Caffeinated Coastal Waters
A new study finds elevated levels of caffeine at several sites in Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Oregon, though not necessarily where researchers expected.
Red Tide Species Is Deadlier Than First Thought
Scientists have discovered that a species of tiny aquatic organism prominent in harmful algal blooms sometimes called “red tide” is even deadlier than first thought, with potential consequences for entire marine food chains.
Mangroves: A Filter for Heavy Metals
A mangrove is a forest consisting of various species of mangrove trees growing with their bases submerged in water, at the interface between land and sea. They cover more than three quarters of tropical coastlines, that is to say almost 200,000km². In New Caledonia, they accounts for almost 80% of the island’s western coastline.
Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt
For several days this month, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface.
Rise in Temperatures and CO2 Follow Each Other Closely in Climate Change
In the present day, mankind has caused the CO2 content in the atmosphere to rise as much in just 150 years as it rose over 8,000 years during the transition from the last ice age to the current interglacial period and that can bring the Earth’s climate out of balance…
BP “Missed Big Hazards” Before Gulf Oil Spill
US government panel criticises oil firm’s approach to safety on contracted rigs prior to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
Climate Change and Deforestation: Pre-Human Effect On Biodiversity in Northern Madagascar
A recent study, by an international research group led by Lounès Chickhi, group leader at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal) and CNRS researcher (in Toulouse, France), questions the prevailing account that degradation of tropical ecosystems is essentially a product of human activity…
Residents outraged over sand mine plan, Australia
Cape Cleveland residents are furious a sand mine is a step closer to approval, despite being less than a kilometre away from an internationally protected wetland.
A Robotic Albatross?
Oceanographer Phil Richardson formally retired in 1999, but that hardly diminished his passion and curiosity. He combined his scientific knowledge with longstanding interests in sailing and flying to show how albatrosses elegantly take advantage of winds and waves to fly long distances over the open ocean without flapping their wings…