The Philippines defence minister was defiant on Friday after Beijing sanctioned him for what it termed “irresponsible remarks” as the two nations grapple over the disputed South China Sea.
Gilberto Teodoro as well as his spouse and child will be banned from entering China’s mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, an unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson said in an online statement on Thursday.
Philippines’ Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro delivers a speech as he attends the 23rd Shan
The Philippines defence minister was defiant on Friday after Beijing sanctioned him for what it termed “irresponsible remarks” as the two nations grapple over the disputed South China Sea.
Gilberto Teodoro as well as his spouse and child will be banned from entering China’s mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, an unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson said in an online statement on Thursday.
Philippines’ Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro delivers a speech as he attends the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on May 31, 2026. Photo: Philippines’ Department of National Defense, via X.
It added that “organisations and individuals in China” will not be allowed to “engage in any transaction, cooperation or other activities with him and his spouse and child”.
The two countries have in recent years regularly dealt with flare-ups in tensions over the disputed South China Sea.
Beijing claims the strategic waterway nearly in its entirety, despite an international ruling that said its assertions are baseless.
In a statement early Friday, Teodoro said he had been sanctioned for “speaking truth”.
“Their own countrymen and the others under their control suffer far worse,” he said. “I will just keep doing my duty and uphold our nation in the face of the wickedness they are committing here and even in our seas.”
Manila reacted to the sanctions late Thursday by saying that “the Philippines views it as an unfriendly act that further complicates the bilateral relations”.
China regularly deploys navy and coast guard vessels to bar the Philippines from important reefs and islands in the area.
The Chinese statement said Teodoro’s rhetoric “undermines China’s legitimate interests and sabotages China-Philippines relations”, without specifying to which remarks it referred.
I captured the photo above as we were cruising along the north side of Pooley Island, after leaving BC’s fabled Fiordland on BC’s North coast, in the heart of the Great Bear Sea. The deep greens and smooth curves of Pooley’s rainforest slopes and valley were less dramatic than Fiordland’s massive snowy peaks, but no […]
I captured the photo above as we were cruising along the north side of Pooley Island, after leaving BC’s fabled Fiordland on BC’s North coast, in the heart of the Great Bear Sea. The deep greens and smooth curves of Pooley’s rainforest slopes and valley were less dramatic than Fiordland’s massive snowy peaks, but no […]
When we picture the effects of melting glaciers, many of us think of rising seas and retreating ice streams. But along Greenland’s coastline, a quieter transformation is underway, one that is affecting how the ocean breathes and how it reacts to and buffers itself against change.
In Young Sound, a fjord carved into Greenland’s remote northeastern coast, decades of monitoring have revealed that glacial meltwater does not simply dilute the salt in seawater. As fresh water enters the ocean, it
When we picture the effects of melting glaciers, many of us think of rising seas and retreating ice streams. But along Greenland’s coastline, a quieter transformation is underway, one that is affecting how the ocean breathes and how it reacts to and buffers itself against change.
In Young Sound, a fjord carved into Greenland’s remote northeastern coast, decades of monitoring have revealed that glacial meltwater does not simply dilute the salt in seawater. As fresh water enters the ocean, it weakens the ocean’s natural chemical resistance to swings in acidity. This so-called buffering capacity keeps seawater pH in balance. The loss of buffering due to freshwater runoff leaves these coastal waters unusually sensitive to even small biological and environmental shifts.
Atmospheric warming is accelerating fastest in the Arctic, and with it come longer glacial melt seasons and increased freshwater runoff. The result is a coastal ocean that is both a frontline witness to climate change and a laboratory for understanding how the chemistry of the seas can change in unexpected ways.
The Ocean’s Chemical Safety Net
Seawater chemistry is naturally buffered by dissolved ions that act as chemical shock absorbers.
Globally, the ocean absorbs about a quarter of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year. That uptake helps to slow climate change, but at a cost. The more CO2 that water absorbs, the more acidic it becomes. Thankfully, seawater chemistry is naturally buffered by dissolved ions—particularly carbonate, bicarbonate, and hydroxide—that act as chemical shock absorbers. These negatively charged ions, collectively called alkalinity, bind to the positive hydrogen ions released when carbonic acid forms, keeping the ocean’s pH relatively stable compared with the more variable conditions in freshwater rivers and lakes.
The polar oceans play a special role in this balance and in the global carbon cycle because cold waters at high latitudes take up carbon from the atmosphere faster than warm tropical waters. Yet these regions are also changing the most rapidly.
When Meltwater Meets the Sea
For 20 years, our team at Aarhus University has measured salinity, temperature, and carbon chemistry in Young Sound. Each August, we make the 2-day journey to northeast Greenland, where we spend the month sailing down the 90-kilometer-long fjord to capture these valuable measurements (Figure 1).
Fig. 1. The red line, running from the Greenland Ice Sheet (y) to the Greenland Sea (z), maps the route taken by researchers in August 2023 during their annual transect of Young Sound in northeast Greenland. Credit: Adapted from Henson et al., 2025, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02685-4, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
During the time we have monitored this ecosystem, the melt season has lengthened, with sea ice–free conditions now lasting 8 days longer than 20 years ago. Glaciers feeding the fjord are also thinning and retreating, discharging about 5.5 million cubic meters more water into the fjord each year. These changes have freshened the coastal ocean and subtly, but significantly, altered its chemistry.
Fjords like these have long been known as major CO2 sinks. Surface waters near glaciers often have very low CO2 concentrations, creating a disequilibrium between CO2 levels in the surface ocean and the atmosphere that draws carbon out of the air. But how or why these glacial ecosystems act as carbon sinks and what mechanisms are at play haven’t been thoroughly described. We have also been deeply curious about what else happens when fresh water enters the sea. What are the hidden consequences of this change?
To find out, we paired our long-term field observations with controlled lab experiments in which we mixed glacial meltwater with seawater. Controlled experiments allow us to dig into the nuances of chemical changes that are impossible to measure in the field. We also ran mixing models that allowed us to estimate how the chemistry of those mixed waters responds to small shifts in biological activity or mineral interactions.
The results were striking. When meltwater mixes with seawater, it not only reduces salinity but also dilutes alkalinity, the measure of how well water can neutralize acid and buffer against pH change. This weakening of buffering capacity means that even small changes in photosynthesis or respiration can drive much larger swings in CO2 uptake and acidity than they would in more saline waters.
Two researchers wade into a meltwater river in Tyrolerfjord in Northeast Greenland National Park in 2023 to collect samples bearing the chemical fingerprints of climate change in the region. Credit: Henry C. Henson
We found that in the freshened waters of Young Sound, these processes have 2–3 times the influence on carbon uptake that they do farther out at sea. In effect, meltwater primes the coastal ocean to overreact, amplifying any ecosystem changes that might occur.
Measurements from around Greenland show that this is not just a theoretical risk. Surface waters are measurably more acidic where meltwater inputs are high. The biological consequences of this trend are still uncertain, but species living at the edge of their tolerance, such as shell-forming plankton and Arctic cod larvae, could face growing stress as the chemistry of their habitat fluctuates more widely.
A Fragile Balance in the Freshening Arctic
The findings confirm that fjords absorb carbon as a result of biological activity and glacial input but indicate that they do so in a fragile, easily tipped state.
Our study adds nuance to conventional perceptions of carbon cycling in fjords, long seen as places where atmospheric CO2 is drawn down. The findings confirm that fjords absorb carbon as a result of biological activity and glacial input but indicate that they do so in a fragile, easily tipped state. Slight shifts in the processes that pull CO2 out of the air could tip the scales in either direction: toward even more uptake and the accompanying acidification or toward a release of CO2 to the atmosphere.
This chemical sensitivity explains why Arctic fjords can show such strong seasonal and spatial swings in carbon chemistry and why predicting their long-term role in the carbon cycle is difficult. As glaciers retreat and meltwater inputs grow, those sensitivities are likely to intensify.
At first glance, changes in how seawater in the narrow, remote fjords of Greenland reacts to glacial melt might sound like a local concern. But the chemical processes at play have global resonance.
A tongue of the Greenland Ice Sheet retreats along the tundra as temperatures across the Arctic warm. Credit: Henry C. Henson
Ridges in the Greenland Ice Sheet tell a story of movement and melt. Credit: Henry C. Henson
Glacial meltwater from the Greenland Ice sheet flows into Tyrolerfjord and Young Sound and in Northeast Greenland National Park in August 2023. Credit: Henry C. Henson
The Arctic Ocean as a whole is freshening, driven by accelerating ice melt as well as by increasing river discharge and changing weather bringing more precipitation to the region. Although river water, which arrives from the six great Arctic rivers of North America and Eurasia, is more alkaline than glacial melt, its alkalinity is only about half that of seawater. In other words, river runoff also increases the ocean’s chemical sensitivity. Fresh water also delivers organic matter from permafrost, fine sediments from glaciers, and tannin-rich runoff from tundra soils, each of which can influence carbon cycling and further compound changes already underway.
Similar patterns of increased rainfall and runoff reducing surface salinity are emerging around the Antarctic Peninsula, the Gulf of Alaska, and the North Atlantic. Almost everywhere that fresh water enters the ocean, it lowers alkalinity and limits the ocean’s ability to buffer change.
A Window into Climate Intervention
Our results also carry lessons for researchers and companies contemplating ocean chemistry interventions as ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. One proposed approach, ocean alkalinity enhancement, involves adding crushed minerals such as lime, olivine, and basalt to seawater to both counteract acidification and increase the ocean’s capacity to take up CO2.
Glacial systems already perform a natural version of this experiment by grinding rock into fine sediment and discharging it into the ocean. Minerals in this sediment react with seawater and shape its carbon chemistry.
Our study suggests that such reactions are especially potent in freshwater-influenced coastal regions, where reduced buffering capacity may amplify chemical responses not only from natural biological processes but also from potential human attempts to alter seawater chemistry. Thus, understanding the balance between carbon uptake and chemical vulnerability will be essential before any large-scale interventions are attempted.
Consequences Locally and Globally
Coastal communities from Greenland to Alaska to northern Eurasia depend on Arctic waters as part of their cultural identity and, by way of fisheries and tourism, for their economic and food security. As chemical buffering capacity declines, coastal ecosystems may become more susceptible to acidification and other environmental stresses. Small changes in temperature, ecosystem metabolism, or nutrient inputs could then have outsized effects on the marine life that supports these communities.
As coastal glaciers retreat and meltwater rivers carve new paths to the sea, they are doing more than raising sea level and reshaping coastlines. They are rewiring ocean chemistry.
At the same time, changing conditions in coastal Arctic ocean regions complicate scientific modeling of carbon cycling and climate feedbacks, which typically relies on averaged estimates of the ocean’s chemical reactivity. With meltwater making the coastal ocean more reactive, these seas may absorb or release CO2 more variably than how global predictions would suggest. In addition to the real effects on local ecosystems, seawater chemical variability could also affect the accuracy of modeled global carbon budgets, which we use to inform future climate projections and guide international policy goals.
As coastal glaciers retreat and meltwater rivers carve new paths to the sea, they are doing more than raising sea level and reshaping coastlines. They are rewiring ocean chemistry, leaving it fresher and more easily disturbed.
The chemical sensitivity we see in Greenland’s fjords today may be a preview of what is to come in many coastal regions. If so, then we must be concerned with not only how much CO2 the ocean can absorb but also how stably it can hold that CO2 in a rapidly changing world.
Author Information
Henry C. Henson (hch@ecos.au.dk), Aarhus University, Denmark
Citation: Henson, H. C. (2026), Melting glaciers make the coastal ocean more sensitive, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260116. Published on 16 April 2026.
SANAA, June 9 — Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said yesterday that they would ban ships linked to Israel from the Red Sea after Israel renewed its military attacks on Iran, adding to concerns about global shipping and energy flows.This is why it matters and what it means for the Iran war and the global energy crisis:How big is the risk to global energy markets?Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz since Israel and the United States attacked it on February 28 has
SANAA, June 9 — Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said yesterday that they would ban ships linked to Israel from the Red Sea after Israel renewed its military attacks on Iran, adding to concerns about global shipping and energy flows.
This is why it matters and what it means for the Iran war and the global energy crisis:
How big is the risk to global energy markets?
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz since Israel and the United States attacked it on February 28 has disrupted most oil and other energy exports from the Gulf, raising prices and causing a major energy shock.
Saudi Arabia has responded by diverting more than 70 per cent of its normal daily crude exports to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
That has been a lifeline for the energy market, helping to keep down global oil prices.
Any sustained Houthi disruption to Red Sea shipping including potential attacks on shipping or ports could be a big problem.
When the Houthis launched attacks on Red Sea shipping in November 2023, Gulf oil exports were flowing freely, meaning cargoes were diverted to avoid the Red Sea, but not halted. This time, they are being loaded there.
A Houthi source told Reuters preventing Israeli ships from transiting the Red Sea was “a first step” but that if escalation continued, the group would stop any ships heading to Israel as well as other measures.
When the group attacked shipping during the Gaza war its stated target of Israel-linked vessels included any vessel belonging to any company that used Israeli ports and its attacks on those ships dissuaded most companies from using the route.
Who are the Houthis?
The Houthis emerged as a military, political and religious movement in north Yemen in the 1990s, fighting guerrilla wars against the government in Sanaa.
They adhere to the Zaydi sect of Shi’a Islam, and after the 2011 Arab Spring they strengthened ties with Iran and seized on instability to capture the capital in 2014, derailing a Gulf-backed political transition plan.
Saudi Arabia and Arab allies launched a military intervention months later to restore the ousted government and dislodge a group it saw as a proxy for Iran, Riyadh’s arch regional rival.
As Yemen’s civil war ground to a stalemate, the Houthis attacked oil installations and other infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with missiles and drones.
However, a 2022 truce between Yemen’s warring sides has largely held.
Are the Houthis an Iranian proxy?
Iran champions the Houthis as part of its regional “Axis of Resistance”, which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi’ite militias, though its ties with the Yemeni movement are less clear than with those other groups.
The Houthis do not recognise Iran’s supreme leader as their ultimate religious authority in the same way Hezbollah and the Iraqi groups do. Its motivations are mainly domestic, though it is ideologically aligned with Iran.
The US says Iran has armed, funded and trained the Houthis with help from Hezbollah. The Houthis deny being an Iranian proxy and say they develop their own weapons.
Houthi military helicopter flies over the Galaxy Leader cargo ship in the Red Sea in this photo released November 20, 2023. — Houthi Military Media handout pic via Reuters
What happened when the Houthis attacked Red Sea ships before?
After the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza, the Houthis began firing at Israel and on international shipping in the Red Sea, saying they were doing so in support of Palestinians.
The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea severely disrupted global shipping, prompting Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and other major companies to divert around Africa — a far longer, more expensive route.
A US-led mission to restore free navigation in the Red Sea involved repeated strikes on Houthi targets and a defensive campaign that shot down hundreds of drones and missiles.
But some Houthi attacks continued until last summer, only ending completely with the Gaza ceasefire in October.
What have they done during the latest Iran war?
While Hezbollah and the Iraqi groups joined the war early with rocket and drone fire after the first US and Israeli strikes on Iran, the Houthis have been comparatively quiet.
The group’s leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on March 5: “Our fingers are on the trigger at any moment should developments warrant it”.
Iranian military commanders have repeatedly warned the Houthis could join the war, with Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Esmaeil Qaani saying on June 1 they could choke off the Red Sea.
But before this week, the group’s only involvement was a few missile and drone attacks on Israel in late March and early April.
Why the Houthis have been relatively quiet so far is not entirely clear.
They and Iran may have wanted to use the threat of another major energy route closure to warn Israel and the United States off further escalations.
The Houthis may also feel less committed to Iran’s security than do Tehran’s other regional allies.
And the group may not want to antagonise its powerful, wealthy neighbour Saudi Arabia and risk reigniting the conflict at home. — Reuters
Spikes, fans, florets, waves, and other characteristics of marine creatures continue to shape the work of Lisa Stevens. The Bristol-based artist’s vibrant practice revolves around ceramic sculptures inspired by sea urchins, coral, nudibranchs, and other underwater organisms. Each piece is unique, with numerous colorful glazes and textures, and they often take on a fantastical quality, incorporating hybrid features that conjure associations with celestial objects, anatomy, and other facets of
Spikes, fans, florets, waves, and other characteristics of marine creatures continue to shape the work of Lisa Stevens. The Bristol-based artist’s vibrant practice revolves around ceramic sculptures inspired by sea urchins, coral, nudibranchs, and other underwater organisms. Each piece is unique, with numerous colorful glazes and textures, and they often take on a fantastical quality, incorporating hybrid features that conjure associations with celestial objects, anatomy, and other facets of nature.
Find more on Stevens’ Instagram, plus watch clay sculpting tutorials on YouTube.
Northward on our ten-week Great Bear Sea trip last summer, the first “new-to-us” stopover was Philip Inlet, a small notch on the east shore of Fitz Hugh Sound just south of Addenbroke Island. As you can see from the photo above, it was raining steadily when we arrived, making it challenging to spot the narrow […]
Northward on our ten-week Great Bear Sea trip last summer, the first “new-to-us” stopover was Philip Inlet, a small notch on the east shore of Fitz Hugh Sound just south of Addenbroke Island. As you can see from the photo above, it was raining steadily when we arrived, making it challenging to spot the narrow […]
A cartoon blue ring octopus remixed from annres' octopus I know that it's supposed to be an alien but it kinda looks like an octopus to me more than an alien.
A cartoon blue ring octopus remixed from annres' octopus I know that it's supposed to be an alien but it kinda looks like an octopus to me more than an alien.
Source: Earth’s Future
Greenhouse gas emissions are heating our atmosphere and oceans, and turning seawater more acidic. One of the myriad expected impacts of these conditions is a reduction in farming yields of shellfish, such as oysters and mussels. Coastal communities worldwide rely on these organisms for their economies and as a major food supply. However, exactly how climate change will affect oyster and mussel farming is not yet clear.
Using a novel experimental setup, Pernet et al.
Greenhouse gas emissions are heating our atmosphere and oceans, and turning seawater more acidic. One of the myriad expected impacts of these conditions is a reduction in farming yields of shellfish, such as oysters and mussels. Coastal communities worldwide rely on these organisms for their economies and as a major food supply. However, exactly how climate change will affect oyster and mussel farming is not yet clear.
Using a novel experimental setup, Pernetet al. report new projected yields of oyster and mussel farming in the Mediterranean Sea for the years 2050, 2075, and 2100. Their results suggest that by 2050, yields of both shellfish will drop dramatically, with mussel production perhaps collapsing altogether.
Most prior studies have assessed shellfish in tank experiments under fairly idealized conditions that do not adequately reflect real-world aquaculture settings. This research team took a different approach. They developed a novel system for exposing oysters and mussels in tanks to realistic conditions using water pumped in from the sea, meaning the animals would experience fluctuations in acidity, temperature, and nutrients similar to those experienced by shellfish on nearby farms.
The researchers set up 12 experimental tanks on the French Mediterranean coast in the Thau lagoon, where shellfish farming is key for the local economy. In three tanks, oysters and mussels were exposed directly to pumped-in seawater under present, ambient conditions. The rest of the tanks received seawater that was first warmed and acidified in accordance with widely accepted climate projections for 2050, 2075, and 2100, with three tanks for each year.
The survival rate of oysters in the tanks with predicted 2100 conditions dropped by 7% compared to present rates, and their growth rate dropped by 40%. These results suggest that yields of farmed oysters in the Mediterranean could drop severely over the next several decades.
The mussels fared even worse. In fact, compared to oysters, mussels have a lower range of water temperatures in which they can survive, and the upper limit is already being exceeded in some summertime Mediterranean waters, leading to mass-mortality events. In the experimental tanks under present conditions, mussel mortality was about 40%, and nearly all mussels died under predicted 2050 conditions.
On the basis of these findings, the researchers call for the urgent development of strategies to protect Mediterranean shellfish farming, such as relocating mussel-farming operations to the cooler waters of open seas or developing cofarming with algae to increase resilience to climate change. (Earth’s Future, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EF005992, 2025)
—Sarah Stanley, Science Writer
Citation: Stanley, S. (2026), Mediterranean mussel farming could collapse by 2050, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260121. Published on 17 April 2026.
Two days after we left Philip Inlet last June, we reached our second “new-to-us” anchorage – a secluded little hurricane hole in the Kittyhawk Group of islands in the Hakai Recreation Area. The spot we’d chosen was guarded by an even narrower entrance than at Philip. Luckily it was low tide when we entered, so […]
Two days after we left Philip Inlet last June, we reached our second “new-to-us” anchorage – a secluded little hurricane hole in the Kittyhawk Group of islands in the Hakai Recreation Area. The spot we’d chosen was guarded by an even narrower entrance than at Philip. Luckily it was low tide when we entered, so […]
The maritime incident occurred a week after a Russian aerial drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in Romania's eastern Danube port city of Galati, injuring two people in the NATO member country.
The maritime incident occurred a week after a Russian aerial drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in Romania's eastern Danube port city of Galati, injuring two people in the NATO member country.
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