Recent research from the University of Alberta reveals how fishing practices like trawling may be affecting the health of sponges that act like natural water filters.
March, 2018
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24 March
UN reports see a lonelier planet with fewer plants, animals
Earth is losing plants, animals and clean water at a dramatic rate, according to four new United Nations scientific reports that provide the most comprehensive and localized look at the state of biodiversity.
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24 March
‘We’re sleepwalking into a mass extinction’ say scientists
Species that live in symbiosis with others, which often occur in the most delicately balanced and threatened marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, are the slowest to recover their diversity if damaged, according to a team of scientists.
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23 March
Gulf of Mexico dead zone not expected to shrink anytime soon
Achieving water quality goals for the Gulf of Mexico may take decades, according to findings by researchers at the University of Waterloo.
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22 March
Pacific plastic dump far larger than feared: study
The vast dump of plastic waste swirling in the Pacific ocean is now bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined—far larger than previously feared—and is growing rapidly, a study published Thursday warned.
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22 March
Australia to open more marine parks to commercial fishing
Australia recommended opening more of its marine parks, including near the Great Barrier Reef, to commercial fishing Wednesday in a decision slammed as the worst downgrading of a protected area in the world.
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21 March
Plastic pollution in the ocean set to triple by 2025
The amount of plastic in the ocean could triple by the year 2025, according to a new report on the future of the seas. Considering there’s already over 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic trash in the world’s oceans, this is seriously bad news.
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21 March
Seaweeds shelter calcifying marine life from acidifying oceans
Seaweeds create a chemical microenvironment at their surface, providing refuge for calcifying organisms that are at risk from decreasing oceanic pH, shows new research published in the journal Functional Ecology.
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20 March
New coral bleaching outbreak in Northern Territory a worrying sign of our warming oceans
As no formal monitoring or assessment program is in place for these reefs, it’s impossible to gauge the full severity and extent of the bleaching.
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20 March
Sea level fears as more of giant Antarctic glacier floating than thought
More of a giant France-sized glacier in Antarctica is floating on the ocean than previously thought, scientists said Tuesday, raising fears it could melt faster as the climate warms and have a dramatic impact on rising sea-levels.
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20 March
Climate change threatens world’s largest seagrass carbon stores
“This decrease is significant because seagrass meadows rank among the most intense CO2 sinks in the biosphere, giving them the name ‘blue carbon ecosystems.’ They take up and store CO2 in their soils and biomass through biosequestration.
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19 March
Thiruvananthapuram: Divers recover ghost nets from seabed
This is perhaps the first time that an active attempt was made to recover ‘ghost nets’ – as abandoned or discarded fishing nets are called – along this part of the Indian coastline.