Small Organisms Have Large Impact on Seabed
Not only physical forces such as tides and sand transport but also small organisms such as molluscs, tube worms and sea urchins have a large impact on seabed formation.
An Oyster in the Storm, Op Ed by Paul Greenberg
“I wish I had some oysters. I’m not talking about oysters to eat … I’m talking about the oysters that once protected New Yorkers from storm surges, a bivalve population that numbered in the trillions and that played a critical role in stabilizing the shoreline from Washington to Boston…” An Op Ed by Paul Greenberg, The New York Times.
Deep Concern As Deal To Protect Antarctic Seas Fails
Governments meeting in Australia have failed to reach agreement on new marine protected areas for the Antarctic ocean.
Greening Havana
According to international studies, a key action for mitigating the effects of global warming is to increase forest cover in each country. The Cuban government’s National Forestry Programme has set a target of increasing forest cover to over 29 percent by 2015.
Deepwater Corals May Be Key To Restoring Damaged Reefs
Healthy corals that lie deep below the ocean’s surface may be the key to regenerating parts of Australia’s badly damaged Great Barrier Reef, according to an underwater survey being carried out off the coast of northern Queensland.
Marshes of Mesopotamia
Wars in the Persian Gulf region and the deliberate draining of the Mesopotamian marshes, left a vast area of once-teeming river delta a dry, salt-encrusted desert, emptied of insects, birds and the people who lived on them. Now the marshes are under threat again, this time from the building of huge dams in Turkey on the Tigris and Euphrates.
Countries Agree to Double Resources for Biodiversity Protection by 2015, UN Conference
The world’s governments have agreed to increase funding in support of actions to halt the rate of loss of biodiversity at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
Why Are U.S. Eastern Seaboard Salt Marshes Falling Apart?
Salt marshes have been disintegrating and dying over the past two decades along the U.S. Eastern seaboard and other highly developed coastlines, without anyone fully understanding why.
Antarctic Seas In The Balance
Next week, negotiators at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources may try to contain the accelerating rush to access the region’s natural resources. At stake is one of the planet’s last great wildernesses, as well as the credibility of the international body set up to protect Antarctica’s marine life…