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At a time when traditional fieldwork is coming under pressure, be it from shrinking budgets, reducing carbon footprints, increased concerns for personal safety or the desire to make field skills accessible to all, how do we ensure that the key skills of observation, data collection and landscape analysis can still be developed in our students? This paper evaluates the experiences of students using immersive virtual reality (VR) to interrogate highly accurate georeferenced landscape models, made from data collected by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, through the medium of Q methodology. It finds that there appears to be an association between prior engagement and expertise with IT and gaming technologies, such that those who declare some degree of prowess engage with and embrace the opportunities of using VR. This suggests that to allow more students to adopt positive approaches to learning in this manner, educators need to worry less about ever complex and realistic models, and invest more into positive prior experiences of using technology. Moreover, an important voice in the narrative around the physical nature of "being in the field" and social interaction with peers and tutors questions an approach that is still a relatively solitary experience.

Marine microbial communities are an untapped reservoir of genetic and metabolic diversity and a valuable source for the discovery of new natural products of biotechnological interest. The newly discovered hydrothermal vent field of Santorini volcanic complex located in the Aegean Sea is gaining increasing interest for potential biotechnological exploitation. The conditions in these environments, i.e., high temperatures, low pH values and high concentration of heavy metals, often resemble harsh industrial settings. Thus, these environments may serve as pools of enzymes of enhanced catalytic properties that may provide benefits to biotechnology. Here, we screened 11 metagenomic libraries previously constructed from microbial mat samples covering the seafloor and the polymetallic chimneys of Kolumbo volcano as well as mat samples from Santorini caldera, to mine, in silico, genes associated with bioenergy applications. We particularly focused on genes encoding biomass hydrolysis enzymes such as cellulases, hemicellulases and lignin-degrading enzymes. A total of 10,417 genes were found for three specific groups of enzymes—i.e., the endoglucanases, the three different beta-glucosidases BGL, bglX and bglB, and the alpha-galactosidases melA, and rafA. Overall, we concluded that the Santorini–Kolumbo volcanic ecosystems constitute a significant resource of novel genes with potential applications in bioenergy that deserve further investigation.

Hydrothermal vents represent a deep, hot, aphotic biosphere where chemosynthetic primary producers, fuelled by chemicals from Earth's subsurface, form the basis of life. In this study, we examined microbial mats from two distinct volcanic sites within the Hellenic Volcanic Arc (HVA). The HVA is geologically and ecologically unique, with reported emissions of CO2 -saturated fluids at temperatures up to 220°C and a notable absence of macrofauna. Metagenomic data reveals highly complex prokaryotic communities composed of chemolithoautotrophs, some methanotrophs, and to our surprise, heterotrophs capable of anaerobic degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons. Our data suggest that aromatic hydrocarbons may indeed be a significant source of carbon in these sites, and instigate additional research into the nature and origin of these compounds in the HVA. Novel physiology was assigned to several uncultured prokaryotic lineages; most notably, a SAR406 representative is attributed with a role in anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation. This dataset, the largest to date from submarine volcanic ecosystems, constitutes a significant resource of novel genes and pathways with potential biotechnological applications.

Cetaceans are considered bioindicators of the health state of marine ecosystems owing to their wide distribution across the different aquatic ecosystems in the world and their significant top‐down control role in the food chain, despite their low biomass. At the same time, effective management of wild cetacean populations severely affected by human pressure requires extensive knowledge on species distribution, habitat use, and associated threats. In this context, defining the factors that directly influence the local occurrence and distribution of cetaceans is one of the underlying challenges and is essential for their conservation and long‐term survival.Delphinus delphis sightings data, collected between 2017 and 2021 during 284 standardized vessel‐based surveys, were used to set up a presence–absence distribution model in the eastern Aegean Sea, eastern Mediterranean Sea. Binomial generalized additive models with logit as link function were run using the R package mgcv (restricted maximum likelihood method) and different biogeochemical explanatory variables collected from different sources.Longitude, latitude, salinity, chlorophyll a, dissolved ammonium, and dissolved phosphate were selected as non‐collinear predictive variables. Through a model validation based on a 10‐fold cross‐validation approach and a random data splitting procedure of 70%/30% (train/test dataset), a model formula has been selected with an explained deviance of 38.10%, an Akaike information criterion value of 1,661.3, and an area under curve of 0.91.The study confirms that long‐term time series of satellite‐derived data are useful to assess the occurrence and the spatial distribution of D. delphis, suggesting the need for a better understanding of the influence of these environmental factors especially in the framework of climate changes.Outcomes highlight the need to test further variables and further methods in order to provide increasingly reliable results in view of the conservation measures that must be adopted to stop or reduce the degree of pressure to which these species are subjected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, located in the southeastern Aegean Sea, Greece. The island's remarkable location both in a prominent geodynamic space and at a crossroads of East, West and South has endowed it with a unique wealth of geological, biological, cultural, and traditional heritage. Steep mountain ranges consisting of Alpine Mesozoic rocks alternate with low-altitude plateaus featuring marine and lacustrine sediments that contain fossils of past life. In addition, the transition of barren land to lush forests where numerous species of flora and fauna thrive is unique to Greek ecosystems. This environment hosted civilizations and activities that gradually led to the present-day cultural and religious state of the island, where people and nature coexist respectfully on one of the country's most favourite destinations. In an effort to further enhance the public's awareness of the geo-cultural heritage of Kos, an online ESRI Hub was created, featuring several individual ESRI StoryMaps web apps regarding each specific aspect of the island's heritage. The goal of this paper is to discuss the importance of using such means for disseminating geoscientific information to the public, to describe the methods used and to give a brief presentation of its content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]