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​The first in-depth analyses of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) cycling in the Red Sea highlights the important role of migrating shoals of fish in sustaining deep-ocean microorganisms and potentially the global carbon cycle.

The biological carbon pump is a cyclical process by which inorganic carbon from the atmosphere is fixed by marine lifeforms and transported through ocean layers into the deepest waters and ocean sediments. Fish that feed at the surface at night and retreat to the mesopelagic zone (200 to 1000 meters depth) by day were thought to influence carbon cycling, but the extent of their contribution has never been explored.

Now, Maria Calleja and Xosé Anxelu Morán at KAUST’s Red Sea Research Center, and coworkers, demonstrate the impact of this daily migration on the vertical movement of carbon in the Red Sea and how it fuels the metabolism of single-celled heterotrophic prokaryotes belonging to the domains Bacteria and Archaea.

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New ways of feeding city populations are needed to cope with increasingly city-centered global populations. The availability of fresh water for agricultural use could limit traditional food production, and reliance on imported goods will be affected by rising fuel costs and environmental sustainability. TorOve Leiknes from KAUST is leading a research team in the burgeoning field of urban agriculture—finding ways to use city spaces to grow low-cost, high-quality organic food to provide a stable source of sustenance for city populations. 

For more than 20 years, Leiknes has focussed on the application of membrane technology in environmental engineering and is heavily involved in the development of advanced water treatment systems for sustainable water reuse. He now also applies his expertise to advanced water treatment in recycling aquaculture systems: knowledge that will now feed into the new aquaponics system at KAUST.

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​An eco-friendly coating-free strategy has now been developed to make solid surfaces liquid repellent, which is crucial for the transportation of large quantities of liquids through pipes. Researchers from KAUST’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center have engineered nature-inspired surfaces that help to decrease frictional drag at the interface between liquid and pipe surface.

Piping networks are ubiquitous to many industrial processes ranging from the transport of crude and refined petroleum to irrigation and water desalination. However, frictional drag at the liquid–solid interface reduces the efficiency of these processes.

Conventional methods to reduce drag rely solely on chemical coatings, which generally consist of perfluorinated compounds. When applied to rough surfaces, these coatings tend to trap air at the liquid–solid interface, which reduces contact between the liquid and the solid surface. Consequently this enhances the surface omniphobicity, or ability to repel both water- and oil-based liquids.

“But if the coatings get damaged, then you are in trouble,” says team leader, Himanshu Mishra, noting that coatings breakdown under abrasive and elevated temperature conditions.

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​As marine plastic pollution becomes an increasing concern worldwide, KAUST scientists report on two projects investigating plastic litter on and off the shores of the Red Sea.

To investigate plastics on beaches, the team has developed a method, using unmanned aerial vehicles and machine learning, to improve the monitoring of large swathes of coastal areas for plastic litter.

“We know that we dump millions of tons of plastic in the sea every year, but we don't know where this ends up,” explains marine science Ph.D. student Cecilia Martin. “One of the most influential scientists in the field of marine plastic pollution, Jenna Jambeck, from the University of Georgia, says we can't manage what we can't measure. So quantifying plastic on beaches is a key step to quantifying the whole of marine litter.”

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Image: Cecelia Martin flying the drone she uses to survey plastic pollution on the shores of the Red Sea.
© 2018 KAUST

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​Anemones use epigenetic mechanisms to regulate the expression of genes involved in their symbiosis with photosynthetic algae, according to new research from KAUST. The same mechanisms may help them respond to environmental stress and could be harnessed to improve the resilience of anemones and corals to the challenges posed by climate change.

A team at KAUST have sequenced anemone genomes using a technique that detects DNA methylation, a chemical tag attached to DNA that affects gene expression without altering the genetic sequence. They found that nearly 40 percent of anemone genes were methylated and that the methylation level of a gene correlated with its expression level.

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Image: An Aiptasia anemone without an algal symbiont.
© 2018 Guoxin Cui and Antonio Ruiz

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​By combining multiple nanomaterials into a single structure, scientists can create hybrid materials that incorporate the best properties of each component and outperform any single substance. A controlled method for making triple-layered hollow nanostructures has now been developed at KAUST. The hybrid structures consist of a conductive organic core sandwiched between layers of electrocatalytically active metals: their potential uses range from better battery electrodes to renewable fuel production.

Although several methods exist to create two-layer materials, making three-layered structures has proven much more difficult, says Peng Wang from the Water Desalination and Reuse Center who co-led the current research with Professor Yu Han, member of the Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center at KAUST. The researchers developed a new, dual-template approach, explains Sifei Zhuo, a postdoctoral member of Wang’s team.

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