Best of our wild blogs: 6 Aug 10

Mega Marine Survey of Singapore
brand new blog with more background about the survey and an associated facebook page.

White-throated Kingfisher entangled by kite line
from Bird Ecology Study Group

kingfishers
from into the wild

Read more!

Cruel display of tortoises and turtles at museum

Straits Times 31 Jul 10;

MY MOTHER is visiting Singapore and has had a very enjoyable few weeks being out and about every day, taking in the wonderful sights and sounds that the city has to offer.

However, recently, she had, in her words, 'one of the worst experiences of her life' when she visited the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum of Singapore.

Many of the tortoises were displayed alone in very confined spaces on bare concrete floors without access to food or water.

One of the museum's highlights is an 82-year-old tortoise that is sadly destined to spend the rest of its life - potentially another 118 years - confined to a concrete tank, without seeing another tortoise.

The turtles are treated no better, cruelly displayed in stark tanks without space to swim - an inexcusable confinement for these beautiful creatures.

In the words of the museum's website, 'it is a common Chinese belief that turtles and tortoises represent longevity and good fortune' - but that definitely isn't the case for any of the unfortunate animals kept at this facility.

There should be no place in modern, vibrant Singapore for this morally reprehensible, exploitative 'tourist attraction' that harms the international reputation of the city.

Isn't it time for the Government to intervene?

Russell Eley

Museum's tortoises, turtles well cared for
Straits Times Forum 6 Aug 10;

I THANK Mr Russell Eley for his letter last Saturday ('Cruel display of tortoises and turtles at museums').

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has checked on the tortoises and turtles kept at the museum to ensure that their welfare is not compromised. They are kept in large ponds or in glass tanks with sufficient space for them to move about. These enclosures are cleaned and maintained. In addition, the ponds have demarcated dry areas for the tortoises and turtles to rest. We have advised the owner of the museum to increase tank sizes accordingly as the tortoises and turtles grow bigger.

The tortoises and turtles are fed regularly. Many at the museum are captive-bred and it is not advisable to release them as they will be vulnerable in the wild.

As for the 82-year-old tortoise, it was found injured many years ago and was rescued. The tortoise is kept apart from the other tortoises as it requires special care and attention.

Goh Shih Yong
Deputy Director, Media Division
for Chief Executive Officer
Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority

Read more!

Higher Green Mark standards for new buildings from December

Joanne Chan Channel NewsAsia 5 Aug 10;

SINGAPORE : Higher Green Mark standards will apply to new buildings in Singapore from December.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said the move will guide the industry towards more sustainable and energy efficient practices in building design, construction and maintenance.

An award made of recycled glass was conferred to BCA by international think tank Aspen Institute for its efforts in promoting "green" practices in Singapore's buildings.

And the use of recycled materials is one area of sustainable construction practices that's encouraged under the revised Green Mark criteria.

Other revisions include requiring air-conditioning systems that are more energy efficient, and incorporating natural ventilation into the design.

To meet the minimum certification level, new buildings or those undergoing major retrofitting will need an energy efficiency standard that is 28 per cent higher than 2005 levels. This is also a 10 per cent point jump over the current standard.

BCA had consulted the industry over the last year in its review, and concerns about high costs and the lack of expertise were raised.

"We've been having quite a lot of training programmes, even those at the Masters level, to build up this green collar professional capability in the industry," said Dr John Keung, CEO of BCA. - CNA /ls

Green Mark standard for new buildings to be raised
Minimum energy efficiency standard will be 28 per cent higher
Jessica Cheam Straits Times 6 Aug 10;

SINGAPORE'S regulators are raising the energy efficiency bar for new buildings from December as they step up the drive for a leaner and greener economy.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) announced yesterday that all new buildings will soon have to comply with a more demanding Green Mark standard that calls for an additional 10 per cent of energy savings on top of those required by the current standard.

Under the latest revision, the minimum energy efficiency standard will be 28 per cent higher than that set out in the first building code released in 2005 when the Green Mark - which measures a building's environmental performance - was originally launched.

The standards for higher Green Mark levels - Gold, GoldPlus and Platinum - will also be raised accordingly.

BCA chief executive John Keung said at a briefing yesterday that other changes to the new standard will require building owners to install more energy-efficient air-conditioning systems, along with monitoring devices to track their performance.

For the first time, the rating system will take into account the use of recycled materials such as recycled concrete aggregate, and will encourage the use of so-called 'passive design' to integrate natural ventilation into a building.

Mr Keung said the higher standards will help Singapore achieve its goal of cutting its carbon emissions by 7 per cent to 11 per cent below business-as-usual levels by 2020 - a target set by a national sustainability blueprint in April last year.

'The added emphasis on energy-efficient building systems will gradually guide our industry towards more environmentally sustainable practices,' he added.

Singapore Green Building Council president Lee Chuan Seng said the move will keep Singapore at the forefront of the green building design and construction arena, adding that 'if we don't improve standards, we'll be left behind'.

Under BCA's green building masterplan, 80 per cent of all Singapore buildings should have the Green Mark by 2030. All new buildings were mandated to achieve the minimum Green Mark standard in April 2008.

A $600 million incentive fund was provided by the Government to spur building owners to green their assets.

To date, Singapore has 450 properties with Green Mark certification, representing 8 per cent of the Republic's total built-up floor area.

Last week, BCA's green building drive won it international recognition.

It was awarded the Energy and Environment Award (Government) by the Aspen Institute, a Colorado, US-based international non-profit organisation.

This was the first time the award was given to an organisation outside North America. Board chairman Bill Dirks of the Aspen Institute's awards said that BCA had demonstrated leadership 'at the national level in this very critical area of renewable energy standards and green buildings'.

'We saw a clear outstanding example of disruptive innovation, creative and breakthrough solutions in Singapore's entry, which could be reproduced around the globe to tackle large-scale energy and environment issues,' he said.

BCA said details of the latest revision to the Green Mark will be unveiled to industry later this month, with briefing sessions held before implementation.

Read more!

Flood mitigation works threatening Malaysian firefly colonies

Tan Cheng Li, The Star 6 Aug 10;

PETALING JAYA: Firefly colonies in Negri Sembilan and Malacca are in danger of being wiped out following river engineering works to alleviate flooding in low-lying areas.

A three-year research showed that clearing of riverine vegetation to widen and straighten Sungai Rembau and Sungai Linggi had adversely affected populations of the insect, which congregate on mangrove trees and synchronously light up in a dazzling display.

Of the 122 colonies of fireflies recorded in 2008 in the Rembau-Linggi estuary, only 64 were observed by June 2010, according to surveys by Wan Faridah Akmal Wan Jusoh, who did her masters programme on firefly ecology at Universiti Pertanian Malaysia.

Presenting her findings at the International Firefly Symposium here, she said river modification for flood mitigation had drastically changed the mangrove ecosystem by destroying trees on which fireflies gathered to mate.

“The construction of bunds along rivers have also disturbed the ecology of the river, soil and vegetation,” she said.

Her research showed the Rembau-Linggi estuary to have abundant colonies of fireflies, with four of the six rivers there – Rembau, Linggi, Ramuan Cina Kecil and Ramuan Cina Besar – hosting the insect, but populations had diminished following the destruction of mangroves.

Since 2007, Wan Faridah has surveyed a total of 13km of the rivers. Unfortunately, at least 64 mangrove trees where she had observed congregating fireflies were felled during river engineering work by the Drainage and Irrigation Department.

She said tourism activities in the area, which included fishing as well as firefly and crocodile sighting, had declined due to changes in the habitat.

Read more!

Green turtles return to Malaysia but future bleak

(AFP) Google News 5 Aug 10;

KUALA LUMPUR — Green turtles are returning to Malaysia in their hundreds after being nearly wiped out, but experts warned Thursday that the species is still headed for oblivion if habitat loss is not stopped.

Thousands of turtles used to land every year on Malaysian beaches, but their numbers plummeted in the 1980s due to rampant coastal development and the plundering of eggs from their sandy nests.

However, landings have increased in the past few years in the eastern resort strip of Cherating, and some 350 -- mostly green turtles but also some hawksbills -- now arrive there each year, officials said.

Mohamad Mat Saman, fisheries department director in central Pahang state, said that initiatives such as new hatcheries and efforts to promote conservation had led to the improvement.

"This year up until June we had 200 turtles coming to lay their eggs," he told AFP.

"About 70 percent of them had previously landed in Cherating and we believe others were born here. All turtles which land are tagged."

"We received support from the locals and fishermen who collect turtle eggs and hand them to the sanctuary," he said.

Mohamad said that authorities have proposed introducing a new law to ban turtle egg consumption in Pahang state by the end of this year.

Turtle nesting sites are dotted along peninsular Malaysia's east coast, but the leatherbacks which were once common have now virtually disappeared.

Elizabeth John from conservation group Traffic said that while some turtle populations now appear stable, their numbers have dropped dramatically since the 1970s.

"Habitat loss is a major threat to green turtles and all other marine turtles that nest on Malaysian beaches. Infrastructure development along the coast near key nesting sites has impacted populations," she said.

"The local trade and consumption of turtle eggs is another threat to green turtles," she added.

John said green turtles are facing "the double whammy of losing their homes and their young", much as leatherback turtles did during the past few decades.

"It?s heartening to see green turtles still returning to nest on Malaysian shores, but if we fail to address the threats that face them, we will be pushing them go down the same path towards destruction," she said.

Read more!

Groups Urge Action Against Top Actors in Indonesian Illegal Logging

Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 5 Aug 10;

Indonesia. Environmental groups on Thursday urged the government to arrest two businessmen allegedly involved in smuggling rare timber from Papua to China.

“We want more action to be taken against these people because we believe that the issue of illegal logging has not really been touched,” said Julian Newman, campaign director of the Britain-based Environmental Investigation Agency.

Newman said local authorities had only arrested chainsaw operators, truck drivers and other “low-level men,” rather than high-level illegal logging operators. “We’d want to see some action on that,” he said.

In an investigative report, the EIA and an Indonesian group, Telapak, said two businessmen were illegally exporting merbau logs to China, India and South Korea.

According to the report, in mid-October in 2009, customs officers in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, discovered 23 containers carrying 400 tons of merbau logs allegedly belonging to one of the businessmen.

It alleged that the containers were shipped from Makassar, South Sulawesi, where the businessman “runs a massive merbau timber company.”

The other businessman was described as an “old player” in the merbau timber-smuggling business who had received a special government dispensation to export the rare and slow-growing tree species to China in 2008.

The report, “Rogue Traders: The Murky Business of Merbau Timber Smuggling in Indonesia,” was released after detailed and undercover investigations by the environmental watchdogs starting in 2005.

Indonesian laws only allow the export of semi-finished wood products, but the groups claim the two businessmen illegally exported rough-sawn timber.

Newman said merbau timber could fetch about $1,000 per cubic meter in China, while the logs could be obtained for Rp 3 million each ($335) from local brokers.

“Those businessmen could actually face charges under the Forestry Law and could be locked up in jail for 10 years, ” he said.

Merbau is endemic to Papua, and is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Papua has the last remaining intact merbau forest in the country.

Hapsoro, program director at Telapak, said the government should list merbau in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna so to help it limit the trade in the species.

“That does not necessarily mean banning all trade in merbau. But it would limit how much merbau could be traded because we are losing billions of dollars here,” he said.

Newman said China, one of the biggest importers of merbau timber, should also sanction illegal traders. “It is not up to Indonesia alone. It is also up to China, which is wide open to importing illegally logged timber,” he said.

Indonesia 'woefully inadequate' on illegal loggers: probe
(AFP) Google News 5 Aug 10;

JAKARTA — Indonesia is allowing powerful businessmen to get rich from smuggling rare timber to China despite its pledges to crack down on illegal logging and preserve its forests, environmentalists said Thursday.

An undercover probe by the independent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and local group Telapak found rampant smuggling of merbau, a valuable hardwood found mainly in Papua.

The probe tracked the illicit trade from the forests to the ships where the wood was being illegally exported, mainly to China, with the help of corrupt officials.

Complaints to authorities about the two alleged kingpins in the trade had achieved nothing, the groups said in a report.

"While the huge quantity of illegal timber flowing from Indonesia during the first half of the decade has declined, effective law enforcement against those responsible -- the financiers, company bosses and corrupt officials -- has been woefully inadequate," EIA campaign director Julian Newman said.

The groups called on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make good on his promises to crack down on what he has called the "logging mafia" that is accused of destroying much of the country's pristine forests.

Indonesia is one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, mainly through deforestation.

Yudhoyono has pledged to slash its emissions by more than 40 percent over 2005 levels by 2020, as long as foreign donors pour billions of dollars into the country for forest preservation.

"The illegal trade of merbau is symptomatic of the wider problems and the governance failure in the forest sector in Indonesia," Newman told reporters.

"It is not only the problems of Indonesia. China has been wide open to illegal timbers. We hope China will follow the US and the EU in banning illegal timber in a bid to protect forests."

Telapak representative Hapsoro said the government was allowing the kingpins of the illegal trade to run riot.

"It is time for Indonesia to redouble its efforts to combat timber smuggling by going after the main culprits," he said.

Read more!

$1000 fine in Australia for having dugong net

The Cairns Post 6 Aug 10;

A MAN has been fined $1000 for illegally possessing a net designed to trap large mammals, such as dugongs.

The on-the-spot fine, issued at Yarrabah, comes after the deaths of five dugongs in Far Northern waters in two separate incidents in April.

The third $1000 fine for illegal netting offences issued in the Cairns area since July 2009 has been welcomed by traditional owners and conservationists.

A Fisheries Queensland spokesperson said the man had a large cord net specifically designed to target sharks or large mammals.

"Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers have seized the net involved in the incident as this type of net is illegal – because of its size and design it cannot be used by any commercial, recreational or indigenous fisher," the spokesperson said.

The maximum penalty for illegally using a net is $100,000; two prosecutions relating to netting offences in the Cairns area are pending in court.

On-the-spot fines of up to $1000 can also be issued for unlawful use of a net. Investigations into the deaths of five dugongs in April are continuing.

They were found dead in nets.

Yarrabah Mayor Percy Neal said illegal fishers should be prepared to meet the consequences.

Cairns and Far North Environment Centre co-ordinator Steve Ryan said any successful action against illegal fishing activities was good.

"Nets, both legal and illegal, can catch dugong, turtle, dolphins and other wildlife," Mr Ryan said.

Anyone with information on a suspected breach of fishing rules should phone the 24-hour Fishwatch hotline on 1800 017 116.

Read more!

Is Africa's wildlife being eaten to extinction?

Mark Jones BBC Green Room 3 Aug 10;

The rapid growth in the global demand for bushmeat is leaving many African species facing the possibility of being eaten out of existence, says Mark Jones. In this week's Green Room, he calls for western nations to do more to tackle the problem of illegal imports of bushmeat.

We've all heard how the illegal trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn and other high value products is threatening Africa's wildlife.

However, the impact of these products is dwarfed by the trade in bushmeat, defined as meat from Africa's wild animals traded for human consumption.

According to the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, the hunting of and trade in bushmeat represents "the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa".

Traditionally, bushmeat hunting was a subsistence activity.

It is now a multi-billion dollar international trade involving hundreds of species, from forest herbivores such as duikers and other antelopes to wild pigs, rodents, elephants and primates.

The exponential increase in the trade over recent years is being driven by demand from the exploding and ever more urbanised human population in Africa, and the increasing international value and demand for bushmeat products.

Commercial logging and the associated infrastructure development and expansion have given hunters easy access to previously impenetrable African forests, and ready-made transport routes to towns and cities.

Unsustainable consumption

The term bushmeat is normally used in reference to the illegal trade.

The trade may be illegal because the species concerned is protected under national or international laws, the method of killing is prohibited, or because the animal is taken from a protected area.

The food source was originally exploited because of its low cost, lack of ownership issues, weak law enforcement and the lack of alternatives.

Now, the increasing value of bushmeat has attracted criminal syndicates, with sophisticated and efficient logistical capabilities.

Law enforcement agencies in many African countries do not have the resources to keep up, and in some cases high level involvement in the trade may protect it from official interference.

This makes accurate estimates of the trade difficult to obtain, although Central African consumers alone may be eating more than 2.5m tonnes each year.

Many target species have already been extirpated from parts of West Africa. Wildlife in Eastern and Southern African countries is increasingly being targeted, and Kenya is estimated to have experienced a loss of about 50% in its wildlife in recent decades, largely as a result of the bushmeat trade.

A recent study, involving researchers from the Zoological Society of London, estimated that as much as 270 tonnes of bushmeat might be coming through a single airport in Paris annually, destined both for personal consumption and to supply the lucrative trade in high value products.

It is also estimated that more than a quarter of all mammal species hunted for bushmeat are threatened with extinction.

Feeling the loss

Widespread hunting of animals for bushmeat depletes populations of affected species, and can lead to local population crashes or extirpation.

There are, however, much wider potential impacts.

Species have functions: as prey for other species, seed dispersers or forest rebuilders. So reductions in certain species can have far reaching impacts on others, causing a loss of biodiversity and a crisis within ecosystems.

The loss of biodiversity leaves us with a predominance of a few so-called "weedy species", such as those that thrive in continually disturbed, human-dominated environments.

Small populations of highly endangered animals can be disproportionately affected.

Although the number of Great Apes involved in the bushmeat trade is small, their removal can have devastating impacts on populations, and Great Ape species in Africa are thought to be at risk of extinction over the next two decades if the trade continues at its current rate.

The commercial bushmeat trade also threatens the livelihoods and food security of indigenous rural people, which can result in social and political instability.

Bushmeat can also carry potentially devastating diseases - from anthrax to ebola, monkey pox to retroviruses - that may have disastrous impacts on livestock and far-reaching consequences for human health.

Food for thought

For the bushmeat trade to be controlled so that it does not cause further decimation of Africa's wildlife, multi-faceted solutions need urgently to be put in place.

As renowned conservationist Ian Redmond suggests, we need to aim for the trade to be Legal, Sustainable, and Disease Free.

Until recently, most conservation projects concerned with bushmeat have tended to focus on research, education, and enforcement, with few attempts to provide alternative livelihoods or food sources.

Many of the countries central to the trade are poor and suffer from corruption.

These countries need resources, incentives and training if they are to apply and enforce national and international regulations.

Prosecution of illegal traders often fail because of inadequate availability of resources to identify the type of meat concerned, so laboratories need to be set up to enable simple and inexpensive forensic services.

In importing countries, bushmeat is often not considered a high priority by customs authorities when compared with, for example, drugs or arms; so the profile of bushmeat in the international enforcement arena needs to be raised.

Extensive public awareness programmes are required, aimed at educating people at all levels of the trade.

A number of umbrella organisations have been established in recent years to try and improve local education, such as the Bushmeat-free Eastern Africa Network (BEAN) initiative. Some have been very successful.

However, far more effort is needed, with co-ordination at an international level.

Perhaps most importantly, people who currently rely on the illegal bushmeat trade for their livelihood or as an essential protein source need to be given alternative options; and herein lies arguably the greatest challenge.

Some good initiatives exist, including the development of fish farms, apiaries, and arable agriculture projects. Many more are required if the trade is to be significantly reduced.

Local actions to curb the bushmeat trade need to be resourced through global responses, requiring significant investment at a time of international financial instability and introspection.

If Africa's unique wildlife, and its rural communities, are to survive the impacts of the bushmeat trade, continued well-directed development aid for the poor countries of Africa throughout this period of global financial uncertainty is essential.

Mark Jones is programmes and fundraising director of Care for the Wild International, a UK-based conservation charity

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

Read more!

Indonesian President: prioritized Montara oil spill`s compensation for fishermen, farmers

Antara 5 Aug 10;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would give priority to compensate fishermen and farmers experiencing the direct impact of Montara oil spill in Timor sea, East Nusa Tenggara.

The president said so during the National Meeting in Bogor Palace, West Java, on Thursday.

Yudhoyono added the National Team for Ocean Oil Spill Emergency Situations had reached several progress in its effort to claim for compensation to the local people.

Minister of Transportation as well as the chairman of the National Team for Ocean Oil Spill Emergency Situations, Freddy Numberi, said representative from Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta had met and exchanged data related to the case.

Numberi added while waiting for the result of internal meetings of parties responsible to the Montara oil-mill Indonesia would continuously renew its data about the contamination in the Timor sea as well as the number of material loss caused from it.

"We are planning to claim not only about the environmental damage but also the cost of restoring the natural resources there," said the minister.

Last August 2009, Montara oil field which was developed by the Norwegian and Bermudan-owned Seadrill company and operated by PTTEP Australasia (a unit of Thai state-owned oil and gas company) was blowout leaving a massive spill of 500,000 liters, or 1,200 barrels, of crude oil covered the Timor Sea everyday. The oil spill also flowed to the waters around Rote Ndao district and Sawu sea especially the areas around Sabu Raijua district and Southern coastal area of Timor Island.

Rote Ndao, District Head Lens Haning had frequently expressed their complaints relating to the pollution such as shrinking yields of local fishermen? fish catch and difficulty faced by local residents on Rote Island in cultivating seaweed because of polluted sea waters.

Rote Ndao district head also said the oil spill had also polluted around 16,420 km in square meters of sea waters of Timor Sea which also covered the Indonesia?s economic exclusive zone.

The damaged sea ecosystem and death of sea biota had also cause a drop in the income of local seaweed farmers and fishermen.

The oil spill, seaweed farmers in Rote Ndao could produce at least 7,334 tons of seaweeds per year. In 2009, after the pollution-related oil spill, their production drastically dropped to 1,512 tons and till June 2010, the production of seaweed only stood at 341.4 tons.(*)

Read more!

Scientists think Gulf can recover from oil spill

Seth Borenstein And Cain Burdeau, Associated Press Yahoo News 6 Aug 10;

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Want to know the future of the oil-stained Gulf of Mexico ecosystem? Look first to its muddy, polluted past.

The recent ecological history of the Gulf gives scientists reason for hope. In an extensive survey of Gulf of Mexico researchers by The Associated Press, at least 10 of them separately volunteered the same word to describe the body of water: "resilient."

This is buttressed by a government report that claims that all but 53 million gallons of the leaked oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon well are gone. The report issued Wednesday says the cleanup extracted a lot of it, but the natural processes that break up, evaporate and dissolve oil took care of 84 million gallons — more than twice the amount human efforts removed.

At the same time, more progress was made in sealing the well for good as BP finished pumping cement into it on Thursday.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — It will take time to see the full effects of one of history's largest oil spills on the Gulf of Mexico, but a survey of 75 scientists offers reason for hope. First in an occasional series, "Gulf Survival."

___

The Gulf's impressive self-cleanup makes sense given its history and makeup. The Gulf regularly absorbs environmental insults: overfishing, trawlers raking sea floors, frequent hurricanes. And then there's the dead zone, an area starved of oxygen because 40 percent of America's runoff pours from the Mississippi River into the Gulf.

And yet the Gulf remains America's most biologically diverse place, with 15,419 species. It is the nation's buffet of life as well as its gas station and septic tank.

It's too soon to know the full effects of the BP disaster. But to get a sense of where the Gulf has been and where it's going, the AP surveyed 75 scientists about the health of the Gulf of Mexico before the spill. On a 0-to-100 scale, the scientists graded its general health a 71 on average. That's a respectable C, considering 100 would be considered pristine and untouched by civilization.

"If having a strong system in place pre-spill makes a difference, and I think it might, then I think the system may bounce back sooner than expected," said Brian Crother, a Southeastern Louisiana University wetlands biologist.

But nothing about the Gulf is simple. Just as often as scientists use the word "resilient," they use the word "stress."

"The Gulf of Mexico has been fairly resilient, but it's been under stress," Michael Carron, director of the Northern Gulf Institute, said as he steered his boat around the Bay St. Louis waters.

In the survey, which was sent to scientists through several research institutions and scientific societies, sea turtles, manatees, wetlands and water quality hovered around or below the failing point. Doing well were beaches and birds, including the once-endangered brown pelican, Louisiana's state bird.

While others are optimistic, Jeremy Jackson, director of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is worried.

"You have an ecosystem that's already severely stressed, then you add this major disturbance," he said. "We're going to pay for our sins double-time because we've neglected the environment of the northern Gulf so badly for so long."

Yet the Gulf's water is warm, which is good for microbes that eat oil. The currents and drainage are right to flush and dilute tainted water. And the Gulf has long been exposed to natural gas, oil and a host of other contaminants.

While BP's well dumped 172 million gallons into the Gulf over three months, the muddy Mississippi brings in 198 million gallons of water — replete with urban and farm runoff — every minute. The National Research Council estimates that 41 million gallons a year of oil naturally seep into the Gulf from below.

A thriving microbial ecosystem has developed to consume the oil.

"The Gulf has been immunized many times by environmental insults," said Larry McKinney, director of a Gulf research center at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. "Because of that resilience we see here — and not in other places — it also may be the best place" to cope with a gigantic spill.

It's still early in damage assessments, but so far about 600 miles of coast has been fouled with oil. The official government death toll so far: 3,606 birds, 508 endangered sea turtles and 67 marine mammals. More than 2,100 birds, turtles and marine mammals have been found oiled, but alive.

But those are only the losses seen. Scientists suspect many more animals have died, but their bodies have not been found.

Federal and BP officials are scurrying to conduct damage assessments from the spill. The first and crucial step to such assessments is figuring out the condition of the Gulf before the spill. It's also key in calculating just how much BP will have to pay.

"A baseline is the medical history of the environment," said Smithsonian scientist Nancy Knowlton. "Without a baseline you can't say anything about what the impact of anything is."

What makes the Gulf so rich in marine life is what surrounds the Gulf: river wetlands. And yet those wetlands are among the most troubled aspects of the Gulf, ranking an unhealthy 65 on the AP survey.

For the past century, Louisiana's wetlands have been chopped of cypress and tupelo, drained for farms and split by oil canals. On average, Louisiana loses about 25 to 35 square miles a year of wetlands.

Another worsening problem, the dead zone, starts with the farms of the Midwest and fertilizer runoff that carries too much nitrogen. It goes into the Mississippi and then into the Gulf. That heavy dose of nitrogen every summer encourages algae to grow, which results in a huge feast for bacteria that use up oxygen there, leaving little for fish or anything else.

"It's getting bigger over the years, and it's extending more into Texas," said Nancy Rabalais, director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

This year's Dead Zone is the size of Massachusetts, not quite as large as the biggest ever, which was in 2002.

"Organisms are resilient," said John Dindo of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. "Habitats are not. Habitats do not bounce back as fast as organisms."

The Gulf of Mexico averages three times more species per square mile than the seas around Hawaii, according to the Census of Marine Life.

Among those creatures are shrimp, which are still plentiful in the Gulf and have not shown any early signs of oil damage.

"The reputation of (the Gulf) being a sportsman's paradise is not far off the mark," said Rusty Gaude of Louisiana State University's agricultural center. If anyone living along the Gulf coast goes hungry, "it is his own fault," he jokes.

Twenty-nine Gulf species are on the endangered list, and nine others are on the threatened list. They include five species of sea turtles. Scientists in the AP survey ranked sea turtles as among the species struggling most in the Gulf.

After a cold winter that killed hundreds of turtles in Florida, the BP spill hit at the worst time and place for sea turtles both young and old, said Karen Bjorndal of the University of Florida. That's because the young turtles often are caught up in the parts of the water where the oil is and can't easily escape, while the older turtles that spend more time under water get covered with oil when they come up for air, she said.

The most vulnerable species of sea turtle is the loggerhead, and its nests have drastically declined in recent years, but scientists don't know why. There are loggerheads around the world, but the oil spill could drive the Florida or Alabama populations to zero, Bjorndal said.

As for delicate and threatened coral, coral in the Florida Keys is on the decline, while the Flower Garden Banks coral in deep waters off the coast of Texas is far healthier than most of the world's reefs, said C. Mark Eakin, who runs the federal government's coral reef watch.

Ocean scientist and explorer Sylvia Earle said one key indicator of the health of the Gulf is the bluefin tuna. It has been in trouble worldwide from overfishing, and the Gulf is one of its two primary spawning grounds. Because of its timing, the spill could devastate this year's spawn of bluefin, NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco said Wednesday.

Other fish species that during the 20th century were overfished and dropping to near dangerous levels have started to come back, such as king mackerel and red snapper, said Clay Porch, director of sustainable fisheries for NOAA's Southeast division.

The lasting image of the spill has been oiled birds. Yet, overall, birds along the Gulf are in good shape, earning a seemingly robust grade of 76 from scientists in the survey.

"There are still lots of healthy birds there," said Marc Dantzker, a Cornell University ornithologist. "At this point the system has a good chance of a strong recovery."

An analogy that many of the experts said is apt for the entire Gulf is one of a champion boxer who takes devastating hits.

The Gulf "keeps getting knocked down. You can only get knocked down so many times before you don't get back up," Texas A&M's McKinney said. "The Gulf has gotten knocked down many, many times. You've got dead zones, habitat loss, you've got overfishing. You've got hurricanes keep coming. At what point do you get the tipping point?"

Read more!

Fast-spreading fungus threatening useful U.S. bats

Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press Yahoo News 5 Aug 10;

WASHINGTON – One of the most common bat species could face extinction in the Northeast within decades due to white-nose syndrome, a disease now rapidly spreading.

While bats may have a bad reputation, frightening many people, they are vital in controlling insects that not only annoy but spread disease to people and animals.

The threatened little brown bat has been known to eat its weight in insects in a night.

Yet researchers led by biology professor Thomas H. Kunz of Boston University report in Friday's edition of the journal Science that white-nose syndrome, caused by a fungus, could all but wipe out the little brown bat in the Northeast in 20 years.

The syndrome was first discovered near Albany, N.Y., in 2006, and since then bats have declined from 30 percent to 99 percent in various areas. The illness has been confirmed in 115 bat hibernating locations in Canada and the U.S., ranging as far south as Tennessee and west to Oklahoma, the researchers reported.

Last month the U.S. Forest Service said it is barring entry to caves on service-owned land in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota to help prevent people from inadvertently spreading the disease there.

And the New Mexico-based Center for Biological Diversity has asked state wildlife officials across the country to consider closing state-owned caves to the public to prevent the spread of the illness.

"This is one of the worst wildlife crises we've faced in North America," said co-author Winifred F. Frick. "The severity of the mortality and the rapidity of the spread of this disease make it very challenging and distressing."

The fungus grows on the nose, wing membranes and ears of bats while they hibernate in caves and mines during the winter. The researchers said this causes the bats to wake up frequently, burning up vital fat stores, with the result that they starve to death before spring.

Fungus Threatens Extinction Of Some U.S. Bats: Study
Maggie Fox PlanetArk 5 Aug 10;

Deadly white-nose syndrome is threatening to make one insect-eating species of bat extinct, at least regionally, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

The infection is spreading quickly across the Northeastern United States and Canada and is likely to cause the regional extinction of the little brown myotis bat, the researchers report in the journal Science.

It had been one of the most common species of bats in North America and was considered beneficial because of its appetite for mosquitoes, flies and other pests.

"This is one of the worst wildlife crises we've faced," said Winifred Frick of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"Bats affected by this disease are all insect-eating species, and an individual bat can consume their body weight in insects every night, including some consumption of pest insects."

The syndrome, linked to a fungus that spreads among bats as they hibernate, affects at least seven species, the researchers said.

It was only identified four years ago, in bats nesting in caves near Albany, New York. Since then, more than 1 million of the flying mammals have died as far afield as Tennessee and Oklahoma.

"The loss of so many bats is basically a terrible experiment in how much these animals matter for insect control," Frick said.

The fungus kills in an insidious way, making the bats restless as they try to hibernate. As they fidget, they burn up their reserves of fat. The researchers estimate that 73 percent of animals in a colony die once the infection reaches them.

"Given the rapid geographic spread of this fungus over the past four years, we can expect that white nose syndrome will adversely affect bat species that form some of largest hibernating bat colonies in the U.S, including two federally listed endangered species that occur mostly in the Midwestern states," Boston University biologist Thomas Kunz said in a statement.

Some research has suggested that people exploring caves have helped spread the fungus so quickly. It also appears to spread from bat to bat, and many regional and local authorities have closed caves to public access when the infection pops up.

Bats appear to have little or no immunity to the cold-loving fungus, called Geomyces destructans, the researchers said. It covers their muzzles and invades their skin, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Such a severe population decline, especially if the disease spreads farther south and west of its current distribution in eastern North America, may result in unpredictable changes in ecosystem structure and function," Kunz and Frick's team concluded.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

'Scary Stuff': Most Common U.S. Bat Headed to Extinction
Stephanie Pappas LiveScience Yahoo News 5 Aug 10;

North America's most common bat, the little brown myotis, will be all but extinct in the northeastern United States in 16 years, thanks to a rapidly-spreading fungal infection, researchers reported Thursday.

The fungus, called white-nose syndrome, grows on the exposed skin of bats as they hibernate in cool caves or mines. The infection causes the bats to wake up from their slumber, depleting valuable fat stores and eventually killing them. If infection continues at current rates, the researchers reported in the journal Science, there is a 99-percent chance the little brown myotis population will drop below 0.01 percent of its current numbers by 2026.

"It's really scary stuff," said Sonia Altizer, an ecology professor at the University of Georgia, who was not involved in the study. "The little brown bat, which is the most common bat species in North America, is being decimated by a single pathogen in a very short period of time."

An underground killer

White-nose syndrome first emerged in New York state in 2006. The fungus has now been confirmed in bat colonies across the northeastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Bats as far west as Oklahoma and as far south as Tennessee have also been infected. No one knows how the disease came to North America, but humans may have unwittingly carried the fungus from Europe.

Exactly how white-nose syndrome kills and whether some bat species are more vulnerable than others are open questions. What is known is that white-nose is virulent. In some infected caves, 90 percent to 100 percent of bats die, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On average, the disease takes out 73 percent of the bat population at a given hibernation site.

Little brown myotis bats aren't the only bats affected by the disease, but as the most common North American bat, they're particularly important to the ecosystem. To find out how the little brown bat is likely to fare, researchers from Boston University and the University of California Santa Cruz collected data from 30 years of bat surveys taken at 22 caves in the Northeast. They found that before the introduction of white-nose syndrome, little brown bat populations were stable or rising.

Next, the researchers ran computer simulations to test the future effects of the white-nose fungus. They performed 1,000 different simulations, including multiple environmental variables to make the models as realistic as possible.

A dire future

The results were "dire," said Winifred Frick, a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with Boston University and UC Santa Cruz and lead author of the research paper. Even if the white-nose death rate slackens to 10 percent a year, the researchers found, the species will be wiped out from the region within 65 years. The death rate has to drop below 5 percent a year to give the little brown myotis a fighting chance in the next century, Frick said.

The bat's possible extinction is on par with the destruction of the American chestnut tree by a fungal blight in the early 1900s, said Altizer. Once the most common hardwood in the eastern United States, the chestnut all but disappeared within a few decades and has never recovered.

The loss of the little brown myotis and other bats affected by white-nose would be particularly catastrophic for humans, Frick said, because bats eat their body weight in bugs each night. Many of these bugs are agricultural pests or carriers of human disease.

There is still a lot of uncertainty as to the future of the little brown myotis, Frick said, particularly because researchers don't yet understand how population declines from white-nose syndrome will change over time. With such a limited understanding, there is little humans can do to save bats or eradicate the fungus, she said.

"Really, we need more research," Frick said. "We need to study the transmission dynamics to better understand how this is spreading from bat to bat, as well as from site to site ... At this point there's not a silver bullet for a cure."

Bats facing regional extinction from rapidly spreading disease
University of California - Santa Cruz
EurekAlert 5 Aug 10;

SANTA CRUZ, CA -- A new infectious disease spreading rapidly across the northeastern United States has killed millions of bats and is predicted to cause regional extinction of a once-common bat species, according to the findings of a University of California, Santa Cruz researcher.

The disease, white-nose syndrome, first discovered near Albany, N.Y. in 2006, affects hibernating bats and has caused millions to perish, writes lead author Winifred F. Frick, in a study published in the August 6 issue of Science.

Frick, a UC Santa Cruz graduate who is now a post-doctoral researcher in UCSC's Environmental Studies department, said the disease is spreading quickly across the northeastern U.S. and Canada and now affects seven bat species. If death rates and spread continue as they have over the past four years, this disease will likely lead to the regional extinction of the little brown myotis, previously one of the most common species in North America, she said.

"This is one of the worst wildlife crises we've faced," Frick said. "The bat research and conservation communities are trying as hard as possible to find a solution to this devastating problem."

Frick notes that "bats perform valuable ecosystem services that matter for both the environments they live in and have tangible benefits to humans as well. Bats affected by this disease are all insect-eating species, and an individual bat can consume their body weight in insects every night, including some consumption of pest insects," Frick said.

"The loss of so many bats is basically a terrible experiment in how much these animals matter for insect control," she said.

Frick received her BA in environmental studies at UCSC in 1998. She completed her Ph.D. at Oregon State University in 2007 and is currently a National Science Foundation Bioinformatics Postdoctoral Fellow with a joint appointment at UCSC and Boston University. She is also the research director of the Central Coast Bat Research Group in Aptos, Calif.

White-nose syndrome is associated with a newly discovered fungus that grows on the exposed tissues of hibernating bats.

Frick and the study's co-authors, including Jacob F. Pollock, in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCSC, and noted bat experts Thomas H. Kunz and D. Scott Reynolds at Boston University, analyzed bat population data collected over the last 30 years, from 22 caves and other hibernating sites, in five states throughout the northeastern U.S.

The serious population declines of the little brown myotis were recognized based on surveys made by officials from state departments of natural resources going back to 1979. Surveys in the winter of 2006-2007 revealed evidence of white fungal growth on bats' noses, ears, and forearms, aberrant behavior, and an unusually high number of dead bats. As many as 500,000 bats may occupy a single cave.

Decreases in the number of bats counted range from 30 percent to 99 percent compared with earlier counts before the disease struck. Since its discovery four years ago, white-nose syndrome has now been confirmed in at least 115 bat hibernating locations in the U.S. and Canada, and as far west as Oklahoma.

Current research suggests that the fungus disrupts the bats' hibernation, causing them to awake early, behave oddly, and lose critical fat reserves, resulting in death. The researchers predict a "99 percent chance of regional extinction of little brown myotis within the next 16 years" if mortality and spread continue unabated.

"Our results paint a grim picture of a once-healthy population of an abundant and widely distributed species now experiencing unprecedented losses," the authors write.

"The rapid decline of a common bat species from white-nose syndrome draws attention to the need for increased research, monitoring, and management to better understand and combat this invasive wildlife disease," the authors conclude.

The researchers said it is possible the deadly fungus came from Europe from human trade or travel based on evidence that the same fungus has been observed on hibernating bat species in Europe.

Read more!

Global tropical forests threatened by 2100

Carnegie Institution EurekAlert 5 Aug 10;

Palo Alto, CA: By 2100 only 18% to 45% of the plants and animals making up ecosystems in global, humid tropical forests may remain as we know them today, according to a new study led by Greg Asner at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.
The green areas are the distribution of refugia from recent deforestation, logging, and moderate and severe climate impacts in the tropical humid forests of the world.

The research combined new deforestation and selective logging data with climate-change projections. It is the first study to consider these combined effects for all humid tropical forest ecosystems and can help conservationists pinpoint where their efforts will be most effective. The study is published in the August 5, 2010, issue of Conservation Letters.

"This is the first global compilation of projected ecosystem impacts for humid tropical forests affected by these combined forces," remarked Asner. "For those areas of the globe projected to suffer most from climate change, land managers could focus their efforts on reducing the pressure from deforestation, thereby helping species adjust to climate change, or enhancing their ability to move in time to keep pace with it. On the flip side, regions of the world where deforestation is projected to have fewer effects from climate change could be targeted for restoration."

Tropical forests hold more then half of all the plants and animal species on Earth. But the combined effect of climate change, forest clear cutting, and logging may force them to adapt, move, or die.

The scientists looked at land use and climate change by integrating global deforestation and logging maps from satellite imagery and high-resolution data with projected future vegetation changes from 16 different global climate models. They then ran scenarios on how different types of species could be geographically reshuffled by 2100.They used the reorganization of plant classes, such as tropical broadleaf evergreen trees, tropical drought deciduous trees, plus different kinds of grasses as surrogates for biodiversity changes.

For Central and South America, climate change could alter about two-thirds of the humid tropical forests biodiversity—the variety and abundance of plants and animals in an ecosystem. Combining that scenario with current patterns of land-use change, and the Amazon Basin alone could see changes in biodiversity over 80% of the region.

Most of the changes in the Congo area likely to come from selective logging and climate change, which could negatively affect between 35% and 74% of that region. At the continental scale, about 70% of Africa's tropical forest biodiversity would likely be affected if current practices are not curtailed.

In Asia and the central and southern Pacific islands, deforestation and logging are the primary drivers of ecosystem changes. Model projections suggest that climate change might play a lesser role there than in Latin America or Africa. That said, the research showed that between 60% and 77% of the area is susceptible to biodiversity losses via massive ongoing land-use changes in the region.

"This study is the strongest evidence yet that the world's natural ecosystems will undergo profound changes—including severe alterations in their species composition—through the combined influence of climate change and land use," remarked Daniel Nepstad, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center. "Conservation of the world's biota, as we know it, will depend upon rapid, steep declines in greenhouse gas emissions."

###

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, support the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System, the Global Spectronomics project, and this study. (http://claslite.ciw.edu; http://spectranomics.ciw.edu)

The Carnegie Institution for Science (carnegieScience.edu) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.

Read more!

U.N. Climate Pact Could Be Three Treaties: Mexico

Nina Chestney PlanetArk 5 Aug 10;

A U.N. climate pact to extend or replace the Kyoto Protocol could be a set of up to three legally binding instruments, not just a single one, Mexico's climate chief said on Thursday.

A U.N. summit in Copenhagen last year failed to produce a legally binding agreement to combat climate change, leaving around 190 nations with no choice but to go back to the negotiating table this year.

Luis Alfonso de Alba, Mexico's special representative for climate change, told Reuters there could be up to three treaties which legally bind countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and support the countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

"We are not just talking about one single legally binding instrument but a set of them," he said on the sidelines of a U.N. climate meeting in Bonn.

"One instrument will cover (parties to the) Kyoto Protocol but it is also possible to have something for the U.S. and a third one for developing countries," he said.

The European Union told Reuters on Tuesday it was open to considering the option of two treaties instead of one to overcome an impasse between developing and rich nations.

Mexico will host U.N. talks in Cancun in November and hopes for the "maximum, not the minimum" outcome, De Alba said.

However, he admitted it could take "several years and several instruments" to put in place a legally binding document.

SUBSTANCE MATTERS

Mexico's climate chief expressed frustration at slow progress during the first two days of talks this week, when delegates spent too much time on the negotiating process rather than the main issues.

"Groups have now picked up speed but they need to concentrate on the substance and identify the main issues so we can build a comprehensive package of decisions at Cancun," he said.

It now seems unlikely that the Bonn talks will result in a new negotiating text by Friday due to proposals and amendments being added to the text rather than taken out.

The main sticking points are how and who should raise their emissions reduction pledges, financing, adaptation measures and tackling loopholes in the Kyoto Protocol which could undermine rich nations' pledges.

"I am hoping by tomorrow that we get through the text and get familiar with the proposals but identifying the main issues we can concentrate on in China," De Alba said, referring to the next round of talks in October.

"In China we have to find the middle ground -- we cannot go line by line or paragraph by paragraph."

The Cancun meeting could see agreement on moving to a second commitment period of the protocol, but it would depend on developed countries taking the lead, De Alba said.

Read more!