Bullfroggery
from The annotated budak
9 Oct (Sat): Talk on "Pulau Ubin Shore is ALIVE!" by How Choon Beng
from wild shores of singapore
Public Forum on Biodiversity
from Raffles Museum News
Nesting of Grey Herons
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Psyche
from The annotated budak
"Many innocent animals are being killed by the litter we throw into the sea" from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Losing nature's medicine cabinet
from Mongabay.com news
They read like creatures in a gothic novel, but the species we've introduced round the world are real and cause untold harm
George Monbiot guardian.co.uk 4 Oct 10;
On a dark night last week a group of animal rights activists in Donegal made their own special contribution to the International Year of Biodiversity. They cut their way into a fur farm and released 5,000 mink. This, within their circles, was considered a clever thing to do. A spokesperson for the Alliance for Animal Rights said: "I commend whoever risked their freedom to do this." The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade announced that "we fully support what has happened".
Had these people tipped a tanker load of bleach into the headwaters of the river Finn, they would have done less damage. The effects would be horrible for a while, but the ecosystem could then begin to recover. The mink, by contrast, will remain at large for years, perhaps millennia. Like many introduced species, American mink can slash their way through the ecosystem, as they have no native predators, and their prey species haven't evolved to avoid them. Is there anything the animal lovers in Donegal could have done that would have harmed more animals?
But there's a second question raised by this act of preternatural imbecility: what were the mink doing there anyway? In other respects the Irish Republic appears to be a civilised country, in this case it looks barbaric. While the United Kingdom banned fur-farming in 2000, Irish governments have resisted prohibition, to protect a tiny but wildly destructive industry. The republic's five remaining fur farms are the sole source of continuing releases of mink, either through raids or accidents. They are also places of astonishing cruelty, in which intelligent carnivores are confined to cages the size of a few shoeboxes. The Irish government is considering phasing out fur farming in 2012. Until then, its citizens will continue to pay more to eradicate mink than they make from breeding them.
But Ireland is a small player. Two-thirds of the world's mink farming and 70% of its fox farming takes place in other EU countries. Denmark alone produces 40% of the global supply of mink pelts. Feral American mink on the continent are even more damaging than they are here, as they drive out the endangered European mink. The EU's 6,000 fur farms are an affront to the values it proclaims.
This month governments meet at Nagoya, in Japan, to review the Convention on Biological Diversity. It has, so far, been a dismal failure. Perhaps the starkest botch has been their inability or unwillingness to control the spread of invasive species. The stories I am about to tell read like a gothic novel.
Consider, for example, the walking catfish, which is now colonising China, Thailand and the US, after escaping from fish farms and ornamental ponds. It can move across land at night, reaching water no other fish species has colonised. It slips into fish farms and quietly works through the stock. It can burrow into the mud when times are hard and lie without food for months, before exploding back into the ecosystem when conditions improve. It eats almost anything that moves.
Its terrestrial equivalent is the cane toad, widely introduced in the tropics to control crop pests. It's omnivorous and just about indestructible: one specimen was seen happily consuming a lit cigarette butt. Nothing which tries to eat it survives: it's as dangerous to predators as it is to prey. Unlike other amphibians, it can breed in salty water: it's as if it had waddled out of the pages of Karel Capek's novel War With the Newts.
The world's most important seabird colony – Gough Island in the South Atlantic – is now being threatened by an unlikely predator: the common house mouse. After escaping from whaling boats 150 years ago, it quickly evolved to triple in size, and switched from herbivory to eating flesh. The seabirds there have no defences against predation, so the mouse simply walks into their nests and starts eating the chicks alive. Among their prey are albatross fledglings, which weigh some 300 times as much as the mice. A biologist who has witnessed this carnage observed that "it is like a tabby cat attacking a hippopotamus".
On Christmas Island the yellow crazy ant does something similar: it eats alive any animal it finds in its path. It is also wiping out the rainforest, by farming the scale insects that feed on tree-sap. Similar horror stories are unfolding almost everywhere. The species we introduce, unlike the pollution we produce, don't stop when we do. A single careless act (think of the introduction of the rabbit or the lantana plant to Australia) can transform the ecology of a continent.
According to a government report, invasive species cost Britain several billion pounds a year. The global damage they cause, it says, amounts to almost 5% of the world economy. A single introduced species – a speargrass called Imperata – keeps 2 million square kilometres in the tropics out of agricultural production, equivalent to the arable area of the US, while ensuring that the native ecosystem can't regenerate.
In most cases there's a brief period in which an invasive species can be stopped. So you would expect governments to mobilise as soon as the threat appears. But in many parts of the world the policy appears to consist of staring dumbly at the problem while something can be done, then panicking when it's too late. When museum weed (Caulerpa taxifolia) escaped into the Mediterranean from the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, the authorities responded by bickering over whose fault it was. In 1984, when the invasion was first documented, the weed occupied one square metre of seabed. It could have been eradicated in half an hour. Now it has spread across 13,000 hectares and appears to be uncontrollable.
Australia, the continent that has been hit hardest by introductions, still seems incapable of regulating the trade in dangerous species. As the Guardian's new Biodiversity100 campaign shows, 90 potentially invasive plant species are being sold in nurseries there, while 210 species of aquarium fish can be imported without a licence. The UK has some good policies at home. It spent £10,000 in 2006, for example, on a strategy (successful so far) for excluding the South American water primrose, whose control now costs France several million euros a year. But in its overseas territories – of which Gough island is one – it reacts slowly, if at all.
The mink, the walking catfish, the cane toad, the mutant house mouse, these are potent symbols of humanity's strangely lopsided power. We can sow chaos with a keystroke in an investment bank, one signal to a Predator drone, a seed dislodged from the sole of a boot, a fish tank emptied into a canal. But when asked to repair the mess we've made, we proclaim our impotence. Our challenge this century is to meet our capacity for harm with an equal power for good. We are not, so far, doing very well.
• A fully referenced version of this article can be found at www.monbiot.com
FAO 4 Oct 10;
But conservation efforts are growing - FAO releases Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010
4 October 2010, Rome - The world's forest biodiversity is threatened by a high global rate of deforestation and forest degradation as well as a decline in primary forest area. In many countries, however, there is a continued positive trend towards the conservation of forest biological diversity via dedicated conservation areas.
These are some of the key findings of the final report of FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010), the most comprehensive assessment of the state of the world's forests ever undertaken. The final report of FRA 2010 was published today at the start of the latest biennial meeting of the FAO' Committee on Forestry and World Forest Week, in Rome.
Globally, around 13 million hectares (ha) of forests were converted to other uses (including agriculture) or were lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010. That is down from around 16 million ha per year during the 1990s, the report said.
More than one-third of all forests are classified as primary — showing no visible signs of human intervention. Primary forests, in particular tropical moist forests, include some of the world's most species-rich and diverse ecosystems. Primary forests account for 36 percent (1.4 billion ha) of the world's forest area but their area has decreased by more than 40 million ha — at a rate of 0.4 percent annually — over the last ten years.
This does not necessarily mean that these forests have disappeared; rather, in many cases they have been reclassified because selective logging or other human interventions were carried out during the reporting period, FAO said. The UN agency emphasized that forests where humans have intervened can still hold important biodiversity values, contribute significantly to environmental protection, and sustain livelihoods, provided they are well managed.
South America accounted for the largest proportion of the loss in primary forests, followed by Africa and Asia.
Other threats to forest biodiversity include unsustainable forest management, climate change, forest fires, insect pests and diseases, natural disasters and invasive species — all of which are causing severe damage in some countries.
Better conservation and management
At the same time, the forest area designated for the conservation of biological diversity has increased by more than 95 million ha since 1990, according to FAO's report. The largest portion (46 percent) was designated between 2000 and 2005. Today 12 percent of the world's forests (more than 460 million ha) are designated primarily to conserve biological diversity.
Legally established protected areas, such as national parks, game reserves and wilderness areas now cover more than 10 percent of the total forest area in most countries and regions. The primary function of these forests may be the conservation of biological diversity, the protection of soil and water resources, or the conservation of cultural heritage.
"The world's forests represent a vital source of forest biological diversity. This biodiversity is an important treasure, especially as forests will not just have to adapt to climate change but are also expected to help mitigate it," said FAO Assistant Director-General Eduardo Rojas. "Greater investments in sustainable forest management are urgently required to better conserve and manage forest biodiversity."
FAO noted that there is an accelerating trend among countries to integrate biodiversity conservation into forest management planning and practices. However, there is a clear need for action to improve the effective conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in production forests, particularly in forest concessions.
"Over-exploitation and unsustainable use of wildlife in many tropical regions, often from protected areas and most pronounced in Central African forests, is a major concern," Rojas said.
Wildlife at risk of extinction
FRA 2010 also warned that commercial hunting driven by consumer demand in cities will probably drive many wildlife species to extinction in the near future unless effective measures are implemented soon, including law enforcement, community participation, provision of alternative protein and the establishment of simple and practical wildlife monitoring systems.
The report contains data from 233 countries and areas covering seven themes: the extent of forest resources; biological diversity; forest health; productive; protective and socio-economic functions of forests and the legal, policy and institutional framework guiding their management and use. More than 900 experts from 178 countries contributed to the report, which is the result of a four-year effort.
* Indonesian paper giant APP to preserve Sumatran forest
* Aims to sell carbon credits on voluntary market
* Sceptical greens point to APP plans to log elsewhere
Sunanda Creagh and David Fogarty Reuters AlertNet 4 Oct 10;
JAKARTA/SINGAPORE, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Indonesian pulp and paper firm Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), accused by green groups of large-scale deforestation, has signed a deal to protect a large area of forest in return for carbon offset revenue.
The deal is the first privately funded project turning a pulpwood plantation concession into a carbon reserve, said APP.
The deal with APP and Singapore-based Carbon Conservation, which helps governments protect areas of forest, is to set aside 15,640 hectares (38,650 acres) of peat forest in a 33-year pilot project aimed at encouraging plantation firms to become greener.
The land on the Kampar Peninsula on Indonesia's Sumatra island had been earmarked for clearing by concession holder PT Putra Riau Perkasa, a supplier to APP, but the two firms have agreed to work with authorities to preserve the forest instead.
APP said the deal was the first for the company as a way to save the forest and boost livelihoods from the sale of carbon credits.
Greens and analysts criticised the deal, saying the area protected is tiny compared with the amount of land APP and its pulp suppliers have cleared or is under threat of clearance.
APP and other plantation firms have become embroiled in a dispute with environmentalists over the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests. French retail giant Carrefour
Forests play a key role in fighting climate change by soaking up huge amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal.
APP is part of the Sinar Mas empire founded by the Widjaja family, which also runs Golden Agri-Resources
The APP project covers an area about a fifth the size of Singapore, rich in plant and animal species and sitting on top of peat that, if cleared, would release large amounts of carbon.
SMALL START
"The Kampar Carbon Reserve is a gift from Indonesia to the world," said Aida Greenbury, sustainability director for APP.
Greenbury said the area would be audited to calculate the amount of carbon and how much could be locked away annually based on a plan that would include protection from fires and illegal logging and enlisting help from communities in the area.
Greenbury and Dorjee Sun, CEO of Carbon Conservation, said the goal was to design the project to meet rules laid out by the respected Voluntary Carbon Standard, which aims to make forest carbon projects transparent and credible for investors.
"We actually think this is a huge opportunity to create a working commercial pilot so that everyone can see that good behaviour need not be a loss-making endeavour," Sun told Reuters.
He said he recognised there were risks but felt it was better to engage APP and try to improve industry practices.
He estimated it would be at least two years before the project would produce CO2 credits for the voluntary market.
Conservationists said the deal, backed by the Ministry of Forestry, was a start but wouldn't improve APP's image overnight.
"While we support the conservation of the Kampar, this project in no way makes up for the tremendous amount of damage that APP and its affiliates are having on rainforests and peatlands across Indonesia," said Lafcadio Cortesi of U.S.-based Rainforest Action Network in emailed comments to Reuters.
Sinar Mas and APP have had a major role in generating carbon emissions through conversion of natural forests and peatlands, said Christopher Barr, a forest industry analyst with U.S. consultancy Woods & Wayside International.
He said Sinar Mas and APP had been expanding pulp and paper capacity in both Indonesia and China in recent years.
Greenbury said of the 2.5 million hectares in concessions managed by APP pulpwood suppliers, about 1 million had been set aside for a wide range of uses, including conservation areas, community use and indigenous species development. (Editing by Robert Birsel)
APP invests in carbon scheme using Kampar peatland forest
The Jakarta Post 5 Oct 10;
Under a new project launched Monday by an international paper company, more than 15,000 hectares of unique forest destined to become a pulpwood plantation, in Kampar, Riau, will be used as a carbon reserve.
The project involves Sinar Mas Group subsidiary Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) and Carbon Conservation carbon-footprint consultancy.
Multiple assessments have found that this peat dome area, previously allocated as concession for PT Putra Riau Perkasa (PRP), which supplies APP with pulpwood, is rich in biodiversity and needs to be protected.
The peat dome is expected to preserve significant amounts of carbon for the next 33 years, Carbon Conservation chief executive officer Dorjee Sun said.
“Carbon credits earned from the conservation area will then be sold to interested companies around the globe,” he said
Dorjee said the project was designed to use the sale of carbon credits to inject millions of dollars into job creation and community development programs for indigenous people around the conservation area.
“We must make sure this project brings long-lasting community benefits,” he said at the project launch at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Jakarta.
However, the project will need US$2 million to get started.
Sun said the company had yet to formulate detailed strategies or programs to develop local communities. However, the company planned to spend the next six months discussing such issues with local community groups, regional administrations and other related stakeholders to figure out their real needs, he said.
APP sustainability managing director Aida Greenbury said the company and Carbon Conservation were working together with the Forestry Ministry, PRP and other stakeholders to run the project, which she said could act as a model in tackling climate change.
“We are creating real community investment programs directed at the true root of Indonesia’s environmental issues: poverty in the indigenous communities surrounding the rainforests,” Greenbury said.
Among the main greenhouse gas emissions problems Indonesia needed to tackle was the traditional slash-and-burn technique employed by forest farming communities, who relied on this forest-clearing method for survival.
APP has been widely accused by green groups and environmentalists of committing large-scale deforestation. Retail giant Carrefour has stopped buying paper from APP because of environmental issues.
Indonesian National Climate Change Council (DNPI) executive director Rachmat Witoelar said he appreciated the commitment made by Carbon Conservation and APP to preserving the environment and developing local communities.
“Now we have a concrete example of what Indonesia should and could do,” he said.
Forestry Ministry secretary-general Hadi Daryanto said public-private partnership schemes such as the one in Kampar were the best way to preserve Indonesian forests, since the ministry had “only” Rp 2 trillion per year for this purpose.
“The budget is insufficient, so private investment is needed,” Hadi said.
Gopal Sharma PlanetArk 5 Oct 10;
India's environment minister said on Monday the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number three emitter after China and the United States.
Jairam Ramesh's comments come as negotiators from nearly 200 governments meet in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin. The U.N. talks aim to reach agreement on what should follow the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012.
Indian per-capita emissions are still low but demand for energy is rising as the middle-class buys more cars, TVs and better housing. Much of that energy comes from coal oil and gas, the main sources for planet-warming carbon dioxide.
But Ramesh said India's rush for wealth could not come at the expense of the environment.
Officials said his comments are the first time a government minister has said India has overtaken Russia as the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
"We will unilaterally, voluntarily, move on a low-carbon growth path. We can't have 8-9 percent GDP growth and high-carbon growth," Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in the Nepalese capital.
"It has to be low-carbon 8 percent, 9 percent growth and that is the objective that we have set for ourselves," he said.
Poorer nations are now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and many big developing countries have taken steps to curb the growth of their emissions but say they won't agree on absolute cuts, fearing this will hurt their economies.
India weathered the global financial crisis better than most, and is setting its sights on economic growth of almost 10 percent over the coming years. Its economy currently grows at around 8.5 per cent.
"We are the third largest emitter of the greenhouse gases in the world ... China is number one at 23 percent, the United States is second at about 22 percent and India is number three at about five percent."
GREENER PATH
In India, any talk of a low-carbon economy was once seen as politically very risky, given the economic costs involved. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January asked a panel to begin charting a path to a greener economy. The report is expected by the year-end.
Although India has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy, such as solar power, as a key element, coal remains the backbone of energy supply in a country where almost half the 1.1 billion population has no access to electricity.
"The gap between the second and the third (highest emitters) is very very high, but nevertheless we need to be conscious of our contribution," Ramesh said.
The fraught U.N. talks have been hobbled by lack of trust between rich and poor nations over climate funds, demand for more transparency over emissions cut pledges and anger over the size of cuts offered by rich nations.
The risk of the talks stalling is so great that the United Nations has stopped urging nations to commit to tougher pledges to curb carbon emissions, fearing further debate could derail already fraught talks on a more ambitious climate pact.
(Editing by David Fogarty)
Lisa Friedman of ClimateWire The New York Times 4 Oct 10;
A new study out says vulnerable countries could sue the United States and other industrialized nations for action on climate change.
The report, published by the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), based in the United Kingdom, says small island nations and other threatened countries have the right and likely the procedural means to pursue an inter-state case before the United Nations' International Court of Justice.
"Some of these countries are getting increasingly desperate," Christoph Schwarte, the paper's lead author, said. With little movement toward a new global climate change treaty, he said, many leaders are looking for ways to make the United States and others understand the threats they face from rising sea levels, droughts and storm surges.
"They need to see some movement; otherwise, their existence is under threat," Schwarte said. "If nothing significant happens within the next two or three years, I really wouldn't be surprised if countries go to court. There's an increased realization that some form of legal action is actually possible."
Suing to force a country to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions is a tricky proposition. If a person is harmed or a livelihood threatened, he or she can take the offender to court for the damages incurred. But what if the victim is an entire country, and the damages -- thousands forced to relocate or the loss of tourism dollars because of coral bleaching -- are expected but not yet seen? More complicated still is is pinpointing the perpetrator. A smokestack in China? The 24/7 air conditioner blasting from a shopping mall in Iowa? Emissions-belching SUVs in Sydney, Australia?
"Which court? Which case? Under which law and against whom? Those are all extremely valuable questions," said Edward Cameron, former senior adviser to the Maldives. And beyond the impossibility of tracing a particular climate change impact to a molecule of CO2 emanating from a particular source, he said, are still more legal and political hurdles. Should a country bring a suit based on human rights law? Trade? Pollution? And what if the reaction to such a lawsuit was that industrialized countries threatened to withdraw foreign assistance?
"There's very much a political cost-benefit when thinking about this kind of action," Cameron said. But he also described legal action as a critical tool in vulnerable countries' limited arsenal. And, he argued, as important as any particular court ruling is the "court of public opinion" that could be moved by putting human faces on the often abstract global climate debate.
'A huge negative backlash'
The FIELD study does not advocate a particular avenue for legal action. Instead, it reviews the existing literature on inter-state lawsuits. It concludes that "a credible case for a legal wrong can be made" by vulnerable nations under the so-called "no harm rule." That is a principle in international environmental law that holds that countries are obligated not to cause or allow environmental harm outside their borders.
The study says that "in a limited number of possible scenarios there are also the procedural means to pursue an inter-State litigation before an international judicial forum."
The paper argues that litigation could help to create the political pressure needed to invigorate international negotiations toward a global climate change treaty within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington, D.C., agreed.
"Where politics breaks down, law can sometimes break through and often be really transformative," he said. Developing nations, he said, "are not giving up on the negotiations. The UNFCCC remains the place where these issues have to be addressed. But at the same time, you can use the law to move things forward in the near term as those political negotiations go on, and help change the dynamics."
Muffett also called the transboundary nature of greenhouse gas pollution a not-insurmountable legal problem. Not only are countries contemplating taking on other countries to rein in emissions, they also are looking for ways to hold individual emitters liable. Meanwhile, individuals and citizen groups also are exploring ways to sue both governments and private companies in other nations.
"I can tell you that lawyers are looking at all of these options," Muffett said. "I'm anticipating that in the next few years we're going to see some really groundbreaking litigation that is not from countries, but from citizens."
The U.S. State Department did not return a call seeking comment on the issue. But Mark Helmke, senior adviser to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), called the strategy "counterproductive," and one that lawmakers considering climate change and energy legislation would likely resent.
"I think it would have a huge negative backlash in the U.S. Congress," Helmke said.
Activists, though, noted that countries haven't had much luck with the United States so far, and developing countries are getting tired of waiting. Climate legislation tanked in the Senate earlier this year, though President Obama vowed in a recent Rolling Stone interview to tackle rising emissions in possibly separate "chunks" of legislation in 2011.
Some called litigation a necessary backup plan.
"We are seeing climate change impact people's lives today," Cameron said. "The message to come across to people on the Hill is that climate action is inevitable. It's going to come one way or another. If you're frightened of regulation, you should be even more frightened of litigation."
For more news on energy and the environment, visit www.climatewire.net.
Nations must substantially narrow their differences ahead of crunch summit in Mexico later this year, Artur Runge-Metzger tells delegates at China climate talks
Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk 4 Oct 10;
International climate talks are at risk of becoming irrelevant if countries fail to substantially narrow their differences before the end of this year, a senior European diplomat warned today.
The grim prognosis by Artur Runge-Metzger, director of the climate policy division in the European commission, came at the opening of a six-day conference in China aimed at refining possible areas of agreement before crunch UN talks in Cancún in November-December.
"If Cancún does not produce a solid outcome that takes the fight against climate change forward, then I think it risks becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the world," Runge-Metzger told reporters. "We meet in these wonderful places, travel miles to come here. If this process is not effective, then people will say, 'If you can't come to agreement, then why should we bother supporting you?' "
His comments were echoed by other senior negotiators in the Chinese coastal city of Tianjin, where 3,100 negotiators, administrators, journalists and non-governmental climate activists are trying to restore credibility, trust and momentum lost after the disappointment of the Copenhagen climate change summit last year.
In the opening plenary, the UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres told participants they must "accelerate the search for common ground" so Cancún can make progress toward securing a global treaty to tackle global warming. "As governments, you can continue to stand still or move forward. Now is the time to make that choice."
The conference looks set to be a six-day reality check. Expectations among the delegates are considerably lower than they were last year. Nobody predicts a comprehensive, binding deal in Mexico, but some expressed hopes for progress on the protection of forests and the transfer of finance and technology to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
The top Chinese negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, said there was also a possibility of advances on the vexed issued of transparency – how to monitor, report and verify each nation's emissions to ensure they are honouring their pledges. This question of trust and accounting has been a key difference between the United States and China.
"I don't think this will be a major obstacle," said Xie, who said China was trying to move the process along by hosting its first UN climate talks. "We hope our efforts here will lay a sold foundation for the Cancún conference at the end of the year."
The opening day formalities saw none of the histrionics and posturing that marked much of the Copenhagen conference. It is a lower-level gathering, but observers said the mood music was positive.
"It was good, I was mildly surprised," said Kelly Dent of Oxfam. "At the risk of sounding like an optimist, what I saw today was a willingness to sit down and start working."
Climate activists warned, however, that the real test would come later in the week as participants try to trim down the 70-odd pages of the negotiating text and the 1,630 brackets that mark disputed terms and targets.
They are looking for substantive progress on financing. At Copenhagen, rich countries promised to provide $30bn (£19bn) over three years in climate funding to poor nations, increasing to a total of $100bn (£63bn) annually by 2020. But details about where this money will come from and how it will be allocated remain sketchy.
While progress will be limited – if it comes at all this week – Mexico wants to continue work in small groups all the way to Cancún – a proposal supported by China.
"It's very different from Copenhagen. That was a sobering experience that many people don't want to repeat," said Barbara Finamore, China programme director for the US-based Natural Resources Defence Council. "There is a real risk that we will lose momentum if we don't move forward. That is why people have come here to roll up their sleeves and get to work."
Delegates told to ID achievable goals on climate
Tini Tran, Associated Press Yahoo News 4 Oct 10;
TIANJIN, China – The U.N. climate chief urged countries Monday to search faster for common ground on battling climate change so that a year-end meeting in Mexico can produce results in that fight.
Christiana Figueres told 3,000 delegates in China — the last negotiations before Cancun — that countries must identify achievable goals ahead of December's conference so progress can be made toward a global climate treaty.
"As governments, you can continue to stand still or move forward. Now is the time to make that choice," she told delegates in the northern port of Tianjin.
"If you want a tangible outcome in December, now is the time to clarify what could constitute an achievable and politically balanced package for Cancun, and what could be subject to further work after Cancun," she said.
With a binding global deal largely out of reach for this year, negotiators in Tianjin will focus on smaller initiatives that can lay the foundation for a legal framework that could be approved later, possibly in South Africa in 2011.
The scaled-down ambitions are largely due to the collapse of climate talks in Copenhagen last year, when political leaders failed to produce a global and legally binding treaty on curbing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Instead, nations agreed to a nonbinding political declaration on fighting climate change.
Expectations still are small because countries remain deadlocked over the same issues. Distrust has only deepened between industrialized and developing countries over how to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
As the host, China will seek to reduce those differences, said State Counselor Dai Bingguo, the country's top foreign policy official, who urged countries to renew efforts in order to "hammer out a binding agreement at an early date."
Since a single climate package deal is unlikely, the focus has turned to finding areas of agreement on essential components, including financing and transfer of clean technology and ways of reducing deforestation.
Ultimately, if talks in Cancun fail to produce concrete results, the entire U.N. process could be in jeopardy, said Artur Runge-Metzger, a negotiator with the European Commission.
"If Cancun does not produce a solid outcome ... then I think it risks becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the rest of the world," he said. "Decision-making will go to some other forum."
Much of what needs to happen in Tianjin is the less tangible task of restoring trust and some momentum in order to "set the stage for what's realistically possible in Cancun," said Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director for the U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council.
Two of the key pieces will be financing and transparency, he said. At Copenhagen, rich countries had pledged to give $30 billion over three years in climate funding to poor nations, rising to a total of $100 billion dollars annually by 2020, but little money has materialized.
"It's critical that countries move on really delivering the 'prompt-start' funding and show those commitments are real. We have a long history of developed countries promising a lot of money and not committing, so it's a chance for developed countries to prove this time is different," he said.
With China playing host to the climate talks for the first time, it has the opportunity to highlight its own commitment to clean energy, said Deborah Seligsohn, a Beijing-based adviser with the World Resources Institute.
Last year, China pledged it would cut its carbon intensity — emissions per unit of GDP — by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level. Nationwide efforts have also been made to reach the goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent from 2005 to 2010.
"They're serious and they chose something that's not easy," she said. "China has redoubled domestic efforts since Copenhagen. I don't think anyone can doubt that. China wants people to look at what they're doing on the ground. They'll use this as an opportunity to do that."
Climate Chief Urges Nations To Show Deal Can Be Done
Chris Buckley PlanetArk 5 Oct 10;
The U.N. climate change chief urged governments on Monday to make real steps toward a new treaty to fight global warming or risk throwing negotiations into doubt.
Negotiators are meeting in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin to try reach agreement on what should follow the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the key treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012.
The fraught U.N. talks have been hobbled by lack of trust between rich and poor nations over climate funds, demand for more transparency over emissions cut pledges and anger over the size of cuts offered by rich nations.
Delaying agreement would leave less time for the world to figure out how to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and would add to uncertainties weighing on companies unsure where climate policy and carbon markets are headed after 2012.
"Now is the time to accelerate the search for common ground," Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, told hundreds of delegates from some 177 countries at the opening session of the Tianjin talks, which last until Saturday.
"A concrete outcome in Cancun is crucially needed to restore the faith and ability of parties to take the process forward, to prevent multilateralism from being perceived as a never-ending road," she said in an opening speech at the meeting.
The talks are the last major round before the year's main climate meeting in the Mexican resort of Cancun from November 29.
Negotiators from nearly 200 governments failed to agree last year on a new legally binding climate pact. A meeting in Copenhagen in late 2009 ended in bitter sniping between rich and developing countries, and produced a non-binding accord that left many key issues unsettled.
Governments are struggling to overcome lingering distrust and turn sprawling draft treaties dotted with caveats into a binding agreement, possibly by late 2011.
"This week is to some extent going to be an indicator of how far forward we can go," the U.S. negotiator at the Tianjin talks, Jonathan Pershing, told Reuters.
"It now looks like the differences are quite large, but there's some hope of achieving consensus on some issues," the chief Chinese climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, told reporters.
DROUGHTS AND FLOODS
Recent devastating floods in Pakistan and severe drought in Russia are the kind of severe weather that rising temperatures are likely to magnify if countries fail to make dramatic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, said Wendel Trio, the climate policy coordinator for Greenpeace.
Figueres told Reuters in a separate interview that she hoped the Tianjin talks could agree on important specifics of a future pact, including how to manage adaptation funds and green technology to help poorer countries, and a program to support carbon-absorbing forests in Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere.
"I think there's a pretty good chance that the governments will agree on the creation of the (climate) fund," she said.
Governments have said the fund could disperse up to $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with global warming. But negotiators have been wrestling over how to manage the money and the fund's design.
Developing countries want a more direct say, while the United States and other countries that would provide the funding want more vetting.
"When you're thinking about that scale of finance...we want to think about people who have expertise," said Pershing, the U.S. negotiator. "There's clearly a need to bring in guidance."
He said that could come from ensuring countries' finance ministries and other economic agencies help oversee spending.
Even if the negotiations make progress, the current pledges of governments to curb greenhouse gas emissions will not be enough to avoid pushing the world into dangerous global warming, roughly defined as a rise of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above average pre-industrial temperatures, said Figueres.
Governments should nonetheless focus on securing formal pledges of the emissions cuts already made, "fully realizing it is a first, necessary but insufficient step," she said.
(Editing by David Fogarty)
UN climate chief urges Chinese flexibility
Dan Martin Mon Yahoo News 4 Oct 10;
TIANJIN, China (AFP) – China should show more flexibility in global negotiations on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the UN climate chief said on Monday, although she praised the Asian nation for helping lead the talks.
"It is absolutely indispensable that China show leadership, accompanied by all other countries, to be flexible in order to be able to reach the compromises that are necessary before Cancun," Christiana Figueres said.
The head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change spoke on the opening day of talks hosted by China that are aimed at paving the way for agreements at a UN climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, starting on November 29.
The six days of talks in the northern port city of Tianjin are part of long-running efforts through the United Nations to secure a post-2012 treaty to limit global warming and avoid potential environmental catastrophes.
China is now the world's largest source of greenhouse gases and its emissions continue to increase as its economy expands at near double-digit pace.
It pledged last year to slow the growth in those emissions by reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
That is essentially a vow of greater energy efficiency that would likely, however, see emissions continue to increase.
China's top climate change official Xie Zhenhua appeared to reject suggestions that Beijing be more flexible on key issues such as emissions cuts and allowing outside verification of Chinese progress toward its targets.
"We must note that it (verification)... must not interfere with a developing country's sovereignty," Xie said.
China has long opposed any outside verification of its green progress in the name of national sovereignty.
It has also resisted pressure to commit to emissions reduction targets through the UN, arguing that doing so would hurt its economic development.
Dai Bingguo, China's top foreign policy official, called for a spirit of cooperation but also indicated China would hold firm on some of the key disputes with the United States and other developed countries.
In a speech to the delegates, Dai reiterated China's stance that developed nations should take the lead in emission cuts and help developing countries deal with the impact of climate change.
Despite urging China to show more flexibility, Figueres called the country's efficiency goal an "impressive target" and praised Beijing for its "extraordinary leadership" in volunteering to host the Tianjin gathering.
"We are very appreciative of their efforts and we take it as a very symbolic act from China in support of the intergovernmental process," she said.
Little progress in the climate change negotiations has been made since world leaders failed to broker a binding deal in Copenhagen last year.
After being blamed by many in the developed world for derailing the Copenhagen talks, China insisted it wanted to foster a spirit of cooperation at this week's conference.
"As the host country, China is hoping that we can contribute positively to advancing the climate change negotiation process," Xie said.
Search for Pemphis acidula
from Urban Forest
Artistic Tails of a Butterfly
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature
On how to deal with a hooked White-breasted Waterhen
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Biodiversity 100: Actions for Asia
from The Guardian
Advice for Scientists-turned-Wikipedians
from The Biology Refugia
Monday Morgue: 4th October 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Straits Times 4 Oct 10;
THE article ('Dolphin Lagoon is too small: SPCA'; Sept 10) highlighted the concerns of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals over the small-size pools that the dolphins are now housed in at Underwater World in Sentosa.
The same report quoted the Underwater World as saying that the main pool area for its six dolphins exceeds international guidelines and safety standards - and is approved by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.
While we appreciate that there are studies currently being carried out to assess the dolphins' behaviour, and that if new information becomes available, the necessary steps will be taken to redesign the pool and the activities, stress factors may not always be evident or clear-cut.
Aside from the pool size, the question one must ask is, how have these animals benefited from:
# being taken from their natural environment and deprived of their natural behaviour, which includes hunting for their prey;
# confinement in captivity;
# being subjected to questionable training methods and forced to perform; and
# getting up close and personal with humans for photos or swimming sessions.
All of these have definitely compromised the welfare of the dolphins, including their emotional well-being.
The sooner we can empathise with the animals, and move away from the outmoded concept of capturing them for entertainment purposes, the sooner a respect can be fostered for these intelligent, sensitive and emotional creatures that are certainly deserving of a better quality of life.
The SPCA looks forward to the day when no more wild animal shows are held here.
Deirdre Moss (Ms)
Executive Director
Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals
17 cases of animal abuse this year, nearly double last year's total
Kimberly Spykerman & Grace Chua Straits Times 4 Oct 10;
ANIMAL abuse in Singapore has hit a startling high, with the number of cases so far this year far surpassing last year's total.
The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) said there were 17 cases of animal abuse in the first eight months of this year, almost double the nine cases reported for the whole of last year. Most of these cases involved dogs, cats and rabbits.
In 2007 and 2008, there were seven and 11 cases respectively.
The AVA attributed the large number of cases to growing awareness of abuse and credible witnesses coming forward more frequently. Both help provide the AVA with more teeth to pursue animal abusers.
Said AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong: 'If there is sufficient evidence or witness accounts to show that cruelty was committed, AVA will not hesitate to take action.'
It added that in less serious cases, such as the ones that result from ignorance, offenders will be offered a composition fine up to a maximum of $1,000. But more serious abusers can expect AVA to prosecute them in court and push for a deterrent sentence.
Penalties for animal cruelty have been tightened over the years.
In 2002, Singapore passed laws which raised maximum fines and jail terms for animal cruelty offences from $500 and six months to $10,000 and 12 months respectively.
Animal activists, however, say that punishments meted out so far are more like 'slaps on the wrist'.
The president of Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD), Mr Ricky Yeo, said that although there are tougher penalties for animal abuse, the full extent of the law has yet to be felt.
In 2007, a man was fined $3,500 for flinging his dog to the ground in a fit of rage following a quarrel with his girlfriend. The dog ended up with a fractured leg.
Mr Yeo also brought up recent cases in the news of a groomer and a dog breeder, who were jailed two and six weeks respectively for animal cruelty even though the maximum jail term is one year. 'There's still not enough emphasis on animal welfare,' he said.
A lack of empathy for animals may be one of the reasons there is still little information being shared about an incident earlier this year involving a pomeranian that was brutally bashed against a wall until it died. Singapore animal groups and vets said it was one of the worst cases of abuse seen here. The assailant has yet to be nabbed.
For their part, animal welfare groups like the Cat Welfare Society (CWS) and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) have set out guidelines for the public to report cases of animal abuse.
CWS vice-president Veron Lau explained that while the society was receiving complaints about abuse from the public, the lack of proper documentation makes it nearly impossible to prosecute an abuser.
So it put up guidelines on its website, encouraging those who witness animal abuse to document the goings-on, take photos if possible, prepare a statement for the authorities and be willing to testify.
'If people feel so strongly about abuse, they should do something constructive and find out how to do something about it,' Ms Lau said.
As for those who abuse animals, the law may not be the only thing to worry about.
In an October 2005 paper that appeared in the United States-published Journal of Community Health, a team of researchers conducting a study over seven years in 11 metropolitan areas determined that pet abuse was one of five factors that predicted who would begin other abusive behaviours.
National University of Singapore cognitive psychologist John Elliott, who studies child abuse and neglect, said that while not all animal abusers go on to other crimes, such abusers may be wired differently: 'To contemplate abuse of another living thing, you need a certain sort of indifference to suffering, a sort of psychopathology.'
The Star 4 Oct 10;
JOHOR BARU: The people here must learn from the recent flood in Singapore and discard the use of plastic bags because these items choke up the waterways when it rains, said Johor Baru MP Datuk Abdul Shahrir Samad.
“If this (flood) happened in the middle of Johor Baru such as at Jalan Yahya Awal, people would remark that it is normal and that the irrigation plan in the city is bad.
“But this happened in the middle of Singapore, which is known to have the best development plan,” he said when launching the “No Plastic Bag Every Saturday” campaign by Aeon Co (M) Bhd at the Aeon City Tebrau mall on Saturday.
Shahrir warned that if such a thing could happen in Singapore, the people in Johor Baru would have to be more vigilant and not clog drainage systems with rubbish.
He proposed that the use of plastic bags be made illegal as a step to reduce pollution.
Shahrir said plastic bags were the main pollutants, especially in the city centre, as users would usually just chuck these at the roadside.
“This is a common sight, especially in Sungai Tebrau,” he said, adding that global warming had made it worse by increasing rainfall.
Aeon human resources and administration senior general manager Isao Yamaguchi said the campaign at its Tebrau mall marked the fourth phase of its nationwide drive at Jusco stores, covering Johor, Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Perak.
The world's oceans are teeming with far greater diversity of life than was previously thought, according to the first Census of Marine Life which has been 10 years in the making.
Richard Gray, The Telegraph 3 Oct 10;
Giant sea spiders the size of dinner plates. Wriggly creatures nicknamed "Squidworms" because of their strange-looking tentacles. A blind lobster whose Latin name means "terrible claw".
These are among the new types of animal discovered in the most ambitious-ever survey of the world's oceans, which concludes tomorrow with the publication of the first Census of Marine Life.
The report marks the first attempt to provide a definitive record of all the species of plants and animals living in the sea.
It will reveal that almost 250,000 have now been identified, while predicting there may be at least another 750,000 still waiting to be discovered beneath the waves.
The Census has been 10 years in the making, and during the project scientists from around the world have identified more than 6,000 new species.
Yet despite this great diversity of life, the report will warn that humans are having a devastating impact on the numbers of many species through fishing and pollution.
"Marine scientists are at present unable to provide good estimates of the total number of species that flourish in the ocean," it will say.
"It will probably take at least another decade of the Census before we can defensibly estimate the total number of marine species.
"The deep-sea floor is no longer considered a desert, characterised by a paltry diversity of species.
"Over exploitation, habitat loss and pollution have depleted many fisheries that previously provided food and employment."
More than 2,700 scientists have helped to compile the Census, with more than 540 expeditions to visit all of the world's oceans.
Among the new species discovered are Dinochelus ausubeli, the blind lobster with a long, spiny, pincer, which was found 330 yards (300 metres) below the surface in the Philippine Sea.
British scientists have made huge numbers of finds in the cold and inhospitable ocean around Antarctica. In these conditions, marine life grows larger than anywhere else in the world.
Sea spiders, a family of eight-legged creatures which rarely grow bigger than a fingernail in UK waters, have been discovered up to nine inches (23cm) across in Antarctic seas.
The deep sea floor, previously thought to be an almost lifeless desert due to the huge pressure, pitch black conditions and cold water found at depths greater than 6,000 feet (1.8km), has provided some of the biggest surprises.
Researchers have discovered huge communities of different species scattered across the ocean floor, living at the mouth of thermal vents and rifts that seep nutrients into the ocean.
Other species on the sea bed, away from vents, feed off the life that falls into the depths from the water above.
The "Squidworm", a new species of worm, was found living in the deep water of the Celebes Sea in south east Asia.
A furry crab, named the Yeti Crab or Kiwa hirsuta, was also among the discoveries when it was found beside a vent in the deep sea off Easter Island in the south Pacific. Not only was it a new species but part of a new family previously unknown to science.
Recently scientists have discovered a different member of the same family on the ocean floor off Costa Rica where cold fluid enriched with methane has been found seeping through the sea bed, sustaining colonies of animal life.
Dr Maria Baker, a researcher at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton and a project manager on the Census, said: "Life is much more widespread on the ocean floor than was thought.
"We still don't know how it spreads from vent to vent, but there could be stepping stones all over the place provided by food that falls from the water above.
"The Census provides us with a baseline to measure the effects that humans are having, but it is also opening people's eyes to what are in our oceans. It is showing us that we still have no idea of exactly what we are sharing our planet with."
Genetic testing now allows scientists to work out whether newly-discovered creatures are new species or just differently-coloured or shaped varients of those already known.
One new species of crustacean, which looks like a pale shrimp, was identified in this way. The all-white creature was initially thought to be a variety of Epimeria georgiana, which has orange specks, but turned out to be new when scientists looked at its DNA.
The number of plant and animal species is also dwarfed by the possible number of different types of microbes found in the seas - up to a billion, according to the Census.
Dr Huw Griffiths, a marine scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who has gone on some of the Census expeditions, said: "About 80 per cent of the species in the Antarctic live on the sea floor. It is incredibly rich and varied there.
"They are the sort of creatures that a palaeontologist might be more likely to recognise than a marine biologist because they seem to be communities we normally see in the fossil record than in modern oceans elsewhere."
Census shows exotic sea life; helps study BP spill
* Thousands of new marine species found in 10-year census
* Benchmark to help assess climate change, BP oil spill
* Many fish, other marine species, dodge census takers
Alister Doyle, Reuters 4 Oct 10;
OSLO, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Scientists completed a 10-year census of marine life on Monday after finding thousands of exotic new species in a project that will help assess threats to the oceans ranging from climate change to BP's (BP.L: Quote) oil spill.
The $650 million international census, by 2,700 experts in 80 nations, discovered creatures such as a hairy-clawed "yeti crab", luminous fish in the sunless depths, a shrimp thought extinct in Jurassic times and a 7-metre (23 ft) long squid.
But the project (www.coml.org), which reckoned most types of creatures dodged the census and were still to be found, also documented overfishing of cod or tuna, hazards from oil and other pollution and impacts of global warming.
"The news about the oceans is both very good and very bad," said Paul Snelgrove, of Memorial University in Canada, who compiled the final report of a census that found more life than expected from the Arctic Ocean to volcanic vents on the seabed.
It raised the estimate of known marine animals and plants bigger than microbes, from worms to blue whales, to nearly 250,000 from 230,000. And it estimated that far more, or 750,000 other species, were still to be found.
Scientists said the biggest gaps were in still unexplored tracts of the Arctic, Antarctic and eastern Pacific oceans. And much of the deep ocean floor had barely been sampled.
"There is an enormous opportunity," said Jesse Ausubel, a co-founder of the census and program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "There are three species out there to be discovered for every one we know."
The census itself found more than 6,000 potentially new species, led in numbers by crustaceans and molluscs, and made formal descriptions of more than 1,200 of them.
AGE, DISTANCE, SPEED
Among extremes, scientists found a metre-long tube worm an estimated 600 years old, tracked a sooty shearwater bird flying 64,000 km (40,000 miles) in the longest known annual migration and recorded a sailfish swimming at 110 kph (69 mph).
Among spinoffs, a 2009 review of the Gulf of Mexico found 8,332 species from fish to mammals in the area hit by BP's deep water blowout in April 2010, the worst spill in U.S. history.
"It's become one of the most valuable potential contributions of the census," Ausubel said of the Gulf survey. Checking the state of the Gulf against the public database would help understand damage -- and costs of BP's cleanup.
Two members of a five-strong commission named by U.S. President Barack Obama to investigate the spill - Terry Garcia and Donald Boesch -- had worked on the census.
In the longer term, monitoring the seas may help understand threats such as climate change and a related acidification of the oceans. Examination of the makeup of some of the creatures and plants might yield medical breakthroughs.
A related project had created a "barcode of life", inspired by the black and white lines on products in supermarkets, that allows scientists to identify species with a quick genetic test.
That has already exposed mislabelling of sushi in New York City and could have wide economic impact in tracking fraud in fish exports.
And the scientists said the census had successfully focused public attention on the beauty and variety of marine life and could help rally efforts to safeguard the seas.
Artists have been inspired by some creatures -- images of the yeti crab, found off Easter Island, has even been emblazoned on skateboards, Snelgrove said. "These critters are tremendous ambassadors for us," he added. (Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Global marine life census charts vast world beneath the seas
Beatrice Debut Yahoo News 5 Oct 10;
LONDON (AFP) – Results of the first ever global marine life census were unveiled Monday, revealing a startling overview after a decade-long trawl through the murky depths.
The Census of Marine Life estimated there are more than one million species in the oceans, with at least three-quarters of them yet to be discovered.
The 650-million-dollar (470-million-euro) international study discovered more than 6,000 potentially new species, and found some species considered rare were actually common.
The study said it offered "an unprecedented picture of the diversity, distribution and abundance of all kinds of marine life in Planet Ocean -- from microbes to whales, from the icy poles to the warm tropics, from the tidal near shores to the deepest dark depths."
The census establishes a baseline against which 21st-century changes can be monitored.
New species were discovered, marine highways and rest stops mapped and changes in species abundance were documented.
The research involved more than 2,700 scientists, 670 institutions, more than 540 expeditions and around 9,000 days at sea. Nearly 30 million observations of 120,000 species were made.
The census was formally launched in London, with more than 300 figures involved gathering to share the results and consider their implications.
"The census has far exceeded any dream that I had. We felt like the people who created the first dictionary and encylopedia 250 years ago," said Jesse Ausubel, a scientist who co-founded the study.
"The most surprising thing was beauty. Our eyes pumped out of our head in front of this beauty."
The survey set out to find out what used to live in the oceans, what lives there now and what might live there in the future.
The census said 16,764 species of fish had so far been described, but an estimated 5,000 more were yet to be discovered.
Scientists found some species thought extinct 50 million years ago, while other finds were less encouraging.
Around 40 percent of plankton, at the bottom of the ocean food chain, has disappeared in the last 30 years, which was put down to a rise in ocean temperatures.
Sharks have disappeared from 99 percent of some areas.
Australian Ian Poiner, chair of the census steering committee, said the researchers "systematically defined for the first time both the known and the vast unknown, unexplored ocean".
"All surface life depends on life inside and beneath the oceans. Sea life provides half of our oxygen and a lot of our food and regulates climate. We are all citizens of the sea," he said.
"While much remains unknown, including at least 750,000 undiscovered species and their roles, we are better acquainted now with our fellow travellers and their vast habitat on this globe."
The census documented a changing marine world, richer in diversity, more connected through distribution and movements, more impacted by humans and less explored than was expected.
The researchers used sound, satellites and electronics to track migratory routes.
They got down to 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) below the sea in the western Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench.
They affirmed that by weight up to 90 percent of marine life is microbial -- with the equivalent of 35 elephants for every living person.
Scientific steering committee vice-chair Myriam Sibuet of France, said: "The census enlarged the known world. Life astonished us everywhere we looked.
"In the deep sea we found luxuriant communities despite extreme conditions. The discoveries of new species and habitats both advanced science and inspired artists with their extraordinary beauty."
Much of the marine world remains to be explored, so vast are the seas.
The census shows where explorers have not yet looked. For more than 20 percent of the oceans' volume, the database has no records at all, and for large areas very few.
The findings are partially available on the www.iobis.org website.
Census shows connectedness of world's marine life
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 4 Oct 10;
WASHINGTON – The world's oceans may be vast and deep, but a decade-long count of marine animals finds sea life so interconnected that it seems to shrink the watery world. An international effort to create a Census of Marine Life was completed Monday with maps and three books, increasing the number of counted and validated species to 201,206.
A decade ago the question of how many species are out there couldn't be answered. It also could have led to a lot of arguments among scientists. Some species were counted several or even dozens of times, said Jesse Ausubel of the Alfred Sloan Foundation, the co-founder of the effort that involved 2,700 scientists.
The $650 million project got money and help from more than 600 groups, including various governments, private foundations, corporations, non-profits, universities, and even five high schools. The Sloan foundation is the founding sponsor, contributing $75 million.
But what scientists learned was more than a number or a count. It was a sense of how closely life connects from one place to another and one species to another, Ausubel said.
Take the bizarre and minuscule shrimp-like creature called Ceratonotus steiningeri. It has several spikes and claws and looks intimidating — if it weren't a mere two-hundredths of an inch long. Five years ago this critter had never been seen before. No one knew of its existence.
Then, off the Atlantic coast of Africa as part of the census, it was found at a depth of more than three miles below the surface. It was one of 800 species found in that research trip, said discoverer Pedro Martinez Arbizu, a department head at the German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research.
He was astonished to find that the tiny creature also was within the cataloging he'd made earlier 8,000 miles away in the central Pacific.
There was that critter again. Same shrimpy creature, different ocean.
"We were really very, very surprised about that," Arbizu said in an interview. "We think this species has a very broad distribution area."
In that way, Ceratonotus steiningeri exemplifies what the census found.
"We didn't know so much about the deep sea...," Arbizu said. "We believe now that the deep sea is more connected, also the different oceans, than we previously thought."
The census also describes a species of strange large squid that was only recently found in waters more than 3,000 feet deep. The 23-foot-long squid has large fins with arms and tentacles that have elbow-like bends. Scientists had seen it in larvae form before, but not in its full-blown glory until it was filmed at depth.
The census also highlighted marine life that makes commutes that put a suburban worker's daily grind to shame. Before the census started, the migration of the Pacific bluefin tuna had not been monitored much. But by tagging a 33-pound tuna, scientists found that it crossed the Pacific three times in just 600 days, according to Stanford University's Barbara Block. A different species of tuna, the Atlantic bluefin, migrates about 3,700 miles between North America and Europe. Humpback whales do a nearly 5,000 mile north-south migration.
Still, that's nothing compared to the sea bird that Ian Poiner of Australia studies.
He studied puffins that make a nearly 40,000-mile circle every year from New Zealand to Japan, Russia, Alaska, Chile and back in what the census calls the "longest-ever electronically recorded migration."
Other species, such as plankton and even seals, travel great lengths, but stay in the same part of the ocean. They travel thousands of feet between the surface into the depths of the oceans. The scientists measured elephant seals that dived about 1.5 miles, Ausubel said.
The census found another more basic connection in the genetic blueprint of life. Just as chimps and humans share more than 95 percent of their DNA, the species of the oceans have most of their DNA in common, too. Among fish in general, the snippets of genetic code that scientists have analyzed suggest only about a 2 to 15 percent difference, said Dirk Steinke, lead scientist for marine barcoding at the University of Guelph in Canada.
"Although these are really old species of fish, there's not much that separates them," Steinke said.
Related links
Photos from the census on the National Geographic website.
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