Scientists call for urgent measures to protect underwater forests in a new global “Marine Animal Forests Manifesto”

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

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Scientists from around the world are calling for urgent action to protect, restore, and sustainably manage one of the ocean’s least known yet most important ecosystems: the Marine Animal Forests. The appeal is presented in the document Marine Animal Forests: A Manifesto, launched by an international team of experts led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain, together with the Università del Salento, Italy.

Marine Animal Forests (MAFs) are complex, three-dimensional habitats formed by organisms such as corals, sponges, bryozoans, and gorgonians that create extensive structures on the seafloor. These ecosystems, found from shallow tropical waters to deep cold seas, provide essential ecological services: they act as biodiversity hotspots, nursery areas for fisheries, and key elements in carbon cycling and coastal protection. Despite their ecological importance, MAFs remain largely understudied and are scarcely represented in global conservation policies.

“The health of Marine Animal Forests is essential to the ocean’s resilience”, says Dr. Ziveri, researcher at ICTA-UAB. “They are to the sea what tropical rainforests are to the land. Their degradation has cascading effects on marine biodiversity, food security, and climate stability”, she states.

“We are losing an ally, the loss of the Marine Animal Forest and any other forest has severe implications for several ecosystem services, from coastal protection to carbon immobilization, from fisheries to biodiversity”, remarks Dr Sergio Rossi, professor at the Università del Salento.

The Manifesto, coordinated under the MAF-WORLD COST Action, highlights that these underwater forests are under severe pressure from destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling, pollution—including microplastics—and the impacts of climate change, including ocean warming and acidification. Many of these habitats are already showing signs of decline or collapse, particularly in regions such as the Mediterranean, where centuries of exploitation have left deep ecological scars.

According to the authors, the protection of Marine Animal Forests requires both a scientific and policy transformation. Despite recent advances in marine ecology, these ecosystems still lack formal recognition in international frameworks and are often excluded from marine protected areas. The Manifesto calls for their inclusion in national and global biodiversity strategies, improved mapping and monitoring, and greater investment in restoration and public awareness.

“We still have a long road to go in understanding the distribution, function and health status of most of the habitats that conform the Marine Animal Forests”, says Dr. Rossi. He goes on to alert that, “losing the complexity of these forests is losing its functionality and the associated to the canopy biodiversity”.

The initiative brings together an international team of experts under the umbrella of the MAF-WORLD network (a COST action), which connects researchers, policymakers, and conservationists across continents. The document not only synthesizes current scientific knowledge but also serves as a policy-oriented appeal to governments and institutions to act before further irreversible loss occurs.

“Marine Animal Forests have been largely invisible to society and decision-makers”, adds Dr. Ziveri. “Recognizing them as living blue forests is essential to understanding their role in sustaining ocean life and mitigating climate change.”

The Manifesto concludes with a series of recommendations aimed at governments, international organizations, and the scientific community:

• Map and monitor Marine Animal Forests globally to fill existing knowledge gaps and provide a solid basis for their management.
• Integrate MAFs into national and international policy frameworks, recognizing them as vulnerable habitats deserving formal protection.
• Strengthen Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and ensure their effective enforcement, especially in deep and remote waters.
• Ban or restrict destructive activities such as bottom trawling and reducing anthropogenic pressures including pollution and sedimentation.
• Promote restoration initiatives and nature-based solutions focused on long-lived, structure-forming species.
• Include Marine Animal Forests in carbon-sequestration and biodiversity-credit mechanisms, recognizing their role in climate regulation.
• Raise public awareness by using the “forest” analogy to make these ecosystems more visible and relatable.

Through these actions, the authors hope to inspire a global movement for the recognition and protection of Marine Animal Forests as vital blue carbon ecosystems.

The publication of Marine Animal Forests: A Manifesto marks an important milestone for marine conservation science and policy. The document seeks to bridge the gap between research and decision-making, promoting international cooperation and a long-term commitment to ocean sustainability.
 

MANIFESTO https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/418447496/MAF_Manifesto_Final_version_20102025.pdf

MAF-World COST Action Network, Rossi, S., Ziveri, P., Rizzo, L., Rinkevich, B., Zorilla, J., Svendsen, J. C., & Allcock, A. L. (2025). Marine Animal Forests: a Manifesto. European Cooperation in Science and Technology. https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/marine-animal-forests-a-manifesto/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

 

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Article Title

Marine Animal Forests. A Manifesto

Article Publication Date

2-Dec-2025

Tyre and road abrasion as the biggest source of particulate emissions in road traffic

Study by Graz University of Technology shows that exhaust particles account for less than ten per cent of fine dust emissions from cars and trucks. Compliance with new air quality limits to take effect in 2030 will be nevertheless difficult to achieve

Graz University of Technology

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Measurements on the roller test benches at TU Graz.

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Credit: ITnA - TU Graz

Exhaust gases are no longer the most important emission factor from motor vehicles by far when it comes to particulate matter. This is shown by a large-scale study carried out by Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) for the FVV eV.in Germany, in which the non-exhaust emissions for the current European car fleet were also recorded. Due to the increasing proportion of electric vehicles and the reduction in exhaust emissions since the introduction of exhaust particulate filters with the EURO 5 and EURO 6 emissions standards, emissions from combustion engines now account for less than ten per cent of total vehicle emissions in the most common traffic situations. Instead, brake emissions, tyre and road abrasion and the resuspension of particles by car traffic are responsible for most of them.

Brake and exhaust emissions will decrease significantly

“However, with the introduction of the Euro 7 emissions standard in 2026, we expect a reduction in brake emissions of around 80 per cent in new vehicles by 2040,” says study leader Stefan Hausberger from the Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems at TU Graz. “This will be achieved through new braking technologies, such as hard metal coatings, as well as the increasing electrification of the car fleet, as electric cars generate a lot of braking energy through recuperation instead of conventional braking. And because particulate filter technology will continue to improve and the number of electric cars will increase, our simulations suggest that exhaust particulate emissions could fall by up to 90 per cent by 2040.”

The situation is different with tyre wear. The need for good grip and high safety does not go hand in hand with the desire for greatly reduced tyre wear. The tyres must interact with the road by means of friction so that the vehicles do not slide around on it as if on clear ice. The authors of the study therefore expect a maximum reduction potential of ten to 20 per cent over the next decade. Lower speed limits would achieve more. On the vehicle side, it is almost impossible to influence road abrasion and resuspended particles, which is why these will probably make up the largest proportion of traffic emissions in the future.

New limit values as of 2030 difficult to achieve

Due to the limited options for tyre and road abrasion and resuspended particles, the authors of the study expect that it could be difficult to comply with the new EU air quality limits as of 2030 at many measuring points, despite the calculated reductions in exhaust and brake emissions. The limit values for the mass of particles smaller than ten micrometres (PM10) will then be halved from 40 to 20 micrograms per cubic metre. “Our calculations show that compliance with EU air quality limits will be extremely tight as of 2030. Especially at locations with high traffic volumes and unfavourable conditions, such as tunnel portals or street canyons,” says Stefan Hausberger.

For the study, the researchers used the PHEM (Passenger car and Heavy duty Emission Model) software developed by TU Graz together with the Research Association for Combustion Engines and Thermodynamics (FVT). Originally developed for the simulation of exhaust emissions from a wide range of vehicle types, the researchers have expanded the software to include non-exhaust emissions by means of measurements they carried out themselves and data collected in the TU Graz Lead Project NExT as well as projects for the Swiss FOEN and EU Horizon, in order to simulate these consistently and on the basis of physical relationships. Thanks to the cooperation with the colleagues involved in the EU project LENS at the Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems, these simulations are also possible for two-wheelers.

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DOI

10.4271/2025-01-0361 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A Novel Simulation Method for Vehicle Brake Wear Emissions

Measurements on the roller test benches at TU Graz.

Measurements on the roller test benches at TU Graz.

Stefan Hausberger from the Institute of Thermodynamics and Sustainable Propulsion Systems at TU Graz.

Credit

ITnA - TU Graz

 

Pusan National University researchers use AI to create optimized engine components that outperform human designs

In the new breakthrough, the machine learning technology helps create 32% more efficient hydraulic pumps

Pusan National University

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Researchers from Pusan National University leverage advanced generative AI techniques to create novel, high-performance gerotor pump designs that significantly improve efficiency and reduce noise beyond traditional engineering methods. This breakthrough showcases AI’s transformative potential in automotive engineering, enabling smarter, quieter, and more reliable engine systems.

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Credit: Chul Kim from Pusan National University

Gerotor pumps for oil circulation and lubrication are crucial components in automotive and hydraulic systems. They possess a compact design, excellent flow rate per rotation, and high suction capability. The gerotor tooth profile plays a significant role in determining the overall performance of hydraulic systems for engine lubrication and automatic transmission. Unfortunately, conventional design methods leverage predefined mathematical curves and iterative adjustments, which compromises their optimization flexibility.

In an innovative breakthrough, a team of researchers from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Pusan National University, led by Professor Chul Kim, has proposed a new design methodology. Their findings were made available online on 10 October 2025 and have been published in Volume 162, Part D of the journal Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence on 24 December 2025.

The key point of this study is the use of AI, specifically, a conditional generative adversarial network, as a design tool. Instead of relying on the traditional approach of using predefined mathematical curves, the researchers trained an AI to automatically generate new gerotor profiles. The AI learned from a dataset linking specific, high-performance profile geometries to their actual performance data. This innovation allowed it to understand why certain shapes perform better than others, and then generate new, highly-optimized geometries that substantially outperform traditional designs.

The team demonstrated that their novel AI-generated design exhibits substantial performance gains in simulation validation via computational fluid dynamics. Compared to a traditional ovoid profile, the proposed design achieved a 74.7% reduction in flow irregularity. This means the pump's output is significantly more stable and consistent. It also shows a 32.3% increase in average flow rate, which indicates better volumetric efficiency, as well as a 53.6% reduction in outlet pressure fluctuation, which directly contributes to quieter operation and reduced vibration.

The most direct real-life applications of the present work are in the automotive industry. The reduction in pressure fluctuation and flow irregularity is highly beneficial here. It can lead to transmission systems that operate more quietly and could potentially improve component reliability by reducing vibration and unstable hydraulic stress. Furthermore, the 32.3% increase in average flow rate allows for more efficient oil circulation throughout the engine. This contributes to better lubrication and cooling of engine components, which is critical for engine durability.

Prof. Kim remarks: “The same principles demonstrated in our study are applicable to various hydraulic pumps used in industrial machinery, where efficiency, low noise, and reliability are important factors, making our technology highly lucrative for real-life adoption.”

In the next 5 to 10 years, methods like this could become a standard tool for engineers. It represents a move toward "inverse design," where an engineer can specify the desired performance targets, such as "minimize pressure fluctuation,” and the AI assists in generating an optimal geometry to meet those targets. Moreover, this approach can speed up the research and development cycle for complex mechanical components. It allows for the exploration of a much wider design space than is possible through traditional manual iteration.

“Crucially, for the public, the adoption of more optimal components can mean the machines we use daily become quieter and more reliable. In the automotive sector, this translates to vehicles with more efficient and durable hydraulic systems like transmissions and oil pumps,” concludes Prof. Kim.

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About Pusan National University

Pusan National University, located in Busan, South Korea, was founded in 1946 and is now the No. 1 national university of South Korea in research and educational competency. The multi-campus university also has other smaller campuses in Yangsan, Miryang, and Ami. The university prides itself on the principles of truth, freedom, and service and has approximately 30,000 students, 1,200 professors, and 750 faculty members. The university comprises 14 colleges (schools) and one independent division, with 103 departments in all.

Website: https://www.pusan.ac.kr/eng/Main.do

About the author

Chul Kim is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Pusan National University in Korea, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1997. His initial research expertise lies in Precision Manufacturing Systems, combining principles of FEA simulation (structure, dynamic, and fluid analysis), optimal structural design, and CAD/CAM/CAE. However, his recent work extensively focuses on Building Decarbonization, including energy calculation, computer-aided process planning, and the impact of occupant behavior. He has published significant research on renewable energy policies in Korea. 

Lab website address: https://chulki.pusan.ac.kr/chulki/index.do

Email id: chulki@pusan.ac. kr

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Journal

Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence

DOI

10.1016/j.engappai.2025.112604 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Machine learning-driven gerotor profile synthesis and optimization using Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks

Article Publication Date

24-Dec-2025

study’s first author, ISTA PhD student Sue Shi, places a particle inside the acoustic levitation setup.

article is being levitated in the acoustic levitation setup in the Waitukaitis group’s lab at ISTA.

Bouncing particles [VIDEO] 

Particles rearrange their configuration when the ISTA scientists trigger bounces on the levitation setup’s charged bottom reflector plate, coated with a thin layer of indium tin oxide (ITO). 

Credit

© Shi et al., PNAS

The study's authors. Left to right: ISTA Assistant Professor Carl Goodrich, PhD students Maximilian Hübl and Sue Shi, Assistant Professor Scott Waitukaitis. Not pictured: former ISTA postdoc Galien Grosjean.

Credit

© ISTA