Jurassic drop in ocean oxygen lasted a million years

12 May 2017 (University of Exeter) – Dramatic drops in oceanic oxygen, which cause mass extinctions of sea life, come to a natural end – but it takes about a million years. The depletion of oxygen in the oceans is known as “anoxia”, and scientists from the University of Exeter have been studying how periods […]

A giant beached whale sculpture illustrates the plastic pollution problem

12 May 2017 (Plastic Pollution Coalition) – Greenpeace Philippines recently created and installed a giant whale art piece made out of plastic pollution at the Sea Side Beach Resort in Naic, Cavite. The 50-foot installation will be on display until 14 May 2017. “Listen to the dead whale’s wake-up call, look closer and see what […]

Wasting disease devastates Alaska sea star populations – “The spread of the disease may be related to the unprecedented warm waters in the Gulf of Alaska in the past two years”

By Lauren Frisch5 May 2017 (UAF) – In one year, sea stars have almost disappeared from Kachemak Bay, Alaska. This is likely the aftermath of a sea star wasting disease episode. The disease causes lesions, and may result in the loss of arms, making a sea star look as if it is melting or decomposing. […]

Decades of data on world’s oceans reveal a troubling oxygen decline

ATLANTA, Georgia, 3 May 2017 (Georgia Tech) – A new analysis of decades of data on oceans across the globe has revealed that the amount of dissolved oxygen contained in the water – an important measure of ocean health – has been declining for more than 20 years. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology looked […]

Ruins, not reefs: How global warming is fast-forwarding coral science – “Almost none of this reef has made it through 2015 and 2016. It’s the wholesale destruction of the reef.”

By Robinson Meyer11 April 2017 (The Atlantic) – At about the same moment that millions of Americans sat staring at their television or laptop or phone—watching the results from the presidential election stream in, seeing state after state called for Donald Trump—Kim Cobb was SCUBA diving near the center of the Pacific Ocean. She did […]

The Tana River, Kenya’s lifeblood, strains under development and drought

By Nathan Siegel14 April 2017 (Mongabay) – Every morning, Abdu Hajy, 65, takes his canoe out into the murky waters of the Tana River Delta to fish. He’s been following the same routine, in his hometown of Kipini on the Kenyan coast, for the last four decades. But he is not sure how much longer […]

Sand mining: the global environmental crisis you’ve probably never heard of

By Vince Beiser27 February 2017 (The Guardian) – Times are good for Fey Wei Dong. A genial, middle-aged businessman based near Shanghai, China, Fey says he is raking in the equivalent of £180,000 a year from trading in the humblest of commodities: sand. Fey often works in a fishing village on Poyang Lake, China’s biggest […]

How disappearing sea ice has put Arctic ecosystem under threat

By Robin McKie4 March 2017 (The Guardian) – In a few days the Arctic’s beleaguered sea ice cover is likely to set another grim record. Its coverage is on course to be the lowest winter maximum extent ever observed since satellite records began. These show that more than 2 million square kilometres of midwinter sea […]

Fish affected by Deepwater Horizon oil spill give clues to air pollution and human heart disease

16 February 2017 (The University of Manchester) – A study by Manchester and Stanford scientists into the effects on fish of a 2010 oil disaster could shed new light on how air pollution affects humans’ hearts. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted in a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an area of […]

Global ocean de-oxygenation quantified – “The oxygen losses in the ocean can have far-reaching consequences”

KIEL, 15 February 2017 (Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel) – The ongoing global change causes rising ocean temperatures and changes the ocean circulation. Therefore less oxygen is dissolved in surface waters and less oxygen is transported into the deep sea. This reduction of oceanic oxygen supply has major consequences for the organisms in the […]

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