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 …
Lamu fishermen on Tuesday told a five-judge bench that the ongoing construction of the multibillion-shilling Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (Lapsset) corridor had violated their rights to cultural life. Mr Mohamed Somo, the Lamu Beach Management Unit chairman said the Lapsset project has destroyed the heritage of Lamu Island, which is …
Coastal marine food webs could be in danger of collapse as a result of rising carbon dioxide levels, according to our new research. The study shows that although species such as algae will receive a boost, the positive effects are likely to be cancelled out by the increased stress to …
This time last year, scientists announced the discovery of a reef system at the mouth of the Amazon River — and right from the beginning, they began issuing warnings about companies’ plans to drill for oil in the region. Plans to drill for oil near newly discovered Amazon Reef alarm …
Intensifying climate change remains the biggest threat to coral reefs around the world, with rising sea surface temperatures driving widespread bleaching events, according to the Climate Council’s latest report. The report ‘Climate Change: A Deadly Threat to Coral Reefs’, shows worsening bleaching events are also placing tourism and global economies …
Degradation of coastal water quality in the form of low dissolved oxygen levels (hypoxia) can harm biodiversity, ecosystem function, and human wellbeing. Extreme hypoxic conditions along the coast, leading to what are often referred to as “dead zones,” are known primarily from temperate regions. However, little is known about the …
Tropical cyclones and sea level rise cause major problems including beach erosion and damage to infrastructure in coastal areas. Inexpensive but effective plans for coastal protection will be needed by small island nations and developing countries. Natural breakwater formed by reefs is more cost-effective in coastal protection than the construction …
During 2015–2016, record temperatures triggered a pan-tropical episode of coral bleaching, the third global-scale event since mass bleaching was first documented in the 1980s. Here we examine how and why the severity of recurrent major bleaching events has varied at multiple scales, using aerial and underwater surveys of Australian reefs …
Maldives: There were startling colors here just a year ago, a dazzling array of life beneath the waves. Now this Maldivian reef is dead, killed by the stress of rising ocean temperatures. What's left is a haunting expanse of gray, a scene repeated in reefs across the globe in what …
There were startling colours here just a year ago, a dazzling array of life beneath the waves. Now this Maldivian reef is dead, killed by the stress of rising ocean temperatures. What's left is a haunting expanse of grey, a scene repeated in reefs across the globe in what has …
The UN Environment Programme on Thursday launched an unprecedented global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter - microplastics in cosmetics and the excessive, wasteful usage of single-use plastic - by 2022. Launched at the Economist World Ocean Summit in this Indonesian island known for coral reefs, the #CleanSeas …
Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held together by calcium carbonate structures secreted by corals. Hyderabad: A study conducted by two premier institutes on oceanography has confirmed the role of thermal stress in the bleaching of coral reefs in North Bay Andaman Islands. Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held …
Caribbean coral reefs have transformed into algal-dominated habitats over recent decades, but the mechanisms of change are unresolved due to a lack of quantitative ecological data before large-scale human impacts. To understand the role of reduced herbivory in recent coral declines, we produce a high-resolution 3,000 year record of reef …
The Adani Mining Pty Ltd is confident of commencing construction of the Carmichael mine by mid-2017, which will be Australia's largest coal mine, despite growing concerns and protests from environmental and indigenous groups that it will jeopardise the Great Barrier Reef and Aboriginal heritage. There were protests in Melbourne and …
North Atlantic coral populations - which support a variety of sea life - are under threat from climate change, according to scientists who have warned that changing winter weather conditions may upset fragile marine ecosystems. Corals allow diverse forms of marine life to thrive by building reef structures that provide …
A new study has found that higher water temperatures have ravaged the Great Barrier Reef, causing the worst coral bleaching recorded by scientists. In the worst-affected area, 67% of a 700km swath in the north of the reef lost its shallow-water corals over the past eight to nine months, the …
The government is failing to protect the reef from the effects of shipping disasters, according to environmental lawyers, who say inaction to secure remediation funds will become a bigger problem as shipping traffic increases. The issue could cause a problem for Australia when it reports to the Unesco world heritage …
Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere put shallow, warm-water coral reef ecosystems, and the people who depend upon them at risk from two key global environmental stresses: 1) elevated sea surface temperature (that can cause coral bleaching and related mortality), and 2) ocean acidification. These global stressors: cannot …
Roughly 240 million years ago (Ma), scleractinian corals rapidly expanded and diversified across shallow marine environments. The main driver behind this evolution is uncertain, but the ecological success of modern reef-building corals is attributed to their nutritional symbiosis with photosynthesizing dinoflagellate algae. We show that a suite of exceptionally preserved …
Present paper summarizes the occurrence of C. riisei in coral reefs of Indian seas, its likely impacts on the indigenous biota and policies for bioinvasion in the Indian context. With the limited information available on marine bioinvasion in tropical countries, especially in India, there is an urgent need of study …
Global wildlife could plunge to a 67 per cent level of decline in just the fifty-year period ending this decade as a result of human activities, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016. The report shows how people are overpowering the planet for the first time in Earth’s history and …
