Newcastle Disease poses no risk to food safety in Singapore

Today Online 23 Oct 10;

Every day, Singapore imports about 3.7 million eggs, 125,000 broiler chickens and 20,000 broiler ducks from Malaysia.

And the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) says Newcastle Disease which is reportedly affecting a few poultry farms in Malaysia exporting eggs to Singapore, does not pose a risk to food safety.

AVA said it only affects animal health and farm production.

The disease is a contagious viral disease of birds and is endemic in the Southeast Asia Region.

Affected birds may show respiratory and nervous symptoms and in severe cases, sudden death.

AVA says it has worked closely with the Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia (DVS) to assess the disease situation, including making visits to affected farms.

The AVA inspection teams have completed visits to affected farms.

The teams did not observe high mortality of chickens in these farms and noted that the vaccination against Newcastle Disease had been effective.

The egg exporters have also provided assurance that egg exports to Singapore will not be affected as the production capacity of the egg farms will continue to be able to meet Singapore's demand.


Egg and poultry supplies from Malaysia still stable
Straits Times 23 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE'S supply of eggs and poultry from Malaysia remains stable despite a viral disease affecting some farms there.

A few poultry farms exporting eggs to Singapore had recently been affected by Newcastle Disease. This contagious viral disease causes decreased production in birds and, in severe cases, sudden death.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), which oversees food safety issues here, said in a statement yesterday that the disease affects only animal health and farm production. It does not pose a risk to food safety, so the eggs and poultry being exported to Singapore are safe for consumption.

It added that there has been no significant change in the amount of eggs and poultry imported from Malaysia so far.

Singapore imports approximately 3.7 million eggs, 125,000 chickens and 20,000 ducks from Malaysia daily.

The agency has also received assurance from egg exporters that the production capacity of the egg farms will continue to meet Singapore's demand.

AVA, which has completed inspections of the farms, said the vaccination of the birds against the disease has been effective and it did not observe high mortality in chickens at the farms.

It will continue to work closely with the Department of Veterinary Services, Malaysia to monitor the situation to ensure a safe and adequate supply of eggs and poultry in Singapore.

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Nagoya biodiversity talks stall on cash and targets

Richard Black, BBC News 23 Oct 10;

Conservation groups have expressed concern that a major UN conference on nature protection is stalling, with some governments accused of holding the process hostage to their own interest.

Their warning comes halfway through the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Nagoya, Japan.

During negotiations some countries have proposed weaker rather than stronger targets for protection, they say.

Some developing countries say the West is not meeting their concerns.

"The most optimistic assessment is that we have not gone far towards a deal," said Muhtari Aminu-Kano, senior policy advisor with BirdLife International.

"The main reason is that there are several delegations that are not showing the political will needed to break the deadlock here," he told BBC News.

"It's your usual story - it's people putting their national interests far above the importance of biodiversity."

Having failed to meet the target set in 2002 of significantly reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, the draft agreement before this meeting contains a set of 20 targets.

But there is fundamental division between those demanding tough pledges, such as ending biodiversity loss by 2020, and those who argue this is not possible.

Another draft clause calls for a 100-fold increase in international financing on biodiversity, which would be raised principally in industrialised nations and primarily spent in the developing world.
'Shocking and pitiful'

While the main priority for Western nations is to secure tough targets for protecting plants and animals and the habitat they need, developing countries are in general more concerned about international finance, and about an agreement on fair and equitable access to the Earth's natural genetic resources.

Such an agreement - known as access and benefit sharing (ABS) - was prescribed when the CBD came into existence 18 years ago, but successive attempts to negotiate it have failed.

Developing nations - where most of the planet's unexplored genetic resources lie - want an equitable share in the profits generated when Western companies develop drugs or other products from plants or anything else that came from their territory.

Some - notably within the African bloc - are insisting that such an agreement should be retrospective, which would imply Western companies would have to pay compensation for products already on the market.

"Some countries are holding everything hostage to resolving ABS," said Sue Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group.

"I'm not saying that's not important, but if you look at the status of the marine environment, it's shocking and pitiful to think there might be no progress here at all.

"We're particularly disappointed in Brazil."

Some governments, she said, were arguing that the CBD should not discuss conservation on the high seas, while others were proposing that only 1% of the world's coastal waters should be protected.

The existing global target for marine protection is 10%.
Echoes of Copenhagen?

Although Brazil has a special place in the history of environmental protection, having hosted the 1992 Earth Summit, Dr Lieberman has not been alone here in pointing to its substantial presence and robust negotiating style as being an impediment to progress.

Braulio Dias, secretary of biodiversity and forests with the Brazilian environment ministry and a key member of its national delegation, said a lack of movement on its concerns could mean blocking tougher protection.

"We see this as a big negotiating package; we can't commit ourselves to ambitious targets if we don't see an equivalent commitment to the means to meet those targets, and on the other agreement to finalise negotiations on the ABS protocol," he told BBC News.

"It's hard to see how we can enhance and stimulate more sustainable use of biodiversity if the rules on benefit sharing are not agreed."

The ABS negotiations, like some of the other components here, have seen through long and arduous sessions - and will continue over the weekend, given the lack of agreement.

But Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD executive secretary, said things were moving.

"There has been tremendous progress on ABS, with more than 20 articles adopted - and after one week of negotiations, this is tremendous progress," he told reporters.

"I've seen references to [the climate summit in] Copenhagen. There's no comparison with Copenhagen at all - the spirit is there, the spirit of conciliation, the spirit to continue discussing."

Most countries are sending environment ministers to the final three days of the meeting, and some observers are hopeful about the extra momentum that may create.

There is also hope that the arguments made here about the economic value of biodiversity, contained in the final report from the UN-backed Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) project, will persuade governments that meeting the targets on the agenda here would create wealth rather than damaging it.

"It's ironic that at this meeting there's been the release of the Teeb report, which has wonderful information about the economic benefits from conservation of the natural systems and the risks of losing those benefits to human well-being as a whole," noted Andrew Rosenberg, senior vice-president for science and knowledge with Conservation International.

"In a meeting where that's coming up, to make the argument that 'we can't afford it' is really depressing."

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Invasive species, climate change "deadly duo" - report

* Warmer world can give species an edge, disrupting nature
* Spread of more tolerant species threatens livelihoods
* Eradication, steps to control spread are key
David Fogarty, Reuters AlertNet 22 Oct 10;

SINGAPORE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Climate change is set to drive the spread of invasive plant and animals species, threatening forests, fisheries and crops, in a double blow to nature and livelihoods, a World Bank-funded report said on Friday. The study by Nairobi-based Global Invasive Species Programme says a warmer world, more extreme weather and higher levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide will give some species an edge, devasting ecosystems at sea and on land.

"The estimated damage from invasive species worldwide totals more than $1.4 trillion annually -- 5 percent of the global economy," says the report issued on the sidelines of a major U.N. meeting in Japan aimed at combatting the destruction of nature.

The United Nations says climate change, pollution, deforestation and over-hunting have led to a rapid rise in extinctions, threatening the richness of nature that underpins services such as clean air, water as well as food and health.

"Individually, climate change and invasive species present two of the greatest threats to biodiversity and the provision of valuable ecosystem services," says the report for policymakers.

It outlines myriad examples of invasive plants and animals that have proven much more adept at survival than other local species, leading to erosion, damage to crops, livestock and fisheries and lost income for tourism.

In particular, climate change can lead to some local species becoming much less able to adapt to warmer temperatures or more extreme droughts and floods, making them vulnerable to other species that have much greater tolerance levels.

In some cases, invasive species can also curb the amount of carbon dioxide that nature can soak up from the atmosphere.

In North America, warmer winter temperatures have led to an explosion in the numbers of native mountain pine beetles, killing off large areas of forest.

GREEN CRABS, LIONFISH

In the Caribbean, the lionfish, which is native to coral reefs in the South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Red Sea, has quickly spread since first released in the mid-1980s.

The fish is a voracious predator with venomous spines and has no natural enemies in the Caribbean, threatening local fish, shrimp and crab populations. Warming ocean temperatures in the region have helped it thrive.

Along the west coast of the United States and Canada, the European green crab is threatening native clam, mussel and crab species and possibly arrived in ship ballast water.

Weeds, pests and diseases were also a growing threat to agriculture, the study says, undermining food security.

"Indirectly, climate change will impact agriculture by increasing the incidence and intensity of invasive species," says the report. Agriculture supports the livelihoods of more than a third of the world's population.

The study also pointed to the likely spread of diseases such as bird flu, plague, Rift Valley fever, dengue, ebola and malaria. "Climate change combined with global trade and transport networks may significantly increase the threat of such pandemics," the authors say.

The study urged policymakers to take steps to halt the spread of non-native species, develop early detection systems, restore and protect existing ecosystems to make them more resilient and eradicate or control species that limit nature's ability to soak up carbon.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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Gulf corals in oil spill zone appear healthy

Brian Skoloff, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Oct 10;

ON THE FLOOR OF THE GULF OF MEXICO – Just 20 miles north of where BP's blown-out well spewed millions of gallons of oil into the sea, life appears bountiful despite initial fears that crude could have wiped out many of these delicate deepwater habitats.

Plankton, tiny suspended particles that form the base of the ocean's food web, float en masse 1,400 feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, forming a snowy-like underwater scene as they move with the currents outside the windows of a two-man sub creeping a few feet off the seafloor.

Crabs, starfish and other deep sea creatures swarm small patches of corals, and tiny sea anemones sprout from the sand like miniature forests across a lunar-like landscape illuminated only by the lights of the sub, otherwise living in a deep, dark environment far from the sun's reach.

Scientists are currently in the early stages of studying what effects, if any, BP PLC's April 20 oil well blowout off Louisiana and the ensuing crude gusher has had on the delicate deep sea coral habitats of the northern Gulf.

So far, it appears the area dodged a bullet, but more research is needed. Some of the deep sea corals near the spill site were only discovered just last year.

"Originally, when we saw the trajectory for the oil spill and where it was going, we were very concerned that these habitats would be impacted," said researcher Steve Ross of the Center for Marine Science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Ross and others are conducting research from a Greenpeace ship in the Gulf, using a two-man sub as they work to determine if the corals have suffered damage, or may take a hit from long-term impacts, such as stunted reproduction rates.

"We thought certainly that ... we would see signs of damage," Ross said. "And we're very pleased to say so far, that in these locations, we haven't seen a large scale damage to the coral habitats. We're still looking, but so far, it's good."

Ross was part of a team of researchers that studied deep sea corals in the Atlantic Ocean between North Carolina and Florida. The research eventually helped lead to added federal protections for a roughly 23,000 square-mile network believed to be among the largest continuous distribution of deep water corals in the world.

Ross and others have now turned their attention to the Gulf.

While fishermen have for centuries dragged up corals from the deep sea, it wasn't until the early 1900s that scientists discovered these extensive cold-water reefs. And it wasn't until the 1970s that researchers were able to use subs and cameras to reach the sea floor to document them. It had long been thought coral reefs only formed in shallow, warm waters.

Deepwater reefs and pinnacles are much more slow-growing and can take several million years to form. Science is only now beginning to understand these underwater "frontier zones." Researchers are looking to these regions for the development of additional pharmaceuticals since these cold-water critters have adapted to live in such unique environments void of sunlight, they possess unusual qualities that federal scientists say could aid in creating new drugs for cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

"We are very interested in any potential damage to deep sea corals," said Steve Murawski, chief fisheries scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is currently conducting research into oil in Gulf sediments, among other studies.

The federal government maintains much of the oil is now gone from the Gulf, but some studies indicate it remains in significant amounts on the sea floor. Microscopic particles have also been found in the water column.

It is now a prime time for coral spawning in the Gulf, when the corals release tiny larvae that eventually form new corals.

"It could alter the reproduction of these animals," Murawski said. "Even though the adults may survive the event, did we lose the opportunity to have more juveniles produced?"

Sandra Brooke, coral conservation director at the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, who is also participating in the research, agreed. The corals' reproduction rates will be studied over the coming weeks, she said.

"We have to be careful with our conclusions about this kind of data," Brooke said, noting it will take more than just a few dives to determine the extent of the damage. "We'll take further analysis but from what we've seen so far, it seems like they've dodged a bullet."

Long-term impacts, for instance, from 1989's much smaller Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska took years, even decades to understand.

"We're just going to have to continue watching," said Margot Stiles, a marine scientist with the conservation group Oceana.

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Removing Crown-of-Thorn sea stars at Redang, Malaysia

Thorny side of starfish
Dawn Jeremiah, The Star 24 Oct 10;

MOST of us love to spend our holidays on scenic islands, but how many of us actually care about keeping them clean? No, I am not talking about beaches, but the sea.

Redang Island was not on top of my list of must-visit places. But when Hello! magazine and Berjaya Hotels and Resorts invited me for the Redang Island Clean Up Day 2010, I said yes.

I didn’t need much convincing because I wanted to make full use of my advanced open water diving licence that I recently obtained.

Berjaya Redang Beach Resort played host to the Redang Clean-Up Day where volunteers got together for the weekend to clear rubbish from the beach as well as in the water. More than 100 volunteers comprised professional divers, celebrities, dive enthusiasts, non-divers and journalists took part.

Upon arrival, we went recreational diving at the Tanjung Tokong reef and night diving at the Bahagia Wreck. Like all night dives, it was a spine-tingling and exhilarating experience.

I joined Tony Eusoff, Jehan Miskin, Elaine Daly and Azura Zainal to catch the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), the second largest in the world and a predator of corals.

This species can destroy coral reefs as they prey upon coral polyps and absorb all nutrients from them, leaving a white skeleton behind.

On the second day, we had a tutorial of how to catch the crown-of-thorns without getting pricked.

I never knew they were dangerous to humans, but one prick can get you down with a fever for two weeks!

The neurotoxins from its spines can cause a sharp stinging pain that lasts for hours, as well as nausea.

If you are stung, the area around the wound will turn dark blue and begin to swell, persisting for weeks.

The spine will break off and embed itself under your skin, leading to a more serious infection and increased toxicity.

The only way to kill it is to bring them up to the surface, leave them under the sun and then burying them in sand.

Poking it with our spears and cutting them underwater will only result in them multiplying, and shaking them around will result in their eggs being released into the water.

Nervously, we dove down to the Mak Simpang reef in search of some. When our dive master spotted one hidden under a rock, he gestured for me to catch it.

I had to get myself in an awkward position in order to not get stung and not destroy any of the corals that lay next to it. In the end, Tony managed to grab hold of it and placed it in the net.

For that dive, I was thoroughly disappointed that our team only caught four crown-of-thorns.

I was disgruntled from our small catch because Jehan, Elaine and Azura who were in another boat at another reef found about 100!

So I waited for the next dive and I finally caught one! But it was also a good thing because that meant the number of such starfish is declining and reef clean-up played a major role.

We successfully collected and removed hundreds of crown-of-thorns, as well as domestic waste and non-biodegradable plastics.

Non-diving participants and volunteers helped clear the beach of plastic bags, aluminium cans, food and beverage containers.

The trip ended with many good memories and amazing new friendships. It was comforting to find out the total number of crown-of-thorns starfish we caught was significantly lower than the number in 2009.

Project Aware Foundation is the dive industry’s leading non-profit organisation. Visit www.projectaware.org to see how you can lend a helping hand.

Dawn Jeremiah can’t wait for the next Reef Clean-Up Day in March. Armed with a passion for television and journalism, she is a senior marketing executive at a high definition lifestyle channel. An actress part-time, she also tweets at www.twitter.com/dawnjeremiah

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Tamer helping to reduce tiger attacks in Aceh, Indonesia

Antara 24 Oct 10;

Banda Aceh, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (ANTARA News) - Attacks by tigers on humans have been less frequent in Southern Aceh after the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) sought the help of a tiger tamer to discourage them from preying on humans in the region, an official said.

"Attacks by tigers (on humans) have started to decline since last week after we asked for help from a tamer named Syarwani Sabi to overcome the disturbances," said B. Safwan, head of South Aceh`s BKSDA, on Saturday.

The 72-year Sabi had made two traps at Jampoen Papeun village at Meukek and Panton luas sub-districts at Tapaktuan district, in efforts to catch the tigers alive.

Some tigers were previously reported to have made life difficult for the villagers.

The installation of the traps, made of thick wooden boards, was witnessed by local community figures and activists from Leuser International Foundation (YLI) and Wildlife Conservation Sosiety (WCS).

"If the feared tigers could be caught, the villagers will bring them alive to BKSDA. We hope the villagers will not do any harm to the protected animals," Sabi said.

He said the tigers had attacked humans becuse their food sources had been diminished due to forest destruction.

Safwan said that a villager, Martunis (25), was found dead after apparently being attacked by a tiger on October 12 at Panton Luas village. Tigers also swarmed around human settlements and preyed on the villagers` livestock at Jamboe Papeun.

YLI data shows that seven people were killed and two others seriously injured in tiger attacks between 2007 and 2010. In the same period, as many as 18 tigers were killed or caught.

Various sources, both international and local, have said that there are only about 400 Sumatra tigers left in the forests of Sumatera, from Aceh to Lampung, making the tiger one of the most endangered animals in the world. The largest population of about 110 tigers is believed to be living in Gunung Leuser National Park, Aceh province.(*)

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New Homes Built for Endangered Galápagos Penguins

LiveScience.com Yahoo News 23 Oct 10;

In an attempt to boost the population of endangered Galápagos penguins, researchers have been building new nests for them on the islands.

Biologists hope that the nests will help increase the population of the endangered Galápagos penguins,which have experienced a population decline of more than 50 percent since the 1970s, and face a 30 percent chance of extinction in this century, according to the New England Aquarium.

Galápagos penguins are the only penguin specieswhose range includes part of the Northern Hemisphere as the islands arelocated along the equator. Because of continuous warm temperatures at the equator, Galápagos penguins need shaded nests to breed.

The birds use crevices in the rocks, lava tubes or similar spaces to find relief from the heat and protection from predators.

"One of the biggest problems is the introduced species of predators,"including pigs, dogs, cats and rats, said researcher Dee Boersma of theUniversity of Washington. "We went to lengths to build nests in places where there aren't introduced predators."

Their habitat also has declined, she said, and new nests are needed if the population is to stabilize.

Man-made nests

This September, Boersma and her team built 120 of these crevices for the penguins. They created holes just large enough to serve as nests along the volcanic shoreline of three islands in the Galápagos and several smaller islets.

"Our whole goal is to increase the population of Galápagos penguins, and the way to do that is to make sure that when conditions are good, when they're not food-challenged, that all of them will be able to breed," Boersma said.

The penguin species is one of two listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and according to Boersma, new nests are needed if the population is to stabilize.

Using local lava, Boersma and her team built 100 shaded nests in clusters that are relatively close together, and 20 nests that are farther away.

Most of the islands of the Galápagos, which are part of Ecuador, and surrounding waters are protected as a biological marine reserve and national park, and are a United Nations World Heritage site. Until recently, the islands were also included on World Heritage's "Sites in Danger" list.

La Nina boost

Climate cycles can play havoc with Galápagos penguin reproduction. The penguins depend on cold ocean currents that rise to the surface and bring plentiful food. During El Niño years, those currents fail and mostmarine species have trouble finding food. During La Nina cycles, those rising cold currents increase and bring a plentiful supply of nutrients to support small fish on which the penguins feed.

Boersma hopes the new nesting sites were in place soon enough to have a positive effect as La Nina conditions take hold in the Galápagos and bring plentiful food to the penguins.

"We found everything from eggs to small chicks to near-fledglings because the food is so good because of La Nina," she said. "The penguinsare ready, if the food stays, to begin breeding. The question is will they find these new nest sites in time."

She expects to return to the Galápagos in February to evaluate the project's progress.

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Urban boom threatens Jakarta wildlife reserve and monkeys

Renjani Puspo Sari Reuters 22 Oct 10;

JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - The last wildlife reserve left in Indonesia's vast, traffic-choked capital is under threat from a growing tide of rubbish and angry local residents who complain that it harbors thieving monkeys.

Indonesia's surging economy and fast-growing population is driving a building boom in Jakarta, which suffers from a legacy of poor urban design and weak enforcement of planning laws.

But at the northern edge of the chaos lies a swathe of jungle and mangroves, alive with the call of birds and shriek of monkeys -- Muara Angke Wildlife reserve.

The last such reserve in Jakarta, Muara Angke's 25 hectares are a popular destination for people eager to escape the crowded streets and view the 95 Long-tailed Macaques that live there.

It also is home to 91 different bird species, several of which are endangered, as well as beavers, monitor lizards, amphibians and fish. In addition, it is a stopover for migratory birds from Russia and Australia.

But this oasis may not survive for much longer.

The monkeys, which visitors to the reserve are not allowed to feed, bear part of the blame.

Residents of a luxury residential complex in nearby Pantai Indah Kapuk have asked the managers of the reserve to eradicate the monkeys, which they say steal food and bite people.

The demand has outraged those who work with the reserve.

"How can we ban monkeys? This is a wildlife area," said Muhammad Rifa'i, an official at Balai Mangrove Kapuk Muara, an NGO under the Muara Angke management.

"Monkeys and some animals have lived here for many years."

Rifa'i said that wild food in the reserve, which is beset by pollution, was growing increasingly difficult for the monkeys to find. Some people who live in the nearby residential area also feed the animals, encouraging them to come back looking for more.

Once a vast, forested area on Jakarta's north coast, the Pantai Indah Kapuk district is now made up of luxury estates, golf courses and offices, a boom driven by its proximity to Indonesia's biggest international airport and trading harbour.

This growth may ultimately doom the reserve, which now is disturbed by the sound of traffic and industrial activity.

Founded in the 1930s under the colonial Dutch government, it stretched across 1,344 hectares in 1960 but has now dwindled to its meager 25 hectares, with parcels of land sliced off for development.

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Freshwater losses pose risks for food,health: U.N.

Reuters AlertNet 22 Oct 10;

TOKYO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Damage to rivers, wetlands and lakes threatens to destabilise the diversity of freshwater fish species, posing risks for food security, incomes and nutrition, a U.N.-backed report said on Friday.

Rivers and lakes are the source of 13 million tonnes of fish annually, which in turn provide employment to 60 million people, the study by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Fish Centre showed.

Fish from inland waters is also important for nutrition, especially in Africa and parts of Asia, by supplying micronutrients such as vitamin A, calcium, iron and zinc, the report added.

It said such factors highlighted the risks to humans from the destruction of freshwater ecosystems and the urgency to protect them from pollution, climate change, overfishing and construction of dams.

The report was released on the sidelines of an Oct 18-29 U.N. meeting in Nagoya, Japan, aimed at pushing governments and businesses to do more to fight accelerating losses in animal and plant species. [ID:nTOE69L09O]

While fish production had grown in Asia and Africa over the past 40 years, catch in other regions had levelled off and in some cases, fallen, with environmental damage cited as a factor, the report said.

Fisheries in the Volga River in Europe have declined because of dams, while fisheries in Lake Malawi and Lake Malombe in Africa have fallen from overfishing and environmental degradation.

"It takes a concerted effort to protect and maintain these so-to-speak 'free' ecosystem services around the world," Yumiko Kura of the World Fish Center told a news conference on the sidelines of the Nagoya meeting.

"It is important to maintain these natural ecosystem services from human destruction because it is very costly to replace these ecosystem services once they are lost." (Reporting by Chisa Fujioka; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Warming 'destabilises aquatic ecosystems'
Mark Kinver BBC News 23 Oct 10;
Future warming could have "profound implications" for the stability of freshwater ecosystems, a study warns.

Researchers said warmer water affected the distribution and size of plankton - tiny organisms that form the basis of food chains in aquatic systems.

The team warmed plankton-containing vessels by 4C (7F) - the temperature by which some of the world's rivers and lakes could warm over the next century.

The findings appear in the journal Global Change Biology.

"Our study provides almost the first direct experimental evidence that - in the short-term - if a [freshwater] ecosystem warms up, it has profound implications for the size structure of plankton communities," said lead author Gabriel Yvon-Durocher from Queen Mary, University of London.

"Essentially, what we observed within the phytoplankton (microscopic plants) community was that it switched from a system that was dominated by larger autotrophs (plants that photosynthesise) to a system that was dominated by smaller autotrophs with a lower standing biomass."

Dr Yvon-Durocher added that a greater abundance, but lower overall biomass, of smaller phytoplankton had "very important implications for the stability of plankton food webs".

"This meant that the distribution of biomass between plants and animals changed from a... situation where you had a large amount of plants and a smaller amount of animal consumers to an 'inverted pyramid' where you have a smaller quantity of plant biomass and a larger amount of animal biomass," he told BBC News.

"Systems that tend to have larger consumer biomass relative to the resource biomass tend to be less stable over time."

Dr Yvon-Durocher explained that phytoplankton played a key role in the food webs of oceans, rivers and lakes.

"An inordinate amount of the primary productivity and carbon draw-down in ocean and freshwater ecosystems are carried out by microscopic planktonic organisms."

Because the tiny plants are able to produce their own food by using energy from sunlight, they are an important food source for zooplankton - microscopic animals that are not able to synthesise their own food.

The zooplankton are also a vital food for other creatures higher up the the food chain.

"Understanding the dynamics of these communities is going to be crucial in understanding how marine and freshwater ecosystems will respond to changes in temperature."

Fresh insight

For their experiment, the team of UK and Spanish researchers used 20 mesocosms, which are containers that allow scientists to study freshwater ecosystems in a controlled environment.

"We were able to, in a relatively small plot of land, have 20 replicated ecosystems - half of which we warmed, and the other half we kept at an ambient year-round temperature," explained Dr Yvon-Durocher.

"The great advantage of using the mescosm set-up is that it allows the manipulation of an entire ecosystem.

"There is an absolute wealth of literature on the effects of warming and climate change on single species, but we understand very little about what happens at a community level."

Commenting on their results, the team said: "These findings could provide some novel insights into how future warming might change the distribution of organism size and biomass in freshwater ecosystems.

"The size structure of plankton communities is a key driver of rates of carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling."

They added that warming waters could have an impact on a global scale.

However, Dr Yvon-Durocher said that it did not mean that the future for aquatic ecosystems was looking bleak.

"What it means is that the make-up of ecological communities are likely to profoundly change as a result of warming," he suggested.

"It may mean that the species' composition might change, but what we don't understand is how those changes are going to affect the functions of the ecosystems.

"That is the next step."

River and lake fish 'neglected but essential'
Richard Black BBC News 22 Oct 10;

Inland fisheries provide employment for more people than their marine equivalents, as well as being a vital source of nutrients, a study concludes.

The UN-backed Blue Harvest study says that in Africa alone, fish from rivers and lakes are a key source of protein and minerals for 100 million people.

However, dams and other kinds of water management have drastically reduced yields, particularly in Europe.

Properly valuing these fisheries could lead to better forms of management.

The study was launched at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting here.

It puts the yield of fish from these predominantly freshwater sources at 13-30 million tonnes per year.

In terms of quantity, that is dwarfed by the amount coming from the oceans and aquaculture, which produce in the region of 50 million tonnes annually.

But because inland fishers generally deploy low-tech methods and use the fish for local consumption, the employment benefit is somewhat higher.

The UN Environment Programme (Unep) says this is the first study to bring together inland fisheries data from across the world.

"This fascinating report has brought to the fore the often neglected subject of inland fisheries," said Unep's executive director Achim Steiner.

"While marine fisheries are under increasing scrutiny, those based on river and lake systems rarely engage the international community - an oversight of potentially profound implications."
End of the line

That scrunity is one of the factors that have led to governments, and fishing communities themselves, to take action to conserve marine fish stocks.

But in inland fisheries, the situation can be more complex.

Dams and other modifications of waterways can have big and unintended consequences for these fisheries, while communities and industries alongside can also disturb them with pollution.

"If you look at Japan, or countries around Europe that used to have commercial inland fisheries, they now don't exist," said Yumiko Kura of the WorldFish Center, a UN-supported research institute based in Malaysia.

"The level of modification done to freshwater lakes and rivers has a lot to do with the productivity of those systems - many freshwater species are migratory, and connectivity between river systems and betwen rivers and the sea is very important."

Where inland fishing is possible in industrialised countries, she noted, it is usually for recreation rather than staple food, and often supported by the regular release of juvenile fish.
Basin cut

To illustrate the point, Blue Harvest compares the health of the salmon populations in two of North America's largest river systems, the Fraser and Columbia, which both supported major fisheries until the early 1900s.

Since then, nearly 150 dams have been built on the the Columbia and its tributaries; the Fraser has just a handful.

The Fraser is recognised as the biggest salmon-producing river basin in the world, while on the Columbia, most populations are under government protection, and have to be supported by hatcheries, the addition of measures such as fish ladders, and the regular transportation of fish between different parts of the basin.

The report warns that unless modifications in major developing world rivers such as the Mekong are carried out in ways that allow fish to flourish, there will be a decline in catches essential for millions of people.

This does not mean that dams and other infrastructure should not be built, it concludes - but that development must be appropriate, and decisions made only after properly assessing the economic, nutritional and social benefits of the fisheries.

A related concern, said Ms Kura, was preserving the diversity of inland water systems such as the Mekong, where fishers catch on the order of 500 different species.

"When you look at the fisherman's net, there are countless species in it - they don't rely on any particular one, but on all of them," she said at the launch here.

"In some years, certain species might not be available but other ones are, because different species have different ways of responding to environmental changes - so biodiversity is key to sustaining the vitality of the fishing industry."

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Secret life of birds may give info on climate change

Reuters AlertNet 21 Oct 10;

SYDNEY, Oct 21 (Reuters Life!) - The secret life of seabirds at the bottom of the world may yield valuable clues about global climate change, scientists say.

Australian researchers plan to learn more about the ecosystem of the southern ocean, including how it is changing, by attaching tiny tracking devices to the legs of snow petrels, one of only a handful of birds that breed exclusively in Antarctica.

"The information will tell us where the birds go and which marine habitats they use during the long winter months," said Colin Southwell, Australian Antarctic Division Ecologist on the "Aurora Australia" research ship.

Speaking to Reuters by phone on Thursday shortly before sailing for the Antarctic, he added:"If we know where they go in the southern ocean to forage for food, we are much more likely to focus and look for the kinds of environmental drivers that might be driving the population."

The tracking devices are about the size of an adult's thumb and weigh only 1.5 grams. Plans are to track about 150 birds between three Australian-maintained Antarctic stations.

"We know several places where they breed so all we need to do is simply hold their beak and carefully remove them from their nest and put a tag on - it takes about a minute or two," said Southwell.

The project is part of a wider long term collaborative study of Antarctic animals, including Adelie and Emperor penguins, using a variety of methods such as tracking, population surveys and automated cameras to monitor breeding colonies in East Antarctica.

(Reporting by Pauline Askin; Editing by Elaine Lies)

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Mediterranean nations agree to combat climate change

Yahoo News 22 Oct 10;

VOUGIAGMENI, Greece (AFP) – Some 15 Mediterranean countries, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority, agreed Friday to work together to combat the effects of climate change that threaten the region.

The countries signed a declaration at a climate change conference near Athens in Greece which called for "contributing to the emergence of low carbon, resource efficient and climate resilient economies."

"Climate change threatens our way of life as people of the Mediterranean," said Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, who initiated the conference attended by his counterparts from Turkey, Libya, Malta, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority and environment ministers from some 15 countries.

The Mediterranean Climate Change Initiative also aimed "at developing common Mediterranean positions on climate change demonstrating leadership and strong commitment to action in the international arena," a text of the declaration in English said.

The Mediterranean initiative comes about a month before the United Nations conference on climate change which will be held in late November in Cancun, Mexico.

The agreement among the Mediterranean nations to address the problem of global warming, despite political conflicts between some of them, was hailed by some as a diplomatic breakthrough.

"It is a new way of doing diplomacy because all these countries have a lot of problems to deal with -- economic crises, political instability and other issues -- and the conflicts between them," said a diplomat from one of the participating countries who requested anonymity.

"However, they sat around the same table realising that they all face the same threat to their culture and their way of life."

Some of the problems the Mediterranean region faces from the effects of climate change centre on access to water, energy, and desertification.

"If we do not decide to manage the planet together... there will be conflicts over the problems" created by climate change, said Papandreou, who would like to create a Mediterranean fund to finance green projects.

The declaration noted that the Mediterranean region "has an unrivalled potential to become a major hub of renewable energy generation for domestic and neighbouring markets."

While not among the world's most polluting nations, the Mediterranean countries nonetheless face an increase of four degrees in average temperatures and a 70 percent drop in precipitation in the coming years, participants at the conference said.

Climate change also could reduce the harvests of the Mediterranean's key crops such as olives and grapes, Rajendra Pachuauri, the head of the UN intergovernmental group of climate experts, told the conference in a video message.

It could also affect a key economic sector in the region, namely, tourism.

"Tourism is expected to decline globally, especially during the summer months," Pachauri said.

A study released Tuesday by the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) said regions bordering the Mediterranean could see "almost unprecedented" drought conditions within the next 30 years unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut.

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China greenhouse gas growth "daunting": U.S. envoy

* U.S. underscores China's challenge on emissions
* Envoy says talks with Chinese counterparts positive
* Outlook for Cancun climate talks mixed
Chris Buckley Reuters AlertNet 22 Oct 10;

BEIJING, Oct 22 (Reuters) - China's push to reduce growing greenhouse gas pollution is impressive but the "juggernaut" nonetheless faces a daunting rise in emissions, the top U.S. climate change envoy said after what he called helpful talks.

The United States' chief climate change negotiator Todd Stern was in Beijing seeking to narrow rifts over the building blocks of a proposed new pact to fight global warming driven by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other human activity.

China is the world's biggest total emitter of such greenhouse gases, having surged past the United States, the world's second biggest emitter and long the world's largest.

China's efforts to slow greenhouse gas emission growth by encouraging cleaner energy and more efficient production deserved praise, but its projected rise will be testing, said Stern.

"China's got a juggernaut of an economy, and it's no criticism that the emissions trajectory that China faces is a daunting one," he told a news conference after his talks with Chinese negotiators.

"The trajectory is tough because of the power and success of the (Chinese) economy, so it's going to be an ongoing challenge."

The veteran U.S. negotiator's comments underscored how important China will be to the success or failure of climate change negotiations.

China's greenhouse gas emissions rose about 9 percent last year, faster than any other major economy.

Likely rapid economic growth will push its emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, to between 9.6 and 10.1 billion tonnes of CO2 per year by 2020, compared with 5.2 billion tonnes in 2005, according to a study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. [ID:nLDE68L23Z]

Governments hope to settle on the elements of a new global deal to fight climate change at U.N. negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, late this year. Cancun is intended to be a stepping stone to a binding global deal late next year.

Stern has led the U.S. push for China to accept firmer international emissions goals and monitoring, while Beijing has countered that Washington has failed to take serious steps against climate change and is instead scapegoating China.

China rejects an internationally binding limit on its greenhouse gas emissions as unfair, because it contributed less to the problem historically, its emissions per-capita are still relatively low and it needs leeway to grow its economy.

Stern said he had "quite positive" talks with China's top climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, and other officials that had made some progress towards a possible deal in Cancun, but a successful outcome there was not assured.

He declined to give details of those talks.

"I think that there is a deal to be had. I think it's also possible that it won't come together," Stern said of Cancun. (Editing by David Fogarty)

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