According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1999), the Principle of Homonymy (Article 52) states that when two or more taxa are distinguished from each other, they must not be denoted by the same name because this would cause confusion. Consequently, in a case of homonymy, only the senior name may be used as valid (Art. 52.2). The ICZN (1999) also indicates that if the rejected junior homonym has no known available and potentially valid synonym, it must be replaced by a new substitute name (Art. 60.3), that is, a replacement name.

Three fossil tube fragments from middle Eocene to late Oligocene strata in western Washington State, USA, are here interpreted as those of ancient Ceriantharia (Hexacorallia, Cnidaria). The tube fragments are 3–6 mm in diameter, up to 60 mm long, and the surfaces show an overlapping, fibrous knitted pattern. This surface pattern resembles that of the extant ceriantharid Cerianthus membranaceus. One specimen has numerous benthic foraminiferans associated with, and apparently even embedded in, the tube wall, analogous to some extant Ceriantharia. These fossils likely represent the first fossil Ceriantharia and indicate that their present-day mode of tube construction using ptychocysts was established at latest by the middle Eocene.

Marine microorganisms play a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles, especially in the surface microlayer (SML), which differs from adjacent subsurface waters (SSW). In this study, we sampled the SML and SSW at 20 sites along the western Antarctic Peninsula during the summers of 2015 and 2019, examining microbial, viral and environmental differences. We focused on phototrophic protists, specifically Phaeocystis-like species, known for their high dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) contents, which can be released through viral lysis. DMSP is a precursor to dimethylsulphide (DMS), a gas influencing Earth’s climate. We hypothesized a significant relationship between Phaeocystis-like abundance and DMSP concentration, with strong interactions with their specific viruses (V4) in the SML. Most biotic variables showed higher mean values in the SML, although these differences often were not statistically significant. DMSP concentrations correlated with Phaeocystis-like species abundance in both layers (R2 = 0.482, P ≤ 0.01; R2 = 0.532, P ≤ 0.01, respectively), whereas V4 abundance significantly correlated with Phaeocystis-like species only in the SML (R2 = 0.572, P ≤ 0.01). These results suggest stronger interactions between viruses and DMSP-rich hosts in the SML, potentially increasing DMS emissions to the atmosphere and impacting climate regulation.

Radiocarbon (14C) activity in aquatic environments is usually different from that of the atmosphere, the result being that organisms that grow in these different environments will have different 14C ages, even though they are contemporary. This age offset in marine samples is known as the “marine reservoir effect.” The marine calibration curve takes this effect into account as a global approximation, but local variations due to ocean dynamics and other factors must be individually studied and corrected for. With a littoral of more than 11,000 km and a great interest in dating malacological marine samples, Mexico has scarce local reservoir effect studies. Most of the available data come from studies done in the 1960s and 1990s. In this study, we present new reservoir effect corrections for four sites in the Pacific Ocean with positive ΔR values as expected, and one from the Caribbean Sea with a negative average value of ΔR. The results were obtained by dating known-age shells from the malacological collection of the Natural History Museum Felipe Poey, in Havana, Cuba. This new data will be useful to do more precise reservoir effect corrections to malacological samples of the region, with special interest in contexts where it is difficult to date other kinds of organic samples, due to difficulties in their preservation.

Buildings are major global energy consumers, accounting for 20%–40% of total energy use in developed nations, exceeding industrial and transport sectors. This rising consumption, caused by population growth, higher living standards, and pervasive energy-intensive technologies, underscores the urgent need for enhanced energy efficiency in the built environment. These measures are vital for environmental sustainability, societal well-being, and balanced development.Reducing building energy demand is both an environmental and societal challenge, requiring a holistic approach. This includes energy efficiency, renewable energy adoption, and occupant behavioural changes, balancing technical and societal challenges to achieve net-zero aspirations. Achieving net-zero aspirations demands collaboration among stakeholders, including governments, developers, and building occupants. We invite contributions on the role of buildings in urban energy reduction, focusing on services technologies, new design initiatives, and AI in building management. The importance of existing building archetypes and their potential for energy demand management through efficient envelopes and technological advances is also a key consideration. We welcome various formats, including literature reviews, research papers, and case studies, that use both quantitative and qualitative data to analyse pilot projects, stock modelling, or city-scale proposals.

The Southern Ocean remains one of the most data-deficient ocean basins despite its crucial role in global climate regulation. This study uses racing sailboats from the Barcelona World Race (2010/2011 and 2014/2015) and the Vendée Globe Race (2020/2021) as vessels of opportunity to collect sea-surface temperature and salinity measurements, offering a unique dataset for assessing oceanographic variability in this remote region. We conducted an inter-annual analysis of surface temperature and salinity anomalies relative to ARMOR-3D reanalysis and World Ocean Atlas 2023 climatological datasets, identifying regional patterns of change and variability. The results reveal a warming trend and general freshening of the Southern Ocean surface over the last decade, with the highest anomalies observed in the Indian and Atlantic sectors, whereas the Pacific sector showed the lowest anomalies in absolute terms. Notably, El Niño-Southern Oscillation (La Niña) and Southern Annular Mode phases played a significant role in modulating these temperature and salinity anomalies. This study underscores the scientific value of non-research vessels in monitoring climate-driven changes in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters, highlighting their potential to complement traditional observation networks in data-sparse regions.

Terrestrial vascular plants affect Earth’s long-term geological processes, contributing to carbon cycling, chemical weathering and soil formation. Plants transport elements from the soil to their above-ground structures, accumulating a range of macroelements including Na, K, Mg, Ca, Si, S, P and Cl. Wildfire combustion concentrates these macroelements into inorganic ash. This ash is dominated by oxides, carbonates, halides, sulfates and phosphates of Na, K, Mg and Ca. This work describes K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃, which occurs abundantly in the ash of the desert spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri), a plant native to the Sonoran Desert. Electron microprobe analysis, powder X-ray diffraction Rietveld refinement and Raman spectroscopy confirm that this phase matches synthetic rhombohedral (R3) K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃. This phase forms during the smouldering combustion of D. wheeleri trunks, producing friable, decimetre-sized, porous, ash lumps that pseudomorphically preserve the plant’s fibrous structure. This ash occurs as glassy, sintered, porous aggregates, dominated by K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃, with sylvite, calcite, fairchildite, arcanite and minor hydroxyapatite and periclase. Several double K–Ca carbonates form under surficial pressures and temperatures below ~800°C, including K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃, and bütschliite (K₂Ca(CO₃)₂) and its dimorph, fairchildite. The occurrence of rhombohedral K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃ and fairchildite are consistent with smouldering between 518 and 780°C. Upon exposure to water, K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃ rapidly decomposes, leaving calcite. The occurrence of K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃ as a major phase in the plant ash expands our understanding of Earth’s mineral diversity, provides new insights into the widespread geological process of wildfire ash formation and highlights the role that these fires play in forming mineral phases that are rare in other geological settings. Though K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃ was first identified in Dasylirion wheeleri, this phase probably forms in other fire-adapted plant species. The occurrence of K₂Ca₂(CO₃)₃ in plant ash is an example of an inorganic phase that bridges the gap between biomineralisation and geological mineral formation.

Organismal metabolic rate is linked to environmental temperature and oxygen consumption, and as such, may be a useful predictor of extinction risk. This is especially true during major climate-driven extinctions, given the tightly linked stressors of warming and hypoxia. However, metabolic attributes can be quantified in different ways, highlighting differing aspects of organisms’ ecology. Here, we estimate resting whole-body and mass-specific metabolic rates in post-Carboniferous bivalve taxa using body size, seawater paleotemperature, and a taxon-specific adjustment factor to assess how metabolic rate correlates with survival both during and outside intervals of rapid climate warming, or “hyperthermals.” Accounting for the effects of geographic range size, we find a pattern of preferential extinction of bivalves with lower total calorific needs, consistent with increasing body size and the postulated ramping up of ecosystem energetics over the Meso-Cenozoic. Contrary to expectations, extinction selectivity based on total calorific needs, which emphasizes body size, does not differ between hyperthermals and other time intervals. However, a higher metabolic rate per gram of tissue—which is more strongly determined by environmental temperature than by body size—consistently increases the probability of extinction during hyperthermals relative to baseline conditions, particularly within the paleotropics. This serves to highlight the potential significance of environmental temperature on metabolic performance, particularly in organisms that are already living close to their thermal limits. In tandem with previously documented patterns of extinction selectivity based on relative activity levels, including motility and feeding style, these results enhance our understanding of the role of metabolic rate through time and during climate-driven extinctions. When standardized by mass, metabolic rate may represent a useful metric through which to predict the effects of anthropogenic climate change on modern marine faunas.

The paper explores the accuracy of WiFi-Round Trip Timing (RTT) positioning in indoor environments. Filtering techniques are applied to WiFi-RTT positioning in indoor environments, enhanced by Residual Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)-based outlier detection. A Genetic and Grid filter are compared with a Particle filter and single-epoch least-squares across a range of test scenarios. In static scenarios, 67% of trials had sub-metre accuracy and 90.5% had a root mean square error (RMSE) below 2 m. In Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) conditions, 38% of trials had sub-metre accuracy, whereas for environments with full Line-of-Sight (LOS) conditions, 95.2% of trials had sub-metre accuracy. In scenarios with motion, 22.2% of trials had sub-metre accuracy. RSSI-based outlier detection in NLOS conditions, provided an average improvement of 41.3% over no outlier detection across all algorithms in the static and 14% in the dynamic tests. The Genetic filter achieved a mean improvement of 49.2% in the static and 47% in the dynamic tests compared with least squares.

The spatial competition in the White Sea’s Halichondria panicea sponge was studied through a field experiment assessing growth in isogeneic and allogeneic sponge fragments of equal or different sizes. After 3 months and 1 year in seawater, growth was evaluated using ImageJ software on photographs. Intraspecific competition among allogeneic H. panicea individuals led to a decrease in relative growth, with the size of interacting individuals influencing competitive strategy. Optimal growth occurred when competitors were larger, minimal when sizes were equal, suggesting an alternative competitive strategy in the latter case. Competition between isogeneic individuals of H. panicea was weak or even absent; fusion of isogeneic fragments increased the growth intensity and substrate coverage by the sponge. Analysing the growth directions of sponges, we have found a phenomenon that may be interpreted as an attempt to ‘avoid’ physical contact with a competitor. In the neighbourhood with an allogeneic individual of larger or smaller size, the growth towards the competitor was lower than in other directions, regardless of whether the neighbouring individuals reached contact with each other or not. This may indicate that growth was redirected due to some distant communication mechanisms. The growth of allogeneic and isogeneic explants before contact occurred in a similar manner. Apparently, H. panicea cannot recognize the genetic nature of a competitor at a certain distance.