Second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches from Louisiana to Alabama

NEW ORLEANS, 1 February 2012 (AP) – A new study finds that Louisiana’s second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches at least from the Chandeleur Sound off Louisiana to Alabama’s Dauphin Island — and could be bigger. John Lopez, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said Wednesday that the foundation was able to […]

Graph of the Day: Fertilizers and Ocean Dead Zones

23 January 2012 (UNEP) – Industrially produced nutrient fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus) are essential to global food security and have been the main driver of dramatically improved agricultural yields over the last sixty years to feed a growing population. At the same time, excess nutrients from inefficient use in farming and insufficient treatment of nutrients in […]

Protecting the seas is good business: UN

25 January 2012 (Agence France-Presse) – The worldwide fishing industry could benefit from a $50 billion boost annually if stocks were allowed time to recover, the UN said Wednesday. Already 32 percent of the world’s fish stocks have been depleted by years of overfishing and poor coastal management, according to a UN Environment Programme report […]

Ocean dead zones shrinking habitat for blue marlins, other tropical billfish and tunas

Washington DC, December 20 (SPX) – The science behind counting fish in the ocean to measure their abundance has never been simple. A new scientific paper authored by NOAA Fisheries biologist Eric Prince, Ph.D., and eight other scientists shows that expanding ocean dead zones – driven by climate change – have added a new wrinkle […]

Researchers assess effects of a world awash in nitrogen

Contact Skip Derra, skip.derra@asu.edu, 480-965-4823, Media Relations15 December 2011 Humans are having an effect on Earth’s ecosystems but it’s not just the depletion of resources and the warming of the planet we are causing. Now you can add an over-abundance of nitrogen as another “footprint” humans are leaving behind. The only question is how large […]

Run-off, emissions deliver double whammy to coastal marine creatures

Athens, Georgia, October 26 (SPX) – Increasing acidification in coastal waters could compromise the ability of oysters and other marine creatures to form and keep their shells, according to a new study led by University of Georgia researchers. Their findings will be published in the November 2011 issue of Nature Geoscience. The researchers determined the […]

Image of the Day: Satellite View of Toxic Algae Bloom in Lake Erie

Caption by Holli Riebeek14 October 2011 The green scum shown in this image is the worst algae bloom Lake Erie has experienced in decades. Such blooms were common in the lake’s shallow western basin in the 1950s and 60s. Phosphorus from farms, sewage, and industry fertilized the waters so that huge algae blooms developed year […]

Terrestrial biodiversity recovered faster after Permo-Triassic extinction than previously believed

Media Contact: Todd McLeish, 401-874-7892 11 October 2011 KINGSTON, R.I. – While the cause of the mass extinction that occurred between the Permian and Triassic periods is still uncertain, two University of Rhode Island researchers collected data that show that terrestrial biodiversity recovered much faster than previously thought, potentially contradicting several theories for the cause […]

Shellfish harvesters plagued by acidic ‘dead muds’

By Seth Koenig, BDN Staff7 October 2011 SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — They’re called dead muds. Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere combined with unregulated nitrogen pollution are having a deadly effect on Maine’s shellfish, some researchers say. Scientists are starting to measure the impact of increasingly acidic waters on coastal organisms, and what […]

Is La Niña or blocked jet stream frying Texas?

By Ferris Jabr16 August 2011 So far the relentless heatwave scorching Texas has killed numerous crops and dried up the reservoir in San Angelo State Park, leaving a shallow pool of blood-red water teeming with red bacteria that thrive in low oxygen. The drought in Lake Nacogdoches has exposed a piece of the space shuttle […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial