The 2025 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS) opened in Xiamen, East China’s Fujian province on January 14, and will run until January 17. 

The event attracted more than 1,700 scholars, experts and student representatives from over 36 countries and regions such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and South Africa.  

Themed "Transformative Science and Technology for a Sustainable Ocean", XMAS 2025 is featuring 75 research topics and several side events, sharing the latest findings in global and regional marine environmental research, and showcasing frontier research in marine issues and innovative solutions. 

During the Symposium, workshops, salons, and sharing sessions are scheduled to be held to promote exchange and cooperation among global marine researchers.  

Focusing on climate changes, ocean acidification, ocean deoxygenation, and other ocean-related topics, the participants exchanged ideas on adopting the cutting-edge technologies such as AI and digital twin system to solve global marine environmental problems. 

The Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences (XMAS) was initiated by the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (Xiamen University) (MEL) in 2014 to promote interdisciplinary studies in marine environmental science and to foster the next generation of ocean scientists.  

Held every two years, XMAS has grown into one of Asia’s largest conferences in marine sciences, offering an open and inclusive platform for academic exchange in global and regional oceans. 

The 2025 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences is organized by the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (Xiamen University) (MEL) and Department of Earth Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and co-sponsored by several renowned marine research institutions at home and abroad such as the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO).