By Alexander L. Forrest13 June 2016 (The Conversation) – In an age of rapid global population growth, demand for safe, clean water is constantly increasing. In 2010 the United States alone used 355 billion gallons of water per day. Most of the available fresh water on Earth’s surface is found in lakes, streams and reservoirs, […]
4 May 2016 (ABC News) – Piles of dead whales, salmon, sardines, and clams blamed on the El Niño freak weather phenomenon have been clogging Chile’s pacific beaches in recent months. Last year, scientists were shocked when more than 300 whales turned up dead on remote bays of the southern coast — it was the […]
[cf. Graph of the Day: Simulated catastrophic decline of plankton in warming oceans] By Chris Mooney28 April 2016 (Washington Post) – In the long list of troubling climate change scenarios, there’s one that gets relatively little attention, but definitely has enormous potential consequences. It goes like this: The oceans are getting warmer — they are, […]
23 March 2016 (Desdemona Despair) – Back in 2011, Desdemona was asked by a local church to give a presentation on the condition of the world’s oceans (State of the Oceans 2011 video; pdf slide deck; PowerPoint). As part of the talk, Des wanted estimates for human disturbances to the great cycles of elements on […]
By Yadigar Sekerci and Sergei Petrovskii12 November 2015 (Bulletin of Mathematical Biology) – We have studied the oxygen–plankton dynamics using a mathematical model that takes into account oxygen production in photosynthesis, plankton respiration, and the effect of zooplankton predation on phytoplankton. The model is described by a system of three coupled ODEs in the nonspatial […]
By Olga Gertcyck20 November 2015 (Siberian Times) – Famed for the purest water on the planet, but this ‘is no longer true’ with ‘no drinking’ warning in southern part of lake. One of the wonders of the world, Baikal is Russia’s jewel, but it is now facing severe pollution, according to stark new warnings. It’s […]
By Angela Fritz 12 November 2015 (Washington Post) – The algae in Lake Erie was more severe and more highly concentrated this summer than in any summer since NOAA began measuring the blooms in 2002. This year’s harmful green bloom was due to excessive Midwest rainfall in spring and summer, and the fertilizer that rain […]
By Jim Salter14 October 2015 ST. LOUIS (AP) – A report card is out on the Mississippi River basin, and the grade is not good: a D+, with an aging transportation infrastructure topping the list of concerns. The report by America’s Watershed Initiative, released Wednesday in St. Louis, assesses categories such as the abundance of […]
18 November 2014 (Urban Water Blueprint) – Impacts on water quality are not limited to sedimentation rates. As watersheds are exploited for agricultural purposes, and as agriculture turns intensive, the use of fertilizers increases and more fertilizers end up in the water. The two most common nutrients that cause problems are excessive phosphorus and nitrogen, […]
17 August 2015 (UNZ) – The majority of New Zealand’s freshwater species are disappearing. That’s the message of the Society for Conservation Biology’s new report, which two of New Zealand’s leading freshwater ecologists Massey University’s Dr Mike Joy and Professor Russell Death have contributed to. The ‘Diagnosis and Cure’ report on managing New Zealand freshwater […]