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An international team of researchers reports that these largely overlooked subtropical lakes offer an unparalleled opportunity to monitor biodiversity, water quality, pollution and ecosystem resilience in a rapidly changing world.

Published in One Ecosystem, the study is the first comprehensive assessment of the Southern American Coastal Shallow Subtropical Lakes, highlighting their global scientific importance and outlining a roadmap for long-term international monitoring.

"Most of what we know about lakes comes from the Northern Hemisphere," said lead author Mariana Kluge of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

"These subtropical lakes fill a major gap in global freshwater research. They allow us to test ecological theories under very different environmental conditions while providing crucial insights into how subtropical freshwater ecosystems respond to climate change and increasing human pressures," said Renata Medina-Silva of Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).

A vast system under strain

The lake network forms one of the largest continuous coastal shallow-lake systems on Earth. Despite its extraordinary size and diversity, it has received far less scientific attention than well-known freshwater systems elsewhere in the world.

Yet the region is already experiencing many of the environmental challenges expected to intensify in the coming decades—including a direct impact of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation—alongside heavy urbanization, which has driven eutrophication, agricultural and wastewater pollution, emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and microplastics, and increasingly frequent extreme rainfall and flooding events.

Lakes as early-warning systems

Christian Wurzbacher of the Technical University of Munich argues that these lakes can serve as "sentinel ecosystems"—natural observatories that reveal early signs of environmental change.

By combining microbial ecology, environmental DNA, remote sensing, water chemistry and long-term ecological monitoring, scientists hope to develop new indicators capable of detecting ecosystem stress before irreversible damage occurs.

"Our vision is to establish an internationally coordinated monitoring network that not only benefits South America, but also improves our understanding of freshwater ecosystems worldwide. The microbial communities living in these lakes can act as highly sensitive biological sensors, helping us identify pollution, ecosystem degradation and even emerging public health risks," said Haig of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).

Building a long-term research network

The publication emerged from an international workshop held at two universities—PUCRS and UFRGS—in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, bringing together researchers from Brazil, Uruguay, Germany and Sweden to define future research priorities.

The team identified four representative large-scale lake regions that together capture the broad environmental gradients across the system and offer ideal sites for coordinated long-term observation.

As climate change accelerates and pressures on freshwater resources continue to grow, the researchers believe that protecting and studying these remarkable lake systems will generate knowledge extending far beyond South America—informing global strategies for safeguarding biodiversity, improving water management and strengthening resilience to environmental change.

More information

Mariana Kluge et al, Coastal subtropical Southern American shallow lakes as unique ecosystems for monitoring anthropogenic induced ecosystem changes, One Ecosystem (2026). DOI: 10.3897/oneeco.11.e186107

Who's behind this story?

Sadie Harley

BSc Life Sciences & Ecology. Microbiology lab background with pharmaceutical news experience in oil, gas, and renewable industries. Full profile →

Robert Egan

Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language. Full profile →

Citation: Over 100 South American lakes could become climate-change early-warning observatories (2026, August 3) retrieved 3 August 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-08-south-american-lakes-climate-early.html

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 Pozzebon, who studied International Journalism at City University, London, is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese as well as his native Italian. He previously served as a contributor for CNN in Bogota, Colombia, and before that in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was instrumental in the network’s coverage across Latin America in English and Spanish.

Pozzebon “most recently reported from Venezuela after twin earthquakes struck the country within seconds of each other, causing widespread damage and killing thousands of people,” according to a CNN statement. He also reported on Colombia’s recent presidential election and the ongoing changes inside Venezuela “since U.S. forces snatched Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro earlier this year,” it went on to note.

Pozzebon, who is 35, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Italy list in 2017 and also nominated for a 2016 Livingston Award for a documentary about fake pharmaceutical trafficking in Western Africa.

“CNN is committed to investing in on-the-ground reporting in Europe, which continues to play a pivotal role in many of the biggest stories shaping the global agenda – from politics and the environment to sport, culture and more,” Andrew Roy, CNN London Bureau Chief and EMEA General Manager, said in the statement.

He added: “Stefano is an experienced, multilingual journalist with deep roots in the region, making him uniquely placed to deliver authoritative, original reporting that will help audiences understand what’s happening across Europe and the Mediterranean, and why it matters to the rest of the world.” %!s()

Juno Temple, who plays Keeley Jones on the Apple TV series, asked her agents something similar. “I was like, ‘Oh, do you think they want me?’” she says, and she was deadly serious at the time.

The answer to both women was an unequivocal “yes.”

On Aug. 5, three years after signing off, Ted Lasso will return with an all new season and both actresses are very much a part of it. At 10 episodes, it will turn its focus from the AFC Richmond men’s soccer team, which had been at the center of the first three seasons, to its female team, affectionately dubbed the Lady Greyhounds. Creator and star Jason Sudeikis will be back, too, though the actors who portrayed players have been replaced by actresses, which was a necessary creative decision on the part of its writers. The new season is not a spinoff — but it isn’t a traditional continuation of the mothership either. 

“You’re like, it’s not Frasier; Cheers still exists,” says Brett Goldstein, writer/executive producer who also plays Roy Kent, in THR’s July 22 cover story. “It’s more like you’re adding a room to the bar.”

The first episode of the new season was filmed last summer in Coach Lasso’s (and Sudeikis’) native Kansas City, and both Temple and Waddingham were admittedly nervous to be back. It had been more than three years, after all. “We were like, ‘How do we do this? How do we do this?’ And then we sat down to eat ribs and we went, ‘Oh, right,’” says Waddingham.

“We just didn’t want to do it a disservice, when it was such a beautiful thing — you don’t want to turn into cartoon characters,” she continues. “I’ve never done something for this long and I would never want to step into a caricature of what we’ve created in purity. So I think we were all just trying to keep it rooted, but we were also giddy as shit.” 

Before long, they were back in England, filming the remainder of the season with a new cast of actresses in place. As the female veterans on set, Waddingham and Temple segued into unofficial mentoring roles, doing their best to prepare their co-stars in the event that their lives and careers are transformed by the show in the same way that Waddingham and Temple’s were six years earlier. “I was teasing them, like, ‘Just wait till you see your face on a great big billboard,” says Waddingham. “Like, you fucking wait!”

The irony is that Waddingham’s casting once took convincing. At the time, executives from Apple, who were just breaking into the TV business, are said to have wanted a big, marketable name in the role — and Waddingham’s carried weight only in the British theater community. So, she reached out to her former boss, Game of Thrones’ D.B. Weiss, and asked that he send a letter on her behalf. He agreed, firing off an emphatic recommendation to those upstairs. The subject line, according to Waddingham: “Why are we even having this conversation?”

Not long after, Waddingham booked the role of Rebecca Welton, the posh and steely new owner of AFC Richmond. According to Sudeikis, the character had been named after his Tumbledown costar Rebecca Hall, who he’d considered early on in the development process; then Waddingham came through, and he knew instantly that they’d found their Rebecca. In fact, she still remembers walking out of the audition noting to the U.S. casting director that the Rebecca character, unlike Waddingham herself, doesn’t sing, to which she heard Sudeikis say: “She does now.”

As for Temple, she’d worked with Sudeikis’ ex, Olivia Wilde, on HBO’s Vinyl, and heard directly from him via text about the Keeley role. At the time, her resume was light on comedy — frankly, it was light on lightness. “I’d played a lot of young women who were figuring out where they are in the world and what that means,” Temple says, “and as most women can relate to, that can sometimes be really painful.”

The opportunity to star in a half-hour comedy came as a legitimate shock. “I genuinely thought that Jason had accidentally texted the wrong person,” she says, which is why she replied with some version of: “This is Juno, by the way.” (She and the late Anthony Head, who played Rupert, Rebecca’s ex and the former owner of AFC Richmond, were the only two in the original cast who didn’t come through the traditional audition process.)

To this day, Temple insists that she provides comedy on Lasso without fully appreciating why she or the lines that she’s uttering are even funny. Her co-stars suggest that it’s often funny because she isn’t trying to be funny. “Some of the funniest days are when JuJu goes, ‘What does that mean and why is it funny?’” says Waddingham. “You’re like, ‘Doesn’t matter. Do it like that. It’s excellent.’”

Ted Lasso returns to Apple TV on August 5, and rolls out episodes weekly. Read THR‘s cover story with Jason Sudeikis and the Ted Lasso cast on why they returned for season four. %!s()

Now, the first national-level study of this competition reveals that coastal wetlands—among the country's most valuable ecosystems, protecting infrastructure and providing homes for wildlife—are losing ground: 84% are gradually inundating, with many on track to transform into open water.

Wetlands along the Gulf Coast are generally faring the worst, while certain stretches of the Atlantic Coast appear more resilient. Some wetlands may be able to migrate inland or build up sediment fast enough to keep pace with sea level rise, perhaps with the right help from land managers.

"Our study provides wetland managers with new information to help them make better-informed decisions and identify meaningful solutions to issues they may be encountering, including facilitating wetland migration upslope," said Glenn Guntenspergen, a coastal wetland ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and senior author on the study.

The study appears in Earth's Future.

Water, water everywhere

Globally, sea level rise averaged 1.7 millimeters per year during the 20th century but has sped up in recent decades, hitting 3.8 millimeters per year from 2006 to 2018. Up to a point, higher water levels can stimulate the growth of wetland plants, a phenomenon that has helped many wetlands persist until now. But even the most water-loving plants can only take so much.

"All coastal plants have optimal ranges," Guntenspergen explained. "But if they get flooded too much, then the system shuts down. The plants decrease production and eventually die."

Justine Neville, a wetland ecologist at Duke University and lead author on the study, noted that many endangered and endemic species and migratory birds in the United States depend on these ecosystems for habitat. Wetlands dissipate the impact of storm surges, protecting buildings and transportation networks in coastal towns and cities.

People visit them to go bird-watching or, in some places, hunting. All told, Neville said, coastal wetlands in the United States provide trillions of dollars' worth of services every year.

"There's a whole host of benefits to culture, to flora and fauna, and economically speaking, so it is really important that we understand how [wetlands] are changing," she said.

To get a nationwide view of that change, the team drew on existing data from nearly 450 monitoring stations across the contiguous U.S. coasts tracking wetlands' elevations for up to 20 years. Comparing these data with tide-gauge data allowed them to see which wetlands were—and weren't—gaining elevation fast enough to stay above water.

Previous studies had mostly looked at just a handful of wetlands at a time, partly due to the laborious nature of the fieldwork. It takes hours to gather data from the analog devices that track sediment buildup and land subsidence in wetlands, Neville said, and even to reach the site, researchers must cross marshy ground carrying heavy equipment. Access sometimes requires a boat; Guntenspergen recalls one site so remote it demanded a helicopter.

"The logistics are quite daunting," he said.

A fighting chance remains

The team found that 89% of coastal wetlands are gaining elevation through sediment buildup, but only 16% are doing so fast enough to outpace sea level rise, while the rest are submerging. "I was not very surprised, to be honest," Neville said. "A lot of the literature that we've read from all the different regions is showing similar results."

However, regional differences still emerged. Overall, the Atlantic Coast appeared least vulnerable: Submergence is slow enough at about 75% of Atlantic monitoring stations to rule out any critical threat of submergence, partly thanks to higher rates of marine sediment deposition from ocean waves.

In contrast, submergence is fastest on the Gulf Coast, where wetlands sink under the weight of numerous human pressures in addition to sea level rise. Neville cited the historical impact of shipping canals altering the Gulf's waterways, which has lessened the flow of river sediments that sustain wetlands, and of oil and gas extraction, which reduces pressure underground enough that wetlands above literally subside.

"What is really important about what we found, though, is how many of these wetlands have the opportunity to migrate," Neville said. Some 73% of wetlands in the study still have a chance to expand inland rather than drown in place, provided the land slope isn't too steep and no human structures block the way. Gulf wetlands may have the most available space, while hills and cliffs often hem in their Pacific counterparts.

Having all this information can help reveal where land management solutions—including removing dikes, artificially adding sediment to wetlands and protecting inland areas for wetlands to migrate into—will have the most impact.

"It's not all doom and gloom," Neville said. "Yes, there is an urgency to understand what's happening with our wetlands, but one thing this paper can demonstrate is where we might want to focus our conservation efforts."

Publication details

Ecological transformations of coastal wetlands of the conterminous United States in response to contemporaneous sea-level rise, Earth's Future (2026). DOI: 10.1029/2025EF006836

Who's behind this story?

Sadie Harley

BSc Life Sciences & Ecology. Microbiology lab background with pharmaceutical news experience in oil, gas, and renewable industries. Full profile →

Robert Egan

Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language. Full profile →

Citation: Rising seas are inundating US coastal wetlands, putting many on track to become open water (2026, August 3) retrieved 3 August 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-seas-inundating-coastal-wetlands-track.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. %!s()

This isn't a review: after about 6 hours we've conquered a whole mess of puzzles but there's still most of the island left to tackle, and I can't wait to get back in there for more.

After a tutorial consisting of just a few signs on the wall telling us how to use our arms and legs, we set off onto a sprawling island covered in trees, rivers, rocks, and brightly colored puzzle-structures scattered around the landscape. Each puzzle awards a prize I internally call a nubbin (because it doesn't, as far as I know, have a name) and those nubbins have a use I won't specify, but the more of them you collect the deeper into the island you'll begin to explore.

The puzzles, honestly, aren't terrifically hard to figure out so far: the real challenge comes from communication and logistics because no puzzle can be solved alone. At minimum, you need two players, and the puzzles scale up to four: for example, if a puzzle in a two-player session needs both players to hold down buttons at the same time, a four-player session will feature four buttons.

Stray more than a few yards from a pal and you'll have to strain to hear their voice over proximity chat. Another few steps and you won't be able to hear them at all. You can communicate visually by pointing and waving your noodly arms, and there are items you can find and put to use: walkie-talkies, laser pointers, flashlights, even signs you can type messages on.

But those objects all have to be carried in your hands, and you can only carry one thing at a time—at least until you start finding useful accessories like backpacks and holsters. If you take a tumble you'll drop your item, which may bounce away into the woods or down the side of a mountain. Even if you don't drop your item, you'll have to ditch it if you find something else you want to carry.

That's been the real challenge so far: not so much the puzzle solutions but navigating, communicating, and juggling the items we need to bring with us or leave behind. Even when everyone agrees on a course of action, that plan can fall apart by someone tumbling down a hill, getting lost, slipping out of earshot, or to use one specific example, the time Tyler accidentally kicked the binoculars we just found off the top of a tall tower and into the woods below.

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Thing is, Big Walk is so chill that little disasters like that are just kinda funny. It's a beautiful, peaceful world, there are no scares or monsters, and no death or fail state. The worst that can happen is someone falls off a ledge or drops an item or gets lost. No problem. We'll take a detour. We'll make do without a walkie-talkie. We'll eventually find each other. There's no need to stress.

My favorite intersection of Big Walk's systems was when we were working on a puzzle (don't worry, I won't spoil the solution) where we were separated by soundproof glass. We didn't have walkie-talkies with us, so I communicated non-verbally to signal Tyler and Morgan to perform certain actions on the other side of the glass. First, I tried pointing at things, but that wasn't clear enough, so we tried a system where I raised and lowered my arms in a sequence. That worked a lot better and we got halfway through the puzzle.

But there's a day-night cycle in Big Walk, and as the sun set, the world grew dark—like not "videogame dark," but realistically dark. Since the wall behind me was green, and I had coincidentally chosen to paint my body green earlier in the game, I started blending into the wall behind me in the dim light. That meant Morgan and Tyler could no longer clearly see my arm motions—and they couldn't tell me they couldn't see my arm motions because I was behind soundproof glass.

When I saw them doing the wrong action, I ran to the glass and pounded my little fists on it, hoping to alert them: but their backs were turned and they couldn't hear the "tink tink tink" of my hands beating on glass because, again, soundproofing.

We had to start the puzzle over again, but it was such a silly situation none of us minded, and on our final try we also found a solution to the darkness problem. Third time's the charm.

Progress in Big Walk is tantalizing: reaching a new area means gaining a new view of the island, getting glimpses of more puzzles and structures and features in the distance, giving your efforts a new direction. It's like stepping into a more relaxed version of Myst or The Witness: there are lots of mysteries on the island to unravel but no frustration to go along with them—and you've got your friends there to help.

Before you visit the island for yourself, I'm issuing a final warning: Don't play this Big Walk while chatting with your pals over Discord. Only use in-game proximity chat. The game will warn you as such on first launch, and while many prox chat games are still just as fun over Discord, this one isn't.

Being able to hear your friends no matter where they are will make things far too easy and will rob you of some of the creative solutions and little disasters that makes the world so satisfying to explore. To accommodate, Big Walk comes with high quality voice chat that includes noise cancelling and a dedicated mute button.

Plus, the faster you solve the puzzles, the quicker you'll finish Big Walk—and this is one game where you definitely don't want to rush to the end. It's out August 4.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own. %!s()