Coral reefs have exceptional levels of biodiversity and provide important social and ecological services, including food, coastal protection, recreation, tourism, and cultural connections. However, local stressors and climate change are causing a sharp decline in coral reefs and the more than 230 international agreements with coral reef provisions have failed …
About 3,000 reindeer on an island near Antarctica are to be slaughtered to stop damage to the environment by the descendants of a tiny herd introduced a century ago for food by Norwegian whale hunters. A 16-strong team, mostly Sami reindeer herders, has arrived in South Georgia, a British overseas …
Acute catastrophic events can cause significant damage to marine environments in a short time period and may have devastating long-term impacts. In April 2010 the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon (DWH) offshore oil rig exploded, releasing an estimated 760 million liters of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This study examines …
THE World Bank has warned the planet is on track to warm by 4 degrees this century, leading to more extreme heat waves, lower crop yields and increased flooding, possibly as early as 2060. In a report released in the lead-up to the year-end United Nations climate summit in Qatar, …
Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change hit a new record in 2011, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on Tuesday. The volume of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, grew at a similar rate to the previous …
Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change hit a new record in 2011, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin on Tuesday. The volume of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, grew at a similar rate to the previous …
Every rainy season, the Guna people living on the Panamanian white sand archipelago of San Blas brace themselves for waves gushing into their tiny mud-floor huts. Rising ocean levels caused by global warming and decades of coral reef destruction have combined with seasonal rains to submerge the Caribbean islands for …
The owners of a ship which smashed into a reef off a popular New Zealand holiday spot, causing the country's worst environmental disaster in decades, pleaded guilty to causing marine pollution and were fined on Friday. Daina Shipping, a unit of Greece's Costamare Inc., pleaded guilty to a charge of …
Developed countries have agreed to double the funding to support efforts in developing States towards meeting the internationally agreed biodiversity targets, including the goals of the Strategic Plan for biodiversity 2011-2020. Governments of various States have agreed to increase the funding in support of actions to halt the rate of …
More research is needed to understand how ecosystems can help reduce disaster risks around the world, according to a report launched in Brussels, Belgium, today. The World Risk Report 2012 says that human development activities have "massively raised the hazard potential". It cites the destruction of coral reefs and mangrove …
Rising ocean temperatures have reduced rates of coral calcification and increased rates of coral mortality, thereby negatively impacting the health of coral reef ecosystems. Nevertheless, the response of corals to thermal stress seems to vary spatially across the reef environment. Here, we show that between 1982 and 2008 in the …
This new report shows how environmental degradation reduces the capacity of societies to deal with disaster risk in many countries around the world. It examines who is at risk from natural disasters, what contributes to this risk and what can be done about it. World Risk Report 2012, which shows …
Australia will establish three million square-kilometres of protected reef and marine life, particularly off Western Australia. Coral reefs worldwide are at risk from climate change, a study finds. The chance to save the world's coral reefs from damage caused by climate change is dwindling as man-made greenhouse gas emissions continue …
Underwater robots tasked with saving coral reefs are being developed at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Dubbed "coralbots", they are being designed to work in groups, in a similar manner to bees and ants. The team is still "training" the software that will control the bots to "recognise" corals and distinguish …
This study provides a quantitative approach that predicts the response of coral calcification to the combined effects of ocean acidification and global warming. The analysis suggests that warm-water aragonitic corals are more resilient to climate change than previously thought, whereas marine organisms that precipitate calcitic skeletons are particularly vulnerable.
Oceans' rising acid levels have emerged as one of the biggest threats to coral reefs, acting as the "osteoporosis of the sea" and threatening everything from food security to tourism to livelihoods, the head of a US scientific agency said Monday. The speed by which the oceans' acid levels has …
Rising ocean temperatures have reduced rates of coral calcification and increased rates of coral mortality, thereby negatively impacting the health of coral reef ecosystems. Nevertheless, the response of corals to thermal stress seems to vary spatially across the reef environment. Here, we show that between 1982 and 2008 in the …
The earth's environmental systems "are being pushed towards their biophysical limits", the United Nations Environment Program says. In a 525-page report on the health of the planet, the agency paints a grim picture. It says: "Several critical global, regional and local thresholds are close or have been exceeded. "Abrupt and …
Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef is under imminent threat from industrial development and may be considered for listing as a world heritage site "in danger" within the next year, a U.N. report said this week. Citing the findings of a mission to the world's largest living structure in March, the …
The reef and associated beachrock from certain Gulf of Mannar islands (Rameswaram, Kurusadai, Shingle and Appa Island) were studied to assess the diagenetic evidences. Sixty samples were collected from marine terraces and reef platforms. The samples comprised of coral rubbles, shell fragments and lithic fractions. The presence of corals in …
The world’s coral reefs are being degraded, and the need to reduce local pressures to offset the effects of increasing global pressures is now widely recognized. This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of coral cover, identifies the main drivers of coral mortality, and quantifies the rates of potential …
