Category News

For the third time in 5 years, an underwater heat wave has turned vast stretches of coral on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef ghostly white, a desperate survival strategy that is often a prelude to coral death. Now, scientists there have taken a small step toward helping coral survive in a warmer world. For the first time, researchers have grown algae in a lab that can reduce coral bleaching, as it’s known. The results are a notable advance in the growing field of “assisted evolution,” in which scientists are working to alter coral genetics to help them endure hotter water.

It’s a “groundbreaking” study, says Steve Palumbi, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford University who was not involved with the work...

The global response to the COVID-19 crisis could inform the fight against climate change, Imperial College London experts say. Imperial’s climate scientists, policy and economic experts say there are lessons to be learned from the pandemic that could put us in a better position to tackle climate change in the future.

Findings from Imperial suggest that social distancing measures to slow and suppress the spread of COVID-19 across Europe – including school closures and national lockdowns – have averted thousands of deaths.

Imperial academics reflect on what the pandemic is teaching us about responding to a global threat, and how we could apply that learning to the fight against climate change.

Known unknowns

In a blog for the Grantham Institute, Dr Ajay Gambhir argues that learning from t...

Thailand began the year with a ban on single-use plastic bags that Bangkok office worker Nicha Singhanoi hoped would cut back the waste that puts her country among the world’s top five choking the oceans with plastic. Then the coronavirus pandemic forced school closures and authorities told people to stay home, and far from falling, Bangkok’s plastic waste has soared 62% in volume in April, as more people opt for food and goods to be delivered to homes.

“There is so much bubble wrap and product packaging, or bags and containers from food deliveries,” said Nicha, 27, an avid online shopper, who said that working from home deprived her of the time to cook.

Even if the pandemic eases, environmentalists fear Thailand is simply a pointer for the situation elsewhere in Southeast Asia, h...

China is the largest fishing nation in the world. It is responsible for one-fifth of the world’s total marine fish catch. It is the world’s largest fish processor and trader, with huge influence on global seafood markets and the ecosystems they depend on. Actions China takes to manage its fisheries and economy can spill over to other countries and their marine ecosystems – something we need to understand better.

But today, fisheries in China and around the world are at a standstill. While demand for local seafood has increased in some areas, global seafood supply has been severely impacted by COVID-19...

New research on the Great Barrier Reef associates severe coral loss with substantial increases in the size of large, long-living herbivorous fish. However, the ecosystem is also left vulnerable to crashing.

In research published in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology, an international team of researchers compared reef surveys from 2003-2004 and 2018. They found severe coral loss—up to 83% in some areas—was associated with increases in fish biomass, productivity and consumed biomass. This means the reef currently has more energy stored in the form of fish weight, is able produce more fish weight, and these fish are being consumed by predators.

Lead author Renato Morais, a PhD candidate from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook Universit...

This time of year, beaches are usually flooded with people celebrating the warming weather. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beaches around the world are the emptiest they’ve ever been — when it comes to humans, that is. And in Phuket, Thailand, rare leatherback sea turtles have been taking advantage of the tourist-free beaches, and are nesting at unprecedented rates.

The coronavirus lockdown is giving the world’s oceans much-needed breathing space, let’s hope we don’t go back to bad habits when it ends, writes the Ocean Conservation Trust. In just a few months, millions of people have been asked to quarantine and whole countries have been locked down to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Around the world, events are being cancelled and travel plans dropped. A growing number of universities, schools and workplaces have closed, and workers are working from home if they can.

This pandemic is shutting down industrial activity on a massive scale.

All of this might feel rather bleak, but there is some good news coming out of the scientific community, which is reporting positive environmental outcomes of the lockdowns that are now being enforced gl...

Only a few years ago, scientists estimated there were between 300 and 500 great white sharks in South Africa’s False Bay. Now, they have completely disappeared. While local surfers might have relaxed, the absence of the apex predators is alarming to scientists, and the lucrative industries that rely on their presence.

“I’ve spent my entire life in the field watching these animals on a daily basis,” local cage dive operator and wildlife photographer Chris Fallows says.

“When the waters go quiet, both above and below the surface, and these predators are not there, it sounds huge alarm bells.”

It’s unclear what will happen to marine ecosystems if sharks aren’t there to keep them in check.

Tamlyn Engelbrecht, research manager at local shark safety program Shark Spotters, has been studying sha...

Scientists have identified the highest levels of microplastics ever recorded on the seafloor. The contamination was found in sediments pulled from the bottom of the Mediterranean, near Italy. The analysis, led by the University of Manchester, found up to 1.9 million plastic pieces per square metre.

These items likely included fibres from clothing and other synthetic textiles, and tiny fragments from larger objects that had broken down over time.

The researchers’ investigations lead them to believe that microplastics (smaller than 1mm) are being concentrated in specific locations on the ocean floor by powerful bottom currents.

“These currents build what are called drift deposits; think of underwater sand dunes,” explained Dr Ian Kane, who fronted the international team.

“They can be tens ...

It is a now-familiar story: as humans are trapped indoors by the deadly coronavirus, wildlife is taking the opportunity to fill abandoned spaces. We have seen the village of Llandudno in Wales go from “ghost town to goat’s town,” wild boars invading Barcelona, and pumas prowling the Chilean capital Santiago. The phenomenon has been particularly noticeable along the Emirati coastline in recent weeks, with exotic rays flocking to Dubai Marina, dolphins playing around the man-made Palm Jumeirah islands, and a large gathering of sharks off Ras al Khaimah. Conservationists hope to maximize the possibilities of this moment.

Greater visibility
The sightings of rays, sharks, and dolphins are welcome to Natalie Banks, founder and president of Dubai-based marine conservation group Azraq, who sugg...