Metal-tainted insects poison carnivorous plants

By David DeFranza  on 04.1.10 When we think about pollutants moving their way up the food chain, we picture a process that begins with plants or plankton and gradually compounds until it reaches species at the top — like polar bears or humans. In the case of carnivorous plants, new research has shown, consuming toxic […]

Depopulation may be harming the Amazon rainforest

By Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.comMarch 31, 2010 Urbanization may be having unexpected impacts in the Amazon rainforest by leaving forest areas vulnerable to exploitation by outsiders, report researchers writing in Conservation Letters. Conducting field surveys during the course of 10,000-kilometers of travel along remote Amazon rivers, Luke Parry of Lancaster University found that a sharp […]

Graph of the Day: Global Deforestation Rate, 2005-2010

Previous figures underestimated global deforestation rate for the 1990s. FRA 2010, like FRA 2005, did not directly compile data on deforestation rates, because few countries have this information. In FRA 2005 the global deforestation rate was estimated from net changes in forest area. Additional information on afforestation and on natural expansion of forest for the […]

Graph of the Day: Size of Hypoxic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, 1977-2007

The relationship between the size of the hypoxic zone in July (km2) and the May nitrate+nitrite N loading (kg N) to the Gulf of Mexico each year. A linear regression of the data is shown. The individual data points are in four chronologically-sequenced groups separated from each other when the data fall below the slope, […]

Polynesia coral reefs wiped out by cyclone Oli

ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2010) — On 3-4 February 2010, tropical cyclone Oli hit western French Polynesia. From 7 February 2010, the Coral Observation Department at CNRS’s National Institute of Earth Sciences and Astronomy (INSU), based at the Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l’environnement (CRIOBE, CNRS/EPHE) in Moorea, rapidly undertook an inventory of the […]

Worst ice conditions ever recorded kill Canada seals before hunters can

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, Canada, March 26, 2010 (ENS) – Thousands of harp seal pups are presumed dead in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence and starving pups are being found abandoned on the beaches of Prince Edward Island, victims of the worst ice conditions ever recorded in the region. Environment Canada said March 16 that […]

Central Africa gorillas extinct by mid-2020s

By the CNN Wire StaffMarch 25, 2010 4:13 a.m. EDT (CNN) — Gorillas may go extinct in much of central Africa by the mid-2020s — victims of a meat trade, of logging and mining, and even the Ebola virus, a new report says. Unless action is taken to guard the gorillas’ habitat and counter poaching, […]

Death of coral reefs could devastate nations, have ‘tremendous cascade effect for all life in the oceans’

By BRIAN SKOLOFF (AP) WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Coral reefs are dying, and scientists and governments around the world are contemplating what will happen if they disappear altogether. The idea positively scares them. Coral reefs are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain. Nearly half the fish the world eats make their […]

Sir David Attenborough aghast at global decline of butterfly population

Disappearance of species points to catastrophic environmental damage, says Sir David. By Michael McCarthyFriday, 26 March 2010 Butterfly numbers are declining rapidly all around the world, Britain’s leading conservationist, Sir David Attenborough, warns today. The celebrated television presenter is sounding the alarm that butterfly loss, a concern in Britain for decades, has become a global […]

Indonesia to raze 700,000 hectares of forest for food estate

  By Sunanda Creagh, Editing by David FogartyJAKARTAThu Mar 25, 2010 8:52am EDT (Reuters) – Indonesia would have to clear about 700,000 hectares of forest, an area 10 times the size of Singapore, if it proceeds with plans for a vast agricultural estate in Papua province, an activist group said on Thursday. Indonesia wants to […]

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