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 …
The Census of Marine Life aids practical work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, discovers and tracks ocean biodiversity, and supports marine environmental planning.
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) provides a globally significant demonstration of the effectiveness of large-scale networks of marine reserves in contributing to integrated, adaptive management. Comprehensive review of available evidence shows major, rapid benefits of no-take areas for targeted fish and sharks, in both reef and nonreef habitats, with potential …
Marine protected areas (MPAs) that exclude fishing have been shown repeatedly to enhance the abundance, size, and diversity of species. These benefits, however, mean little to most marine species, because individual protected areas typically are small. To meet the larger-scale conservation challenges facing ocean ecosystems, several nations are expanding the …
As human impacts cause ecosystem-wide changes in the oceans, the need to protect and restore marine resources has led to increasing calls for and establishment of marine reserves. Scientific information about marine reserves has multiplied over the last decade, providing useful knowledge about this tool for resource users, managers, policy …
The marine realm represents 70% of the surface of the biosphere and contains a rich variety of organisms, including more than 34 of the 36 living phyla, some of which are only found in the oceans. The number of marine species used by humans is growing at unprecedented rates, including …
Phytoplankton biomass and productivity have been continuously monitored from ocean color satellites for over a decade. Yet, the most widely used empirical approach for estimating chlorophyll a (Chl) from satellites can be in error by a factor of 5 or more. Such variability is due to differences in absorption and …
Coral reefs worldwide are in decline. Much of the mortality can be attributed to coral bleaching (loss of the coral's intracellular photosynthetic algal symbiont) associated with global warming. How corals will respond to increasing oceanic temperatures has been an area of extensive study and debate. Recovery after a bleaching event …
Biological diversity of the 72% of our planet covered by seawater is crucial to global resource security, ecosystem function and services, and climate dynamics. Current and future trends in marine biodiversity remain an important element to be fully assessed by the international community. It would be valuable to understand where …
This report explores the answer to a difficult question: what are the potential costs for coastal adaptation from 2010 until 2050 in response to human-induced climate change? It analysis sea-level rise as a climate driver, and considers the possibility of enhanced storm impacts due to higher water levels in areas …
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have released a report titled "Climate, Carbon and Coral Reefs," outlining the threat to coral reefs caused by climate change and subsequent coral bleaching, as well as by ocean acidification. The report outlines the role of meteorological services …
A large share of the penalties collected from BP for its Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be dedicated to repairing the ecological, economic, public health and psychological damage from the spill, according to a group named by President Obama to chart a course for the future of the wounded …
European nations agreed on Friday to set up fishing-free zones in remote parts of the Atlantic Ocean in the world's first high seas network of protected areas beyond the control of national governments. Environment ministers from 15 European states, forming the OSPAR group overseeing the North-East Atlantic, said they would …
The Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) of Sri Lanka established in the early nineties by a group of young volunteers with the aim of conserving marine turtles is also helping a number of community based projects. With the assistance of UNDP
Efforts to clean up and protect the North East Atlantic have made some progress since 2000 but new threats are looming such as ocean acidification linked to climate change, a study said on Thursday. The report, by the OSPAR Commission that groups 15 European nations and covers an area from …
CUDDALORE: When the global warming is threatening the terrestrial eco-system, the marine plants are holding out the hope to humanity because these are the rich sources for pharmacology, food products and taxonomical studies. Above all, these plants also have the potential for bio-fuel production. Hence, the vision of the experts …
FISHERS’ folklores are full of them but the creatures of the deep sea are still a mystery. An inventory of marine species, to be released in London on October 4, would answer the age-old question— what lives in the oceans? The Census of Marine Life, a network of researchers from …
Now you see it, now you don't. According to news reports the plume of oil in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico is no more. But just days earlier, the subsurface plume had been proclaimed a long-lived menace.
On 27 May 2010, with crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the Obama administration announced it would pause offshore drilling plans in the Arctic Ocean, one of the planet’s most pristine ecosystems. Hailed by environmental groups, the decision was …
Grim tidings from the Mumbai oil spillA Toxic Brew The collision between two ships off Mumbai has resulted in an environmental catastrophe There is a humongous oil slick Mangroves along the coast have suffered. So too has marine and bird life. It may take months to clear the slick, locate …
