Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Vast swathes of the country’s trees have been killed off by droughts and infestations, in a trend sweeping across Europe. A shift towards more biodiverse cultivation could offer answers Even the intense green of late spring cannot mask the dead trees in the Harz mountains. Standing upright across the gentle peaks in northern Germany, thousands of skeletal trunks mark the remnants of a once great spruce forest. Since 2018, the region has been ravaged by a tree-killing bark beetle outbreak, made possible by successive droughts and heatwaves. It has transformed a landscape known for its verdant beauty into one dominated by a sickly grey. Continue reading...

Shift from ‘big 5’ imports to British fish such as sprats and sardines would help diets and the planet, say researchers Supermarkets could help to support British consumers to move away from their reliance on mainly imported seafood – the “big 5” of cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns – to more sustainable, nutritious and locally caught fish such as sardines and anchovies, researchers say. A study by the University of East Anglia (UEA), which confirmed previous research showing consumers did not eat the recommended amount of fish in their diet, suggests the UK could be overlooking a major opportunity to improve national health as well as bolstering local economies by embracing its own rich populations of nutritious small fish. Continue reading...

Temperatures recorded included 48.2C at Wudinna airport on SA’s Eyre Peninsula, 45.9C at Walpeup in Victoria, 45.6C at Paraburdoo, WA, and 45.9C at Hay in NSW. Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Victoria’s Hume Highway was closed on Thursday and regional trains were cancelled as firefighters from at least two states fought bushfires in the worst heatwave to descend on Australia since 2019-20. As Melbourne prepared for a forecast of 41C day on Friday, the acting premier, Ben Carroll, described Victoria as “one of the most bushfire-prone areas in the world”. Continue reading...

Scientists also name an overlooked snowdrop growing in the UK and a fruit that tastes like banana and guava A zombie fungus that springs from a trapdoor and a flame-like shrub named after the fire demon in the Studio Ghibli film Howl’s Moving Castle are among the species of plant and fungi named by scientists in 2025. A list of 10 “weird and wonderful” new species was compiled by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew and their international partners, who together named 125 new plants last year. The list also includes an orchid whose flowers look bloodstained and attract sexually aroused flies, and a beautiful snowdrop that had been hiding in plain sight in UK gardens. Continue reading...