At least half of coral around Hawaii island hit by ‘unprecedented level of coral bleaching’

By Graham Milldrum9 November 2015 KAILUA-KONA (West Hawaii Today) – The results of Bleachapalooza, the recent statewide attempt to survey coral bleaching, shows that it’s been more severe on West Hawaii compared to the east side of the state — with some species showing nearly 100 percent bleaching, one of the organizers reported. “These reports […]

Study: Dispersants did not help oil degrade in BP spill – ‘The oil with no dispersant degraded a heckuva lot faster than the oil with dispersants’

By Seth Borenstein9 November 2015 (PhysOrg) – The chemical sprayed on the 2010 BP oil spill may not have helped crucial petroleum-munching microbes get rid of the slick, a new study suggests. And that leads to more questions about where much of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill went. If the new results are true, up […]

Half of tree species in the Amazon at risk of extinction, say scientists – ‘It’s a battle we’re going to see play out in our lifetimes’

By Damian Carrington20 November 2015 (The Guardian) – More than half the myriad tree species in the Amazon could be heading for extinction, according to a study that makes the first comprehensive estimate of threatened species in the world’s largest rainforest. Among the species expected to suffer significant falls in numbers are the Brazil nut, […]

Indonesia’s forest fires take toll on wildlife, big and small – ‘This double-punch or triple-punch of drought, fire, and smoke is likely to be much more damaging to the biome than any one of these elements alone’

By Joe Cochrane30 October 2015 JAKARTA (The New York Times) – A disoriented, pregnant orangutan, her treetop home in Indonesian Borneo reduced to charred wood, is rushed to a rehabilitation centre by conservationists, who dodged walls of fire and toxic smoke. Veterinarians care for 16 abandoned baby orangutans already living at the centre. The babies […]

Rising seas may swallow albatross nesting grounds sooner than expected – ‘Sea level rise is happening even faster than predicted, which means that these impacts will happen even sooner’

By Hannah Waters8 October 2015 (Audobon) – The winter of 2011 was a bad one for seabirds nesting at Midway Atoll, a remote spread of islands in the central Pacific. First, two big storms, hit, in January and February, causing large waves to flood the islands. Then in March the islands were washed over by […]

Unprecedented California crab fishing delay because of potentially deadly domoic acid – ‘There has never been a fishery closure due to domoic acid before’

[cf. Toxic algae bloom may be largest ever off U.S. West Coast – ‘We’ve never had to close essentially half our coast’, and Scientists fear toxic algae bloom spreading on Pacific coast – Stretching from southern California to Alaska, this year’s blooms thought to be the largest ever recorded] By Lisa Fernandez5 November 2015 (NBC […]

The ‘blue blob’: Changes in Atlantic happening sooner than expected – ‘We like to think of climate as an elephant moving slowly along, but the ocean system is not that simple’

[cf. Why some scientists are worried about a surprisingly cold ‘blob’ in the North Atlantic Ocean – ‘The fact that a record-hot planet Earth coincides with a record-cold northern Atlantic is quite stunning’] By Lisa Sorg4 November 2015 (Coastal Review) – There it is, hanging out in the northern Atlantic Ocean, off the southern tip […]

Calls to cull 7,000 Lake Baikal seals – Poachers slaughter more than a dozen

By Olga Gertcyk9 October 2015 (Siberian Times) – The controversial demand to end a total ban on hunting Baikal’s indigenous seals came from Arnold Tulokhonov, who both senator for the Republic of Buryatia in the upper house of the Russian parliament and director  of the Baikal Institute of Natural Resources. The seals need to be […]

Study shows extensive coral damage related to BP oil spill – ‘The area we have looked at so far is only the tip of the iceberg’

By Cain Burdeau27 October 2015 (Associated Press) – Gulf coral damage from the massive BP oil spill is more extensive than previously thought, according to a new study that revealed sick and dying corals in the rich, deep-water environment off the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi known as the Pinnacles. Using remotely operated submarines, researchers […]

New England cod fishery collapses as rapidly warming water and overfishing take toll – ‘The Gulf of Maine cod stock is in the worst shape we have seen in the 40 years that we have been monitoring it’

By Chris Mooney 29 October 2015 (Washington Post) – A new scientific study says that rapidly warming waters off the New England coast have had a severe consequence — the collapse of a cod fishery that saw too many catches even as overall cod numbers declined due to warmer seas. It’s just the latest in […]

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