The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
It is now well-known that albatrosses use smell to find food and navigate the oceans. Now a new study has found that they are sensitive to odours in the air released by krill and phytoplankton living beneath the wavers. Gabrielle Nevitt of the University of California studied the behaviour of …
In recent times there has been an alarming trend: that of feeding ocean-caught fish to farmed fish. It takes five pounds of ocean fish to produce one pound of farmed fish, therefore putting an immense strain on the population of ocean fish. Going by the steadily decimating fish stocks in …
the Chilean government is considering a proposal made by an Australian oceanographer and a Japanese engineering company to fertilise the ocean with nitrogen. This would enhance the ocean's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide ( co 2 ), the greenhouse gas mainly responsible for global warming. The idea of piping nitrogen …
The Earth's oceans are going to dry up and disappear in approximately a billion years. Anyway by then there would be no human beings to mourn the loss as much of the carbon dioxide would have been used up, killing majority of the plants, which not only sustain the rest …
the ozone hole above Antarctica may not be damaging life in the ocean below. A team of researchers led by Kevin Arrigo of Stanford University in California, usa , has concluded that increased ultraviolet radiation has hardly affected marine plankton, the base of the ocean's food web. The team has …
Hurricanes, like Floyd, which lashed the eastern coast of USA in mid-September, may take a heavy toll on human settlements near the coasts, but there is good news for algae, going by the findings of Marilyn Fogel of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and her colleagues. The researchers discovered that …
over the past 22 years, ocean warming has caused an eight per cent increase in rainfall over the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific. Annie Wong, oceanographer at the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre ( acrc ) in Hobart, Australia, says that warmer ocean temperatures are intensifying the cycle of rainfall, …
Losing colourFrom central America to Austrelia, from the 2,000-km Great Barrier Ref to the small, reefs in Pacific islets, bleaching takes the life out of corals the world over Corals, the rainforests of the oceans, are dying. Victims of global warming, scientists say 10 per cent of the Earth's coral …
According to a study conducted by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, us, 1998 was the warmest year in 1,200 years . The rate of warming has also been on the rise since the 1970s, says a National Aeronautics and Space Administration study. This gives many scientists reason to believe that …
In the old days, miners carried canaries with them when they went to the shafts to dig out coal. Canaries were to serve as an indicator for the presence of the toxic methane gas in the mines. When the canaries showed any sign of discomfort, miners were forewarned of the …
Not only do oceans cover more than two-thirds of the Earth's surface they play a crucial role in the chemical and biological balance of life on the planet. They are vital to our food security, commerce and transportation. But human activity has troubled the oceans' health. Many fish species have …
from coastal zones to the high seas, a growing wave of awareness is bringing together citizen groups, businesses and governments, who are mobilising all their resources to save the oceans before human activities destroy them. This has been the conclusion of Anne Platt McGinn's study Safeguarding the Health of Oceans …
the Southern Ocean, comprising the southern-most parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans that surround Antarctica, is facing its greatest environmental threat ever. Illegal fishing boats are pushing marine life and seabirds to the brink of extinction. Particularly affected by this
A switch in the species of phytoplankton dominating the Southern Ocean off Antarctica could accelerate global warming. During an expedition to the Ross Sea, a team led by Kevin Arrigo of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC, found that diatoms dominated …
Oceans. The first thoughts that strike the mind are of vastness, depth, large expanses of blue-green water, aquatic life, hidden treasures and waves lapping the shores. Think some more and the realisation may dawn that we do not really appreciate all the services that they provide. Rich in marine flora …
THE whale shark is one of the biggest, mysterious and until recently, least loved of all marine creatures. They are the world's largest fish, growing up to 12 metres long and weighing up to 11 tonne. But the size does not neccesarily mean that they are easily visible. Until 10 …
THE flow of radioactive waste into the Irish Sea will be rapidly cut, Britain promised recently. But the clean-up will take much longer than what the government has suggested, say expert calculations. At a meeting of the member nations at the Oslo-Paris (OSPAR) convention on marine pollution in the northeast …
ONE good place to look for better and cheaper medicines has always been our planet's biological treasure house. It has furnished numerous inexpensive alternatives to many expensive medicines and chemicals. And scientists are rediscovering this amazing treasure house, coming up with new applications for plant and animal derivatives. Chicken feather, …
