Southern Ocean benthos are affected by anthropogenic climate change and other human impacts 8 , 9 (Fig. 1 and Box  1 ). The drivers of this change include global stresses 10 such as ocean and atmosphere warming, and ocean acidification, which originate outside Antarctica. There are also geographically constrained drivers such as direct human impacts from fishing, tourism, science and pollution (globally and locally sourced), which often have a local or regional impact on Antarctic benthos 11 . However, human presence is currently low in Antarctica and thus represents a smaller threat to benthos than climate change 10 , 12 .

Regional and bathymetric differences in global drivers of change, owing to topography, atmospheric conditions and oceanography, and biological responses mean that recorded baselines and observed and predicted changes differ greatly between East and West Antarctica 1 , 13 , 14 (Fig.  2 ). The terrestrial dividing line between East and West Antarctica is generally considered to be the Transantarctic Mountains. However, oceanographically and biogeographically, the Weddell Sea bordering the lower East Antarctic Peninsula and parts of the Ross Sea bordering West Antarctica have greater connections and similarities to East Antarctica 1 and are generally considered to be part of East Antarctica (the approach taken in this Review). In the ocean around West Antarctica, sea ice (frozen seawater, usually less than 3 m thick) has rapidly decreased, and high rates of warming and glacial retreat have been observed, whereas in East Antarctica rates of change are slower 15 .

Ocean depth (blue), ice-shelf presence (light blue), median historic (1981–2010; semitransparent solid lines) and present-day (2023; dashed lines) minimum (February; red) and maximum (September; yellow) sea-ice extents south of 60° S. Summer and winter sea-ice extents were reduced on average around Antarctica in 2023 compared with historic median values, but the extent of the change was not evenly distributed around the continent. CB, Commonwealth Bay; JRI, James Ross Island; MB, Marguerite Bay; MG, Mertz Glacier; MS, McMurdo Sound; SOI, South Orkney Islands; SShI, South Shetland Islands.

In this Review, we use evidence from observations, experiments, expert knowledge and model simulations to outline the ongoing and future impacts of environmental drivers for benthic systems, regionally and for different depths. The ecological changes caused by these physical drivers are discussed, and the potential strength of the ecological impact is summarized. We then highlight drivers that are expected to have considerable impact in the future, and areas where further research is needed. Owing to the differences in community types 16 and the impacts of the drivers of change in the sub-Antarctic 17 , 18 , discussion is restricted to findings from Antarctica as defined by the Antarctic Treaty, south of 60° S (Fig.  2 ). The majority (~98%) of relevant published assessments of the status of Antarctic benthos concentrate on macrofauna and megafauna; therefore, the trends discussed are unlikely to be representative of meiofauna or the benthic microbial community 19 , 20 .

Box 1 The drivers of benthic change in Antarctica

Since the 1950s, the Antarctic Peninsula has experienced some of the largest increases in seawater and air temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere 10 , with ocean temperatures rising by 0.1–0.3 °C per decade 252 . This warming has contributed the loss of floating ice shelves 54 and sea-ice reduction along the Peninsula. Additionally, fast-ice in the region has declined since the mid-1980s 72 , and 90% of marine terminating glaciers are in retreat 253 . In contrast, temperatures in areas of East Antarctica have decreased, and glaciers, ice shelves and sea ice have remained comparatively stable 232 . However, circumpolar-scale glaciological changes have been caused by circumpolar record lows in sea ice and reductions in ice-shelf mass since 1997 184 , 254 .

These climate changes are primarily driven by CO 2 emissions and the thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica 10 , which subsequently influence Antarctic benthos (see the table). For example, the greenhouse effect of CO 2 emissions directly increases air and ocean temperatures and drives ocean acidification. The combined effect of CO 2 emissions and ozone depletion has an impact on benthos by reducing sea-ice and ice-shelf area and driving glacial retreat. The intensity and nature of the impact of these drivers depend on location, bathymetry, seasonality and local geography and oceanography. Additionally, these drivers do not occur in isolation and can have synergistic or antagonistic interactions. For example, although increased turbidity and iceberg scour negatively affect biodiversity, biomass and functional diversity 71 , reduced sea-ice cover can also increase light and reduce shallow-water scouring, positively affecting biodiversity, biomass and functional diversity in the shallow subtidal 73 .

Antarctic benthos also face direct pressures from human presence and activities and the introduction of non-indigenous species 11 , 12 , 98 . Human presence (scientific, commercial and tourism) is highly seasonal and mostly concentrated around the northern Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands 11 . Fishing south of 60° S is currently highly regulated and restricted temporally, regionally and by depth 11 . The ecological impacts of locally sourced pollutants (for example sewage, plastics, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and persistent organic pollutants) are, in some cases, immediate and severe, or can be unknown 255 . However, in most cases their impacts are restricted to within a short distance of the site of contamination (for example a sewage outfall or dump site) 12 , 256 , 257 , 258 . Although these local impacts are important, they can be managed and mitigated against 11 , whereas global environmental change represents a greater and longer-term ecological threat 101 .

Benthic ecological change

Antarctic benthic communities have a unique structure and function and respond to change in various ways. This section introduces the key features of Antarctic benthic communities, the environmental factors that influence them and the extent of data availability about these changes.

Antarctic benthic communities

Antarctic benthic taxa and communities have evolved in relative oceanographic isolation since the separation of Antarctica from other continents around 30 million years ago 7 . The cold but highly productive waters of the Southern Ocean are thought to be home to 17,000 species 21 or more, including >9,000 invertebrates 1 (compared with ~8,000 known species from the Arctic 22 and 33,000 from Australia 23 ), most of which are endemic (>50%) 16 , 24 and benthic (~94%) 25 . Rates of endemism within the Southern Ocean benthos range from a maximum of 79% for gastropod molluscs to a minimum of 47% for cyclostome bryozoans 16 .

Massive tectonic, climatic and oceanographic changes, the onset of glaciation and formation of sea ice 26 , 27 have driven substantial in situ radiation of certain taxa 28 , 29 (for example sea spiders and molluscs) and the local extinction or exclusion of others 30 , 31 (crabs, lobsters and sharks). The resulting lack of durophagous predators (sharks and crabs) 30 , 32 , 33 has led to the dominance and diversification of invertebrate species without protective mechanisms against such predators, such as soft corals, sponges and crinoids, and taxa with unusually fragile hard shells 34 (for example bivalves, urchins, gastropods) as well as species that fill the vacant predatory niches (for example sea spiders, sea stars and nemertean worms) 35 . These Antarctic benthic invertebrates are generally believed to be slow growing and long lived 36 , with low metabolic rates 36 , and a high ratio of species with limited dispersal and brooders 37 . However, dynamism has been observed in some communities — for example the rapid growth of sponges with increased food availability 38 , 39 .

Extreme seasonal patterns in primary production leads to a high prevalence of benthos with flexible feeding strategies 40 , 41 , allowing them to focus on different food sources depending on availability. Additionally, these highly seasonal patterns of food availability lead to considerable accumulation of benthic biomass through suspension and deposit feeding 42 . This seasonality drives large pulses of organic matter to the seafloor, particularly under polynyas 43 , leading to the formation of foodbanks in the muddy sediments of the West Antarctic Peninsula, which can feed benthic organisms during the dark winter months 44 .

Environmental drivers

In Antarctica, the usual global benthic ecological drivers (depth, temperature, currents, substrate, nutrients and oxygen 45 ) are overprinted or augmented by the impact of the cryosphere (extreme cold, ice cover and scour 14 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ). The only comparable cryosphere-dominated benthic marine system is that of the Arctic 50 , 51 . These physical drivers still have an important role in determining the structure, function, biodiversity, biomass and abundance of benthic communities. For example, benthic biomass and abundance generally decrease with increasing depth because the availability of food decreases with increasing distance from the source of primary productivity 52 (Fig.  3 ). However, the influence of depth on the benthic community structure 53 differs between taxonomic groups 52 . Food availability also decreases with increasing distance from open water in habitats beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves (floating slabs of terrestrially derived ice that extend from glaciers and can be up to 1 km thick), which cover roughly a third of the continental shelf 54 and block out daylight, leading to reduced biomass and abundance 55 . Beneath these floating shelves, food is restricted to advected suspended organic particles (plankton, detritus and resuspended sediments) transported from beyond the ice-shelf front.

Simplified Antarctic benthic communities according to a spectrum of environmental drivers, not including synergistic effects. Biodiversity, community type and relative abundance are illustrated using a range of Antarctic benthic species. All drivers influence the composition, structure and function of benthic communities.

Other physical factors, such as substrate type (the physical makeup and structure of the seafloor), current velocity, dissolved oxygen and light availability, shape community composition but do not necessarily dictate biodiversity, biomass or abundance 56 , 57 , 58 (Fig.  3 ). Current velocity and substrate type 53 are often correlated to one another, and their combined effects determine the general life mode and feeding strategies of communities. Strong currents and hard substrata favour sessile suspension-feeding assemblages, whereas slow-moving water and soft substrates generally support infaunal and epifaunal deposit-feeding communities 56 , 59 (Fig.  3 ). Dissolved oxygen levels are substantially higher in the oceans around Antarctica (>320 µmol kg –1 at 50 m depth) than in other regions (<200 µmol kg –1 in equatorial regions at the same depth) owing to the low water temperature and local oceanographic processes 60 ; therefore, oxygen levels do not generally have a major role in structuring Antarctic benthic ecology, unlike in most parts of the global ocean.

In shallow water (<200 m), light availability, which is influenced by latitude and by sea-ice duration, cover and thickness, is critical in determining whether an ecosystem is macroalgal or animal dominated 61 . Increased light availability caused by a reduction in sea-ice cover, or a reduction in snow cover on top of sea ice, can greatly affect benthic ecosystem structure and function by increasing both benthic and pelagic primary production in the vicinity 57 , 62 . Increased daylight penetration of the water column creates a general shift towards more benthic and pelagic primary producers and changes the timing and duration of autotroph blooms 63 .

High levels of ice disturbance from icebergs, brash ice, sea ice and anchor ice can reduce the biodiversity, abundance and biomass of the overall community, especially of sessile and brooding taxa 64 (Fig.  3 ). Disturbed communities display varying rates and pathways for recovery depending on the level of disturbance, sources of recruitment and food availability 64 . Undisturbed communities can be highly diverse and dominated by habitat-forming sessile taxa (sponges, bryozoans, corals and other reef-forming taxa), with some long-lived individuals that display gigantism 65 . Shallow communities are highly affected by grounded ice and ice scour, but iceberg disturbance can also occur at depths of down to 600 m (ref. 66 ). The intertidal environment is heavily scoured by sea ice; thus, the diversity and abundance of intertidal communities increases at times of reduced sea ice 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 . At diveable depths (shallower than ~30 m), up to two-thirds of life can be wiped out by ice scour 71 , 72 ; however, intermediate disturbance by ice can increase overall diversity and ecosystem complexity by ensuring that various stages of succession are present at the same time, thus maximizing the number of available niches 73 . High iceberg scour rates can increase the prevalence of algal and early successional species 74 but reduce survivorship in long-lived, slow-growing species, potentially leading to a net loss in benthic biodiversity and biomass 64 . Additionally, observations in the Arctic suggest that iceberg scour could lead to the colonization of disturbed habitats by opportunistic and pioneer species 75 , and that it could take 13–24 years for benthic communities to recover 50 .

Regional variability in environmental drivers leads to differences in the characteristics of benthic environments in East and West Antarctica (Fig.  2 ). The Western Antarctic Peninsula shelf is ~1.5 °C warmer than most of the east owing to incursions of warm Circumpolar Deep Water from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. East Antarctic communities experience high levels of sea ice 1 and very cold water 5 , 14 , with the coldest seabed temperatures in the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea (~0 to –2 °C) 14 . Meanwhile, the West Antarctic Peninsula experiences earlier seasonal sea-ice melt than East Antarctica 76 and high rates of iceberg scour 77 . Communities from the West Antarctic Peninsula region generally show a lower percentage composition of Antarctic endemic species than in East Antarctica. This difference suggests that the West is a more favourable habitat for more cosmopolitan species 16 whereas the cold water temperatures of East Antarctica tend to select for specially adapted endemic Antarctic taxa 5 . However, at present there are no records of non-indigenous species having been successfully established anywhere in Antarctic waters 78 .

Availability of data

Antarctic shallow-water environments, encompassing the intertidal (0 m), subtidal (0–30 m) and shallow shelf (30–200 m), are relatively rare, owing to coastal ice cover covering potential habitats, isostatic depression from the weight of the ice sheets, and eroded and overdeepened coastal regions due to Antarctica’s glacial history. Although Antarctica contains over 10% of the global continental shelf area, only ~2% of its seafloor is shallower than 200 m (ref. 79 ). Nevertheless, these shallow-water environments have been better studied than deeper and open-water areas around Antarctica using various methodologies (especially the areas near the national research stations located around the coast 80 ) and so represent the majority of the available knowledge. Although subtidal communities within diveable depths 81 , and communities below ~200 m, are relatively well researched, there remains a lack of data for the intervening shallow shelf depths (30–200 m) where both diving and ship navigation are hazardous (Table 1 ). Additionally, the present intertidal zone, which is mainly concentrated in West Antarctica, has historically been largely ignored because it was assumed to be devoid of life 67 , 82 . These shallow habitats are affected, to varying degrees, by all the drivers affecting the region (Table 1 , Fig. 1 and Box 1 ).

The biodiversity of deep-sea habitats (>200 m deep) around Antarctica has been relatively well studied, especially the overdeepened shelf (normally around 500–700 m but can be >1,000 m in depth). However, knowledge of the physiology, behaviour and interactions of taxa decreases substantially with depth 1 , 80 (Table 1 ). The biodiversity of the continental slope has been better sampled than that of the abyssal and hadal zones, but very little is known about the ecology of any of these vast areas of seafloor. Although the deep shelf, slope and abyss are sheltered from impacts such as iceberg scour 47 , they are not beyond the reach of global drivers such as ocean acidification and warming 83 (Table 1 ).

Observed evidence of change

Owing to the challenging nature of Antarctic research, sustained observations of benthic change are limited in geographical, bathymetric and temporal scope. Most observations of ecological changes are performed in the West Antarctic Peninsula, which is home to the majority of national research stations 80 and to the US National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network 84 (Table  1 ). The West Antarctic Peninsula is the most rapidly changing region in Antarctica 72 , and new habitats are opening up owing to glacial retreat and the emergence of ice-free areas. These new frontiers are in a state of dynamic flux, and colonizers of these newly exposed habitats are affected by physical disturbance, salinity fluctuations and sediment input (Fig. 1 ). Sustained observations are generally rare for deeper regions and the less densely studied East Antarctic. The East Antarctic intertidal is virtually unknown, with only a handful of observations (mostly in the Ross Sea) because the area of ice-free coastline in this region is very small and is subject to extreme ice disturbance 82 . The Southern Ocean deep sea (>200 m) has been studied for biodiversity, but repeat observations to monitor change are very rare. However, the deep sea is affected by fewer drivers, and the pace of change is currently slower than in the shallows. This section outlines the existing observational evidence for benthic ecological change in each of these regions of Antarctica.

West Antarctica intertidal

The rapidly expanding intertidal habitat of the West Antarctic Peninsula is home to various benthic taxa, some of which are transient and others resident year-round 70 , 82 , 85 . Biodiversity and abundance are seasonally driven and are largest in the austral autumn when sea-ice presence and cover are lowest, demonstrating that these benthic communities respond quickly to favourable conditions 70 . The sparse intertidal communities of the Gerlache Strait, West Antarctic Peninsula, are highly disturbed by ice; however, these communities have multiple trophic levels and species with the potential to establish larger populations as conditions become less affected by ice 69 .

West Antarctica subtidal and shallow shelf

The shallow-water habitats (0–200 m) of the West Antarctic Peninsula represent the best observed benthic habitats in Antarctica and are highly affected by ice scour (Table  1 ). At sites with high ice scour, scavenger abundance and diversity increase with depth, whereas at low-scour sites scavenger abundance generally declines 86 . Ice disturbance can have a substantial impact on communities dominated by slow-growing and sessile organisms. This impact is demonstrated by the phase shift in Ryder Bay, West Antarctic Peninsula, that occurred in 2007 when a tipping point was reached following a rapid decline in fast-ice (sea ice that is ‘fastened’ to the coastline) cover (Fig.  4 ). This decline led to increased ice-scour frequency, resulting in decreased immobilized carbon, biodiversity and intraspecific competition in the shallows (0–50 m) 64 , 71 , 87 . Additionally, icebergs in Ryder Bay moderated biodiversity in the shallows, with benthic megafauna species richness peaking at depths of 50–60 m, which experienced intermediate rates of iceberg impact. A range of disturbance levels was required to maximize the observed biodiversity 73 by maintaining a range of habitat types (Fig.  3 ). The intermediate disturbance was sufficient to remove dominant fauna and create space for different stages of succession, allowing high benthic biodiversity to be maintained. The rate of recovery and recolonization following an iceberg scour event varies with depth and location 88 , 89 , but in Ryder Bay an apparent full recovery was evident within 10 years when the fast-ice extent increased to pre-disturbance levels 64 .

a , The number of fast-ice days per year observed 64 in Ryder Bay near the Rothera Research Station, West Antarctic Peninsula in the period around the 2007–2009 fast-ice crash (grey shaded region). b , As in a , but for the number of iceberg hits recorded per 25 m 2 region 64 . c , As in a , but for the number of days with chlorophyll concentrations >200 µg l −l (ref. 64 ). d , As in a , but for epifauna and megafauna mortality 64 . e , As in a , but for epifauna and megafauna diversity 64 . f , As in a , but for integrated immobilized benthic carbon at 0–50 m (ref. 25 ). g , As in a , but for integrated immobilized benthic carbon at 300–500 m (ref. 25 ). h , As in a , but for spatial competition 64 . Following the fast-ice crash, the mortality of shallow-water benthos increased, and the diversity, primary production, carbon storage and spatial competition decreased; however, most of these variables returned to their previous states within 10 years following the crash.

The coastal benthic habitats of the West Antarctic Peninsula are highly affected by their proximity to retreating glacier fronts. For example, the diversity of benthos in Marian Cove, King George Island, increases with distance from the glacier 90 , 91 . In Potter Cove, King George Island, the community structure shifted from an ascidian-dominated fauna to a mixed community (cnidarians, molluscs, sponges and echinoderms) 92 owing to increased sedimentation rates caused by the release of sediment at the retreating glacier grounding line. A newly exposed island in Potter Cove is experiencing high levels of sedimentation and is home to a complex, ascidian-dominated community with a very rapid colonization rate 93 . Furthermore, the macroalgal community of Potter Cove has expanded by ∼ 0.005–0.012 km 2 since 1990, increasing its blue carbon potential by ∼ 0.2–0.4 tC year –1 despite the turbidity and salinity fluxes 94 , 95 . Ongoing glacier retreat in Maxwell Bay, South Shetland Islands (Fig.  1 ), has led to the formation of a depauperate macroalgal community dominated by the opportunistic pioneer species Palmaria decipiens , a red algae capable of tolerating the high turbidity and cold temperatures close to the glacier front 96 . The low biodiversity observed in the deglaciated areas, compared with those not previously covered by the glacier in 1956, suggests that it could take over 60 years for a diverse macroalgal community to reach succession after glacial retreat 96 .

Non-indigenous, invasive (animals, plants or other organisms that are introduced by humans, either intentionally or accidentally, into places outside their natural range, negatively affecting native biodiversity, ecosystem services, or human economy and well-being) or range-expanding taxa could become established in the West Antarctic Peninsula if factors that currently prevent them doing so are reduced or removed 78 , 97 , 98 . Sea-ice scour removed kelp from the sub-Antarctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, and once the ice was gone the kelp was able to rapidly recolonize through long-distance rafting 99 , 100 , 101 . Such rafting has already transported the bryozoan Membranipora membranacea (a non-indigenous species with a track record for invasion) into the heart of Deception Island, one of the South Shetland Islands and the warmest benthic habitat in Antarctica 102 . The observation of mussels ( Mytilus cf. platensis ) in waters around the South Shetland Islands, although not established, serves as a warning that non-indigenous species are reaching Antarctica 101 , 103 . Twelve species of crabs and lobster can now be found south of 60° S and are restricted to Circumpolar Deep Water warmer than 0 °C (refs. 30 , 104 ). Warming temperatures might allow king crabs to expand their Antarctic range 30 , 104 to colonize the shallows, or true crabs such as Halicarcinus planatus to colonize from the sub-Antarctic 31 , 35 , 105 , 106 . Although none of the species in these examples has yet become established in Antarctica, they all have the ability to become habitat engineers by creating forests or reefs, or predating on existing habitat-forming taxa or species that have not evolved protection mechanisms against such invaders 6 .

The collapse or reduction of ice shelves can increase the primary productivity at the ocean surface, leading to tipping points and marked changes in the structure and function of seabed ecosystems 54 . For example, following the climate-induced collapse of the Larsen A and B ice shelves, the trophic structure shifted from an oligotrophic sub-ice-shelf system to a normal Antarctic shelf ecosystem 107 , 108 . Additionally, following the collapse of the ice shelf in the Prince Gustav Channel in 1995 (ref. 109 ), the channel is now home to diverse fauna including vulnerable marine ecosystem indicator taxa from a range of benthic habitats 110 . There are signs that the channel is still undergoing colonization following the ice-shelf collapse; for example, molluscs in the channel show low species richness, high abundance of motile planktotrophic and lecithotrophic taxa, an unusual dominance of Scaphopoda, and a biogeographical affinity with nearby shallow areas despite being up to 2,000 m deep 111 .

East Antarctica shallow subtidal

As in West Antarctica, many of the changes in shallow-water benthic communities observed in East Antarctica are centred around fluctuations in sea-ice cover. For example, increased light caused by sea-ice decline has led to shifts from animal-dominated to macroalgal-dominated systems 61 , suggesting that continued loss of sea ice could have major implications for shallow habitats around the continent (Table  1 ). Additionally, increased algal detrital material owing to increased light levels can increase the amount of sedimentary oxygen used by benthos and lead to tighter coupling between nitrification and denitrification 62 . Conversely, the grounding of a large iceberg in Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, prevented the breakout of seasonal sea ice due to katabatic winds, leading to a severe decline in macroalgae 112 ; the disruption of the primary production regime, which affected epifauna and infauna 112 ; and increased sponge settlement and growth 113 .

Seasonal changes in ice cover can also alter the trophic structure of shallow-water habitats by changing the quantity and types of primary producers (Table  1 ). For example, benthic food webs become simpler following sea-ice breakout, with decreased intraguild predation and increased vulnerability to biodiversity loss 57 . A reduction in sea ice duration or cover could affect benthic communities that take advantage of the seasonal release of sea ice algae through optimized foraging, leading to a simplification in food-web structure and function 57 . Under-ice increases in phytoplankton biomass have been observed, indicating that under-ice phytoplankton blooms could occur in Antarctica before the spring melt, but it is unclear how such blooms affect the benthos 114 .

Circumpolar deep sea

Most of what is known about habitat changes in deep-water benthos comes from measured and modelled physical changes to the environment and extrapolation of understanding of shallow-water ecology 5 , 46 , 83 . It is clear from the responses of shallow-water Antarctic benthos that not all species will exhibit the same response, with some taxa seeming to benefit and others facing increased stress 4 , 5 , 115 . Observations from the Weddell Sea shelf suggest that in deep water, iceberg scour can alter communities by decimating populations and removing sessile organisms for decades 116 , far longer than expected for the shallows 64 . However, deep-sea benthic communities are expected to be less affected by climate change and ocean warming than those in shallow habitats. For example, habitat differentiation observations indicate that the community type of deep-sea sponge communities is primarily influenced by substrate type and bathymetry, which are unlikely to change with climate change 117 , 118 . Additionally, crabs and lobsters are believed to be absent from areas colder than 0 °C, other than an observation of an unidentified squat lobster, probably Munidopsis , on the wreck of HMS Endurance in the Weddell Sea in 2022; therefore, most of the Antarctic shelf and deep sea is currently protected from durophagous predators 30 .

Experimental evidence for change

Environmental change is often too slow for ecological changes to occur over the timescales of short-term observations. Laboratory-based or in situ experiments are used to simplify and extrapolate the impacts of ongoing and future environmental change on benthic organisms and ecosystems. Model taxa, such as the sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri , the burrowing bivalve Laternula elliptica , the sea star Odontaster validus , the limpet Nacella concinna and the amphipod Gondogeneia antarctica , represent some of the best studied Antarctic benthic organisms 79 . These species are common in the shallow subtidal and can also be abundant at depths down to 250, 700, 900, 935 and 400 m, respectively, and have circumpolar or widespread Antarctic distributions. Exposing such model organisms or assemblages to projected environmental conditions (for example temperature, pH, turbidity and salinity), under controlled laboratory or field conditions, can elucidate potential future physiological and behavioural responses (Table  1 ), as discussed here.

Laboratory-based measurements have focused on the physiological response of a handful of shallow-water taxa to ocean warming. Exposure to the increased temperatures projected for 2100 has little impact on the adults of some species 119 but negatively affects others 120 , 121 , 122 . Additionally, larval growth and development rates are often increased by warming 123 , 124 . Little mortality or evidence of acclimation was observed in 30 individuals of  S. neumayeri  following long-term incubations at temperatures up to 5 °C for 22 weeks (ref. 119 ), and larval growth increased by 20–28% following a 2 °C increase in temperature above the average summer temperature of 1 °C (ref. 124 ), suggesting that this species will not be strongly affected by warming. Exposure to increased temperatures (–0.5 °C to +0.4 °C) in line with projections through to 2100 had a positive impact on the larval development of L. elliptica 123 collected from the Ross Sea, including reduced occurrences of abnormalities and accelerated development by up to 5 days. Adult L. elliptica collected from the West Antarctic Peninsula, where the average summer temperature is ~1 °C, survived a few days at 9–10 °C, but experienced 50% failure in essential biological activities at 2–3 °C, and a complete loss of function at 5 °C (refs. 120 , 121 ). Settlement, mortality and stress of larvae of the Antarctic deep-sea coral Flabellum impensum , collected from 600 m, were not negatively affected by temperatures predicted for 2100 (0.5–0.6 °C above present-day values of –0.4 °C ± 0.7 °C) 125 . Additionally, the warmer water substantially increased larval development rate compared with cooler conditions, with double the larval settlement rate at +4 °C compared with the control 125 . The impact of warming on the ability of invaders to survive in Antarctica is not well understood. However, the potentially invasive crab H. planatus has a 0% survival rate at temperatures below 1 °C after 59 days 106 , suggesting that increasing temperatures could allow this species, which is currently excluded from Antarctic waters, to become established in West Antarctica under future warming scenarios.

Field-based experiments are also emerging in Antarctica in which the benthic environment is manipulated to explore the impact of changing conditions. Increasing the sea temperature by 1 °C using heated panels increased the growth rate of colonizing taxa, such as the bryozoan Fenestrulina rugula and spirorbid worm Romanchella perrieri and led to an earlier start to the growth period 126 , which caused the community to become dominated by a pioneer species 4 . Such warming also increased the probability of individuals encountering spatial competition, as well as the density and complexity of such interactions 127 . Increasing sea temperatures by 2 °C produced divergent responses with high variability in responses at assemblage level and increased variance in the probability and density of competition 4 , 127 . Following 18 months of exposure to these increased temperatures, communities of encrusting organisms had not acclimated to temperature increases of 1 °C or 2 °C, and the increased temperatures led to higher cellular stress responses and a reduction in the upper lethal temperatures 128 . However, there was no substantial difference in the structure of the biofilm bacterial communities on the heated plates with increasing temperature 128 . Simulated ice disturbance at McMurdo Sound, East Antarctica, achieved by killing off the benthic fauna and altering the substrate properties of the seafloor, indicated that recruitment might be more important than immigration in determining infaunal community recovery 129 .

Since 2019 the numbers and intensities of heatwaves affecting Antarctica have increased 130 with consequences for marine ecosystems 131 . Simulating intertidal heatwave scenarios in laboratory experiments for various taxa (three fish species, an amphipod, an isopod and two species of urchin) with warming from 1 °C to 3 °C, over 10 and 20 days, revealed that echinoderms had higher upper thermal limits than the more mobile chordates and arthropods 132 . Thermal variation in the intertidal contributes to mortality rates, with the intertidal being exposed to both air and water temperature fluctuations and solar warming, leaving intertidal organisms vulnerable to future heatwaves 132 . The subtidal isopod Glyptonotus antarcticus 133 and the urchin S. neumayeri 134 lack the molecular phenotypic plasticity to cope with acute short-term heat stress. Despite trends being observed in individual taxa, it is not possible to identify a single unified response to acute warming across taxa, making it difficult to predict the ecosystem-level response to heatwaves 79 , 135 .

Interannual and geographical variation in habitats around Antarctica can influence population responses to acute thermal stress. For example, both L. elliptica and O. validus collected from Marguerite Bay and McMurdo Sound both demonstrated higher performance at Marguerite Bay, where seawater temperatures can reach +1.8 °C in summer, than at McMurdo Sound, where temperatures generally remain below 0 °C (ref. 136 ). The thermal tolerances of both species varied with seasonal changes in the ambient temperature, with higher lethal temperatures in summer than in winter. Additionally, there was higher interannual variability in the thermal limit of L. elliptica than that of O. validus , which is likely to be related to other ecological factors such as variation in food availability 136 .

Further research is needed to determine acclimation potential, including longer-duration experiments; however, existing studies indicate that some species are capable of long-term survival at temperatures warmer than their natural habitat. Of the 11 species of marine ectotherms collected from Marguerite Bay and McMurdo Sound during 2004–2015 that were tested, four species ( Urticinopsis antarcticus , Heterocucumis steineni , O. validus and S. neumayeri ) survived for over 245 days at temperatures of up to 10 °C (ref. 137 ). Additionally, L. elliptica of different ages were found in intertidal sediments on James Ross Island, where ambient sediment and air temperatures were 7.5 °C and 10 °C, respectively, suggesting that even well studied model taxa can display natural tolerances and adaptation beyond what has been found in the laboratory 85 .

Most tests of the oxygen requirements of Antarctic benthic organisms involve short-term experiments (days to weeks) in which organisms respond to physiological challenges alongside increased temperatures 138 . For example, the giant pycnogonid Colossendeis megalonyx maintains performance at increased temperatures by increasing cuticle porosity to increase the diffusion of oxygen 139 . Long-term survival responses to hyperoxia at elevated temperatures varies between species with both positive and negative responses being observed 137 .

Acidification

The Southern Ocean is expected to be severely affected by ocean acidification due to its low levels of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ), low temperatures, and a lower buffering capacity, causing predictions of the partial pressure of CO 2 ( p CO 2 ) to approach 560 ppmv by the middle of the century 140 . Ocean acidification invokes a range of biological responses, including changes in the state of the shell or skeleton, reproductive capacity, development, growth rate 140 , 141 , 142 or behaviour 143 . This response largely depends on the mineralogical composition of the species, with the first impacts likely to be seen in species that use more soluble CaCO 3 mineral phases such as aragonite and high-magnesium calcite. Early life stages of Antarctic invertebrate species are generally more vulnerable to ocean acidification than later life stages 38 . However, adult brachiopods 144 can increase their shell thickness in low pH conditions to reduce their vulnerability to acidification. An assemblage of grazers on a Desmarestia menziesii (brown macroalga) was resilient to exposure to projected near-future conditions in terms of faunal composition; however, the abundance of some taxa was affected 145 .

Manipulation experiments can be used to explore the impact of acidification on benthic communities. Following a 1-month exposure to pH levels projected for the middle and end of this century, the reproductive capability of S. neumayeri and the scallop Adamussium colbecki decreased 142 , whereas the reproductive capability of the sea star O. validus 142 did not. Additionally, exposure to reduced pH negatively affected the growth of larvae (overall size, arm length and symmetry) for S. neumayeri 124 and slowed the development of larval calcifying stages of L. elliptica 123 . This exposure also affected the larval shell quality and integrity 146 of L. elliptica ; however, the impacts varied with larval stage. The physiological responses of adult L. elliptica , including oxygen consumption rates and heat shock protein gene expression levels, were also negatively affected by exposure to moderately reduced pH (mid-century projections) lasting weeks to months, although survival was not affected 141 . When considering the implications of these findings, it is important to account for the short nature of most manipulative experiments. For example, long-duration ocean acidification experiments have indicated that some species have potential for compensatory responses, such as shell repair and enhanced reproductive outcomes 147 , 148 , 149 . Regardless, the effects of acidification are species dependent, with some species affected more than others and some only able to withstand near-future acidification levels, not the further reductions in pH projected for the end of the century 79 , 150 , 151 , 152 .

Combined effects

Outside of the laboratory, these drivers rarely work in isolation, and there are often synergistic interactions between drivers. Combining two or more drivers can lead to increased impacts in some taxa 122 , 123 , 124 , 153 , 154 or exhibit no obvious interactions in others 143 . Simultaneous exposure to reduced pH and increased temperature conditions projected for 2100 and beyond reduced larval growth in S. neumayeri at all temperatures, whereas warming alone boosted larval growth 124 . Additionally, the interactive effects of projected future temperatures and pH negatively affected the fertilization and early development of S. neumayeri 154 . Although fertilization in L. elliptica was unaffected by exposure to such conditions 123 , the larval shell quality and integrity was reduced 123 , 146 .

Acidification and reductions in ocean salinity (freshening) have different impacts across various taxa. Glacial melt reduces the pH of seawater through the addition of freshwater and reduces the salinity, leading to a decreased aragonite saturation state. Exposure to reduced pH and reduced salinity both reduced shell formation and enhanced shell dissolution in N. concinna 153 , with a combination of both factors having the most substantial negative impact. The isopod Paraserolis polita was negatively affected by increased temperatures and reduced salinity with synergistic interactions between the two drivers; therefore, projected future warming and freshening is likely to severely affect this species 122 . Conversely, acidification increased the mortality and decreased the food detection abilities of the amphipod Gondoeneia antarctica , and freshening decreased mortality and increased cannibalism and risky daytime swimming, and although both treatments decreased the sheltering behaviour of this species, there seemed to be no interactions between the impacts of low salinity and low pH conditions 142 .

Novel taxa and predation

For simplicity, most experiments assume that food availability, competition and predation will remain the same, but the arrival and establishment of marine non-indigenous species could affect existing fauna. For example, Antarctic shelled benthos such as the Antarctic limpet N. concinna would be vulnerable to the introduction of shell-crushing predators, such as the king crab Lithodes santolla , because they have limited abilities to adequately thicken or harden their shells in defence 155 . Some Antarctic species have evolved chemical defences against potential Antarctic predators 156 . However, the chemical defences of 29 Antarctic species from seven phyla (Porifera, Cnidaria, Annelida, Nemertea, Bryozoa, Echinodermata and Chordata) are insufficient to defend against a non-indigenous hermit crab, Dardanus arrosor 6 . Generally, the resilience of extant fauna to non-indigenous species is unclear.

Modelled and predicted change

The geographical scale of physical environmental change dwarfs the ability to measure change in the Antarctic benthos. Thus, computer models and expert inferences are used to extrapolate ongoing and future ecological change across regional or oceanic scales 157 for future climate scenarios from observations or experimentally derived data. The spatial extent of these predictions depends on the resolution of the environmental and biological data used. Additionally, the species-specific nature of many responses introduces a degree of uncertainty to such models. These methods can help to fill the well documented spatial, bathymetric and seasonal gaps in knowledge and sampling around Antarctica 80 . There are some regions for which specific models and predictions are sparse or impossible owing to a lack of available data; for example, the intertidal and subtidal of East Antarctica and the entire deep sea are only included in circumpolar predictive studies that cover multiple depths. The insight from such models about the extent of changes in benthic communities across Antarctica is discussed here.

West Antarctica intertidal, subtidal and shallow shelf

Iceberg scour currently has major impacts on the West Antarctic Peninsula shelf ecology and is expected to increase throughout the twenty-first century as glaciers and ice shelves retreat and sea-ice extent and duration continue to reduce 158 . Iceberg scour is expected to reduce species richness in the nearshore environment (10–30 m), but the effects at deeper depths are less certain because the influences of factors such as food availability and deep scouring 73 are unclear, owing to a sparsity of research (Table  1 ). Beyond 2100, continued glacial retreat is expected to reduce iceberg production, leading to a decline in iceberg scour and consequently reduced intermediate disturbance, potentially lowering biodiversity 73 . The ecological effects of reduction in ice are a likely increase in macroalgae and a new community structure with different diversity, dominated by sessile taxa that were previously excluded or reduced by ice scour, such as sponges 73 (Fig.  5 ).

a , The proportion of the year that the surface of the ocean directly above the seafloor is covered in sea ice at the present day 1 (2020) for subtidal (0–30 m), shallow shelf (30–200 m) and deep-sea (>200 m) regions between East and West Antarctica. b , As in a , but projected for 2100 (ref. 251 ). c , As in a , but for present seafloor temperature 14 . d , As in c , but projected for 2100 (ref. 5 ). e , Predicted area of ice-free coastline in 2100 (ref. 159 ). f , Observed ecological impacts along a gradient of ongoing environmental change based on a and c (Table  1 ). g , As in f , but projections for 2100 under the changes in b , d and e based on present understanding of benthic ecosystems at different depths (Table  1 ). Although most observed impacts are concentrated in the shallowest communities in the northwest of the Antarctic Peninsula, future climate scenarios suggest that by 2100 all locations and depths will be affected by multiple factors.

Future changes in sea ice are likely to lead to increased iceberg scour, reduced abundance of sea-ice algae, and increased light availability in the photic zone. The duration of seasonal sea ice is projected to decrease, which could reduce sea-ice-associated algal production, owing to a loss of habitat, and negatively affect the initiation and timing of the spring bloom in the marginal ice zone by shifting the onset of melting to before daylight levels are optimal 63 . Additionally, ice-free areas in terrestrial Antarctica are projected to expand by over 17,000 km 2 (25%) by the end of the century under the strongest forcing scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 159 . Over 85% of this newly exposed habitat is predicted to be on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula 159 and could offer new habitats for intertidal and shallow subtidal communities (Fig.  5 , Table  1 ).

Sediment load is predicted to increase in areas of glacial retreat, which will also affect future ecosystems. Models of Potter Cove have identified sedimentation as a major driver of shallow-water glacial ecosystems and indicate that sedimentation has a larger impact on benthic populations than iceberg scour 160 . Thus, future changes in sedimentation will have important consequences for benthic communities in West Antarctica. For example, future increases in meltwater rates in Potter Cove are predicted to increase suspended particulate matter by 25%, causing a ~40% decrease in macroalgae production 161 .

Climate models and expert predictions indicate that the West Antarctic Peninsula is the most likely part of Antarctica to be colonized by non-indigenous marine species 78 . The list of highest-risk non-indigenous species likely to affect the Antarctic Peninsula ecosystem 78 compiled from these predictions is dominated by marine invertebrates. Three of the high-risk species were mussels ( Mytilus bivalves), owing to their proven ability to colonize and dominate ecosystems and their known presence in the region 103 . The sub-Antarctic crab H. planatus was once again identified as a potential risk 106 .

East Antarctica shallow shelf

The loss of large volumes of floating ice, such as ice shelves and tongues, can greatly alter the physical and biological properties of a habitat. The increase in local primary production and stronger tidal currents following the calving of the Mertz Glacier Tongue in 2010 is modelled to have increased food availability with a 20-fold to 50-fold increase in particle flux, increasing suspension feeder abundances by 20–40% near to the glacier calving site 162 . Qualitative network and species distribution models predict that in deep benthic ecosystems the increased sediment load caused by such increases in primary production would negatively affect filter feeders because surface-derived food was already at saturating levels 163 .

Circum-Antarctic at multiple depths

Many oceanographic and climate-based models rely on global or Southern Ocean scale datasets and can therefore be used to extrapolate trends across a wider geographical and bathymetric scale than can be achieved using observed or experimental data alone. A circumpolar risk assessment approach used to rank the likely resilience of many taxa to multiple stressors, predicts that more species (15 of the 23 invertebrate species considered) will benefit from predicted change (especially predators and deposit feeders) than will be negatively impacted (four species) 115 .

Circumpolar warming is projected to occur across the Antarctic shelves (water depth <1,000 m), particularly in the West Antarctic Peninsula and parts of the Ross and Weddell seas 5 . More generally, the temperature of benthic waters south of the Polar Front is expected to increase by an average of 0.4 ± 0.3 °C with a maximum mean projected local increase of 2.15 °C. Comparing the known thermal range of almost 1,000 benthic species to seafloor temperatures predicted for 2099 under the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission scenario suggests that increasing temperatures alone will not cause wholesale extinctions or the establishment of non-indigenous taxa in Antarctic benthos 5 . However, the reduced availability of seafloor habitats with suitable temperatures is expected to reduce the distribution range of 79% of Antarctic endemic cold-water-restricted species by 2099 5 . Additionally, 53.5% of species with thermal and geographic ranges that cross the Polar Front are projected to lose potential habitat area and 46.5% are projected to gain habitat 5 . Laternula elliptica populations are projected to decline to 25% of their starting density by 2074, owing to reductions in their reproductive potential caused by relatively small changes in temperature and pH (an increase in pH from 7.99 in 2009 to 7.88 for 2100) 164 .

Species distribution models informed by present-day distributions or physiological data can predict future species distributions under different climate scenarios (Fig.  5 ). Based on present-day ranges and hotspots in range limits, hotspots of northern range limits (the most northerly distribution of a species) of Southern Ocean bivalves, gastropods, amphipods, ophiuroids and hexacorals were projected to remain north of 60° S, and the ranges of endemic species are likely to contract towards the continent 165 . The southward range shift of the Antarctic shrimp Nematocarcinus lanceopes 166 can be tracked using a model based on past, present and future climate data. Following the Last Glacial Maximum (~10,000 years ago), N. lanceopes colonized Antarctica from the sub-Antarctic, and predicted future warming is expected to expand their distribution around East Antarctica but cause a southward contraction in West Antarctica 166 . A similar approach predicts that benthic warming will increase the range of cold-water corals around the Peninsula and Weddell Sea by 6% by 2037 and 10% by 2150, compared with present-day extent 166 .

Similar models predict mixed futures for potential invasive species in Antarctica. The crab H. planatus has a minimum thermal limit of 1 °C, restricting its current distribution to the sub-Antarctic, but warming projections suggest that the Antarctic Peninsula could be habitable for H. planatus by 2100 (ref. 106 ). Conversely, Antarctica is predicted to remain uninhabitable for the globally invasive crab Carcinus maenas despite twenty-first-century warming 167 . The sea star Asterias amurensis , which has an adult thermal range of 0–22.5 °C, is currently normally distributed across the North Pacific including the Arctic and has already become an established invasive in southern Australia 168 . Future increases in sea temperatures could greatly reduce its range in southern Australia but could allow it to become established in Antarctica 168 . Thus, such findings highlight the importance of the continued prohibition of risky activities such as discharging ballast water in Antarctica to reduce the chance of introducing non-indigenous species 169 .

Implications of change

Antarctic communities have evolved their unique composition over millions of years and are now threatened by the fast pace of anthropogenic change. Although the species composition was altered by the last major global extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period 170 , Antarctic benthic communities eventually recovered after 1 million years 29 . The timing of the evolution of the unique modern Southern Ocean benthic community structure is debatable and is thought to be between around 41 million years 26 , 171 , 172 and 5 million years ago 30 . These communities arose gradually from long-term evolutionary processes in response to environmental change. Since the onset of anthropogenic climate change, the rate of changes of benthic ecosystems in response to environmental changes has become more rapid, altering benthic communities on ecological rather than evolutionary timescales.

Ecological changes observed in the field are always the result of the net response to all drivers within the system, including unknown drivers or those that there is no way of measuring. The degree and nature of the overall ecological change depends on the original conditions and community present as well as the intensity, speed and persistence of the change and the combination of drivers 8 (Table  1 , and Figs.  4 and 5 ). An important and largely unanswered question is what the cumulative effects of these different drivers and ecological responses currently are and will be in the future 46 , 115 , 173 . Shallow-water coastal ecosystems are exposed to drivers that could increase biodiversity and/or biomass (such as warming, newly exposed habitats, reduced sea-ice scour and increased food availability 4 , 62 , 82 , 174 ) or decrease it (such as increased turbidity, freshening, acidification, warming, increased light, and iceberg scour 4 , 61 , 77 , 140 , 175 , 176 ). The combination of such drivers could cause these ecosystems to pass tipping points that fundamentally alter the function, dominant taxa, productivity, stability and traits 61 .

Although the responses of individual taxa to changing environmental conditions vary, the fates of certain key taxa could have ecosystem-wide consequences. Species that are likely to benefit from future warming include those that are currently at the southernmost extremes of a wider geographical range and could expand southward at the expense of their cold-specialist neighbours 4 , 5 . For example, if a voracious durophagous predator, capable of surviving and reproducing on the Antarctic shelf, were to be introduced, some of the continent’s endemic fauna would have little defence 6 , 35 . Additionally, the modelled decline or removal of habitat-forming taxa, such as sponges from the South Orkney shelf ecosystem, by drivers such as climate change, disease, predators or fishing, is projected to reduce the abundance of all major associated taxa by an average of 42% (ref. 177 ). Many species are vulnerable to change because they rely on a specific food supply 46 , whereas others display trophic plasticity or omnivory, enabling them to diversify their feeding to take advantage of predominant food sources 41 and thus reduce their susceptibility to variability and change 178 , 179 , 180 , 181 , 182 .

Summary and future perspectives

The benthos around Antarctica already faces pressures from global and local drivers of rapid environmental change 10 , 11 and the increasing occurrence of extreme events 183 (Table  1 and Fig.  5 ). Since 2016, lows in Antarctic sea-ice extent have been observed that have not been seen since satellite records began 184 , 185 . Coupled with widespread and record-breaking heatwaves 186 , these lows in ice extent could indicate that ecological impacts and tipping points will soon be felt in parts of Antarctica that were previously buffered from climate change. Observational and experimental evidence indicates that although these physical changes are detrimental to many species and traits, others will benefit. Shallow-water ecosystems will continue to face regime shifts, exposure of new habitats, high levels of ice scour, ocean warming, changes to water chemistry and quality, altered food availability and the potential introduction of non-indigenous species. Coastal ecosystems will face additional stressors owing to their proximity to the concurrently warming and changing land. Meanwhile, the deep sea remains a source of uncertainty, and further work is needed to understand changes in these regions. Approaches to increase the extent of observational and experimental evidence of benthic ecological change are outlined here.

The isolated and extreme nature of Antarctica and the high cost of conducting research in the Southern Ocean limit knowledge of the extent and pace of ecological change around the continent. Routine biodiversity monitoring is rare, and the area of seafloor and intertidal regularly and repeatedly surveyed in detail accounts for considerably less than 1% of Antarctica. Filling geographical and bathymetric gaps in knowledge (Table  1 ) will require collaborative multinational research projects spanning various locations, representing the range of present and future environmental conditions and ecosystems 58 , 59 . There is also a need for a cultural shift to encourage data sharing and the use of consistent protocols across the scientific community 187 , 188 as outlined in the Antarctic Treaty, which requires that “Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available” 189 .

There is currently a lack of knowledge of a representative selection of Antarctic taxa, covering a range of traits and habitats (Table  1 ). A coordinated species monitoring system and rapid species identification tools are needed to identify and track range expansions or shifts in the benthos 19 . Less than 1% of Antarctic benthic species have been resolved with nuclear and mitochondrial genetic markers and morphology 25 . Thus, a comprehensive effort to resolve the taxonomy of the most ecologically important taxa is needed. Additionally, physiological, ecological and behavioural data are required for the same species; currently, these are missing for all but the most common and easily collected species, making it difficult to predict future impacts beyond the shallows or the impacts on wider communities. Experiments with multiple drivers and species are needed to measure these physiological responses 190 ; however, such experiments are currently rare (Table  1 ).

Despite the growing consideration of benthos in carbon sequestration, the role of benthopelagic coupling (the link between Southern Ocean planktonic primary production and the benthos) remains unclear 71 (Table  1 ). For example, it is not known how changes in the abundance and distribution of planktonic organisms that contribute to the transport of nutrients to and from the benthos, such as diatoms and krill, will affect the structure and function of benthic ecosystems. Likewise, benthic communities on the West Antarctic Peninsula are likely to be affected by changes to plankton-derived benthic foodbanks in the sediment caused by warming and the ongoing reduction in sea-ice cover. Long-term measurements of interannual variability in the flux of plankton and detritus and regional differences in the duration of sea-ice cover are needed to characterize impacts of changing pelagic primary production on benthic ecosystem structure and function.

Technological advances can transform monitoring capabilities for the global ocean, including the Antarctic seafloor. Satellite data can be used to effectively monitor environmental conditions offshore and in the shallows but provide limited insight on coastal, deep and ice-covered areas 191 . Non-invasive and sustainable autonomous monitoring technology, such as camera systems and moorings, can reveal seasonal and interannual changes for most depths or locations 192 , 193 . Additionally, remotely operated vehicles can explore new areas and gather and analyse information on species and habitat associations in new ways (for example using 3D orthomosaics and structure from motion techniques 194 ). Video and imaging technologies are already generating vast libraries of seafloor data 195 . Combining these systems with autonomous underwater vehicles or benthic monitoring platforms, also equipped with a suite of environmental sensors, would enable detailed surveys over large geographical areas and in places that humans cannot safely reach 192 , 196 . These new technologies will bring increased volumes of data and challenges in how to process and interpret it effectively and efficiently. Advances in artificial intelligence can reduce the need for human analysis to identify taxa from photographs 197 . Additionally, environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques can analyse water, sediment and faunal samples to rapidly characterize nearby communities 198 , 199 .

The role and responses of taxa depend on their interactions with other species, and these impacts can cascade through entire ecosystems 177 . Future distributions of taxa or communities are often calculated based on upper and lower limits of observed organism responses to isolated drivers such as observed or experimental temperature envelopes 5 , 167 . However, such measurements do not account for ecological interactions that might exacerbate or negate the impact of temperature change (such as disease and parasites, predator–prey interactions, food availability, habitat structure, connectivity, other drivers, pollution or commercial exploitation). Confidence bounds should be applied around projected ecological implications of organism responses, reflecting the level and sources of knowledge from observations and experiments, to avoid catastrophizing or downplaying potential impacts.

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Acknowledgements

H.J.G. and R.J.W. are funded by UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship MR/W01002X/1 ‘The past, present and future of unique cold-water benthic (sea floor) ecosystems in the Southern Ocean’. H.J.G. is also funded by BIOPOLE under the Natural Environment Research Council National Capability Science Multi-Centre award scheme (NC-SM2). V.J.C. is funded by the New Zealand Government’s Strategic Science Investment Fund (SSIF) to the National Institute for Water & Atmospheric Research Coasts and Estuaries Centre (CEME2402). A.V.deP. is funded by Belgian Science Policy (belspo) projects ADVANCE (RT/23/ADVANCE) and SO-BOMP (Prf-2019005_SO-BOMP). This paper contributes to the Marine Ecosystem Assessment of the Southern Ocean (MEASO), the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Scientific Research Programme Integrated Science to Inform Antarctic and Southern Ocean Conservation (Ant-ICON), the Antarctic Nearshore and Terrestrial Observation Systems (ANTOS) and the NZ Antarctic Science Platform (MBIE ANTA1801). The authors thank A. Constable for his input and improvements to the manuscript.

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16 tech projects from 2023 that could change the world

From phytoplankton-based carbon capture to 3D reconstruction scanners, scientists are working on cutting-edge technologies they believe can reshape humanity for the better.

Challenges like climate change and dwindling natural resources and can make the future seem uncertain and even scary. But our fate isn't sealed so long as scientists around the world have a say. They're busy dreaming up technologies, from the practical to the zany, that could make the future a little brighter. 

Prototypes for Humanity , a Dubai-based organization that runs a contest to spur innovation, has highlighted 100 projects in 2023 that they believe could change the world — from electrical skin to devices that predict air pollution without any air sensors. Here are some of our favorites.

Real-time monitoring to predict natural disasters

NatCat aims to use satellite imagery, remote sensing and machine learning to assess the risk of natural hazards in different locations, which could help to reduce the risk of harm for those living there. The tool generates risk assessments for any location in the world, regardless of the availability of local data. It can also use climate change data to project the frequency and intensity of some natural hazards in the future.  

Converting air humidity to electricity 

This project, called Electric Skin, creates a self-powering biomaterial for electronic devices that harnesses the electrically conductive properties of the mud-dwelling bacteria known as Geobacter sulfurrenducens . Specifically, the bacteria's protein nanowires can generate electricity from the air's ambient humidity. The scientists have extracted the bacteria's DNA and embedded this into E. coli for production. To create the power source, the team placed the nanowires harvested from E. coli into compostable biomaterials to create a flexible and textured membrane that can power electronic devices from the air and water.  

Recycled tiles that regulate heat and humidity

Spurred by the excessive production of non-recyclable plastics alongside the effects of climate change in south India, Wastly Roof Tiles aims to replace conventional roof tiles with tiles made of a recycled material that can reduce indoor temperatures. 

These tiles, which are created by shredding and melting multi-layered plastics, are lightweight and waterproof and can reflect heat. This project is inspired by the cryosphere — icy parts of Earth that regulate the planet's temperature — and the finished product incorporates a blend of the blue and white that many might associate with these regions. 

Phytoplankton-based carbon capture

Phytoplankton transfers 40% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the ocean using photosynthesis . With PhytoMat, scientists now want to harness this natural process on an industrial scale. 

PhytoMat is a flexible, carpet-like technology that is installed horizontally and vertically on surfaces and contains recycled materials embedded with live phytoplankton. As they grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from their surroundings and convert that into biomass — organic material that can be repurposed — before it's harvested and delivered to recycling plants. This material can then be transformed into new products, like bioplastics.

Electricity-free medical injection in disaster recovery

Using only air pressure and the elasticity of balloons, Golden Capsule is a device that can administer intravenous drugs without the need for another human to hold a medicinal pack. 

This project stands apart from other devices because no electricity is needed — making it ideal for use in disaster recovery scenarios. Golden Capsule uses elastic force and air pressure differences to deliver medicine, rather than gravity, which is used in other non-powered or low-powered systems. 

The biodegradable polystyrene replacement 

Carbon Cell is a biodegradable expanding foam made from biochar — a secret combination of biological ingredients derived from food waste — that's mixed and expanded using a patented manufacturing process. 

The process is similar to injection molding and enables many different shapes and sizes to be formed quickly when, say, packaging items. The scientists behind this technology ultimately want to replace polystyrene, which they said is toxic and harmful to the environment.

A graphics card that can slash AI's carbon emissions 

Generative AI models need to be trained in massive data centers, normally using the power of specialized graphics cards (GPUs). This means generative AI has a huge carbon footprint. But Tasawwur D310 is a GPU that its creators say is vastly more energy efficient than today's leading GPUs. The chip is super dense — with electronic components fitted much closer together and stacked on 10 layers (versus two layers in one of the leading competitors, Nvidia's, chips) — meaning data is exchanged much faster, saving energy and speeding up the training process.

Programmable soft robotics

FlowIO Platform claims to be the world's first general-purpose way to make prototypes of soft robotic parts. This tiny device includes integrated pumps and batteries, and it features five programmable ports, which users can manipulate through a web browser via a Bluetooth connection. Each port can inflate, vacuum, release, hold, sense pressure and alter flow rates. This device also features onboard batteries and 10 different sensors. Its creators say it'll enable robotics experts to bring their ideas from conception to reality much faster than before.

Mixed-reality building inspection with drones

FlyVision combines mixed reality with drone flight to help drone users inspect buildings and other spaces more effectively. Using Microsoft's HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) headset, the system gives drone pilots the tools to scan immediate surroundings and create a 3D digital twin within the system. They could then plan a path inside the space and use the planned path to guide a drone through its environment. 

AI-augmented renewable energy

This software platform, called "Renescout", uses data mining, remote sensing and AI to better assess whether renewable energy projects are worth pursuing — a process that normally takes 18 months. "Go" or "no" decisions can effectively be made without investing additional time and resources into exploring the viability of unearthing prospective renewable energy sources, the company claims.

Detecting microplastics with high-tech imagery

SPLASH is a system that uses an advanced form of imaging to detect microplastics in water and the air. The imaging, called intelligent polarization holographic probing, works using light-based scanning and 3D modeling to establish the presence of microplastics that can't be seen by the naked eye. 

Sustainable solid-state batteries

These batteries are made from copper, aluminum and a sodium-based solid-state electrolyte. These novel materials work as both current collectors and electrodes. The battery's coaxial architecture and beam-like structure enable it to retain energy while reducing wasted space and material. The makers of the batteries, dubbed Ferroelectric Electrolyte Batteries, say they are non-flammable and sustainable alternatives to today's lithium-ion batteries. The researchers imagine they could serve in a variety of uses in the automotive and aerospace industries.

AI feedback to improve surgery outcomes

This AI system, called Surgical AI Trainer, assesses the performance of surgeons and offers feedback on how they can improve their technique. When looking at video recordings of procedures, the system analyzes various components of the operation, such as the intricate movements the surgeon performs. It offers precise and quantified feedback — citing particular segments of the video alongside a rationale for picking it out — on how a surgeon performs in the operating theater. This reduces the need for subjective feedback from an expert peer, which can be laborious. 

3D scanning with advanced laser-based radar 

The MindPalace-360 is a machine that uses advanced algorithms and 3D reconstruction tools to generate a photorealistic digital render of a real-world environment. Built primarily for those in architecture, construction or engineering, this system essentially creates digital twins that are incredibly close to the real thing. It lets users capture, process and visualize spatial data much more accurately, which feeds into better design and planning.

Extending lithium-ion battery life

Lithium-ion batteries in products like laptops or even electric cars tend to have charge limits to extend the batteries' longevity. But many e-mobility systems, like e-scooters, lack these controls, which could lead to more e-waste generation as batteries degrade quickly and need to be thrown out much sooner than they should have been. BetterE implements charge limits on the AC side of a charger for electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries. For drivers, this would reduce the operating costs of their electric vehicles while also reducing e-waste on a broader level.

Real-time air pollution monitoring

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Data2Action uses AI algorithms to monitor air pollution in real time — even if the area has no air sensors. The system takes monitoring data from areas that have sensors installed, and then uses this to extrapolate information and determine predicted air pollution readings in places that don't have sensors installed. The machine learning models also predict potential health outcomes based on air pollution exposure levels, its makers say. 

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Keumars is the technology editor at Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including ITPro, The Week Digital, ComputerActive, The Independent, The Observer, Metro and TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist and has a degree in biomedical sciences from Queen Mary, University of London. He's also registered as a foundational chartered manager with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), having qualified as a Level 3 Team leader with distinction in 2023.

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72 Easy Science Experiments Using Materials You Already Have On Hand

Because science doesn’t have to be complicated.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to get your students excited, it’s a good science experiment! While some experiments require expensive lab equipment or dangerous chemicals, there are plenty of cool projects you can do with regular household items. We’ve rounded up a big collection of easy science experiments that anybody can try, and kids are going to love them!

Easy Chemistry Science Experiments

Easy physics science experiments, easy biology and environmental science experiments, easy engineering experiments and stem challenges.

1. Taste the Rainbow

Teach your students about diffusion while creating a beautiful and tasty rainbow! Tip: Have extra Skittles on hand so your class can eat a few!

Learn more: Skittles Diffusion

2. Crystallize sweet treats

Crystal science experiments teach kids about supersaturated solutions. This one is easy to do at home, and the results are absolutely delicious!

Learn more: Candy Crystals

3. Make a volcano erupt

This classic experiment demonstrates a chemical reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid), which produces carbon dioxide gas, water, and sodium acetate.

Learn more: Best Volcano Experiments

4. Make elephant toothpaste

This fun project uses yeast and a hydrogen peroxide solution to create overflowing “elephant toothpaste.” Tip: Add an extra fun layer by having kids create toothpaste wrappers for plastic bottles.

5. Blow the biggest bubbles you can

Add a few simple ingredients to dish soap solution to create the largest bubbles you’ve ever seen! Kids learn about surface tension as they engineer these bubble-blowing wands.

Learn more: Giant Soap Bubbles

6. Demonstrate the “magic” leakproof bag

All you need is a zip-top plastic bag, sharp pencils, and water to blow your kids’ minds. Once they’re suitably impressed, teach them how the “trick” works by explaining the chemistry of polymers.

Learn more: Leakproof Bag

7. Use apple slices to learn about oxidation

Have students make predictions about what will happen to apple slices when immersed in different liquids, then put those predictions to the test. Have them record their observations.

Learn more: Apple Oxidation

8. Float a marker man

Their eyes will pop out of their heads when you “levitate” a stick figure right off the table! This experiment works due to the insolubility of dry-erase marker ink in water, combined with the lighter density of the ink.

Learn more: Floating Marker Man

9. Discover density with hot and cold water

There are a lot of easy science experiments you can do with density. This one is extremely simple, involving only hot and cold water and food coloring, but the visuals make it appealing and fun.

Learn more: Layered Water

10. Layer more liquids

This density demo is a little more complicated, but the effects are spectacular. Slowly layer liquids like honey, dish soap, water, and rubbing alcohol in a glass. Kids will be amazed when the liquids float one on top of the other like magic (except it is really science).

Learn more: Layered Liquids

11. Grow a carbon sugar snake

Easy science experiments can still have impressive results! This eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration only requires simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand.

Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake

12. Mix up some slime

Tell kids you’re going to make slime at home, and watch their eyes light up! There are a variety of ways to make slime, so try a few different recipes to find the one you like best.

13. Make homemade bouncy balls

These homemade bouncy balls are easy to make since all you need is glue, food coloring, borax powder, cornstarch, and warm water. You’ll want to store them inside a container like a plastic egg because they will flatten out over time.

Learn more: Make Your Own Bouncy Balls

14. Create eggshell chalk

Eggshells contain calcium, the same material that makes chalk. Grind them up and mix them with flour, water, and food coloring to make your very own sidewalk chalk.

Learn more: Eggshell Chalk

15. Make naked eggs

This is so cool! Use vinegar to dissolve the calcium carbonate in an eggshell to discover the membrane underneath that holds the egg together. Then, use the “naked” egg for another easy science experiment that demonstrates osmosis .

Learn more: Naked Egg Experiment

16. Turn milk into plastic

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but don’t be afraid to give it a try. Use simple kitchen supplies to create plastic polymers from plain old milk. Sculpt them into cool shapes when you’re done!

17. Test pH using cabbage

Teach kids about acids and bases without needing pH test strips! Simply boil some red cabbage and use the resulting water to test various substances—acids turn red and bases turn green.

Learn more: Cabbage pH

18. Clean some old coins

Use common household items to make old oxidized coins clean and shiny again in this simple chemistry experiment. Ask kids to predict (hypothesize) which will work best, then expand the learning by doing some research to explain the results.

Learn more: Cleaning Coins

19. Pull an egg into a bottle

This classic easy science experiment never fails to delight. Use the power of air pressure to suck a hard-boiled egg into a jar, no hands required.

Learn more: Egg in a Bottle

20. Blow up a balloon (without blowing)

Chances are good you probably did easy science experiments like this when you were in school. The baking soda and vinegar balloon experiment demonstrates the reactions between acids and bases when you fill a bottle with vinegar and a balloon with baking soda.

21 Assemble a DIY lava lamp

This 1970s trend is back—as an easy science experiment! This activity combines acid-base reactions with density for a totally groovy result.

22. Explore how sugary drinks affect teeth

The calcium content of eggshells makes them a great stand-in for teeth. Use eggs to explore how soda and juice can stain teeth and wear down the enamel. Expand your learning by trying different toothpaste-and-toothbrush combinations to see how effective they are.

Learn more: Sugar and Teeth Experiment

23. Mummify a hot dog

If your kids are fascinated by the Egyptians, they’ll love learning to mummify a hot dog! No need for canopic jars , just grab some baking soda and get started.

24. Extinguish flames with carbon dioxide

This is a fiery twist on acid-base experiments. Light a candle and talk about what fire needs in order to survive. Then, create an acid-base reaction and “pour” the carbon dioxide to extinguish the flame. The CO2 gas acts like a liquid, suffocating the fire.

25. Send secret messages with invisible ink

Turn your kids into secret agents! Write messages with a paintbrush dipped in lemon juice, then hold the paper over a heat source and watch the invisible become visible as oxidation goes to work.

Learn more: Invisible Ink

26. Create dancing popcorn

This is a fun version of the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, perfect for the younger crowd. The bubbly mixture causes popcorn to dance around in the water.

27. Shoot a soda geyser sky-high

You’ve always wondered if this really works, so it’s time to find out for yourself! Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added.

Learn more: Soda Explosion

28. Send a teabag flying

Hot air rises, and this experiment can prove it! You’ll want to supervise kids with fire, of course. For more safety, try this one outside.

Learn more: Flying Tea Bags

29. Create magic milk

This fun and easy science experiment demonstrates principles related to surface tension, molecular interactions, and fluid dynamics.

Learn more: Magic Milk Experiment

30. Watch the water rise

Learn about Charles’s Law with this simple experiment. As the candle burns, using up oxygen and heating the air in the glass, the water rises as if by magic.

Learn more: Rising Water

31. Learn about capillary action

Kids will be amazed as they watch the colored water move from glass to glass, and you’ll love the easy and inexpensive setup. Gather some water, paper towels, and food coloring to teach the scientific magic of capillary action.

Learn more: Capillary Action

32. Give a balloon a beard

Equally educational and fun, this experiment will teach kids about static electricity using everyday materials. Kids will undoubtedly get a kick out of creating beards on their balloon person!

Learn more: Static Electricity

33. Find your way with a DIY compass

Here’s an old classic that never fails to impress. Magnetize a needle, float it on the water’s surface, and it will always point north.

Learn more: DIY Compass

34. Crush a can using air pressure

Sure, it’s easy to crush a soda can with your bare hands, but what if you could do it without touching it at all? That’s the power of air pressure!

35. Tell time using the sun

While people use clocks or even phones to tell time today, there was a time when a sundial was the best means to do that. Kids will certainly get a kick out of creating their own sundials using everyday materials like cardboard and pencils.

Learn more: Make Your Own Sundial

36. Launch a balloon rocket

Grab balloons, string, straws, and tape, and launch rockets to learn about the laws of motion.

37. Make sparks with steel wool

All you need is steel wool and a 9-volt battery to perform this science demo that’s bound to make their eyes light up! Kids learn about chain reactions, chemical changes, and more.

Learn more: Steel Wool Electricity

38. Levitate a Ping-Pong ball

Kids will get a kick out of this experiment, which is really all about Bernoulli’s principle. You only need plastic bottles, bendy straws, and Ping-Pong balls to make the science magic happen.

39. Whip up a tornado in a bottle

There are plenty of versions of this classic experiment out there, but we love this one because it sparkles! Kids learn about a vortex and what it takes to create one.

Learn more: Tornado in a Bottle

40. Monitor air pressure with a DIY barometer

This simple but effective DIY science project teaches kids about air pressure and meteorology. They’ll have fun tracking and predicting the weather with their very own barometer.

Learn more: DIY Barometer

41. Peer through an ice magnifying glass

Students will certainly get a thrill out of seeing how an everyday object like a piece of ice can be used as a magnifying glass. Be sure to use purified or distilled water since tap water will have impurities in it that will cause distortion.

Learn more: Ice Magnifying Glass

42. String up some sticky ice

Can you lift an ice cube using just a piece of string? This quick experiment teaches you how. Use a little salt to melt the ice and then refreeze the ice with the string attached.

Learn more: Sticky Ice

43. “Flip” a drawing with water

Light refraction causes some really cool effects, and there are multiple easy science experiments you can do with it. This one uses refraction to “flip” a drawing; you can also try the famous “disappearing penny” trick .

Learn more: Light Refraction With Water

44. Color some flowers

We love how simple this project is to re-create since all you’ll need are some white carnations, food coloring, glasses, and water. The end result is just so beautiful!

45. Use glitter to fight germs

Everyone knows that glitter is just like germs—it gets everywhere and is so hard to get rid of! Use that to your advantage and show kids how soap fights glitter and germs.

Learn more: Glitter Germs

46. Re-create the water cycle in a bag

You can do so many easy science experiments with a simple zip-top bag. Fill one partway with water and set it on a sunny windowsill to see how the water evaporates up and eventually “rains” down.

Learn more: Water Cycle

47. Learn about plant transpiration

Your backyard is a terrific place for easy science experiments. Grab a plastic bag and rubber band to learn how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need, a process known as transpiration.

Learn more: Plant Transpiration

48. Clean up an oil spill

Before conducting this experiment, teach your students about engineers who solve environmental problems like oil spills. Then, have your students use provided materials to clean the oil spill from their oceans.

Learn more: Oil Spill

49. Construct a pair of model lungs

Kids get a better understanding of the respiratory system when they build model lungs using a plastic water bottle and some balloons. You can modify the experiment to demonstrate the effects of smoking too.

Learn more: Model Lungs

50. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids  love to collect rocks, and there are plenty of easy science experiments you can do with them. In this one, pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you’ve found limestone!

Learn more: Limestone Experiments

51. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area.

Learn more: DIY Rain Gauge

52. Build up towel mountains

This clever demonstration helps kids understand how some landforms are created. Use layers of towels to represent rock layers and boxes for continents. Then pu-u-u-sh and see what happens!

Learn more: Towel Mountains

53. Take a play dough core sample

Learn about the layers of the earth by building them out of Play-Doh, then take a core sample with a straw. ( Love Play-Doh? Get more learning ideas here. )

Learn more: Play Dough Core Sampling

54. Project the stars on your ceiling

Use the video lesson in the link below to learn why stars are only visible at night. Then create a DIY star projector to explore the concept hands-on.

Learn more: DIY Star Projector

55. Make it rain

Use shaving cream and food coloring to simulate clouds and rain. This is an easy science experiment little ones will beg to do over and over.

Learn more: Shaving Cream Rain

56. Blow up your fingerprint

This is such a cool (and easy!) way to look at fingerprint patterns. Inflate a balloon a bit, use some ink to put a fingerprint on it, then blow it up big to see your fingerprint in detail.

57. Snack on a DNA model

Twizzlers, gumdrops, and a few toothpicks are all you need to make this super-fun (and yummy!) DNA model.

Learn more: Edible DNA Model

58. Dissect a flower

Take a nature walk and find a flower or two. Then bring them home and take them apart to discover all the different parts of flowers.

59. Craft smartphone speakers

No Bluetooth speaker? No problem! Put together your own from paper cups and toilet paper tubes.

Learn more: Smartphone Speakers

60. Race a balloon-powered car

Kids will be amazed when they learn they can put together this awesome racer using cardboard and bottle-cap wheels. The balloon-powered “engine” is so much fun too.

Learn more: Balloon-Powered Car

61. Build a Ferris wheel

You’ve probably ridden on a Ferris wheel, but can you build one? Stock up on wood craft sticks and find out! Play around with different designs to see which one works best.

Learn more: Craft Stick Ferris Wheel

62. Design a phone stand

There are lots of ways to craft a DIY phone stand, which makes this a perfect creative-thinking STEM challenge.

63. Conduct an egg drop

Put all their engineering skills to the test with an egg drop! Challenge kids to build a container from stuff they find around the house that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows).

Learn more: Egg Drop Challenge Ideas

64. Engineer a drinking-straw roller coaster

STEM challenges are always a hit with kids. We love this one, which only requires basic supplies like drinking straws.

Learn more: Straw Roller Coaster

65. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. This experiment takes a little more time and effort, but the results are always impressive. The link below has complete instructions.

Learn more: Solar Oven

66. Build a Da Vinci bridge

There are plenty of bridge-building experiments out there, but this one is unique. It’s inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old self-supporting wooden bridge. Learn how to build it at the link, and expand your learning by exploring more about Da Vinci himself.

Learn more: Da Vinci Bridge

67. Step through an index card

This is one easy science experiment that never fails to astonish. With carefully placed scissor cuts on an index card, you can make a loop large enough to fit a (small) human body through! Kids will be wowed as they learn about surface area.

68. Stand on a pile of paper cups

Combine physics and engineering and challenge kids to create a paper cup structure that can support their weight. This is a cool project for aspiring architects.

Learn more: Paper Cup Stack

69. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they’re affected by windy days or find out which ones work in the rain.

Learn more: Parachute Drop

70. Recycle newspapers into an engineering challenge

It’s amazing how a stack of newspapers can spark such creative engineering. Challenge kids to build a tower, support a book, or even build a chair using only newspaper and tape!

Learn more: Newspaper STEM Challenge

71. Use rubber bands to sound out acoustics

Explore the ways that sound waves are affected by what’s around them using a simple rubber band “guitar.” (Kids absolutely love playing with these!)

Learn more: Rubber Band Guitar

72. Assemble a better umbrella

Challenge students to engineer the best possible umbrella from various household supplies. Encourage them to plan, draw blueprints, and test their creations using the scientific method.

Learn more: Umbrella STEM Challenge

Plus, sign up for our newsletters to get all the latest learning ideas straight to your inbox.

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By Olivia Poindexter, Early Childhood Intern

When we want to get somewhere quickly, we drive on a highway so we can go faster for longer stretches of time. Sometimes, ocean animals like sea turtles need to get somewhere fast too, but how? They use swift ocean currents to move around the waterways as quickly as possible for necessary migrations. This experiment will help you explore just what an  ocean current is, how they form, and how they move through the different oceans as you create your very own ocean current!

• Boiling Water
• Blue and Red Food Coloring
• Large, Clear Baking Dish

First things first, you need to create your “ocean!” Pour cold water into your clear baking dish until it is 1/3 full. Put 2 drops of blue food coloring and 1-2 cups of ice into your cold water. Mix this all together until the ice melts a little. This ensures that the water is VERY cold which will help create your currents later. While you wait, with the help of a parent, boil about 4 cups of water. When the water is boiled, add 5 drops of red food coloring to the boiling water and mix. Now for the science magic! Have your parent gently pour the boiling water into the corner of the baking dish and watch as your little ocean suddenly forms moving currents. Eventually the water will turn purple and lukewarm, which is exactly what happens in the ocean!

The Science

Ocean currents are like a HUGE river in an ocean, flowing from one place to another. One of the things that create ocean currents is the different temperatures that are in the ocean. Currents are an important part of ocean ecosystems! They help disperse water and give animals an easier (and faster) way to migrate, or move, across the ocean. Fun fact: The leatherback sea turtle migrates close to 10,000 miles across the ocean using currents!

Further Exploration

• Why do you think the hot water behaves like that when poured into the cold water?
• Try the reverse! Have a parent pour the boiling water first and then immediately follow with the cold water. Did the effect change at all? Why?
• How do you think currents help animals like sea turtles migrate? Can you think of more animals that use currents to travel around the world?
• Come to the Adventure Science Center all July as we DIVE IN to marine biology with FINtastic science and aquatic activities!
• Check out this  super fun clip  from the movie “Finding Nemo” that shows sea turtles moving through the East Australian Current!
• Check out  this video  from The National Ocean Service to learn about different types of currents!
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Education During Coronavirus

A Smithsonian magazine special report

Science | June 15, 2020

Seventy-Five Scientific Research Projects You Can Contribute to Online

From astrophysicists to entomologists, many researchers need the help of citizen scientists to sift through immense data collections

Rachael Lallensack

Former Assistant Editor, Science and Innovation

If you find yourself tired of streaming services, reading the news or video-chatting with friends, maybe you should consider becoming a citizen scientist. Though it’s true that many field research projects are paused , hundreds of scientists need your help sifting through wildlife camera footage and images of galaxies far, far away, or reading through diaries and field notes from the past.

Plenty of these tools are free and easy enough for children to use. You can look around for projects yourself on Smithsonian Institution’s citizen science volunteer page , National Geographic ’s list of projects and CitizenScience.gov ’s catalog of options. Zooniverse is a platform for online-exclusive projects , and Scistarter allows you to restrict your search with parameters, including projects you can do “on a walk,” “at night” or “on a lunch break.”

To save you some time, Smithsonian magazine has compiled a collection of dozens of projects you can take part in from home.

American Wildlife

If being home has given you more time to look at wildlife in your own backyard, whether you live in the city or the country, consider expanding your view, by helping scientists identify creatures photographed by camera traps. Improved battery life, motion sensors, high-resolution and small lenses have made camera traps indispensable tools for conservation.These cameras capture thousands of images that provide researchers with more data about ecosystems than ever before.

Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s eMammal platform , for example, asks users to identify animals for conservation projects around the country. Currently, eMammal is being used by the Woodland Park Zoo ’s Seattle Urban Carnivore Project, which studies how coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bobcats and other animals coexist with people, and the Washington Wolverine Project, an effort to monitor wolverines in the face of climate change. Identify urban wildlife for the Chicago Wildlife Watch , or contribute to wilderness projects documenting North American biodiversity with The Wilds' Wildlife Watch in Ohio , Cedar Creek: Eyes on the Wild in Minnesota , Michigan ZoomIN , Western Montana Wildlife and Snapshot Wisconsin .

"Spend your time at home virtually exploring the Minnesota backwoods,” writes the lead researcher of the Cedar Creek: Eyes on the Wild project. “Help us understand deer dynamics, possum populations, bear behavior, and keep your eyes peeled for elusive wolves!"

If being cooped up at home has you daydreaming about traveling, Snapshot Safari has six active animal identification projects. Try eyeing lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, elephants, giraffes, baobab trees and over 400 bird species from camera trap photos taken in South African nature reserves, including De Hoop Nature Reserve and Madikwe Game Reserve .

With South Sudan DiversityCam , researchers are using camera traps to study biodiversity in the dense tropical forests of southwestern South Sudan. Part of the Serenegeti Lion Project, Snapshot Serengeti needs the help of citizen scientists to classify millions of camera trap images of species traveling with the wildebeest migration.

Classify all kinds of monkeys with Chimp&See . Count, identify and track giraffes in northern Kenya . Watering holes host all kinds of wildlife, but that makes the locales hotspots for parasite transmission; Parasite Safari needs volunteers to help figure out which animals come in contact with each other and during what time of year.

Mount Taranaki in New Zealand is a volcanic peak rich in native vegetation, but native wildlife, like the North Island brown kiwi, whio/blue duck and seabirds, are now rare—driven out by introduced predators like wild goats, weasels, stoats, possums and rats. Estimate predator species compared to native wildlife with Taranaki Mounga by spotting species on camera trap images.

The Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) Instant Wild app has a dozen projects showcasing live images and videos of wildlife around the world. Look for bears, wolves and lynx in Croatia ; wildcats in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula ; otters in Hampshire, England ; and both black and white rhinos in the Lewa-Borana landscape in Kenya.

Under the Sea

Researchers use a variety of technologies to learn about marine life and inform conservation efforts. Take, for example, Beluga Bits , a research project focused on determining the sex, age and pod size of beluga whales visiting the Churchill River in northern Manitoba, Canada. With a bit of training, volunteers can learn how to differentiate between a calf, a subadult (grey) or an adult (white)—and even identify individuals using scars or unique pigmentation—in underwater videos and images. Beluga Bits uses a “ beluga boat ,” which travels around the Churchill River estuary with a camera underneath it, to capture the footage and collect GPS data about the whales’ locations.

Many of these online projects are visual, but Manatee Chat needs citizen scientists who can train their ear to decipher manatee vocalizations. Researchers are hoping to learn what calls the marine mammals make and when—with enough practice you might even be able to recognize the distinct calls of individual animals.

Several groups are using drone footage to monitor seal populations. Seals spend most of their time in the water, but come ashore to breed. One group, Seal Watch , is analyzing time-lapse photography and drone images of seals in the British territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. A team in Antarctica captured images of Weddell seals every ten minutes while the seals were on land in spring to have their pups. The Weddell Seal Count project aims to find out what threats—like fishing and climate change—the seals face by monitoring changes in their population size. Likewise, the Año Nuevo Island - Animal Count asks volunteers to count elephant seals, sea lions, cormorants and more species on a remote research island off the coast of California.

With Floating Forests , you’ll sift through 40 years of satellite images of the ocean surface identifying kelp forests, which are foundational for marine ecosystems, providing shelter for shrimp, fish and sea urchins. A project based in southwest England, Seagrass Explorer , is investigating the decline of seagrass beds. Researchers are using baited cameras to spot commercial fish in these habitats as well as looking out for algae to study the health of these threatened ecosystems. Search for large sponges, starfish and cold-water corals on the deep seafloor in Sweden’s first marine park with the Koster seafloor observatory project.

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center needs your help spotting invasive species with Invader ID . Train your eye to spot groups of organisms, known as fouling communities, that live under docks and ship hulls, in an effort to clean up marine ecosystems.

If art history is more your speed, two Dutch art museums need volunteers to start “ fishing in the past ” by analyzing a collection of paintings dating from 1500 to 1700. Each painting features at least one fish, and an interdisciplinary research team of biologists and art historians wants you to identify the species of fish to make a clearer picture of the “role of ichthyology in the past.”

Interesting Insects

Notes from Nature is a digitization effort to make the vast resources in museums’ archives of plants and insects more accessible. Similarly, page through the University of California Berkeley’s butterfly collection on CalBug to help researchers classify these beautiful critters. The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology has already digitized about 300,000 records, but their collection exceeds 4 million bugs. You can hop in now and transcribe their grasshopper archives from the last century . Parasitic arthropods, like mosquitos and ticks, are known disease vectors; to better locate these critters, the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker project is working with 22 collections and institutions to digitize over 1.2 million specimens—and they’re 95 percent done . If you can tolerate mosquito buzzing for a prolonged period of time, the HumBug project needs volunteers to train its algorithm and develop real-time mosquito detection using acoustic monitoring devices. It’s for the greater good!

For the Birders

Birdwatching is one of the most common forms of citizen science . Seeing birds in the wilderness is certainly awe-inspiring, but you can birdwatch from your backyard or while walking down the sidewalk in big cities, too. With Cornell University’s eBird app , you can contribute to bird science at any time, anywhere. (Just be sure to remain a safe distance from wildlife—and other humans, while we social distance ). If you have safe access to outdoor space—a backyard, perhaps—Cornell also has a NestWatch program for people to report observations of bird nests. Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center has a similar Neighborhood Nest Watch program as well.

Birdwatching is easy enough to do from any window, if you’re sheltering at home, but in case you lack a clear view, consider these online-only projects. Nest Quest currently has a robin database that needs volunteer transcribers to digitize their nest record cards.

You can also pitch in on a variety of efforts to categorize wildlife camera images of burrowing owls , pelicans , penguins (new data coming soon!), and sea birds . Watch nest cam footage of the northern bald ibis or greylag geese on NestCams to help researchers learn about breeding behavior.

Or record the coloration of gorgeous feathers across bird species for researchers at London’s Natural History Museum with Project Plumage .

Pretty Plants

If you’re out on a walk wondering what kind of plants are around you, consider downloading Leafsnap , an electronic field guide app developed by Columbia University, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution. The app has several functions. First, it can be used to identify plants with its visual recognition software. Secondly, scientists can learn about the “ the ebb and flow of flora ” from geotagged images taken by app users.

What is older than the dinosaurs, survived three mass extinctions and still has a living relative today? Ginko trees! Researchers at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History are studying ginko trees and fossils to understand millions of years of plant evolution and climate change with the Fossil Atmospheres project . Using Zooniverse, volunteers will be trained to identify and count stomata, which are holes on a leaf’s surface where carbon dioxide passes through. By counting these holes, or quantifying the stomatal index, scientists can learn how the plants adapted to changing levels of carbon dioxide. These results will inform a field experiment conducted on living trees in which a scientist is adjusting the level of carbon dioxide for different groups.

Help digitize and categorize millions of botanical specimens from natural history museums, research institutions and herbaria across the country with the Notes from Nature Project . Did you know North America is home to a variety of beautiful orchid species? Lend botanists a handby typing handwritten labels on pressed specimens or recording their geographic and historic origins for the New York Botanical Garden’s archives. Likewise, the Southeastern U.S. Biodiversity project needs assistance labeling pressed poppies, sedums, valerians, violets and more. Groups in California , Arkansas , Florida , Texas and Oklahoma all invite citizen scientists to partake in similar tasks.

Historic Women in Astronomy

Become a transcriber for Project PHaEDRA and help researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics preserve the work of Harvard’s women “computers” who revolutionized astronomy in the 20th century. These women contributed more than 130 years of work documenting the night sky, cataloging stars, interpreting stellar spectra, counting galaxies, and measuring distances in space, according to the project description .

More than 2,500 notebooks need transcription on Project PhaEDRA - Star Notes . You could start with Annie Jump Cannon , for example. In 1901, Cannon designed a stellar classification system that astronomers still use today. Cecilia Payne discovered that stars are made primarily of hydrogen and helium and can be categorized by temperature. Two notebooks from Henrietta Swan Leavitt are currently in need of transcription. Leavitt, who was deaf, discovered the link between period and luminosity in Cepheid variables, or pulsating stars, which “led directly to the discovery that the Universe is expanding,” according to her bio on Star Notes .

Volunteers are also needed to transcribe some of these women computers’ notebooks that contain references to photographic glass plates . These plates were used to study space from the 1880s to the 1990s. For example, in 1890, Williamina Flemming discovered the Horsehead Nebula on one of these plates . With Star Notes, you can help bridge the gap between “modern scientific literature and 100 years of astronomical observations,” according to the project description . Star Notes also features the work of Cannon, Leavitt and Dorrit Hoffleit , who authored the fifth edition of the Bright Star Catalog, which features 9,110 of the brightest stars in the sky.

Microscopic Musings

Electron microscopes have super-high resolution and magnification powers—and now, many can process images automatically, allowing teams to collect an immense amount of data. Francis Crick Institute’s Etch A Cell - Powerhouse Hunt project trains volunteers to spot and trace each cell’s mitochondria, a process called manual segmentation. Manual segmentation is a major bottleneck to completing biological research because using computer systems to complete the work is still fraught with errors and, without enough volunteers, doing this work takes a really long time.

For the Monkey Health Explorer project, researchers studying the social behavior of rhesus monkeys on the tiny island Cayo Santiago off the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico need volunteers to analyze the monkeys’ blood samples. Doing so will help the team understand which monkeys are sick and which are healthy, and how the animals’ health influences behavioral changes.

Using the Zooniverse’s app on a phone or tablet, you can become a “ Science Scribbler ” and assist researchers studying how Huntington disease may change a cell’s organelles. The team at the United Kingdom's national synchrotron , which is essentially a giant microscope that harnesses the power of electrons, has taken highly detailed X-ray images of the cells of Huntington’s patients and needs help identifying organelles, in an effort to see how the disease changes their structure.

Oxford University’s Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: an International Consortium—or CRyPTIC Project , for short, is seeking the aid of citizen scientists to study over 20,000 TB infection samples from around the world. CRyPTIC’s citizen science platform is called Bash the Bug . On the platform, volunteers will be trained to evaluate the effectiveness of antibiotics on a given sample. Each evaluation will be checked by a scientist for accuracy and then used to train a computer program, which may one day make this process much faster and less labor intensive.

Out of This World

If you’re interested in contributing to astronomy research from the comfort and safety of your sidewalk or backyard, check out Globe at Night . The project monitors light pollution by asking users to try spotting constellations in the night sky at designated times of the year . (For example, Northern Hemisphere dwellers should look for the Bootes and Hercules constellations from June 13 through June 22 and record the visibility in Globe at Night’s app or desktop report page .)

For the amateur astrophysicists out there, the opportunities to contribute to science are vast. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission is asking for volunteers to search for new objects at the edges of our solar system with the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project .

Galaxy Zoo on Zooniverse and its mobile app has operated online citizen science projects for the past decade. According to the project description, there are roughly one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. Surprisingly, identifying different types of galaxies by their shape is rather easy. “If you're quick, you may even be the first person to see the galaxies you're asked to classify,” the team writes.

With Radio Galaxy Zoo: LOFAR , volunteers can help identify supermassive blackholes and star-forming galaxies. Galaxy Zoo: Clump Scout asks users to look for young, “clumpy” looking galaxies, which help astronomers understand galaxy evolution.

If current events on Earth have you looking to Mars, perhaps you’d be interested in checking out Planet Four and Planet Four: Terrains —both of which task users with searching and categorizing landscape formations on Mars’ southern hemisphere. You’ll scroll through images of the Martian surface looking for terrain types informally called “spiders,” “baby spiders,” “channel networks” and “swiss cheese.”

Gravitational waves are telltale ripples in spacetime, but they are notoriously difficult to measure. With Gravity Spy , citizen scientists sift through data from Laser Interferometer Gravitational­-Wave Observatory, or LIGO , detectors. When lasers beamed down 2.5-mile-long “arms” at these facilities in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington are interrupted, a gravitational wave is detected. But the detectors are sensitive to “glitches” that, in models, look similar to the astrophysical signals scientists are looking for. Gravity Spy teaches citizen scientists how to identify fakes so researchers can get a better view of the real deal. This work will, in turn, train computer algorithms to do the same.

Similarly, the project Supernova Hunters needs volunteers to clear out the “bogus detections of supernovae,” allowing researchers to track the progression of actual supernovae. In Hubble Space Telescope images, you can search for asteroid tails with Hubble Asteroid Hunter . And with Planet Hunters TESS , which teaches users to identify planetary formations, you just “might be the first person to discover a planet around a nearby star in the Milky Way,” according to the project description.

Help astronomers refine prediction models for solar storms, which kick up dust that impacts spacecraft orbiting the sun, with Solar Stormwatch II. Thanks to the first iteration of the project, astronomers were able to publish seven papers with their findings.

With Mapping Historic Skies , identify constellations on gorgeous celestial maps of the sky covering a span of 600 years from the Adler Planetarium collection in Chicago. Similarly, help fill in the gaps of historic astronomy with Astronomy Rewind , a project that aims to “make a holistic map of images of the sky.”

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Rachael Lallensack | READ MORE

Rachael Lallensack is the former assistant web editor for science and innovation at Smithsonian .

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Houston Life

From slime to science, funtastik labs features hands-on family experience.

Lauren Kelly , Houston Life Correspondent

HOUSTON – Funtastik Labs is a hands-on science & slime museum in Houston, perfect for the whole fam!

The space is a new innovative family amusement center focused on STEAM – that’s science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

Kids can experience slime making in their huge slime bar, plenty of cool science experiments, ceramic and canvas painting, and even robot building.

With bold and vibrant colors, the new center creates a lively and fun environment where kids and families can bond and explore together.

This is their second location located in Sugar Land at 13741 Southwest Freeway.

Watch as Lauren Kelly, co-founder Raj Gupta, and some really cute kiddos explore some of the FUN things to do at Funtastik Labs !

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lauren Kelly (@kprc2laurenkelly)

Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.

About the Author

Lauren kelly.

Texas girl, favorite aunt, lucky wife, dog mom, Diet Coke connoisseur.

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🧪 Science with Sarah: Bubble Snakes 🧼🐍

Bountiful bubbles of fun.

Sarah Spivey , KSAT Weather Authority Meteorologist

Ben Spicer , Digital Journalist

👉 Watch the video of Sarah’s science experiment at Adams Hill Elementary here!

Hello parents, teachers and students! Sarah’s back in schools this fall semester, teaching kiddos about the joys of science! Today’s experiment is all about how gasses and liquids can combine to create a super cool bubble snake!

Be sure to check out GMSA@9 on Wednesdays when Meteorologist Sarah Spivey does the demonstrations and explains the science behind it.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• An empty water bottle
• An old wash cloth or sock
• Rubber band
• Food dye (Optional)

DO THE EXPERIMENT

• STEP 1: Using the scissors and adult supervision, cut the water bottle in half and keep the top half
• STEP 2: Using a rubber band, secure the washcloth to the half top of the water bottle
• STEP 3: In the small bowl, mix dish soap and water
• STEP 4: Optional - “paint” the wash cloth with different colored food dye
• STEP 5: Dip the washcloth in the soapy water
• STEP 6: Using the mouth of the water bottle, blow and watch your bubble snake form!

SCIENCE WITH SARAH

If you’d like Sarah to come to your school and conduct a science experiment live on KSAT, fill out this form . “Winners” are selected at random.

Copyright 2023 by KSAT - All rights reserved.

About the Authors

Sarah Spivey

Sarah Spivey is a San Antonio native who grew up watching KSAT. She has been a proud member of the KSAT Weather Authority Team since 2017. Sarah is a Clark High School and Texas A&M University graduate. She previously worked at KTEN News. When Sarah is not busy forecasting, she enjoys hanging out with her husband and cat, and playing music.

Ben Spicer is a digital journalist who works the early morning shift for KSAT.

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Sustainable beef, early childhood projects lead grand challenges awards.

Bold, audacious research ideas that will improve the lives of current and future generations of Nebraskans have been funded through the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Grand Challenges Catalyst Competition. 

Chancellor Rodney D. Bennett and Sherri Jones, interim vice chancellor for research and innovation, announced nine new Grand Challenges projects Sept. 3. Projects include two catalyst awards and seven planning grants. 

The Grand Challenges initiative represents a commitment by the Office of the Chancellor and the Office of Research and Innovation to strategically invest funds earmarked for research.

“The Grand Challenges underscore the university’s dedication to advancing research that has meaningful impacts on our communities and future generations,” Bennett said. “This strategic investment empowers our researchers to address complex issues with creativity and collaboration, further establishing our flagship, land-grant institution as a leader in transformative and interdisciplinary innovation.”

Projects funded in 2024 address the initiative’s seven thematic areas: anti-racism and racial equity; climate resilience; early childhood education and development; health equity; quantum science and engineering; sustainable food and water security; and science and technology literacy for society.

“The Grand Challenges projects represent the qualities of discovery, creativity and innovation that define research at Nebraska,” Jones said. “I am incredibly proud of our faculty’s efforts to work across disciplines to build teams that are equipped to address some of society’s most pressing challenges. I look forward to celebrating the long-term impact of their work.”

Faculty, staff and students from all nine colleges are represented among the teams. The full list of funded projects and teams is available on the  Grand Challenges website .

Catalyst awards

Galen Erickson, Nebraska Cattle Industry Professor of animal science; and a team of Anne Schutte, associate professor of psychology, and Sarah Karle, associate professor of landscape architecture, lead teams that earned catalyst awards. The funded projects will support the beef industry in Nebraska and beyond in adapting management practices for a changing climate, and the state’s early childhood education field in creating green spaces and physical environments that promote healthy development, especially for youth in under-resourced communities.

Advancing Development of Assessments, Practices and Tools (ADAPT) to Produce Climate Smart Beef in Grazing Systems 

As consumers become more aware of how their decisions impact the environment, the beef industry is working to build consumer trust in production practices and find ways to improve. Newer incentive programs are based on beef producers demonstrating that their grazing operations improve carbon capture, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, or both. 

A Grand Challenges award will bolster the university's efforts to support a sustainable beef industry, which researchers believe is crucial from an environmental, economic and social standpoint. The ADAPT project, led by beef expert Galen Erickson and a diverse group of faculty and staff from UNL’s  Beef Innovation team , aims to establish resilient, climate-smart beef production systems that are tested and scientifically proven to be effective across many types of management practices, soil types, weather conditions, forage types and other factors. The Grand Challenges project aligns with larger efforts that recognize the importance of a sustainable beef industry from environmental, economic and social standpoints.

Nebraska consistently ranks as one of the top beef-producing states in the U.S., making it an ideal laboratory for the team’s work. Husker researchers will develop robust models and cost-effective integrated data-management tools that producers can use to measure carbon flux on their grazing lands. The team will use that data to test potential climate-smart management practices and evaluate effectiveness. This work will provide more information to guide production practice incentives and help shape policy affecting the cattle industry. The team will develop best practices for beef producers to reduce greenhouse gases and the carbon impact of grazing, while supporting a more biodiverse, resilient landscape in Nebraska and beyond.

Through communications and outreach activities, researchers will share scientifically accurate stories about climate-smart beef production and responsible land stewardship. Messages will be geared toward policymakers, environmental and land stewards, consumers and youth.

Read the full article on Nebraska Today.

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