By Jeremy Hance8 May 2014 (mongabay.com) – It could be the plot of a horror movie: humans wake up one day to discover that chemical changes in the atmosphere are dissolving away parts of their bodies. But for small marine life known as sea butterflies, or pteropods, this is what’s happening off the West Cost […]
25 April 2014 (Oceanic Preservation Society) – Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, Oscar®-winner Louie Psihoyos (The Cove) assembles a team of artists and activists intent on showing the world never-before-seen images that expose issues of endangered species and mass extinction. Whether infiltrating notorious black markets with guerilla-style tactics or exploring the scientific causes affecting changes to the […]
By Oliver Milman 13 April 2014 (theguardian.com) – A study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, James Cook University and the Georgia Institute of Technology found the behavior of fish would be “seriously affected” by greater exposure to CO2. Researchers studied the behavior of coral reef fish at naturally occurring CO2 vents in Milne […]
13 April 2014 (Miami Herald) – In case there was still any doubt, and there shouldn’t be at this point, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group of scientists, has made it official: Climate change is not coming, it’s already here. And it’s going to get worse unless the whole world — […]
By Ashley Yeager 31 March 2014 (Science News) – About 252 million years ago an estimated 96 percent of all species were wiped from Earth, and now scientists have a new suspect in the killing — methane-belching microbes. The archaea Methanosarcina got faster at making methane by acquiring a gene from another microbe and […]
30 March 2014 (IPCC) – The Final Draft Report, dated 28 October 2013, of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability was accepted but not approved in detail by the 10th Session of Working Group II and the 38th Session of the IPCC on […]
By Brad Plumer11 February 2014 (Washington Post) – There have been five mass extinction events in Earth’s history. In the worst one, 250 million years ago, 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species died off. It took millions of years to recover. Nowadays, many scientists are predicting that we’re on pace […]
By Chris Thomas26 December 2013 (Science Network) – Ocean warming and acidification are leading to an increase in the rate of sponge biomass and bioerosion. Combined German-Australian research, recently presented at the Ninth World Sponge Conference in Fremantle, used past, present and future climate scenarios to explore how changes are occurring. The Australian Institute of […]
23 November 2013 (The Economist) – Humans, being a terrestrial species, are pleased to call their home “Earth”. A more honest name might be “Sea”, as more than seven-tenths of the planet’s surface is covered with salt water. Moreover, this water houses algae, bacteria (known as cyanobacteria) and plants that generate about half the oxygen […]
By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent13 November 2013 (BBC News) – The world’s oceans are becoming acidic at an “unprecedented rate” and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years. In their strongest statement yet on this issue, scientists say acidification could increase by 170% by 2100. They say […]
