25 Aug (Wed): Talk on "Chek Jawa: Our Natural Heritage"
from wild shores of singapore
AVA's Responsible Pet Ownership programme: Children’s Art Competition 2010 - "Care for Your Pet" from Habitatnews
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore coordinators' National Day cheer from Habitatnews
RMBR launches 2 new books
from Raffles Museum News
Protective behaviour of a Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
from Bird Ecology Study Group
9th and Final mangrove replanting
from Natura Gig
The Star 17 Aug 10;
KOTA KINABALU: A team of 150 local scientists and researchers, including a team from the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, will be spending 10 days in October to further document the plants and wildlife in relatively unexplored pristine and remote Imbak Canyon in central Sabah.
The Oct 10 to 24 expedition hopes to identify new flora and fauna species in the 30,000 Yayasan Sabah conservation area where earlier teams had discovered new species of the keruing tropical hardwood.
More than 69 species of medicinal plants have also been recorded to date in the Canyon that may well be dubbed a living pharmacy, Yayasan Sabah group corporate communications manager Linah Robert said Tuesday.
Previous scientific expeditions in 2000 and 2004 had also identified the Imbak Canyon as key habitat for Sabahs iconic wildlife such as the Borneo pygmy elephant and proboscis monkey.
She said the third scientific expedition was being organised by the foundation, the academy in collaboration with the Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Parks, Sabah Wildlife Department, University Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, WWF-Malaysia and the Sabah Museum.
She said the expedition will converge at the foot Mt. Kuli on the South West of the Canyon. The Expedition will carry out research of its flora, fauna, physical landscape, water, aquatic life and eco-tourism potentials.
As there are villages surrounding the Imbak Canyon, a community study will also be carried out.
Recognising its biodiversity importance, Imbak Canyon was designated as a Conservation Area by Yayasan Sabah in 2003.
In August 2009, the Area was gazetted as a Class I (Protection) Forest Reserve by the Sabah State Government.
She said, Imbak Canyon Conservation Area was the third designated Conservation Area. The second was the 58,840 ha Maliau Basin Conservation Area and the first was the 43,800 ha Danum Valley Conservation Area.
Further details of the October 2010 Scientific Expedition can be obtained from Ms. Rita Stuel of Yayasan Sabah Group at Tel. 088-326563 and Mr. Hafiz Ambar, Academy of Sciences Malaysia at Tel. 03-26949898.
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 18 Aug 10;
WASHINGTON – Researchers are warning that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is a bigger mess than the government claims and that a lot of crude is lurking deep below the surface, some of it settling perhaps in a critical undersea canyon off the Florida Panhandle.
The evidence of microscopic amounts of oil mixing into the soil of the canyon was gathered by scientists at the University of South Florida, who also found poisoned plant plankton — the vital base of the ocean food web — which they blamed on a toxic brew of oil and dispersants.
Their work is preliminary, hasn't been reviewed by other scientists, requires more tests to confirm it is BP's oil they found, and is based on a 10-day research cruise that ended late Monday night. Scientists who were not involved said they were uncomfortable drawing conclusions based on such a brief look.
But those early findings follow a report on Monday from Georgia researchers that said as much as 80 percent of the oil from the spill remains in the Gulf. Both groups' findings have already been incorporated into lawsuits filed against BP.
Both groups paint a darker scenario than that of federal officials, who two weeks ago announced that most of the oil had dissolved, dispersed or been removed, leaving just a bit more than a quarter of the amount that spewed from the well that exploded in April.
At the White House on Aug. 4, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco said: "At least 50 percent of the oil that was released is now completely gone from the system, and most of the remainder is degrading rapidly or is being removed from the beaches."
That's not what the scientists from South Florida and Georgia found.
"The oil is not gone, that's for sure," University of South Florida's David Hollander said Tuesday. "There is oil and we need to deal with it."
University of Georgia's Samantha Joye said: "It's a tremendous amount of oil that's in the system. ... It's very difficult for me to imagine that 50 percent of it has been degraded."
Marine scientist Chuck Hopkinson, also with the University of Georgia, raised the obvious question: "Where has all the oil gone? It hasn't gone anywhere. It still lurks in the deep."
NOAA spokesman Justin Kenney defended his agency's calculations, saying they are "based on direct measurements whenever possible and the best available scientific estimates where direct measurements were not possible." But the vast majority of it is based on "educated scientific guesses," because unless the oil was being burned or skimmed, measurements weren't possible, NOAA response scientist Bill Lehr said earlier this month.
What is happening in the Gulf is the outcome of a decision made early on in the fighting of the spill: to use dispersants to keep the surface and beaches as clean as possible, at the expense of keeping oil stuck below the surface, said Monty Graham, a researcher at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama who was not part of the latest work. Oil degrades far more slowly in cooler, deeper waters than it would at the surface.
At the surface and the top 100 feet or so, it is obvious why oil is harmful, fouling marshes and hampering sea turtles, fish, birds and other life. Deep down, the effects are subtler, less direct. Oil at that depth can chip away at the base of the food web — plant plankton — and that could cause animals to go hungry. Reduced oxygen levels from natural gas and oil could also starve creatures of oxygen.
At depths of 900 to 3,300 feet, the University of South Florida researchers found problems with plant plankton. About two-fifths of the samples showed "some degree of toxicity."
"We found general phytoplankton health to be poor," Hollander said. By comparison, in non-oiled southern parts of the Gulf, the plant plankton were healthy, researchers said.
That makes sense because past research has shown that when oil when gets into the cell membranes of plankton, it causes all sorts of problems, said Paul Falkowski, a marine scientist at Rutgers University who was not part of the research. However, he said plant plankton don't live long anyway. They have about a week's lifespan, he said, and in a few months this insult to the base of the food web could be history.
Still, the brew that is poisoning the plankton may linger and no one knows for how long, Hollander said.
The Florida researchers used ultraviolet light to illuminate micro-droplets of oil deep underwater. When they did that, "it looked like a constellation of stars," Hollander said.
He also found the oil deposited in the sea bottom near the edges of the significant DeSoto Canyon, about 40 miles southwest of Panama City, Fla., suggesting oil may have settled into that canyon. The canyon is an important mixing area for cold, nutrient-laden water and warmer surface water. It is also key for currents and an important fisheries area.
"Clearly the oil down in the abyss, there's nothing we can do about it," said Ed Overton of Louisiana State University. He said the environment at the surface or down to 100 feet or so is "rapidly going back to normal," with shrimpers starting their harvest. But oil below 1,000 feet degrades much more slowly, he said.
Joye has measured how fast natural gas, which also spewed from the BP well, can degrade in water, and it may take as much as 500 days for large pools to disappear at 3,000 feet below the sea. That natural gas starves oxygen from the water, she said.
"You're talking about a best-case situation of a year's turnover time," Joye said.
AP legal affairs reporter Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.
University of Georgia's oil spill page: http://oilspill.uga.edu
Scientists Raise Queries About Gulf Oil Left Behind
Tom Brown PlanetArk 18 Aug 10;
Two new scientific reports on Tuesday raised fresh fears about the environmental fallout from the world's worst offshore oil spill and questioned government assurances that most of the oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico was already gone.
In one of the reports, researchers at the University of Georgia said about three-quarters of the oil from BP's blown-out Macondo well was still lurking below the surface of the Gulf and may pose a threat to the ecosystem.
Charles Hopkinson, who helped lead the investigation, said up to 79 percent of the 4.1 million barrels of oil that gushed from the broken well and were not captured directly at the wellhead remained in the Gulf.
The report was based on an analysis of government estimates released on August 2 that Hopkinson said had been widely misinterpreted as meaning that 75 percent of the oil spewed by the well had either evaporated, dissolved or been otherwise contained, leaving only about 25 percent.
"The idea that 75 percent of the oil is gone and is of no further concern to the environment is just absolutely incorrect," Hopkinson told reporters on a conference call.
Separately, a study released by University of South Florida scientists said experiments in the northeastern Gulf where so-called plumes or barely visible clouds of oil had been found earlier had turned up oil in sediments of an underwater canyon. The oil was at levels toxic to critical marine organisms.
Oil droplets were found in the sediments of the DeSoto Canyon, where nutrient rich waters support spawning grounds of important fish species on the West Florida Shelf, this report said.
For 87 days following the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that triggered the oil spill, crude spewed into the Gulf, contaminating wetlands, fishing grounds and beaches from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. BP engineers provisionally capped the leak on July 15 and are working to permanently "kill" the well later this month.
Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a White House briefing on August 4 that: "At least 50 percent of the oil that was released is now completely gone from the system. And most of the remainder is degrading rapidly or is being removed from the beaches."
"THERE'S OIL IN THE WATER"
But University of Georgia marine sciences professor Samantha Joye and other researchers have seen no scientific information to support that view.
"I have not seen data that leads me to conclude that 50 percent of the oil is gone," Joye said.
"No one's standing up here and saying 'this is a doom and gloom scenario' but at the same time it's not as straight forward as saying all the oil is gone either," she said.
"What we're trying to point out is the impacts of oil are still there. There's oil in the water, there's oil on the seafloor, there are going to be impacts on the system. We have to continue monitoring and evaluating what those impacts are."
The University of South Florida researchers said their initial findings after a 10-day mission in the Gulf strongly suggested that oil from BP's spill had settled on the seafloor further east than previously suspected, at levels toxic to marine life.
USF Chemical oceanographer David Hollander said on a conference call he believed the government's August 2 assessment "was a little bit premature from a scientific point of view."
"Dispersed does not mean that it won't have an impact," he said, referring to the government estimates. But he stressed that the University of South Florida mission's initial findings would need to be verified by more scientific testing.
President Barack Obama's administration, which has been criticized for its handling of the catastrophic spill, is seeking to reassure skeptical Gulf Coast residents and the wider public that the worst of the emergency is over.
Obama, who took his family to Florida's Panhandle Coast at the weekend to demonstrate that the beaches were clean and "open for business," says the biggest environmental cleanup in U.S. history will not end until the last of the oil is gone.
(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Chris Wilson)
Georgia scientists: Gulf oil not gone, 80 pct remains
Yahoo News 16 Aug 10;
WASHINGTON – Georgia scientists say their analysis shows that most of that BP oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there.
The scientists say as much as 80 percent of the oil still lurks under the surface. The Georgia team said it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone. The report from University of Georgia and other scientists came from an analysis of federal estimates.
Earlier this month federal scientists said that only about a quarter of the oil remained and the rest was either removed, dissolved or dispersed.
Caroline Stauffer PlanetArk 17 Aug 10;
Fabled monarch butterflies are facing a new threat from severe storms that have devastated some sanctuary forests in Mexico, conservation groups said on Monday.
The Nature Conservancy said in a news conference that storm damage in Mexico's 13,000-hectare (32,124 acre) monarch reserve is yet another blow to the fragile butterflies, which arrived in Mexico in record low numbers last season after a 2,000-mile journey from spots as far north as Canada.
Illegal logging has long threatened the butterflies in western Mexico, where clouds of orange and black butterflies are a common sight during the winter.
But the 117 hectares (289 acres) damaged this winter were due instead to torrential rains and heavy winds, said Omar Vidal, head of World Wildlife Fund Mexico.
"We can say that extreme climate events will be more frequent and more intense," Juan Bezaury, Mexico representative for The Nature Conservancy, told reporters.
February is typically one of the driest months in Mexico, but days of heavy rain, hail and sleet this year knocked countless butterflies from their perches.
Many scientists blame recent extreme weather events on climate change caused by greenhouse gasses including industrial carbon.
Mexico, host of the next round of United Nations climate talks that begin in late November, has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 50 million tonnes in 2012.
It says sustainable forestry and reforestation will be a key part of its strategy for curbing carbon emissions.
(Editing by Missy Ryan and Todd Eastham)
IRIN Reuters AlertNet 17 Aug 10;
LOS BANOS, 17 August 2010 (IRIN) - Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) report signs of progress in their efforts to enhance rice's photosynthetic efficiency to boost yields.
If successful, global yields could rise by as much as 50 percent, avoiding potential rice shortages, or even future famines, specialists say.
According to IRRI, a global population increase of some two billion people by 2050 will require an extra 250 million metric tonnes of rice in Asia alone.
"Fifteen months into the project, things are looking positive," Paul Quick, principal scientist and head of IRRI's C4 rice project, told IRIN in Los Banos, the Philippines. "We have identified at least 10 to 15 plant phenotypes that look like the type of plant we are looking for, plants that are starting to show a switch to C4."
C4 plants - such as maize and sorghum - use a much more efficient photosynthesis process than rice (a C3 plant), produce a higher yield and use 1.5-3 times less water, he said.
With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the first phase of the 15-year project is focusing on the discovery of the genes required for C4 photosynthesis.
"Achieving this goal will be extremely challenging as many of the processes that need to be changed are poorly understood at the genetic level," Quick said.
Plants typically have more than 30,000 genes so it is not easy to identify which genes are necessary to create the C4 engine. At the same time, thousands of plants need to be grown and screened for errors in their photosynthetic engine.
"It's like making a cake. We still don't know the recipe, but we now have a better idea of what the ingredients are," Jacqueline Dionora, a senior associate scientist for the project said.
New crop strains needed
According to the UN, food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet rising demand, fuelled by population growth, competition for water and increasing use of agricultural products for bio-fuels.
"Increased photosynthetic efficiency through the introduction of the C4 photosynthetic pathway is one mechanism by which this can be achieved," Quick said, citing its high light, water and nitrogen use efficiency.
"The C4-Rice project is seen as a high-risk scientific venture but this is nothing compared with the potential future risks to human health if food supply cannot meet demand."
A new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) [http://www.pnas.org/] - a peer-reviewed, scientific journal from the US - warned that rice production would be affected with rising temperatures due to climate change.
The study [http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/07/26/1001222107.full.pdf+html] by international scientists found evidence that the net impact of projected temperature increases would slow the growth of rice production in Asia. Rising temperatures during the past 25 years have already cut the yield growth rate by 10-20 percent in several areas.
About three billion people eat rice every day, and more than 60 percent of the world's one billion poorest and undernourished people who live in Asia depend on rice as their staple food, according to IRRI.
A decline in rice production would mean more people in poverty and hunger, the report's researchers warned.
"If we cannot change our rice production methods or develop new rice strains that can withstand higher temperatures, there will be a loss in rice production over the next few decades as days and nights get hotter," said Jarrod Welch, lead author of the report.
"This will get increasingly worse as temperatures rise further towards the middle of the century."
On 18 August, scientists will gather in Shanghai for the 15th international congress of photosynthesis research [http://www.picb.ac.cn/PS2010/index.html]. The three-day meeting will bring together experts from various disciplines of C4 biology, including biochemistry, evolution, genetic regulation, gene discovery, systems modelling and genetic engineering.
Ahmed Djoghlaf says nations risk economic collapse and loss of culture if it does not protect the natural world
• 'Crown jewels' of Britain's landscape could be sold off
• Plan to sell off nature reserves risks 'austerity countryside'
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 16 Aug 10;
Britain and other countries face a collapse of their economies and loss of culture if they do not protect the environment better, the world's leading champion of nature has warned.
"What we are seeing today is a total disaster," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
"No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon. The future of the planet now depends on governments taking action in the next few years."
Industrialisation, population growth, the spread of cities and farms and climate change are all now threatening the fundamentals of life itself, said Djoghlaf, in London before a key UN meeting where governments are expected to sign up to a more ambitious agreement to protect nature.
"Many plans were developed in the 1990s to protect biodiversity but they are still sitting on the shelves of ministries. Countries were legally obliged to act, but only 140 have even submitted plans and only 16 have revised their plans since 1993. Governments must now put their houses in order," he said.
According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago. Around 15% of mammal species and 11% of bird species are classified as threatened with extinction.
Djoghlaf warned Britain and other countries not to cut nature protection in the recession. In a reference to expected 40% cuts to Britain's department of the environment spending, he said: "It would be very short-sighted to cut biodiversity spending. You may well save a few pounds now but you will lose billions later. Biodiversity is your natural asset. The more you lose it, the more you lose your cultural assets too."
He urged governments to invest in nature. "If you do not, you will pay very heavily later. You will be out of business if you miss the green train."
Mounting losses of ecosystems, species and genetic biodiversity is now threatening all life, said Djoghlaf. In immediate danger, he said, were the 300 million people who depended on forests and the more than 1 billion who lived off sea fishing.
"Cut your forests down, or over-fish, and these people will not survive. Destroying biodiversity only increases economic insecurity. The more you lose it, the more you lose the chance to grow.
"The loss of biodiversity compounds poverty. Destroy your nature and you increase poverty and insecurity. Biodiversity is fundamental to social life, education and aesthetics. It's a human right to live in a healthy environment."
Djoghlaf lambasted countries for separating action on climate change from protecting biodiversity. "These are the two great challenges. But the loss of biodiversity exacerbates climate change. It is handled by the poorest ministries in government, it has not been mainstreamed or prioritised by governments. Climate change cannot be solved without action on biodiversity, and vice versa."
The UN chief said that children were losing contact with nature. "We are moving to a more virtual world. Children today haven't a clue about nature. Children have not seen apple trees. In Algeria, children are growing up who have never seen olive trees. How can you protect nature if you do not know it?"
A major UN report in the impacts of biodiversity loss that will be launched in October is expected to say that the economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change. It will say that saving biodiversity is remarkably cost-effective and the benefits from saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination, medicines, fertile soils, clean air and water, are between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species that provide them.
* Weather extremes seen adding stridency, not solutions
* But still deadlock at U.N. talks between rich and poor
Alister Doyle, Reuters AlertNet 17 Aug 10;
OSLO, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Extreme weather in 2010 will spur more strident calls for action to combat global warming but is unlikely to break a deadlock at U.N. climate talks about sharing the burden between rich and poor.
Islamabad, for instance, has blamed mankind's emissions of greenhouse gases for devastating floods that have killed up to 1,600 people. And Russian President Dmitry Medvedev similarly directly linked the summer heat wave on global warming.
But there is no sign so far that major emitters -- Moscow is the number three greenhouse gas emitter behind China and the United States -- are offering to do more to combat climate change to overcome gridlock at U.N. talks.
One delegate at the last U.N. talks, in Bonn in early August, said there was a "huge sense of inertia" despite worries about extreme weather and U.N. projections that 2010 would be the warmest year since records began in the 1850s.
And there are risks that extreme weather will add to rather than resolve tensions between rich nations, historically most to blame for global warming, and poor countries most vulnerable to floods, droughts and cyclones.
Climate change might even supplant decades-old debate about the legacy of colonial rule as a cause of friction between rich and poor nations.
"Global warming could turn into the post-colonial argument, which could destroy much of the negotiating possibilities," said Johan Rockstrom, head of the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.
MORE REAL
"Climate change is becoming a much more firm reality on the ground for many countries," said Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.
He said that would bring a greater sense of urgency at the next annual U.N. climate talks of environment ministers in Mexico, from Nov. 29-Dec. 10, after the Copenhagen summit last December agreed only a non-binding deal to slow climate change.
Rich and poor nations are already split about how to share out needed curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. Developing nations say the rich must make far deeper cuts while the rich want poor nations to do more to limit their growing emissions.
Experts doubt major breakthroughs at the Cancun talks, partly because the United States has not joined other developed nations in capping emissions.
Russia and Pakistan have squarely linked extreme weather to global warming -- going beyond the views of most climate scientists that climate change merely loads the dice in favour of extreme weather but cannot be linked to individual events.
Pakistan's Environment Minister Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi said global warming was the "main cause" of floods and noted that Pakistan emits just 0.4 percent of world greenhouse gases. Up to 1,600 people have been killed and two million made homeless in Pakistan's worst floods in decades [ID:nSGE67G084].
Medvedev said of wildfires and Russia's drought on Aug. 4: "Unfortunately, what is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past."
"That's a very good sign for the Russian public, which still has a lot of doubts about climate change," said Alexei Kokorin of the WWF conservation group in Russia. He said many Russians doubted that global warming was caused by mankind.
Arild Moe, an expert on Russian climate policy at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, said Medvedev had sometimes failed to carry out hints of tougher policies in the past.
"Medvedev has said many correct things on many issues, from corruption to the role of NGOs, but they have not got embedded in a legal process," Moe said.
And Moscow's goal for greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 foresees a rise from current levels. Russia's emissions tumbled after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and were still 33 percent below 1990 levels in 2008 [ID:nLDE63K17Z].
China, the top greenhouse gas emitter ahead of the United States, has not directly blamed climate change for floods and landslides that have killed more than 2,000 people.
But a commentary in the Beijing Daily last week said that an increased frequency of disasters meant that "climate change presents a real threat to China's natural ecological systems and economic and social development."
China's Xie Zhenhua, head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, called in January for an "open attitude" to climate science, saying some believed change was caused by "a cyclical element of the nature itself". (With extra reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing, Sunanda Creagh in Jakarta, David Fogarty in Singapore; editing by Myra MacDonald)
* Mexico says results a must at climate meeting
* "Breakthrough" still possible at December negotiations
Caroline Stauffer and Patrick Rucker Reuters AlertNet 17 Aug 10;
MEXICO CITY, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Mexico hopes to "rescue" global climate change talks by hosting a successful summit later this year that ends in concrete actions to control greenhouse gases, its chief negotiator said on Monday.
Expectations for a decisive climate change agreement this year have been lowered as negotiators and United Nations officials cautioned that major stumbling blocks persist with just a few months before the December meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
"We will not be able to negotiate a new treaty in Cancun, that much is clear," Mexico's chief delegate Fernando Tudela told Reuters in an interview. "But that does not mean that there can't be a spectacular breakthrough."
One goal is to dispel the mistrust that has clouded climate diplomacy since the failure of last year's Copenhagen summit.
"We need to be rescued from the regime standoff left over from Copenhagen," said Tudela, a senior official of Mexico's Ministry for the environment and natural resources.
"We have to achieve confidence, unity, and effectiveness... We need to get back trust in building an inclusive system."
Most countries at Copenhagen signed up to an accord that called on governments to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), but without spelling out how to achieve this goal.
Rich nations and rapidly industrializing countries like China and India remain far apart on who should bear the brunt in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Many developing nations want the rich world to make deep emissions cuts before they will consider curbs of their own.
Negotiators have been discouraged that climate talks sponsored by the United Nations in Bonn earlier this month ended with countries widening, not narrowing, the number of disputed issues.
This month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the Cancun meeting might not produce the definitive agreement the world body is seeking.
Cancun must make progress on some concrete issues like financing and preparing for a warmer future, Tudela said.
"We need to achieve a set of meaningful decisions," he said. "We have a window of opportunity that is closing... What we want to do is rescue these negotiations." (Reporting by Caroline Stauffer and Patrick Rucker; editing by Chris Wilson)
Biodiversity for kids during the September holidays!
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!
Terumbu Pempang Tengah - TPT
from ashira
Wildlife Conservation Society EurekAlert 16 Aug 10;
Wildlife Conservation Society and partners document large-scale coral bleaching and death in wake of sea surface temperature rise
The Wildlife Conservation Society today released initial field observations that indicate that a dramatic rise in the surface temperature in Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated coral populations.
WCS's Indonesia Program "Rapid Response Unit" of marine biologists was dispatched to investigate coral bleaching reported in May in Aceh – a province of Indonesia – located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. The initial survey carried out by the team revealed that over 60 percent of corals were bleached.
"Bleaching"– a whitening of corals that occurs when algae living within coral tissues are expelled – is an indication of stress caused by environmental triggers such as sea surface temperature fluctuations. Depending on many factors, bleached coral may recover over time or die.
Subsequent monitoring conducted by marine ecologists from WCS, James Cook University (Australia), and Syiah Kuala University (Indonesia) were completed in early August and revealed one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded. The scientists found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment and more colonies are expected to die within the next few months.
The event is the result of a rise in sea surface temperatures in the Andaman Sea – an area that includes the coasts of Myanmar, Thailand, the Andaman and Nicobar Island, and northwestern Indonesia. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website, temperatures in the region peaked in late May of 2010, when the temperature reached 34 degrees Celsius—4 degrees Celsius higher than long term averages for the area.
"It's a disappointing development particularly in light of the fact that these same corals proved resilient to other disruptions to this ecosystem, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004," said WCS Indonesia Marine Program Director Dr. Stuart Campbell.
WCS and JCU have been working in the region since March 2005. Surveys conducted in the wake of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 revealed that the many reefs of Aceh were largely unaffected by this massive disturbance. Indeed, reefs severely damaged by poor land use and destructive fishing prior to the tsunami had recovered dramatically in the intervening years due to improved management. Government and community-managed areas in the region have been remarkably successful at maintaining fish biomass despite ongoing access to the reefs. But the bleaching and mortality in 2010 have rapidly reversed this recovery and will have a profound effect on reef fisheries.
Of particular concern is the scale of the sea surface temperature anomaly which the NOAA website indicates has affected the entire Andaman Sea and beyond. Similar mass bleaching events in 2010 have now been recorded in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and many parts of Indonesia.
"If a similar degree of mortality is apparent at other sites in the Andaman Sea this will be the worst bleaching event ever recorded in the region," according to Dr. Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at JCU. "The destruction of these upstream reefs means recovery is likely to take much longer than before".
"This is a tragedy not only for some of the world's most biodiverse coral reefs, but also for people in the region, many of whom are extremely impoverished and depend on these reefs for their food and livelihoods," said WCS Marine Program Director Dr. Caleb McClennen. "Immediate and intensive management will be required to try and help these reefs, their fisheries and the entire ecosystem recover and adapt. However, coral reefs cannot be protected from the warming ocean temperatures brought on by a changing climate by local actions alone. This is another unfortunate reminder that international efforts to curb the causes and effects of climate change must be made if these sensitive ecosystems and the vulnerable human communities around the world that depend on them are to adapt and endure."
Corals Bleached and Dying in Overheated South Asian Waters
Environmental News Service 16 Aug 10;
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, August 16, 2010 (ENS) - The rapidly rising temperature of south Asia's Andaman Sea has triggered coral bleaching and die-off that scientists working in Indonesia are calling one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded.
The coral die-off was indentified though monitoring by marine ecologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society based at New York's Bronx Zoo, Australia's James Cook University and Indonesia's Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh.
Following up on local reports of coral bleaching in the waters off the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the scientists determined from field studies completed in early August that 80 percent of some species have bleached and died since the initial assessment in May and more colonies are expected to die within the next few months.
Bleaching is a whitening of corals that occurs when colorful algae living within coral tissues are expelled. It is an indication of stress caused by environmental triggers such as sea surface temperature fluctuations.
The scientists say this event is the result of a rise in sea surface temperatures in the Andaman Sea - an area that includes the coasts of Myanmar, Thailand, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and northwestern Indonesia.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website shows temperatures in the region peaked in late May, when the temperature reached 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) - four degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees F.) higher than long term averages for the area.
"This is a tragedy not only for some of the world's most biodiverse coral reefs, but also for people in the region, many of whom are extremely impoverished and depend on these reefs for their food and livelihoods," said WCS Marine Program Director Dr. Caleb McClennen.
"Immediate and intensive management will be required to try and help these reefs, their fisheries and the entire ecosystem recover and adapt. However, coral reefs cannot be protected from the warming ocean temperatures brought on by a changing climate by local actions alone," said Dr. McClennen.
On Friday NOAA reported that global sea surface temperatures are still climbing. The combined global land and ocean surface temperature made this July the second warmest on record, behind 1998, and the warmest averaged January - July on record, the U.S. agency said.
The worldwide ocean surface temperature was 0.54 degrees C (0.97 degrees F) above the 20th century average of 61.5 degrees F (16.4 degrees C) and the fifth warmest July on record. Although the warmth was most pronounced in the Atlantic Ocean, the general trend affects the corals of the Andaman Sea.
"It's a disappointing development particularly in light of the fact that these same corals proved resilient to other disruptions to this ecosystem, including the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004," said WCS Indonesia Marine Program Director Dr. Stuart Campbell.
Surveys conducted in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami revealed that the many reefs surrounding Aceh were largely unaffected by this massive disturbance.
Scientists found that reefs damaged by poor land use and destructive fishing prior to the tsunami had recovered due to improved management. Government and community-managed areas in the region have been remarkably successful at maintaining fish biomass despite ongoing access to the reefs.
But the bleaching and mortality this year have reversed this recovery and will have a profound effect on reef fisheries, the researchers say.
NOAA indicates warming has affected the entire Andaman Sea and beyond. Similar mass bleaching events in 2010 have now been recorded in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and many parts of Indonesia.
"If a similar degree of mortality is apparent at other sites in the Andaman Sea this will be the worst bleaching event ever recorded in the region," said Dr. Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. "The destruction of these upstream reefs means recovery is likely to take much longer than before."
NOAA reported Friday that the combined global land and ocean surface temperature made this July the second warmest on record, behind 1998, and the warmest averaged January-July on record.
The global average land surface temperature for July and January - July was warmest on record.
The global ocean surface temperature for July was the fifth warmest, and for January - July 2010 was the second warmest on record, behind 1998.
Dr. McClennan warned, "This is another unfortunate reminder that international efforts to curb the causes and effects of climate change must be made if these sensitive ecosystems and the vulnerable human communities around the world that depend on them are to adapt and endure."
Soaring temps cause mass coral killing in Indonesia-study
* Scientists stunned by scale, speed of Aceh coral bleaching
* Coral die-off blow to locals dependent on reefs for income
* Global warming might have played a role -- researcher
David Fogarty, Reuters AlertNet 17 Aug 10;
SINGAPORE, Aug 17 (Reuters) - A dramatic spike in ocean temperatures off Indonesia's Aceh province has killed large areas of coral and scientists fear the event could be much larger than first thought and one of the worst in the region's history.
The coral bleaching -- whitening due to heat driving out the algae living within the coral tissues -- was first reported in May after a surge in temperatures across the Andaman Sea from the northern tip of Sumatra island to Thailand and Myanmar.
An international team of scientists studying the bleaching event found that 80 percent of some species have died since the initial assessment in May.
More coral colonies were expected to die within the next few months and that could spell disaster for local communities reliant on the reefs for food and money from tourism.
"I would predict that what we're seeing in Aceh, which is extraordinary, that similar mortality rates are occurring right the way through the Andaman Sea," said Andrew Baird of James Cook University in Townsville, in the Australian state of Queensland.
If so, that would make it the worst bleaching recorded in the region, said Baird.
Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Syiah Kuala University in Aceh have also been assessing the damage.
"This one of the most rapid and severe coral mortality events ever recorded," the U.S.-based WCS said in a statement.
It also fits a pattern of climate extremes, from heatwaves to flooding, that have hit many areas of the globe this year.
Between April and late May, sea surface temperatures in the Andaman Sea rose to 34 degrees Celsius or about 4 degrees C above the long-term average, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website. (See: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/ocean/cb/hotspots.html )
SLOW RECOVERY
"Similar mass bleaching events in 2010 have now been recorded in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and many parts of Indonesia," the WCS statement said.
Baird, of James Cook University's ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, told Reuters that climate change could have played a role in the extreme ocean temperatures around Aceh.
"There might be one of these cyclic climate phenomena driving it but it's much more severe than you would predict unless there was something else forcing it, which is almost certainly global warming," he told Reuters on Tuesday.
The bleaching is a blow to local communities in Aceh still recovering from the 2004 tsunami. That disaster caused relatively little damage to reefs and Baird said some areas had showed a dramatic recovery.
Baird said reefs in Indonesia would normally take 5 to 10 years to recover from localised bleaching. But if the event was spread across a much wider area, recovery would take longer.
"I suspect the scale of this event is so large there is unlikely to be many healthy reefs in the rest of Aceh." (Editing by Nick Macfie)
Phuketwan 17 Aug 10;
THIS baby dugong was one of two found dead on Sunday at Ko Yao Noi, off Phuket. Marine biologists said the female dugong was 2.7 metres while the baby was over a metre in length and about two years old.
The mother probably died first then the baby followed five days or so later, the marine biologists believe.
At Phuket Marine Biology Centre, an autopsy revealed sea grass food in their stomachs. It is believed the two dugongs were caught in a net and blinded.
Dr Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong said the two were the seventh and eights dugongs to die because of netting in the Andaman region this year.
It is hoped that the new plan for a conservation zone off Phuket will keep more dugongs alive. Their sea grass feeding beds have been affected by property development and damaging waste water run-offs.
Venice Biennale exhibit illustrates Singapore's compact housing model
Grace Chua Straits Times 17 Aug 10;
IF THE world were built like Singapore, its entire population could be housed on a plot a little larger than Texas.
That is the premise behind an exhibit at the upcoming Venice Biennale's architectural section, demonstrating the viability of Singapore's compact, high-density housing model.
Of course, the designers are not really proposing this. But the model, commissioned by the DesignSingapore Council and the Singapore Institute of Architects, argues that Singapore's example is a possibility and the urban sprawl of many world cities is unsustainable.
While Singapore is dense, it is not all that crowded. Just a third of its land is built-up. The rest of it comprises water catchment areas and land for defence, parks, transport, industry and so on.
People here may think the island-state is cramped, but that may not be the case, contends Mr Khoo Peng Beng, lead curator of the project and founder of architecture firm Arc Studio.
'It's the rapid pace of life they are reacting to,' he said, noting that congestion is relative. A Hong Kong city resident might find Singapore spacious.
The exhibit aims to highlight urban-sustainability issues, which will loom large in the future. By 2050, a total of 70 per cent of the world's population could live in cities, particularly in the developing world.
The 35m-long model depicts a 'slice of Singapore' from Tuas to Pulau Ubin, representing the various proportions of land use here. It also has snapshots of buildings and life here, such as of senior citizens at the void decks of HDB blocks.
If Singapore can house its projected 6.5 million people in just 710 sq km of land, Mr Khoo and his team say, the world population of 6.5 billion could fit into a thousand times that area.
That 710,000 sq km is less than 0.5 per cent of the globe's land area, and is a little larger than Texas in the United States.
The exhibit, entitled 1,000 Singapores - A Model Of The Compact City, will officially open in Italy on Aug 26.
After the Biennale ends on Nov 21, it will be brought back to Singapore.
But while the thousand-Singapores equation works mathematically, its architects themselves admit it is not perfect.
Singapore's food and energy still have to be imported, they say, and only in the past couple of decades has access to clean water not been a problem.
Curator and National University of Singapore architecture don Erik L'Heureux also notes that the constant rebuilding is ultimately not sustainable.
'Too much energy is consumed in the production of buildings and then they become irrelevant too quickly,' he said.
Sustainability advocate Tay Lai Hock, 46, who runs the environmental and social non-profit group Ground-Up Initiative, pointed out that social and financial equality must be part of urban sustainability.
'You can't just talk about recycling chutes, solar panels and clean water. Where is the human factor?' he asked.
In response, Mr Khoo said the exhibit aims to raise these sorts of questions about sustainable consumption.
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