I am always star struck when I look at nature. Perhaps this is because we are all made from stardust forged in the heart of a star and infused with a whisper of celestial wisdom.
Like so many others, I have come to realize that our lives are completely dependent on nature that provides us with clean water, fruits, vegetables, grains, fuel, fresh air, seasonal climates, coastal protection, recreation and scenic landscapes around the world that will take your breath away. It is no wonder then that nature has been immortalized for centuries by poets, musicians, artists and explorers who have appreciated that which has too often been overlooked by others.
In spite of the extent to which we have unwittingly disturbed so many terrestrial and marine ecosystems in our quest for what is often termed as progress, nature in its infinite wisdom has so far been resilient against our unnatural and often toxic incursions, adaptable, forgiving and regenerative except in some localized areas which are experiencing an unnatural species extinction rate. This degradation signals to us that nature’s strength alone cannot endure the unnatural incursions that are increasingly reaching areas of the world previously thought to be impenetrable by man such as 1,500 meter depths at which fishermen can now trawl for orange roughy and areas beneath the blue-white Antarctic ice from which tons of krill on which whales feed are now being harvested for sport fishing bait, aquarium feeds and aquaculture.
After hearing from people all over the world who share a passion and concern for the preservation of life’s necessities as well as gifts from nature, this blog was launched to share with you international wildlife news, exciting environmental research activities, political action or inaction, and what each of us can do to ensure that the wisdom of nature endures for the benefit of us all as we are mere caretakers of nature for future generations of all species which have a right to thrive in and contribute to a healthy and beautiful world.
Biographical note: Constantine Alexander's professional experience includes having served as a Merrill Lynch Financial Consultant and Managing Director for H. J. Meyers investment banks in California; a consultant to the Commission of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium; a professional consultant to members of the French dairy and European olive oil industries and the Hellenic Municipalities of Tilos and Andros; and the Project Coordinator of the EU LIFE-Nature Project on Tilos. His civic activities include community service as the President of the California Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce; Founder and Director of the California Council of European-American Chambers of Commerce; Board of Directors Member of the Axios Foundation and the Los Angeles Rainbow PUSH Coalition; Member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Sierra Club, Audubon Society; and Founder, Vice President and Director of the Tilos Park Association. Mr. Alexander’s articles and photographs have been published by newspapers and magazines in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, the U.K. and U.S., and he has been interviewed by television and radio journalists from Belgium, Greece, Japan, Spain, Turkey and the U.S.. He has contributed as a speaker to conferences organized by the European Commission, the United Nations Environment Program, Mugla University and the Mugla Chamber of Commerce in Turkey, Washington State University and the National Institute of Public Administration in Greece. In 2007, Constantine was appointed as an Ambassador of the EU Natura 2000 Networking Program for exemplary environmental management of an EU Special Protection Area (SPA). He is currently working for the establishment of a management plan for the Andros Island EU SPAs and a Northern Cycladic marine protected area. Constantine Alexander (a.k.a. Konstantinos Alexandros Mentzelopoulos) is a citizen of the United States and Greece.
Citing figures obtained from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Conservation International (CI) announced that more than one million green turtle (Chelonia mydas)eggs were laid last year in Baguan Island of Turtle Islands, Tawi-Tawi, achieving an all-time high since recording of nesting started in 1984.
A total of 14,220 green turtle nests were recorded in Baguan in 2011, breaking the previous record of 12,311 nests in 1995. The 2011 figures translate to 2,844 nesting green turtles and 1.44 million turtle eggs laid.
“1.44 million eggs is an astounding number and it presents great hope for boosting green turtle populations,” said Romeo Trono, CI Philippines Country Executive Director. “With an average of 90% hatching success and 1% survival rate up to sexual maturity, Baguan in 2011 alone could contribute 13,000 to the adult turtle population.”
The 36-hectare Baguan in southern Philippines is one of the nine islands of the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA), a unique protected area jointly managed by two countries: Malaysia and the Philippines. It is made up of six islands of the Philippines’ Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary, where Baguan is located, and three islands of Sabah’s Turtle Islands Park (TIP).
Figures from the DENR show that since the previous high of 12,311 nests recorded in 1995, Baguan’s nesting records have been declining and dropped to as low as just over 4,000 nests in 2003. Poaching by foreign fishermen, egg harvesting by local communities for food and trade, destruction and disturbance of habitats through illegal fishing methods and weak law enforcement were identified as the causes of the decline in the sea turtle population in the sanctuary.
“The increasing nest numbers show that when turtles are protected on their nesting beaches and in the water for long enough, they will recover,” said Dr. Bryan Wallace Director of Science for the Marine Flagship Species Program at CI. “The Turtle Islands are a globally important area for green turtles, especially for the West Pacific population, because of the relatively high abundance present and because of increasing protections for turtles in the area.”
Bilateral conservation efforts:
Since 2007, CI has been working with the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the local government as well the Malaysian Sabah Parks to advise and implement marine conservation strategies in the region, including: setting up of the protected area management board, formulation of a ten-year management plan, and delineating 1,200 hectares around Baguan as strict protection zone or no take areas.
Law enforcement in Baguan was also strengthened by providing trainings to park wardens, law enforcers and community volunteers and stepping up patrolling efforts. The Philippine Turtle Islands’ enforcement team also includes officers from the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy Marines deployed to the area.
“These partnerships with other agencies like the Coast Guard and Marines provide a big boost to law enforcement efforts in the Turtle Islands,” said Dr. Mundita Lim, director of DENR’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau. “We also enjoy a good working relationship with our Sabah counterparts in charge of managing their side of the Turtle Islands. Turtles nest throughout the entire area, regardless of political boundaries. That is also the approach we are using in managing these islands through productive partnerships.”
“The work that we are doing in Turtle Islands is an important contribution to the overall health of the Coral Triangle,” said DENR Secretary Ramon Paje, emphasizing the Turtle Islands as a conservation priority not only for the Philippines and Malaysia but for all the other countries in the region. “If the Turtles Islands are not protected, it can have serious implications to the whole region’s turtle population and marine ecosystem as a whole.”
Dr. Nicolas Pilcher, director of Sabah-based Marine Research Foundation and Co-Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Marine Turtle Specialist Group, noted that bold protection measures such as the establishment of Baguan no-take zone and the complete protection status of the Turtle Islands Park in Sabah had been instrumental in ensuring a safe haven for turtles while other beaches in the region were being lost to coastal development.
“Indeed, the combined Philippine and Malaysian turtle stocks from TIP, which share genetic similarities, is the single largest and most stable population of green turtles in all of Southeast Asia, and is of paramount importance in ensuring the long-term survival of the population," Pilcher added.
An average of 30 to 35 green turtles nest on Baguan’s shores every night, with totals increasing to as many as 140 during the peak nesting season of July to September. With each nesting, a sea turtle lays around 100 eggs and nests as much as five times within one nesting season. Only green turtles nest in Baguan though its surrounding reefs and water also serve as development and feeding habitats for hawksbill turtles.
Conservation initiatives in Baguan are partially supported by the Coral Triangle Support Partnership with the United States Agency for International Development.
“The hatchlings that emerge from the Turtle Islands still face great risks throughout their lives as they journey through the ocean, but at least here in the Turtle Islands, we are determined to provide them with a good start,” Trono added.
Conservation International (CI) — Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the long term well-being of people. Founded in 1987 and marking its 25th anniversary in 2012, CI has headquarters in the Washington DC area, and 900 employees working in nearly 30 countries on four continents, plus 1,000+ partners around the world.
For more information, contact:
Romeo Trono, Country Executive Director, Conservation International Philippines Office +632 924-8235 / mobile +639178144703 / email rtrono@conservation.org
Corina Bernabe, Communications Coordinator, Conservation International Philippines Office +632 924-8235 / mobile +639209554874 / email cbernabe@conservation.org
The use of probiotic bacteria, isolated from naturally-occurring bacterial communities, is gaining in popularity in the aquaculture industry as the preferred, environmentally-friendly management alternative to the use of antibiotics and other antimicrobials for disease prevention. Known to the public for their use in yogurt and other foods to improve human digestion and health, probiotic bacteria isolated from other sources can also be used to improve survival, nutrition and disease prevention in larvae grown in shellfish hatcheries.
Researchers at NOAA's Milford Laboratory in Milford, Conn. have shown that naturally-occurring bacteria isolated from the digestive glands of adult eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and northern bay scallops (Argopecten irradians irradians) may be used as potential probiotic candidates in oyster larviculture.
Two related research studies published in the Journal of Shellfish Research identify a new probiotic bacterium, designated OY15, which has been shown to significantly improve larval survival in pilot-scale trials during the first two weeks of life, the most critical stage for the organism when mortality rates are among the highest.
"We are cautiously optimistic that this probiotic candidate, OY15, will offer a number of significant benefits to the shellfish industry," said Gary Wikfors, co-author of both studies and head of the Milford Laboratory's Biotechnology Branch. "Commercial and public shellfish hatcheries can have low survival rates for shellfish seed during the first two weeks, so improving those survival rates and the health of the organisms beyond that point is a pretty significant step forward."
Hatcheries produce shellfish seed to supplement natural seed, which is often limited by loss of habitat, contamination from pollution, climate change and other factors. Bacterial diseases caused mainly by pathogenic bacteria such as Vibrio are a major cause of mortality in hatchery shellfish, particularly at the very early larval stage. The result: significant financial losses to commercial growers and to production of farmed shellfish, which accounts for 25 percent of the total world aquaculture product.
Antimicrobial drugs approved for use in aquaculture in some countries, but not the US, have traditionally been used to treat bacterial diseases, but overuse of antibiotics can result in the development of resistant strains of bacterial pathogens. The use of probiotic bacteria has become increasingly popular for improved nutrition, healthy digestion and disease prevention and is used in human foods like yogurt and in pet foods.
As demand for environmentally-friendly aquaculture grows, the use of probiotics for disease prevention and improved nutrition in shellfish aquaculture is also growing. While a number of research studies have shown promise, development of probiotics that can be used in aquaculture is a multistep process requiring fundamental research and full-scale trials.
"The objective of the first part of this study was to isolate and evaluate new probiotic bacteria which, when incorporated into foods used in shellfish hatcheries, might significantly improve larval survival," said co-author Diane Kapareiko, a microbiologist at the Milford Laboratory. The second part of the study was to test the new probiotic candidate on the survival of oyster larvae in pilot-scale trials during their first two weeks of life.
"We conducted a very cautious, step by step study, to identify the best candidates under a variety of scenarios," Wikfors said. "Our bench-scale challenge studies indicated that oyster larvae exposed to probiotic candidate OY15 had the highest survival rate, and that the survival of pathogen-challenged larvae was further improved by the presence of OY 15 compared to the pathogen alone. It is somewhat analogous to a human building up immunity to a certain organism by being exposed to it, but without the involvement of antibodies."
The Milford scientists isolated 26 candidate probiotic bacteria from oysters and scallops of which 16 had an inhibitory effect against a known shellfish-larval pathogen (B183) of the Vibrio species of bacteria. Further screening for safe use in culturing the oyster larvae and their microalgal feed indicated which probiotic candidates would inhibit growth of the pathogen most effectively and therefore could confer a protective effect upon oyster larval survival.
Lab studies indicated that survival of two-day old oyster larvae during two-week pilot scale trials improved when supplemented with the probiotic candidate OY15 strain. Four treatments were conducted: a larval control with no bacteria, a pathogen control with larvae and pathogen B183 only, a probiotic control with larvae and probiotic candidate OY15 only, and a combination treatment comprised of larvae and both probiotic and pathogen.
"Our research focused on the critical first stage of larval growth, when mortality rates are among the highest," Kapareiko said. Positive effects of probiotic candidate OY15 were found on the survival of oyster larvae (short term), on growth of phytoplankton used as larval feed, and upon oyster survival during pilot-scale larviculture conditions.
"This two-part study confirms that use of naturally-occurring probiotic bacteria confers protection to oyster larvae against bacterial disease and improves their survival," Kapareiko said. "The results can be used as guidelines for isolating and screening other potential probiotic candidates for similar aquaculture applications, and provide the basis for developing functional foods for use in shellfish hatcheries that incorporate a naturally occurring, probiotic bacteria."
Research helps explain large-scale size changes and recovery from mass extinctions
Transformations can happen much faster in animals that live in the water. An increase from rabbit-sized to elephant-sized would take at least five million generations, but the equivalent change in whales takes half as many generations. Becoming smaller is also easier: dwarfing in elephants occurred 10 times faster than the equivalent increase to evolve large elephants. Credit: Image courtesy of Alistair Evans, David Jones and co-authors of the PNAS paper: The maximum rate of mammal evolution.
Just how big can mammals get and how fast can they get there? These are questions examined by an international team of researchers exploring increases in mammal size after the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.
Research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows it took about 10 million generations for terrestrial mammals to hit their maximum mass: that's about the size of a cat evolving into the size of an elephant. Sea mammals, such as whales took about half the number of generations to hit their maximum.
The team, including Dr. Jessica Theodor of the University of Calgary, also discovered it took only about one hundred thousand generations for very large decreases, such as extreme dwarfism, to occur.
"Our research demonstrates, for the first time, a large-scale history of mammal life in terms of the pace of growth. This is significant because most research focuses on microevolution, which are changes that occur within a specific species," says Theodor, co-author of the study and an associate professor of biology at the University of Calgary.
The research team looked at 28 different types of mammals from the four largest continents (Africa, Eurasia, and North and South America) and all ocean basins for during the last 70 million years. For example, one group would include the mammals related to an elephant, another group would include carnivorous mammals.
Researchers were surprised to learn how quickly body-size decreased: the rate is more than 10 times faster than the increases.
"Many of the species which shrunk, such as the dwarf mammoth, dwarf hippo and dwarf hominids, found in the Indonesian island of Flores, became extinct," says Theodor, whose area of expertise are the artiodactyls, hoofed mammals which include in the present day, cows, pigs, sheep, camels hippos and whales.
"What caused their dwarfism? They may have needed to be small to survive in their environment or perhaps food was scarce and a small stature would require less nutrients," adds Theodor.
This research will help scientists to better understand mammal evolution: what conditions allow a certain mammals to thrive and grow bigger and what conditions would slow the pace of growth and potentially contribute to extinction.
Researchers used generations instead of time in their study because species have different life spans. A mouse only lives for about two years and elephant for 80. They created a metric using the relationship between body size and generation time in living mammals and used it to reconstruct the life history of the extinct forms.
The sun sets over the Brazilian Cerrado, which has been identified as the most biologically diverse savanna on Earth. But changing land-use patterns have created problems for some species. Credit: Carly Vynne
National parks often are established to help preserve species native to a particular region, but it appears that some species preservation is more successful if a significant portion of land adjacent to a park also is left as natural habitat.
The Cerrado region in Brazil has been identified as the most biologically diverse savanna on Earth, and Emas National Park is an important protected area for populations of wide-ranging large mammals such as giant anteaters, jaguars and puma.
But at about 500 square miles, the park is too small on its own to protect those species, said Carly Vynne, director of wildlife and habitat for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, who studied the effect of land-use changes on mammals in the Cerrado as part of her University of Washington doctoral work.
A major concern is that areas around the park are rapidly being converted to farmland, making the park more like "an island in a sea of agriculture," Vynne said.
A Brazilian law requiring landowners to leave 20 percent of their farms' original vegetation intact could be key in preservation efforts, giving the animals significantly more room to roam outside the park, though there are some efforts to change that.
The effect of the law is to create "an interesting mosaic" combining a well-managed preserve linked to a network of forested river corridors and patches of woodland left intact on adjacent private land, Vynne said.
She led a team that studied how keeping some private land in natural habitat affected preservation efforts in the Cerrado, and the work was published last month in PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science.
"We often hear about the bison trying to leave Yellowstone (National Park), or the grizzlies trying to move out. This was the same kind of situation," she said.
A giant armadillo moves through grass and brush cover of the Cerrado region in Brazil. Credit: Carly Vynne
The researchers gathered evidence on the range and habitat favored by five species of large mammals – jaguar, puma, giant anteater, giant armadillo and maned wolf – in 2004 and again from 2006 through 2008. Using a team of dogs from the Center for Conservation Biology's famed troupe of scat-hunting conservation canines, the scientists gathered scat from each species and pieced together profiles of areas the animals tended to inhabit.
They found that the giant armadillos and jaguars favored the protected habitat of the park, possibly because they are more sensitive to disturbances involved with working agricultural land outside the park.
"The jaguars and the giant armadillos need 50 percent natural area for the habitat to be effective," Vynne said. For the other species, "just having habitat available outside the park allows them to use the landscape as a whole."
The finding comes at a time when some are trying to reduce the amount of land property owners in the Cerrado must keep in natural habitat, or to allow them to alter the use of their land near the park in exchange for keeping land elsewhere in its natural state.
"Reducing the land near the park that is left in natural habitat would likely have pretty significant implications," Vynne said.
She noted that already some agriculture land is being converted to sugar cane from soy beans, again altering the habitat and potentially changing significantly how the large mammals can use the area.
Coauthors of the PLoS One paper are Jonah Keim of Matrix Solutions Inc. of Edmonton, Alberta; Ricardo Machado and Jader Marinho-Filho of Brazil's University of Brasilia; Leandro Silveira of Brazil's Jaguar Conservation Fund; and Martha Groom and Samuel Wasser of the UW. The project was funded by the Morris Animal Foundation.
"Vision of the Wild". The following 24 minute video was produced by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service. It is an interpretative video about the American wilderness and how it was used in the historical past and how it is being used and managed by the Forest Service today.
Study suggests that plant biodiversity buffers negative climate change effects and drylands desertification
An international team of researchers including Dr. Bertrand Boeken of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev suggest in a new study that plant biodiversity preservation is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands.
The study titled, "Plant species richness and ecosystem multi-functionality in global drylands", published in the prestigious journal Science is the outcome of a five-year research effort involving more than 50 researchers from 30 institutions in 15 different countries, including Dr. Boeken of the BGU Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research. Dr. Boeken and Dr. Eli Zaady of the Gilat Research Center, the Volcani Institute - Agriculture Research Organization contributed research data from two long-term ecological research sites in the northern Negev.
The results of this study indicate that the ability of ecosystems in drylands worldwide to maintain multiple functions, such as carbon storage and buildup of nutrient pools (multi-functionality) is enhanced by the number of perennial plant species, mainly shrubs and dwarf-shrubs, whereas increased average annual temperature reduces this ability.
While small-scale controlled experiments have provided evidence of the positive relationship between biodiversity and multi-functionality over the years, this study is the first in explicitly evaluating such relationship among real ecosystems at a global scale.
The fieldwork of this study was carried out in 224 dryland ecosystems from all continents except Antarctica, where direct measurements of plant diversity and other biotic and abiotic features of the ecosystem were taken. To assess ecosystem multi-functionality, researchers assessed more than 2,600 soil samples for 14 ecosystem functions related to carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling and storage.
The functions measured deliver some of the fundamental supporting and regulating ecosystem services (e.g. soil fertility and climate regulation), and are also used to identify the onset of desertification processes.
Drylands constitute some of the largest terrestrial biomes, collectively covering 41 percent of earth's land surface and supporting over 38 percent of the global human population. They are of paramount importance for biodiversity, host many endemic plant and animal species, and include about 20 percent of the major centers of global plant diversity and over 30 percent of the designated endemic bird areas. However, dryland ecosystems are also highly vulnerable to global environmental change and desertification. "This study provides empirical evidence on the importance of biodiversity to maintain and improve ecosystem multi-functionality in drylands.
Dr. Boeken says, "Our results also suggest that the increase in average annual temperature predicted by climate change models will reduce the ability of dryland ecosystems to perform multiple functions, which are crucial to support life on earth. Plant biodiversity enhances this ability, therefore, maintaining and restoring it can contribute to mitigating the negative consequences of global warming and to promoting the resistance of natural ecosystems to desertification."
American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision, creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. With some 20,000 students on campuses in Beer-Sheva, Sede Boqer and Eilat in Israel's southern desert, BGU is a university with a conscience, where the highest academic standards are integrated with community involvement, committed to sustainable development of the Negev.
Oceanographers have identified a series of ocean hotspots around the world generated by strengthening wind systems that have driven oceanic currents, including the East Australian Current, polewards beyond their known boundaries.
The hotspots have formed alongside ocean currents that wash the east coast of the major continents and their warming proceeds at a rate far exceeding the average rate of ocean surface warming, according to an international science team whose work is published in the journal Nature Climate Change today.
Paper co-author, CSIRO's Dr Wenju Cai, said that while the finding has local ecological implications in the region surrounding the hotspots, the major influence is upon the ocean's ability to take up heat and carbon from the atmosphere.
In Australia's case, scientists report intensifying east-west winds at high latitudes (45º-55ºS) pushing southward and speeding up the gyre or swirl of currents circulating in the South Pacific, extending from South America to the Australian coast. The resulting changes in ocean circulation patterns have pushed the East Australian Current around 350 kilometres further south, with temperatures east of Tasmania as much as two degrees warmer than they were 60 years ago. "We would expect natural change in the oceans over decades or centuries but change with such elevated sea surface temperatures in a growing number of locations and in a synchronised manner was definitely not expected," said CSIRO's Dr Wenju Cai.
"Detecting these changes has been hindered by limited observations but with a combination of multi-national ocean watch systems and computer simulations we have been able to reconstruct an ocean history in which warming over the past century is 2-3 times faster than the global average ocean warming rate," says Dr Cai, a climate scientist at CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Research Flagship.
The changes are characterised by a combination of currents pushing nearer to the polar regions and intensify with systematic changes of wind over both hemispheres, attributed to increasing greenhouse gases.
Dr Cai said the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been the major driver of the surface warming of the Earth over the 20th century. This is projected to continue.
He said the research points to the need for a long-term monitoring network of the western boundary currents. In March next year, Australian scientists plan to deploy a series of moored ocean sensors across the East Australian Current to observe change season-to-season and year-to-year.
Lead author of the paper was Dr Lixin Wu, of the Ocean University of China, with contributing authors from five countries, many of whom are members of the Pacific Ocean Panel working under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation.
The research was partly funded by a grant from the Australian Climate Change Science Program supported by the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
A major climate maker is Thermohaline Circulation. The oceans are mostly composed of warm salty water near the surface over cold, less salty water in the ocean depths. These two regions don't mix except in certain special areas. The ocean currents, the movement of the ocean in the surface layer, are driven mostly by the wind. In certain areas near the polar oceans, the colder surface water also gets saltier due to evaporation or sea ice formation. In these regions, the surface water becomes dense enough to sink to the ocean depths. This pumping of surface water into the deep ocean forces the deep water to move horizontally until it can find an area on the world where it can rise back to the surface and close the current loop. This usually occurs in the equatorial ocean, mostly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This very large, slow current is called the thermohaline circulation because it is caused by temperature and salinity (haline) variations.
The following animation shows one of the major regions where this pumping occurs, the North Atlantic Ocean around Greenland, Iceland, and the North Sea. The surface ocean current brings new water to this region from the South Atlantic via the Gulf Stream and the water returns to the South Atlantic via the North Atlantic Deep Water current. The continual influx of warm water into the North Atlantic polar ocean keeps the regions around Iceland and southern Greenland mostly free of sea ice year round.
The animation also shows another feature of the global ocean circulation: the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The region around latitude 60 south is the the only part of the Earth where the ocean can flow all the way around the world with no land in the way. As a result, both the surface and deep waters flow from west to east around Antarctica. This circumpolar motion links the world's oceans and allows the deep water circulation from the Atlantic to rise in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the surface circulation to close with the northward flow in the Atlantic.
The color on the world's ocean's at the beginning of this animation represents surface water density, with dark regions being most dense and light regions being least dense. The depths of the oceans are highly exaggerated to better illustrate the differences between the surface flows and deep water flows. The actual flows in this model are based on current theories of the thermohaline circulation rather than actual data. The thermohaline circulation is a very slow moving current that can be difficult to distinguish from general ocean circulation. Therefore, it is difficult to measure or simulate.
This animation first depicts thermohaline surface flows over surface density, and illustrates the sinking of water in the dense ocean near Iceland and Greenland. The surface of the ocean then fades away and the animation pulls back to show the global thermohaline circulation.
Video Credit : NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. The Blue Marble Next Generation data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC) and NASA's Earth Observatory.
The Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarships 2012 are now open for applications! The award provides three young European conservationists with €3000 to undertake a study visit to one or more protected areas in European countries other than their own. They are awarded by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the EUROPARC Federation. The deadline for applications is Friday May 11th 2012.
The €3000, donated by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation (DE), gives successful scholars the chance to gather experience and strengthen their networks. Applicants must be under 35, of European nationality and themes for applications must be connected to the management of natural areas. Some guidelines to what these should be are provided. Applications can be filled in online and submitted by Friday 11th May 2012. All organisational aspects, such as the selection of candidates, are carried out by the EUROPARC Federation.
The Scholarships enhance international cooperation and advance the quality, innovation and European dimension of the management of natural areas, such as national parks. At the end of their study visit the scholars should produce a report on their findings which will be shared with practitioners in charge of managing Europe’s natural heritage. They are awarded at the annual EUROPARC Conference, which will be held in Genk, Belgium from 22nd – 25th October 2012.
In 2011 the scholarships were awarded to three individuals from Hungary, Scotland and Belgium. The topics the scholars are currently researching are: management techniques in protected areas, the creation of European partnerships and information sharing in the field of grazing management and improvement of communication between World Heritage marine sites in the Mediterranean Sea.
The EUROPARC Federation is committed to the protection and promotion of Europe’s protected areas and all they offer. We are the foremost and largest NGO representing European protected areas, uniting national parks, regional parks, nature parks and biosphere reserves in 39 countries, with the common aim of conserving Europe's unique variety of wildlife, habitats and landscapes.
The Alfred Toepfer Foundation is a charitable association with activities across Europe in the fields of culture, science, education and nature conservation. A particular focus of the Foundation is promoting European understanding whilst conserving cultural diversity. More information about the Alfred Toepfer Scholarships and the application form can be found online.
From humble beginnings, organization celebrates silver anniversary with gratitude, focus on new mission, and renewed commitment to safeguard nature for future generations.
Founded with a mission to safeguard biodiversity and the provisions of ecosystem services for the well-being of people, Conservation International (CI) is proud to mark 25 years since its establishment in 1987 and reflects today on the groundbreaking accomplishments of its first quarter century, as well as the major challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in its next.
The organization, which brings together approximately 900 diverse and passionate conservation professionals in nearly 30 countries, is headquartered in the Washington DC area, not far from where it was founded late one January evening in the Tabard Inn by conservationists Peter Seligmann and Spencer Beebe.
“It was a different era. Conservation of nature wasn’t top-of-mind at that time. Companies didn’t think about it, governments didn’t prioritize it, schools didn’t teach it. So we felt it was vital to show that nature and humanity are fundamentally linked and demonstrate the connections between conservation and economic well-being,” said Seligmann, CI’s Chairman and CEO.
In the organization’s first year, CI particularly focused its international efforts on engaging local communities in the three countries where Seligmann and Beebe had previously worked: Bolivia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Thirty-five colleagues joined the founders that first year, taking a leap of faith that their vision would one day help to revolutionize how people, governments, and businesses value and manage our planet’s natural capital.
“We believed tat in order to be successful in conservation, we had to involve local people and build local capacity, giving them ownership and control of conservation in their own countries,” said Seligmann, a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “We also felt strongly that, in order for our conservation efforts to have meaningful and positive impacts on people, we had to engage not only natural scientists and conservationists but social scientists and economists as well.”
The founding members of CI made personal sacrifices to lay its foundation, borrowing money and working out of their homes to help to turn their dreams into reality.
Looking back, they agree that the struggle was worth it. Today, CI is a top-rated charity with an operating budget of approximately $150 million USD annually and more than 1,000 partners and conservation investments in more than 40 countries. It has led or contributed to the protection of 106 million hectares (262 million acres) of land and sea around the world (terrestrial: 51 million hectares; marine: 55 million hectares); established innovative financing mechanisms to support long-term local efforts in priority regions; facilitated groundbreaking debt-for-nature swaps that led to the creation of parks and reserves; discovered and documented hundreds of new or endemic species in priority high-biodiversity countries to help inform conservation priorities; partnered with indigenous and traditional peoples from around the world to support their essential role as stewards of biodiversity; and impacted policy and corporate decisions that support sustainable development.
“Our approach is broad but strategic, focusing on the places that science tells us are the highest priorities for biodiversity and human well-being. It is also two-pronged: placing high value on engagement and partnership,” said Seligmann. “With our feet in the mud and our heads metaphorically in the sky, we believe that the most effective way to achieve behavior change and sustainable development is to bring key influencers to the table, offer our expertise and together achieve positive impacts from the inside out.”
Dr. Russell Mittermeier, a globally renowned primatologist and field biologist who speaks six languages fluently, has authored or co-authored 25 books and 655 scientific papers, and spends up to 200 days a year visiting conservation projects and leaders around the world, joined the organization as President in 1989 and still today leads Conservation International with Seligmann.
“Our geographic priorities and our investments have always been based on the best available science, and it is from that foundation that we are able to advise and support sound decision-making,” said Mittermeier. “But our approach to conservation has evolved over the past twenty-five years.
“In our early years, we focused on creating protected areas in the biodiversity hotspots, believing that we could stem the loss of species and ecosystems by creating safe havens for biodiversity. Protected areas of many different kinds continue to be among our most important tools in achieving conservation objectives and are also fundamentally important to human communities around the world. However, today we have come to the realization that they themselves aren’t enough. Species are still disappearing, many of the habitats that support life, including our own, continue to be degraded, and a large portion of the human population is still living under the poverty level. Clearly, we needed to take on a much broader agenda and think bigger, demonstrating that nature is not just worthy of conservation in its own right, it is also the most essential underpinning of long-term human well-being."
With that in mind, in 2010 CI redefined its institutional mission to expand the scope and scale of its work across the planet in order to tackle the greatest environmental challenges of our time, focusing more broadly on the direct connections between healthy ecosystems and the essential flows of goods and services they deliver to a growing human population, such as food, water, health, biodiversity, cultural heritage and climate security. The organization also forged new partnerships with international banks, civil society, and foundations to team global conservation initiatives with those investing in human development.
“Whereas we used to focus on creating parks and protecting natural areas for the sake of preserving our natural heritage, over time, we came to realize that we needed to reshape our approach to conservation, and tap into existing forces in order to address the scale of challenges facing governments and business, such as global poverty, food insecurity, water scarcity, economic development and supply chain flows,” said Seligmann. “In our next 25 years, we have to constantly be creating new alliances and bringing more and more people into our conservation efforts so that together, we can tackle these shared concerns with our pooled passion and resources.”
“To achieve this, we are demonstrating proof of concept at the local level, sharing and scaling these solutions up to larger and larger landscapes or regions, and helping communities, businesses, banks and governments see that it is in their enlightened self-interest to conserve, sustainably manage and properly value our natural wealth,” added Seligmann. “We believe that with this bottom-up and top-down approach, we now have the best chance of gaining broad game-changing support for conservation.”
Over the course of its 25 years, CI has worked with partners in five continents. It’s used three different logos, the most recent of which was introduced in 2010 when the organization refined its mission. It has successfully attracted the dedicated support of diverse, global visionaries in business, science, entertainment and philanthropy, as well as indigenous leaders from Brazil and Philippines, to its Board of Directors, Chairman’s Council and Business & Sustainability Council. And it has adapted to new challenges.
On the occasion of the anniversary, co-founder Spencer Beebe, who subsequently moved on from CI to found and lead Ecotrust in Portland Washington sent congratulations to the board, staff and “courageous team of individuals at CI who together put their faith in a more natural model of development, one that emerges bottom up from the very particular and distinctive qualities of people and place”.
Conservation International Board Member and Trustee William Wrigley, Jr. said, “CI is a unique organization with an incredible ability to take science and practical thinking and rapidly turn it into demonstrable action that truly has a positive impact on humanity and our environment. The last twenty-five years of CI’s accomplishments have been nothing short of extraordinary and the pace of meaningful change facilitated by CI is increasing every year.”
Seligmann said, “Twenty-five years ago we took a leap of faith. We jumped out on our own and built something against all odds. We’re making the same leap of faith today. The next four decades are going to be a serious challenge as our population soars to more than nine billion in forty years and ten billion by the end of this century. Demand for energy, food and water is going to double in the next four decades and we only have one planet to resource this increasing demand. Conservation is not a luxury anymore. It’s a necessity. So we can’t slow down. We have to really intensify.”
1987-2012: A SELECTION OF CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL’S KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
Debt for Nature swaps: CI’s innovative leadership in debt-for-nature swaps dates back to its founding year, 1987, when it purchased a portion of Bolivia’s foreign debt owed to a commercial creditor. In return, the Bolivian government redirected the funds to support protection of 3.7 million acres in and around the Beni Biosphere Reserve. Since then CI and its partners have played a key role in a number of debt-for-nature deals, including: 2004: the United States and Colombia reached an agreement on a debt-for-nature swap that resulted in forgiveness of $10 million of Colombia’s debt to the United States. As part of the deal, Colombia agreed to invest at least this amount over 12 years to protect nearly 11 million acres of its tropical forests. GCF, The Nature Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund contributed $1.4 million toward the deal; 2006: CI played a key role in a 2006 deal between the United States and Guatemala that cancelled $24 million of Guatemala’s debt to the United States and channeled that money into a local fund for conservation grants to be distributed over the next 15 years. CI contributed $1 million to the swap, including $700,000 from the Global Conservation Fund (GCF) and $300,000 from CEPF. The Nature Conservancy was also a partner in the deal; 2007: An agreement with the United States forgave $26 million of Costa Rica’s debt in return for a commitment from Costa Rica to redirect that amount toward tropical forest conservation activities in six of the most important natural areas over the next 16 years. Both CI and The Nature Conservancy contributed to the purchase of the debt.
Biodiversity Hotspots - In 1989 Conservation International adopted a seminal concept of biodiversity hotspots, created by British ecologist Norman Myers. Myers’ hotspots served as CI’s institutional blueprint, and in 1999, CI conducted a global review, which introduced quantitative thresholds for the designation of biodiversity hotspots. The 1999 analysis identified 25 biodiversity hotspots and emerged as the dominant paradigm for global conservation strategy. Hotspots hold especially high numbers of endemic species, yet their combined area of remaining habitat covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Each hotspot faces extreme threats and has already lost at least 70 percent of its original natural vegetation. As of 2011, 35 biodiversity hotspots have been identified.
CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) – Launched in 1990, the idea behind the creation of CI's Rapid Assessment Program was to build a team of the best field biologists from different disciplines, and create a type of ecological SWAT team that could accurately assess the health of an ecosystem in a fraction of the time it would normally take. The flagship program has conducted 80 scientific field surveys in 27 countries, contributing to the creation or improvement of nearly 21 million hectares of protected areas worldwide (~81,000 square miles) and the discovery of 1,300 species new to science. RAP surveys have also contributed a financial investment of more than $5.3 million into local communities and national economies through funding that is primarily spent in-country and they have trained more than 400 students and scientists in developing countries. Notable "RAP Stars" discovered through the years include species that have been nicknamed the "walking shark", the “Yoda bat” and the “ET salamander”.
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) – A financing mechanism established under the leadership of CI in 2000, CEPF pools global funding resources to build the capacity of civil society organizations to meet local needs in critical conservation hotspots. An impressive collaboration among Conservation International, l'Agence Française de Développement, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank, CEPF’s Secretariat is based at CI's Arlington headquarters. Since its inception, the fund has committed more than $137 million and leveraged an additional $320 million to help more than 1,600 civil society organizations implement diverse projects to safeguard biodiversity hotspots in 53 countries. The result has been strengthened civil society, 12 million hectares of new or expanded protected areas and improved management of an additional 21 million hectares of globally important lands.
CI’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF) finances the creation, expansion, and long-term management of protected areas, supporting partners in biodiversity hotspots to help places in peril reverse course. Created in 2001, the GCF launched with a $100-million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The fund has done more than any other instrument of its kind to support the creation of new protected areas in the biodiversity hotspots and high-biodiversity wilderness areas, supporting the creation and expansion of more than 79 million hectares of terrestrial and marine protected areas. GCF has given grants to CI’s regional programs and more than 40 incredible partners – from The Nature Conservancy to Association FANAMBY in Madagascar to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund.
Indigenous and Traditional Peoples’ Program - In 2003, CI consolidated its many years of work with indigenous and traditional peoples into the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples Program, a global program that works to strengthen the capacities of Indigenous and traditional peoples and conservationists to work through policy, practice and partnership toward mutual goals. The program is guided by CI's institutional policy, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation International: Principles for Partnership, which focus on transparency, participation, consent, self-determination and cultural identity, traditional knowledge, tenure systems and conflict resolution. Some of CI’s most important projects over the past two decades include partnerships with the Kayapó Indians of the Brazilian Amazon, the Trio people of southern Suriname and the Wai-Wai of Guyana. Today, CI works with more than 50 indigenous groups around the world and counts among its board of directors leaders from Brazil’s Kayapó and the Philippines’ Igorot peoples. This collaborative approach has led to a string of successes—helping the Wai-Wai receive absolute title to their lands, creating a long-term trust fund to support the Kayapó and establishing Ecuador’s Socio Bosque program, which pays indigenous communities for reducing carbon emissions by protecting standing forest. In 2011, the work of the ITPP became the foundation for a new Social Policy and Practice Department that focuses on the intersection of conservation and human wellbeing in support of CI’s new mission
Center for Environmental Leadership in Business - For more than 20 years, CI has actively engaged with corporations for the purpose of improving environmental practices and conserving nature. Through its Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, founded in 2000, CI challenges and collaborates with companies to minimize environmental impacts and to harness private sector ingenuity on behalf of healthy ecosystems and human well-being. Engaging with multinational corporations such as Walmart, Starbucks, Marriott, and others, CI helps to ensure that effective safeguards for biodiversity and ecosystem services are incorporated fully into business operations and supply chains.
Seascapes & Pacific Oceanscape - in recent years, CI has focused in supporting the sustainable management of priority marine conservation regions where strategic actions can literally make a world of difference. These critical "Seascapes" in waters off Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador extend beyond country boundaries, creating opportunities for governments, multinational corporations, and others to work together to conserve the seas and the diverse marine life that is the lifeline for people living near their shores. CI is also supporting the implementation of a bold new framework for ocean management in the globally important Pacific Islands region, where island leaders have come together to create a Pacific Oceanscape, the largest government-endorsed marine managed initiative on Earth at 38.5 million square kilometers (nearly 24 million square miles). This area is collectively larger than the land territories of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined, and will help vulnerable island populations in the region build resilience in ocean ecosystems so that marine life, and people, have the best chance of adapting to the impacts climate change.
The Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network – Conceived in 2001, this ambitious program monitors long-term trends in biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate using standardized methods of data collection so that scientists anywhere on Earth can quantify how climate change is affecting tropical ecosystems. Akin to an early warning system for nature, TEAM delivers multi-scale, real-time understanding of how key elements of Earth’s operating system — climate, carbon stocks, biodiversity — are changing and what this means for people. Created by Conservation International, the TEAM Network is now a partnership of more than 80 organizations in 17 countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, including: CI, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The TEAM Network’s research and systems have directly contributed to: the production of 350,000 terrestrial vertebrate images from camera traps; population-level information on over 300 species for the IUCN Species Survival Commission; data to calibrate remote sensing measurements of forest carbon at large spatial scales by Scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and a network of World Meteorological Organization compliant climate stations in natural areas where there may not be any other climate stations for hundreds of miles.
Conservation International (CI) - Building upon a strong foundation of science, partnership and field demonstration, CI empowers societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the long term well-being of people. Founded in 1987 and marking its 25th anniversary in 2012, CI has headquarters in the Washington DC area, and 900 employees working in nearly 30 countries on four continents, plus 1,000+ partners around the world.
The following video footage is incredible, real time footage of the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis filmed by weather-chasing cameraman Alister Chapman on January 24th during the peak of a Solar Storm. This is not time-lapse, this is how the Northern Lights really can dance and move across the sky.
The following video footage was created by Astronaut Don Pettit using a sequence of still images he shot of the aurora borealis from the International Space Station.
A new European Fund for the EU's Maritime and Fisheries Policies.
The European Commission has proposed a new fund for the EU's maritime and fisheries policies for the period 2014-2020: the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). The Fund will help deliver the ambitious objectives of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and will help fishermen in the transition towards sustainable fishing, as well as coastal communities in the diversification of their economies. The fund will finance projects that create new jobs and improve quality of life along European coasts. Red tape will be cut so that beneficiaries have easy access to financing.
Maria Damanaki, Commissioner in charge of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said: “This new fund will increase economic growth and create jobs in the sector. No more money will be spent to build big vessels. Small scale fisheries and aquaculture will benefit of this budgetary greening of the Common Fisheries Policy."
This new fund will replace the existing European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and a number of other instruments. The proposed envelope amounts to € 6.5 billion for the period 2014 to 2020.
Background:
Underpinning the environmental, economic and social principles of the Common Fisheries Policy reform
The EMFF will be a fundamental instrument for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that the Commission proposed in July. The transition to sustainability requires some radical changes in the way we fish – and the fund will give fishermen the incentive they need, so that fishing can be less damaging to marine ecosystems, overexploitation can be stopped and the decline of fish stocks can be reversed.
As we relieve pressure on the stocks and leave them time to recover, the communities depending on fishing will need to find alternative sources of income. The EMFF will help them find innovative ways to add value to their catches and diversify their economy.
But the EMFF is not just a catalyst for the transition to sustainability and good economic performance. It is also a vehicle to deliver the Commission's social agenda. Spouses often play a fundamental role in the family fishing business. Now they will be able to get support for training or other economic activities related to fishing. Producers' Organisations will be helped to plan production to satisfy market demands and to market their products in a way that meets the expectations of an increasingly discerning public.
Smart, green fisheries:
Despite the 1.7 billion EUR spent on scrapping since the 1990s, the EU fleet still suffers from overcapacity, as the decommissioning of vessels was offset by the technological upgrade of the remaining fleet. Therefore, money will not go to scrapping anymore and the money will be deployed towards economically and socially productive activities. Diversification is one of them. Encouraging bottom-up initiatives has so far produced excellent results in areas connected to fishing, such as processing, catering or tourism. The EMFF will reinforce this kind of community-led innovation. As small-scale coastal fleets remain the lifeblood of the economy of many coastal communities, the aid to support them will be intensified.
The new fund will also support innovative projects such as replacing fishing nets with more selective gear in order to reduce discards, or the development of new technologies that could lower the impact of fishing and fish-farming on the environment.
Smart, green aquaculture
Fish farming carries a huge potential to reduce our dependence on imports. It provides high-quality jobs in rural areas and puts healthy food on European dinner tables. The fund will strive to boost this industry in a sustainable manner, rewarding innovation and promoting also new strands of aquaculture, such as non-food aquaculture.
Support the partnership of science and fishermen:
Having the proper data on the state of fish stocks and the marine environment in general plays a key role in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy and the EMFF will give sufficient funds for data collection, monitoring and control. As it does not make sense that those working on the sea (the fishermen) and those studying the sea (the scientists) should live in separate worlds, the EMFF will encourage them to work in tandem to find ways to exploit natural resources in a sustainable manner.
A single fund for fisheries and the Integrated Maritime Policy:
The 2007 EU Integrated Maritime Policy interconnects maritime sectors which have historically been compartmentalised and managed in isolation. The EMFF will provide support for projects such as maritime spatial planning, integrated maritime surveillance and marine knowledge. These are examples where integration can help avoid duplications and reduce costs through greater cooperation and coordination across sectors. Including the Maritime Policy into the EMFF will ensure greater coherence and help deliver synergies between the two policy strands.
Simplification:
The rules governing the EMFF will be harmonised with those for other EU funds. This will make life easier for both beneficiaries and national authorities. The EMFF will be part of the new Common Strategic Framework, which will ensure that all the various existing EU funds work consistently with each other, avoiding overlaps or duplications.
How the Fund works:
The new Fund will be used to co-finance projects with Member states. The total budget will be allocated to the Member States based on the importance of the fisheries sector in each country. Then the principles of shared-management between the Commission and the Member States will apply. Each Member State draws up an operational programme for the period, specifying how they intend to spend the money allocated to them. Once the Commission approves this programme, it is up to the Member state to decide the actual projects to be financed. Both the eligibility of the actions to support and the implementation of the programme are monitored by the Member States and the Commission.
Winged predators seek certain trees when foraging for caterpillars
Location matters for birds on the hunt for caterpillars, according to researchers at UC Irvine and Wesleyan University. Findings suggest that chickadees and others zero in on the type of tree as much as the characteristics of their wriggly prey.
Unfortunately for caterpillars, munching on tree leaves that are healthy and tasty can dramatically boost their own risk of becoming food. Study results, published online this week in The American Naturalist, show that dining on the trees that are most nutritious for caterpillars – such as the black cherry – can increase by 90 percent their chances of being devoured by a discerning bird.
"The jump in risk is surprising," said co-author Kailen Mooney, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at UCI. "It shows that for caterpillars, moving from one tree to the next can mean the difference between getting eaten and surviving."
The findings indicate a "neat potential pest control system," because the healthiest tree species harbor the greatest number of caterpillars, thereby offering the easiest pickings for winged predators, said lead author Michael Singer of Wesleyan. "Our study addresses basic theoretical questions in ecology, but we also want forest managers and conservation biologists to take away practical knowledge."
Mooney, who specializes in the ecology of predatory birds, said tree identification is probably learned by birds, not genetic. He added that Southern California bird species probably do the same with coastal sage scrub, determining which types of bushes afford a better chance of tasty insect treats.
With help from a small army of students, the scientists conducted a two-year experiment in Connecticut forests involving hundreds of tree branches either covered with bird-proof netting or left bare.
Mooney noted that the results illustrate a stark choice between gaining strength through a good diet but being more vulnerable to predators and remaining weaker and hungrier but more safe.
"If a caterpillar could feed on nutritious, high-quality tree species and be left alone, this would be the best of all worlds," he said. "Instead, it's faced with a trade-off. Overall, it appears that it's better to feed on poor-quality tree species and have fewer caterpillars around you than to be on a nutritious plant with many others."
University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with nearly 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,000 staff. Orange County's second-largest employer, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $4 billion.
Left: A Landsat pixel-based map showing where the most change has been detected on Caryfort Reef between 1984 and 1996. Right: The spine of elevation shows where the most change has occurred, for Carysfort this change has been correlated with coral decline. Credit: Phil Dustan
Over dinner on R.V. Calypso while anchored on the lee side of Glover's Reef in Belize, Jacques Cousteau told Phil Dustan that he suspected humans were having a negative impact on coral reefs. Dustan—a young ocean ecologist who had worked in the lush coral reefs of the Caribbean and Sinai Peninsula—found this difficult to believe. It was December 1974.
But Cousteau was right. During the following three-plus decades, Dustan, an ocean ecologist and biology professor at the University of Charleston in South Carolina, has witnessed widespread coral reef degradation and bleaching from up close. In the late 1970s Dustan helped build a handheld spectrometer, a tool to measure light given off by the coral. Using his spectrometer, Dustan could look at light reflected and made by the different organisms that comprised the living reefs. Since then, he has watched reefs deteriorate at an alarming rate. Recently he has found that Landsat offers a way to evaluate these changes globally. Using an innovative way to map how coral reefs are changing over time, Dustan now can find 'hotspots' where conservation efforts should be focused to protect these delicate communities.
Situated in shallow clear water, most coral reefs are visible to satellites that use passive remote sensing to observe Earth's surface. But coral reefs are complex ecosystems with coincident coral species, sand, and water all reflecting light. Dustan found that currently orbiting satellites do not offer the spatial or spectral resolution needed to distinguish between them and specifically classify coral reef composition. So instead of attempting to classify the inherently complex coral ecosystem to monitor their health, Dustan has instead started to look for change—how overall reflectance for a geographic location varies over time.
Dustan uses a time series of Landsat data to calculate something called temporal texture¬—basically a map showing where change has occurred based on statistical analysis of reflectance information. While Dustan cannot diagnosis the type of change with temporal texture he can establish where serious changes have occurred. Coral communities have seasonal rhythms and periodicities, but larger, significant changes show up as statistical outliers in temporal texture maps and often correlate with reef decline.
A Case Study
Carysfort reef—named for the HMS Carysfort, an eighteenth century British warship that ran aground on the reef in 1770—is considered the most ecologically diverse on the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary's northern seaward edge, but today it is in a state of ecological collapse.
Dustan and colleagues conducted the first quantitative field study of coral health at Carysfort in 1974. After a quarter century their studies showed that coral had declined 92 percent. The coral had succumbed to an array of stressors culminating with deadly diseases.
Using the well-characterized Carysfort reef as his control, Dustan calculated the temporal texture for the reef using a series of 20 Landsat images collected between 1982 and 1996. The resulting temporal texture maps correlated with the known areas of significant coral loss (where coral communities have turned into algal-dominated substrates) and they correctly showed that the seaward shallow regions have had the most detrimental change.
This novel approach to change detection is only possible because the long-term calibration of Landsat data assures that data from year-to-year is consistent. Dustin needs at least 6 to 8 Landsat images to create a reliable temporal texture map, but the more data that is available, the finer the results.
Dustan tested this work in the U.S. because he had a robust study site and because prior to 1999 coverage of reefs outside of the U.S. was spotty. With the Landsat 7 launch in 1999 a new global data acquisition strategy was established and for the first time the planet's coral reefs were systematically and regularly imaged, greatly increasing our knowledge of reefs. The Landsat archive enabled the completing of the first exhaustive global survey of reefs (Millennium Global Coral Reef Mapping Project, http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/news-archive/news_0031.html). Efforts are currently underway to receive and ingest Landsat data collected and housed by international ground-receiving stations. International partners often downlink Landsat scenes of their countries that the U.S. does not, so it is very likely that historic reef images will be added the U.S. Landsat archive during this process.
Carrying on Outside of Carysfort
Temporal texture gives scientists an entirely new way to look at coral reefs. A worldwide study could help managers locate change 'hotspots' and could better inform conservation efforts.
Ideally, after more testing, Dustan would like to see an automatic change detection system implemented to follow major worldwide reef systems. "There is no reason that a form of temporal texture monitoring could not be implemented with current satellites in orbit," Dustan says.
Because reefs are underwater it is difficult to grasp the extensive devastation being exacted upon them. Global temporal texture mapping could bring the ravages into focus.
The Landsat Program is a series of Earth observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Landsat satellites have been consistently gathering data about our planet since 1972. They continue to improve and expand this unparalleled record of Earth's changing landscapes for the benefit of all.
New evidence found for ecological succession in microbial communities on deep-sea hydrothermal vents
Scientists at USC have uncovered evidence that even when hydrothermal sea vents go dormant and their blistering warmth turns to frigid cold, life goes on.
Or rather, it is replaced.
A team led by USC microbiologist Katrina Edwards found that the microbes that thrive on hot fluid methane and sulfur spewed by active hydrothermal vents are supplanted, once the vents go cold, by microbes that feed on the solid iron and sulfur that make up the vents themselves.
These findings – based on samples collected for Edwards by US Navy deep sea submersible Alvin (famed for its exploration of the Titanic in 1986) – provide a rare example of ecological succession in microbes.
The findings were published today in mBio in an article authored by Edwards, USC graduate researcher Jason Sylvan, and Brandy Toner of the University of Minnesota.
Ecological succession is the biological phenomenon whereby one form of life takes the place of another as conditions in an area change – a phenomenon well-documented in plants and animals.
For example, after a forest fire, different species of trees replace the older ones that had stood for decades.
Scientists have long known that active vents provided the heat and nutrients necessary to maintain microbes. But dormant vents – lacking a flow of hot, nutrient-rich water – were thought to be devoid of life.
Hydrothermal vents are formed on the ocean floor with the motion of tectonic plates. Where the sea floor becomes thin, the hot magma below the surface creates a fissure that spews geothermally heated water – reaching temperatures of more than 400° C.
After a (geologically) brief time of actively venting into the ocean, the same sea floor spreading that brought them into being shuffles them away from the hotspot. The vents grow cold and dormant.
"Hydrothermal vents are really ephemeral in nature," said Edwards, professor of biological sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Microbial communities on sea floor vents have been studied since the vents themselves were first discovered in the late 1970s. Until recently, little attention had been paid to them once they stopped venting, though.
Sylvan said he would like to take samples on vents of various ages to catalogue exactly how the succession from one population of microbes to the next occurs.
Edwards, who recently returned from a two-month expedition to collect samples of microbes deep below the ocean floor, said that the next step will be to see if the ecological succession is mirrored in microbes that exist beneath the surface of the rock.
"The next thing is to go subterranean," she said.
Their research was funded by the Keck Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Research Council and NASA postdoctoral fellowship programs.
Human-made, coastal defence infrastructures at Cesenatico, along the Italian shores of the north Adriatic sea. View of the study area and breakwaters from Google Earth. B) View of a breakwater under maintenance (photo L. Airoldi).
Renovating coastal structures, such as breakwaters, groynes, artificial reefs, quays and sea walls, can be destructive to marine ecosystems as it encourages opportunistic and invasive species, according to recent research. Repairs can be particularly damaging if conducted in spring or summer, so repair schedules should be recognised in marine planning strategies to minimise negative ecological effects, say the researchers.
More than 50% of the Mediterranean coastline around Spain, Italy and France is covered with artificial features that help protect against extreme weather, preserve beaches and add aesthetic value. However, instead of supporting marine life by mimicking natural hard-bottom habitats, as previously thought, scientists have found that repair work carried out over the lifetime of such features causes extreme ecological disturbances by removing, replacing and dislodging large portions of the structure on which biological communities have settled.
The team of researchers, funded under the EU THESEUS1 and DELOS2 projects, monitored the ecological effects of repair works to four breakwaters along Italy’s North Adriatic coastline over a period of three years.
They found that one month after repair works, more than 80% of the landward (sheltered) sides of breakwaters were covered with either bare rock, where mussel and oyster beds had been lost, or biofilm, a thin coating formed by opportunistic marine microorganisms. This was relative to 30% cover for breakwaters that had undergone no repair work.
On the seaward (exposed) side, the effect was less pronounced with an increase in biofilm of just 10-20%. The scientists attribute the difference between the landward and the seaward sides to the level of exposure and differences in the structure of the mussel beds; smaller individuals in single-layer beds on the seaward side are far less susceptible to damage than larger ones in multi-layer beds on the landward side.
Macroalgae, including the invasive species Codium fragile, dominated the breakwaters after a year, reaching up to 50% cover on the seaward sides, compared to 20% on non-repaired breakwaters.
In a controlled experiment, the scientists simulated the destructive effects of repair work by removing the resident biological communities from sections of three breakwaters that had not been repaired in the last three years. They were removed at a different time of year for each section. They found that sections disturbed in January displayed no increase in macroalgae and recovered to their original state after only four months, while sections disturbed in April and August had significant macroalgae growth and still had not recovered a year later. This could be related to the time of year that both mussels and macroalgae reach maturity, according to the researchers.
As the need for coastal defence structures increases in response to a greater risk of storm surges and sea level rise with global climate change, the scientists recommend that repair works should be carried out in winter to reduce negative biological impacts. Reducing the spread of invasive species will also have indirect benefits for the fishery and aquaculture industries. Importantly, the higher cost of carrying out repairs in winter would be offset by a reduction in expensive clean-up procedures currently required to remove macroalgae washed up on tourist beaches.
THESEUS (Innovative technologies for safer European coasts in a changing climate) is supported by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.
DELOS (Environmental Design of Low Crested Coastal Defence Structures) was supported by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework Programme.
Source: Airoldi, L. & Bulleri, F. (2011). Anthropogenic disturbance can determine the magnitude of opportunistic species responses on marine urban infrastructures. PLoS ONE, 6(8); e22985.
The importance of coral reefs in supporting diverse fish communities has been highlighted in a recent study. However, the effects of damaging fishing techniques were also observed in video footage of the reefs studied, located off the coast of Ireland.
Coral reefs are known to provide an important deep sea habitat that supports a wide range of marine life. They are also known to be easily damaged by current fishing practices. Such damage can be long-lasting and persist even many years after fishing has ceased.
The study, conducted under the EU KnowSeas project, contributes in particular to our understanding of the wide variety of habitats that individual coral reefs can provide. The researchers investigated fish populations in the North-East Atlantic, at two cold water coral reefs off the west coast of Ireland, 600-1110m deep. They estimated the number of fish at the sites from video footage taken by remotely controlled underwater robotic vehicles.
Over 30 varieties of fish and nearly 5000 individual fish were estimated to be sighted in all, from over 2000 suitable still images from the video footage. The most commonly sighted species for both sites was the North Atlantic codling, which comprised just under half of all sightings, followed by the northern cutthroat eel, which accounted for around a quarter of all fish observed.
Two species of fish were particularly associated with coral habitats: the false boarfish, spotted most frequently above dead coral rubble, and the Guttigadus latifrons, most commonly found among dense living coral thickets. Indeed, there was significant evidence of fish occupying distinct habitat types. For example, the North Atlantic codling was most commonly found in structurally complex habitats, where their preferred prey can be found, and different fish communities were found among living and dead coral structures. This demonstrates how corals provide a complex habitat, able to home a large range of fish.
Of concern was evidence of damage caused by some fishing practices, which may have implications for the resident fish communities. Traditionally, bottom trawling (dragging fishing nets along the seabed) was avoided in rough areas such as these, as the equipment could be easily damaged or lost. However, this changed in the 1980s with the introduction of ‘rockhopper’ trawls, which are able to pass over rough surfaces.
The researchers suggest that this study contributes to the increasing body of evidence of Irish coral reefs’ importance. As coral habitats grow very slowly, taking hundreds to thousands of years to form, the impacts of any reef destruction on marine life must be acknowledged.
Source: SÖffker, M. Sloman, K.A., Hall-Spencer. J.M. (2011). In situ observations of fish associated with coral reefs off Ireland. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 58(8): 818-825.
Mercury accumulation, previously considered a risk for aquatic ecosystems, is also found in many wildlife species living on the land. This new scientific data is presented in a new report published by Biodiversity Research Institute in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.
Mercury is a pollutant that is cause for concern at local, regional, and global scales. While areas of high contamination (known as biological mercury hotspots) may occur near mercury-emitting sources, often they do not. Because mercury released into the atmosphere can circle the world before being deposited, wildlife living in habitats located far from point sources of mercury can still be at risk. Although great strides have been made to reduce mercury released into the air and water from human activities, the Hidden Risk report illustrates that high levels of mercury persist in many wildlife species distributed across many habitat types.
The image shows a SeaFET pH sensor deployed underneath approximately 12 feet of sea ice in McMurdo Sound, Ross Island, Antarctica, in Oct. 2010. Scientists use these sensors to identify the natural dynamics of ocean pH in order to better understand how marine organisms may be impacted by climate change. The black object is the sensor, which is anchored to the ocean bottom using weights. Along the ocean bottom, worms and sea stars are visible. Credit: Rob Robbins
Might a penguin's next meal be affected by the exhaust from your tailpipe? The answer may be yes, when you add your exhaust fumes to the total amount of carbon dioxide lofted into the atmosphere by humans since the industrial revolution. One-third of that carbon dioxide is absorbed by the world's oceans, making them more acidic and affecting marine life.
A UC Santa Barbara marine scientist and a team of 18 other researchers have reported results of the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification to date. Acidification is known to be a direct result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists used sensors developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego to measure the acidity of 15 ocean locations, including seawater in the Antarctic, and in temperate and tropical waters.
As oceans become more acidic, with a lower pH, marine organisms are stressed and entire ecosystems are affected, according to the scientists. Gretchen E. Hofmann, an eco-physiologist and professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, is lead author of the recent article in PLoS ONE that describes the research.
"We were able to illustrate how parts of the world's oceans currently have different pH, and thus how they might respond to climate changes in the future," said Hofmann. "The sensors allowed us to capture that." The sensors recorded at least 30 days of continuous pH values in each area of the study.
UCSB graduate student Emily Rivest positions a SeaFET pH sensor in a coral reef off the island of Moorea, in French Polynesia. The large cement posts once held up a pier that toppled over the reef; one of the fallen posts provides an anchor for the sensor. The grey bottle is used to collect seawater samples for chemical analyses that augment the pH data. The reefs surrounding the island of Moorea are home to UCSB's Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research site (MCR LTER). Credit: Anderson Mayfield
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, human activities have accelerated the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide mixes with water. The two molecules combine to become carbonic acid, making seawater more acidic. As billions of molecules combine and go through this process, the overall pH of the oceans decreases, causing ocean acidification.
Acidification limits the amount of carbonate forms that are needed by marine invertebrates, such as coral, urchins, snails, and shellfish, to make their skeletons. As the concentration of carbonates decreases in acidified water, it is harder to make a shell. And, the structures of some organisms may dissolve when water chemistry becomes too unfavorable.
"The emerging pH data from sensors allows us to design lab experiments that have a present-day environmental context," said Hofmann. "The experiments will allow us to see how organisms are adapted now, and how they might respond to climate change in the future."
Hofmann researched the Antarctic, where she has worked extensively, as well as an area of coral reefs around the South Pacific island of Moorea, where UCSB has a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. She also studied the coastal waters of Santa Barbara, in conjunction with UCSB's Santa Barbara Coastal LTER. The research team provided 30 days of pH data from other ocean areas around the world.
This is Gretchen Hofmann. Credit: Mary Sewell, University of Auckland
The researchers found that, in some places such as Antarctica and the Line Islands of the South Pacific, the range of pH variance is much more limited than in areas of the California coast that are subject to large vertical movements of water, known as upwellings. In some of the study areas, the researchers found that the decrease in seawater pH being caused by greenhouse gas emissions is still within the bounds of natural pH fluctuation. Other areas already experience daily acidity levels that scientists had expected would only be reached at the end of this century.
"This study is important for identifying the complexity of the ocean acidification problem around the globe," said co-author Jennifer Smith, a marine biologist with Scripps. "Our data show such huge variability in seawater pH, both within and across marine ecosystems, making global predictions of the impacts of ocean acidification a big challenge."
Todd Martz, a marine chemistry researcher at Scripps, developed the sensor. "When I arrived at Scripps, we re-engineered my prototype design, and since then I have not been able to keep up with all of the requests for sensors," said Martz. "Because every sensor used in this study was built at Scripps, I was in a unique position to assimilate a number of datasets, collected independently by researchers who otherwise would not have been in communication with each other. Each time someone deployed a sensor, they would send me the data, and eventually it became clear that a synthesis should be done to cross-compare this diverse collection of measurements." Hoffman worked with Martz to put together the research team to create that synthesis.
The team noted that the Scripps sensors, called "SeaFET" and "SeapHOx," allow researchers to continuously and autonomously monitor pH from remote parts of the world, providing important baselines from which scientists can monitor future changes caused by ocean acidification.
Despite surveying 15 different ocean regions, the authors noted that they only made observations on coastal surface oceans, and that more study is needed in deeper ocean regions farther away from land.
Hofmann is the director of the Center for the Study of Ocean Acidification and Ocean Change, a UC multi-campus initiative. Hofmann participated in writing a report on ocean acidification while on the National Research Council's Ocean Acidification Committee, and she is currently participating as a lead author on the National Climate Assessment. Hofmann is a member of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs Advisory Panel, and she is an Aldo Leopold Fellow.
In addition to Hofmann, Martz, and Smith, co-authors include Emily B. Rivest and Pauline Yu of UCSB; Uwe Send, Lisa Levin, Yuichiro Takeshita, Nichole N. Price, Brittany Peterson, and Christina A. Frieder of Scripps; Paul Matson and Kenneth Johnson of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; Fiorenza Micheli and Kristy Kroeker of Stanford University; Adina Paytan and Elizabeth Derse Crook of UC Santa Cruz; and Maria Cristina Gambi of Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy.
Funding for instrument development and related field work came from several sources, including the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the University of California, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the WWW Foundation, Scott and Karin Wilson, the Rhodes family, and NOAA.
The survival of the endangered snow leopard is looking promising thanks to Monash University scientists who have, for the first time, produced embryonic stem-like cells from the tissue of an adult leopard.
Never before have induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which share many of the useful properties of embryonic stem cells, been generated from a member of the cat family. The breakthrough raises the possibility of cryopreservation of genetic material for future cloning and other assisted reproduction techniques.
The study, published in Theriogenology, is part of the PhD project of Rajneesh Verma, supervised by Dr Paul Verma, both from the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR). Associate Professor Peter Temple-Smith of Monash University's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Professor Michael Holland of the University of Queensland also collaborated.
The researchers used ear tissue samples taken from adult snow leopards at Mogo Zoo, in NSW, to generate the iPS cells.
Dr Verma said the breakthrough was significant due to the difficulty of obtaining reproductive cells, or gametes, even from animals in captivity.
"There is a lot of interest in cryopreservation of tissue from endangered species, but for this to be useful for conservation, both sperm and an egg are required."
"The power of stem cells is that they can differentiate into all the cell types in the body. This means, they have the potential to become gametes. In fact, mouse iPS cells have given rise to entire off-spring, so the possibilities are enormous," Dr Verma said.
Mr Verma said the benefits of the breakthrough for the conservation of cat species, and biodiversity were clear.
"By generating these stem cells, we've taken the first step in creating reproductive cells from adult tissues of an endangered animal. In the future, we aim to harness the potential of the iPS cells and create off-spring. This would help save species from extinction," Mr Verma said.
The snow leopard is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia. Their high-altitude habitat and shy nature make accurate population counts difficult, but it is estimated that between 3500 and 7000 snow leopards exist in the wild, with numbers on the decline.
Mr Verma said he became fascinated with large cats during his childhood in India.
"I'm really following my passion in applying my expertise in stem cells to help save these animals. I am applying the same techniques to other members of cat family, including the Bengal tiger, the jaguar and the serval."
A butterflyfish, Chaetodon rainfordi, feeding on coral polyps. Coral reefs are both a museum and a cradle for reef fishes. Association with coral reefs has provided fishes with both a stimulus for diversification, and a potential refuge in a time of high extinction. Photo courtesy of João Paulo Krajewski.
Lessons from tens of millions of years ago are pointing to new ways to save and protect today's coral reefs and their myriad of beautiful and many-hued fishes at a time of huge change in the Earth's systems.
The complex relationship we see today between fishes and corals developed relatively recently in geological terms – and is a major factor in shielding reef species from extinction, says Professor David Bellwood of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.
"Our latest research provides strong evidence for a view that today's coral hotspots are both a refuge for old species and a cradle for new ones," said Peter Cowman, lead author of a recent report. "This is the first real inkling we've had that just protecting a large area of reef may not be enough – you have to protect the right sorts of reef."
Early coral reefs, 300-400 million years ago were much simpler affairs than today's colourful and complex systems, Prof. Bellwood says. The fish were not specialised to live on or among corals – either lacking jaws altogether, or else feeding on detritus on the seabed or preying on one another.
"By 200 million years ago we are starting to see fish with jaws capable of feeding on corals, but the real explosion in reef diversity doesn't occur till about 50 million years ago when we see fishes very like today's specialist coral feeders emerging."
It is the ever-increasing complexity of this relationship between corals and fishes over the last 20 or 30 million years that produces the wondrous diversity of today's reefs, he says. Each has become more critical to the survival of the other as their lives have become more interwoven.
"When people think of coral reefs, they usually think of the beautiful branching corals like staghorn (Acropora) – well the evidence is now fairly clear that Acropora needs certain fish for it to flourish. But, it now appears that this may be a reciprocal relationship with Acropora being important for the evolution and survival of fishes on coral reefs. "
Unfortunately Acropora corals are highly vulnerable to external impacts like Crown-of-Thorns starfish, coral bleaching, climate change and ocean acidification. Their demise will have far reaching effects on the fishes which interact with them, such as damsels, butterfly fish, cardinals and wrasses.
"The study of the past tells us that reefs are all about relationships and, like a family, for them to survive those relationships need to remain strong," Peter Cowman said.
"In coming years it is probable reefs will be subject to relentless presses that may cause them to change fundamentally. Those with the best long-term prospects of survival will be the ones where the relationships between fish and corals are healthiest.
Both fish and corals managed somehow to survive the five great mass extinction events of the past, though they sustained massive loss of species. Over time these have left us with a world focus of reef biodiversity centered on the Coral Triangle region to Australia's north, which in turn helps recharge Australian coral reefs, especially in the west.
"The Coral Triangle is currently subject to intensifying human and ecosystem pressure. The latest work by Peter Cowman and Prof Bellwood suggests it is both a cradle for new species and a refuge in troubled times – so it is vital that it remain intact.
"This isn't about saving individual species or particular reefs, it's about maintaining the basic relationships which ensure the survival of the whole," says Prof Bellwood.
"We've had a 'heads up' from the past that is giving us fresh insights into what is most important on reefs and why we must protect our precious reefs and fishes into the future."
Their paper "Coral reefs as drivers of cladogenesis: expanding coral reefs, cryptic extinction events, and the development of biodiversity hotspots" by Peter F. Cowman and David R. Bellwood was published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24: 2543-2562. DOI 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02391.x
Janez Potočnik is the European Commissioner in charge of Environment. His job is to deal with things like waste, pollution and air and water quality, as well as other complex issues such as the protection of European biodiversity and making the European economy more environmentally friendly, or 'greener'.
