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End-of-Days Danger
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 08:00
I don’t know how many e-mails I have received from children who are terrified that 2012 will somehow involve the end of life as we know it, all because of an unfounded fringe religious prophecy that has received mass-market exposure with the release of a recent Hollywood movie. I have tried to reassure those children (and not a few adults) that this date represents nothing more cosmically special than the year of the next presidential election.
Having said that, however, I just realized there might be a genuine connection between 2012 and an end-of-days menace!
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'Globetrotting' new worms discovered on Great Barrier Reef and Swedish coast
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Mon, 03/08/2010 - 23:00
Between the grains of sand on the sea floor there is an unknown and unexplored world. Scientists have just found new animal species on the Great Barrier Reef, in New Caledonia, and in the sea off the Gullmarsfjord in the Swedish county of Bohuslan.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Participation important for healthy marine parks
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 05:00
The involvement of locals is a key ingredient in the success of marine parks which protect coral reefs and fish stocks. The largest-scale study to date of how coastal communities influence successful outcomes in marine reserves has found that human population pressure was a critical factor in whether or not a reserve succeeded in protecting marine resources -- but so too was local involvement in research and management.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Ancient corals hold new hope for reefs
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 03/02/2010 - 08:00
Fossil corals, up to half a million years old, are providing fresh hope that coral reefs may be able to withstand the huge stresses imposed on them by today's human activity. Reef ecosystems were able to persist through massive environmental changes imposed by sharply falling sea levels during previous ice ages, an international scientific team has found. This provides new hope for their capacity to endure the increasing human impacts forecast for the 21st century.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Haiti's Legacy of Environmental Devastation Compounded by Earthquake
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Mon, 03/01/2010 - 13:00
Dear EarthTalk: What are the primary environmental concerns in the aftermath of the big earthquake in Haiti? --Frank Dover, Portland, Ore. [More]
Categories: Coral Feeds
Evolution of Minerals (preview)
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Mon, 03/01/2010 - 08:00
Once upon a time there were no minerals anywhere in the cosmos. No solids of any kind could have formed, much less survived, in the superheated maelstrom following the big bang. It took half a million years before the first atoms--hydrogen, helium and a bit of lithium--emerged from the cauldron of creation. Millions more years passed while gravity coaxed these primordial gases into the first nebulas and then collapsed the nebulas into the first hot, dense, incandescent stars.
Only then, when some giant stars exploded to become the first supernovas, were all the other chemical elements synthesized and blasted into space. Only then, in the expanding, cooling gaseous stellar envelopes, could the first solid pieces of minerals have formed. But even then, most of the elements and their compounds were too rare and dispersed, or too volatile, to exist as anything but sporadic atoms and molecules among the newly minted gas and dust. By not forming crystals, with distinct chemical compositions and atoms organized in an orderly array of repeating units, such disordered material fails to qualify as minerals.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Climate change and coral reefs: Coral species has developed the 'skills' to cope with rising temperatures
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Sat, 02/27/2010 - 17:00
Marine reserves are increasingly important for species that are being forced by climate change to move to a new home, adapt to new conditions or die. Biologists have now compared the relative benefits of large and small protected areas in perpetuating populations. Interestingly they have also found a coral species that has developed the "skills" to cope with rising temperatures.
Categories: Coral Feeds
World-class protection boosts Australia's Great Barrier Reef
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Wed, 02/24/2010 - 02:00
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is showing an extraordinary range of benefits from the network of protected marine reserves introduced there five years ago, according to a comprehensive new study published.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Island Hoping: Are Reserves the Answer to Help Wildlife on the World's Sinking Archipelagos?
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Tue, 02/23/2010 - 13:00
Dear EarthTalk : Are there any conservation efforts focused on animal species endemic to islands likely to be submerged by rising sea levels? --H. Wyeth, Anahola, Hawaii
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Will coral reefs disappear?
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Tue, 02/23/2010 - 08:00
How vulnerable are coral reefs to climate change due to higher ocean temperatures?
Categories: Coral Feeds
Diversity of corals, algae in warm Indian Ocean suggests resilience to future global warming
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Mon, 02/22/2010 - 05:00
Corals that harbor unusual species of symbiotic algae have been discovered thriving in water that is too warm for most other corals. The discovery gives hope that coral reefs and the ecosystems they support may persist -- at least in some places -- in the face of global warming.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Marine reserves in the spotlight: Meeting both conservation and fisheries goals
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Sun, 02/21/2010 - 00:00
Marine reserves are known to be effective conservation tools when they are placed and designed properly. This week, a special issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is dedicated to the latest science on marine reserves, with a focus on where and how reserves can most effectively help to meet both conservation and fisheries goals.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Sea Caves Reveal Rapid Rise in Ancient Ocean Levels
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Fri, 02/12/2010 - 14:01
Mallorca, Spain's largest island, is not just a desirable place for a Mediterranean vacation; it's also a treasure trove of the geologic record. That's because of coastal caves that precisely record in stone formations sea level thanks to the island's long-term geologic stability; it has been relatively unaffected by tectonics or glacial uplift or subsidence. Plus, these caves have a series of formations, known as speleothems , like stalagmites, scattered at various levels, both above and below present-day sea level, thereby offering a record in the carbonate crust left on them by the lapping waters of sea level over time. [More]
Categories: Coral Feeds
Making Good Time: Doomsday Clock Moves 1 Minute Back to 6 from Midnight
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Thu, 01/14/2010 - 17:45
The human race can breathe a tiny bit easier (but not too much) now that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the hand of its Doomsday Clock one minute farther away from midnight, the time which symbolizes catastrophic destruction and the apocalyptic end of civilization. The clock now reads six minutes from that end-of-days witching hour after it was changed during a press conference Thursday in New York City, citing an increased awareness and interest in stopping key threats to humanity (in particular nuclear conflict and global warming) since U.S. President Barack Obama took office about a year ago. [More]
Categories: Coral Feeds
Coral can recover from climate change damage, new research suggests
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Sun, 01/10/2010 - 17:00
A new study by scientists in the UK provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. The research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts of global warming.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Another Reason to Save Coral? Reefs Are Responsible for Ocean Biodiversity
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Thu, 01/07/2010 - 15:01
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. It might also represent the most prolific cradle for new types of animals on the planet, according to new research published in the January 8 edition of Science . [More]
Categories: Coral Feeds
Could Re-Wilding Avert the 6th Great Extinction? [Slide Show]
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Tue, 01/05/2010 - 16:01
Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Caroline Fraser's book Rewilding the World .
Over the years, coyotes ate many of Michael Soulé’s cats. For most people, this might have been the end of the story, a nasty reminder of nature’s darker proclivities. But Michael Soulé is not most people.
[More]Categories: Coral Feeds
Indian Ocean climate event recurs quicker with global warming
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Sun, 01/03/2010 - 11:00
The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), an oscillation of sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean, has become a major influence on the weather variations in the Indian Ocean region. During positive IOD events, abnormally warm sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean are accompanied by severe droughts over the Indonesian region and heavy rainfall over east Africa.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Fish with attitude: Some like it hot
ScienceDaily: Coral Reef News - Wed, 12/30/2009 - 11:00
Coral reef fish can undergo a personality change in warmer water, according to an intriguing new study suggesting that climate change may make some species more aggressive.
Categories: Coral Feeds
Could ocean acidification deafen dolphins?
Scientific American Topic - Coral Reefs - Sun, 12/20/2009 - 13:01
As more and more carbon dioxide enters the Earth's atmosphere, oceans are becoming more acidic . In fact, this acidification has been blamed for everything from killing off coral to aiding algae and even super-sizing fish ear bones . But the changing marine chemistry may also be altering the deep sea's acoustic environment, according to a new paper, published online Sunday in Nature Geoscience reports ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group), making it much noisier for the animals that depend on sound to navigate the watery depths. [More]
Categories: Coral Feeds