The secret life of one of northern Australia’s most popular sportfish, the spectacular queenfish, is being studied by CSIRO scientists for clues to its role and abundance in the marine ecosystem.
The year-long study, co-funded by the National Oceans Office, is collecting more than 30 specimens a month from the Gulf of Carpentaria near Weipa where queenfish are caught by recreational anglers and inshore net fisheries. Results of the study will improve the ability of fisheries
Risks of underground expansion often poorly studied; modeling floods, tsunamis essential to planning
The rapid and extensive underground expansion of mega-cities – for subways, malls, parking and public utilities – takes place often with too little knowledge of associated risks and too few plans to minimize the effects of a natural disaster, United Nations University experts warn.
With growing land pressures in cities (which contain about 50% of all people today, see
Along with Ireland and Portugal, Norway is now working to make marine research a priority focus of the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development (2007–2010). The goal is to develop a vital, beneficial marine and maritime economy in Europe with the help of interdisciplinary research.
Seafood, transport, security, recreation and ecology are important key words for the ocean theme in Europe. Oceans encircle a great deal of the continent. This has played a cru
Albatrosses are the world’s most threatened family of birds. New research offers the first hope of identifying migration and feeding patterns to reduce their unnecessary slaughter by long-line fisheries. The study is reported in the journal Science, and outlines, for the first time, the year-round habitat of the grey-headed albatross.
Leading author Professor John Croxall from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said, “By understanding where these birds go when they’re not breeding,
Water quality in the Rio Chone estuary in Ecuador has degraded over the last three decades by a combination of man-made impacts, including the input of organic wastes from shrimp farming activities located in what were once tropical mangrove forests.
An article in the current issue of the Journal of Coastal Research describes water quality experiments by University of Rhode Island oceanographers Diana Stram and Chris Kincaid and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oceanograp
A new study says some iron nanoparticles may be effective in cleaning up carbon tetrachloride in contaminated groundwater
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University’s OGI School of Science & Engineering, in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL) and the University of Minnesota, have discovered that at least one type of nano-sized iron may be useful in cleaning up carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater. The new discovery was published
Ancient woodlands in Europe may have been remarkably similar to the dense, dark forests of ancient folklore according to a paper published today in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Ecology.
The paper by Dr Fraser Mitchell of Trinity College Dublin provides important new evidence about the nature of ancient woodlands in temperate Europe, which has been the source of much controversy among forest ecologists. In 2000, the Dutch ecologist Frans Vera challenged the prev
Feasibility Study Shows Access Could Be Given Without Delay
EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, will make access to its satellite that covers the Indian Ocean available to the international community for use in constructing a tsunami warning system in the region.
EUMETSAT operates the Meteosat-5 satellite at 63°East as part of its Indian Ocean Data Coverage (IODC) Service.
In a special meeting this week, EUMETS
Scientists have discovered a new group of microbes thriving in extreme conditions deep in the Mediterranean Sea. Their existence in such hostile environments hints at the possibility of life on other planets.
The European consortium carrying out the three-year Biodeep project, which includes researchers from the University of Essex, now plans to test how the microbes tolerate these unique conditions. The group hopes their adaptations could be exploited in medicine, agricultu
Milky, turquoise-colored “dead zones,” some as large as the U.S. State of New Jersey, that are appearing repeatedly off the coast of southwest Africa, may be a sign of things to come for other areas of the coastlines of the eastern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Toxic gas eruptions, bubbling up from the ocean floor, kill sea life, annoy human seaside residents, and may even intensify global warming. But the simple sardine may save the day, according to a study from the Pew Institute for Ocean Scien
The diversity of life varies predictably with climate and is greatest where it is warm and wet (the humid tropics). But the question “why” has puzzled biologists for over a century. In the December issue of Ecology Letters, Currie and colleagues examine three hypotheses about the origin of climatic gradients of diversity.
The “Species-energy” hypothesis proposes that high tropical plant productivity allows more species to maintain populations large enough to escape extinction. However
A new study of the earth’s 13 biomes compares the location of parks and other protected lands to the extent of habitat loss and finds that some of the most altered biomes are also the least protected. The study also found the opposite: that some of the least altered biomes are the best protected. In the forthcoming issue of Ecology Letters, Hoekstra, Boucher, Ricketts and Roberts suggest that more conservation activities should be focused in the neglected biomes.
The study found that te
Threatened by habitat loss, poaching, pollution and other factors, wildlife species across the globe are declining in number at an alarming rate. Scientists from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York City have been monitoring endangered wildlife populations for more than 100 years. For decades, traditional capture and tag methods have been a primary tool, but they are not the most efficient when dealing with large animals and animals in remote locations. The WCS’s re
Satellites provide a bird’s eye view of planet Earth, and the space-based vantage can be extremely useful to people interested in viewing out-of-the-way places. Conservationists, for example, must monitor far-flung areas in need of protection. Wars, poverty, remoteness, lack of government involvement, and uncertainty over the best places and ways to focus limited resources can all hinder conservation efforts. Now, NASA satellite imagery is giving scientists and conservationists some of the
The depth in the ocean where calcium carbonate dissolves at a faster rate than it is deposited is called the calcite compensation depth (CCD). At present this depth is approximately 4,500 meters (14,700 feet) with some variation between and within ocean basins. Because the CCD is linked to ocean acidity, which is, in turn, linked to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and, hence, to global climate, it is important for scientists to understand the impact of possible changes in its depth.
Sierra Nevada waters usually free of troublesome bacteria except in high use areas
Data collected by experts from the UC Davis School of Medicine have revealed that except for some heavily used areas, streams and lakes in the high country of the Sierra Nevada are generally clean and fresh.
The good news for campers can be found in a pair of studies published in the latest issue of the quarterly medical journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. UC Davis physician R
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