Anfibios. Biosphere. Especies. Loss of bees could be 'a blow to UK economy' 22 June 2010Last updated at 09:09 By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News Eucera is a type of solitary bee If bees and other pollinators were to disappear completely, the cost to the UK economy could be up to £440m per year, scientists have warned. This amounts to about 13% of the country's income from farming.
In a bid to save the declining insects, up to £10m has been invested in nine projects that will explore threats to pollinators. The Insect Pollinators Initiative will look at different aspects of the insects' decline. The initiative brings together specialists from a number of UK universities, as well as from the Food & Environment Research Agency and the Natural Environment Research Council's (Nerc) Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. It is funded by several public and charity organisations, led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Continue reading the main story “Start Quote End QuoteClaire Carvell Centre for Ecology and Hydrology A brain disorder? Invasive plant 'increases ozone pollution' - soil nitrogen cycle. 18 May 2010Last updated at 09:46 By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News Kudzu quickly smothers surrounding plants, causing them to die A fast growing invasive plant spreading through south-eastern US has the potential to increase low-level ozone pollution levels, a study has warned.
Researchers found that nitric oxide (NO) emissions, a component in the formation of ozone, doubled in soils where the invasive kudzu was present. The deep-rooted vine, native to Asia, was introduced in the early 20th Century to help control soil erosion. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team of US-based researchers says it is the first study to quantify a link between an invasive plant and a reduction in air quality. The vines grow very rapidly - up to 26cm in 24 hours "Essentially, it is a new source of nitrogen entering the ecosystem because atmospheric nitrogen is otherwise unavailable for plants to use.
" Continue reading the main story “Start Quote. Human arrival 'wiped out' Hawaii's unique crabs. 17 May 2011Last updated at 15:46 By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News The crab would have looked rather like relatives found on other Pacific islands Land crabs unique to Hawaii, as big as a human fist and able to travel huge distances inland, were wiped out by the first human colonists around 1,000 years ago, scientists have deduced.
Fossils have been found at altitudes of 1,000m (3,000ft) - unusual for a crab. Writing in the journal PLoS One, researchers say they identified the species by comparing it with living relatives on other Pacific islands. Early settlers brought animals such as pigs and rats - wiping the crabs out. The researchers describe this as the first documented extinction of a crab in the human era.
"They'd already vanished from the islands by the time the Europeans got there - nobody's ever seen one alive," said Gustav Paulay, curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. Sea changes. Seychelles tortoises: Giants ruling the Aldabra lagoon. Aldabra is one of the most important habitats for evolutionary study The inaccessible Aldabra lagoon in the Indian Ocean is a Unesco World Heritage Site and home to a unique collection of plants and animals, including more than 100,000 giant tortoises.
For three hours, the island supply plane cruises above the seemingly empty blue plain of the Indian Ocean. At Assumption Island, there is an airstrip where we transfer to a motorboat for the crossing to Aldabra. Lindsay Chong Seng, science director for the Seychelles Islands Foundation, is my guide and, after an hour on the sparkling sea, he points out a long, low strip of rugged shoreline. It is South Island, the largest of the four main islands surrounding the great central lagoon. The lagoon is shallow, a place of ripping currents and vast sand flats, and is so big that the whole of Manhattan could fit inside it - twice. 'Shark-infested waters' Stepping from the back of the speedboat into gin-clear water up to my knees, I see I am not alone.
The Other Inconvenient Truth. Credit: jjwright85 Originally published on Yale e360 It’s taken a long time, but the issue of global climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves. While enormous technical, policy, and economic issues remain to be solved, there is now widespread acceptance of the need to confront the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Collectively, we are beginning to acknowledge that our long addiction to fossil fuels—which has been harming our national security, our economy and our environment for decades—must end.
The question today is no longer why, but how. The die is cast, and our relationship to energy will never be the same. Unfortunately, this positive shift in the national zeitgeist has had an unintended downside. Although I’m a climate scientist by training, I worry about this collective fixation on global warming as the mother of all environmental problems. Ecosystem degradation. Freshwater decline. Widespread pollution. Greenhouse gas emissions. Will 50 percent of vertebrates go extinct over the next century? Why land crabs in Colombia get military protection. The Colombian island of Providencia in the Caribbean, which seems the epitome of a tropical paradise, lies on a key drug trafficking route out of Colombia. It is also home to the Black Land Crab whose remarkable annual migration attracts military protection. There are two traditional sports on Providencia. One is beach horse-racing, where lithe mares are raced up and down the water's edge at breakneck speed along the foam.
The other is cock-fighting where local men place bets on their favourite bird in the violent blur of razored talons that is a Colombian cock-fight. But in early June, there is a third pastime, crab-swerving. While crab-swerving might sound like the latest Caribbean dance craze, it is in fact a very necessary skill in Providencia. During their migration week, tens of thousands of Gecarcinus ruricola, or black crabs, emerge from their holes and head down the hillsides to the beach to deposit their eggs in the sea. 'Crab watch division' 'Thousands of crustaceans'
Sperm whale faeces 'helps oceans absorb CO2' 15 June 2010Last updated at 22:33 By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News Sperm whales may put a gentle (and unwitting) brake on climate change Sperm whale faeces may help oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air, scientists say.
Australian researchers calculate that Southern Ocean sperm whales release about 50 tonnes of iron every year. This stimulates the growth of tiny marine plants - phytoplankton - which absorb CO2 during photosynthesis. The process results in the absorption of about 400,000 tonnes of carbon - more than twice as much as the whales release by breathing, the study says. The researchers note in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B that the process also provides more food for the whales, estimated to number about 12,000.
Phytoplankton are the basis of the marine food web in this part of the world, and the growth of these tiny plants is limited by the amount of nutrients available, including iron. Faecal attraction. Rich countries accused of carbon 'cheating' 11 June 2010Last updated at 12:52 By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News, Bonn Not cutting down trees could earn rich nations carbon credits, say campaigners Some rich countries are seeking new rules under the UN climate convention that campaigners say would allow them to gain credit for "business as usual". Russia, Australia, Canada and some EU countries are among the accused.
The rules relate to land-use change, which can either release or absorb carbon, depending mainly on whether forests are planted or chopped down. Rich countries, apart from the US, could account for about 5% of their annual emissions through this loophole. The US is not involved in these negotiations because the proposals fall under the Kyoto Protocol, of which it - alone among developed countries - is not a part. Continue reading the main story Select a term from the dropdown: The benefit for some countries, notably Russia, would be much greater. 'Fudge' packet Continue reading the main story “Start Quote.
Timbuktu e o mercado de sal. The salt trade is seen as a necessary part of tradition in parts of Mali With a long, gurgling groan, Lakhmar fell awkwardly to his knees in the roasting hot sand outside the town of Timbuktu. For the past six years he has been making the same gruelling trek across the Sahara desert to the salt mines of Taoudenni in northern Mali. But each journey is becoming more of a struggle. Lakhmar, a 10-year-old male camel with a metal ring in his flaring right nostril, left it to his owner, Boujima Handak, to explain their predicament. "It's getting more difficult because the rains aren't coming, the oases are drying up and the camels get tired and thirsty and can't continue," he said, unloading a grey-brown, 50kg slab of crystallised salt, the size of an ironing board, from Lakhmar's back.
Camel caravans have been plying their trade between Taoudenni and Timbuktu for centuries. It is a rite of passage for young, blue-turbaned nomads from the local Tuareg community. Ancient lake Unfair competition? G1 > Brasil - NOTÍCIAS - Levantamento mostra que 57% das reservas ... O Ministério do Meio Ambiente divulgou nesta terça-feira (8) um levantamento mostrando que das 299 áreas de conservação ambiental existentes no país, 173, ou 57%, não têm fiscalização permanente.
Possíveis desmatamentos, caça ou atividades extrativistas ilegais só são impedidas em operações esporádicas do Ibama ou da Polícia Federal. O estudo revela ainda que 29% das unidades de preservação não têm um gestor nomeado. Ou seja, estão sem gerenciamento do governo e abandonadas. “Estamos fazendo um strip-tease ambiental para dizer que estamos tomando medidas administrativas para resolver esses problemas no curto prazo. Do desmatamento apresentado pelo Inpe [Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais], houve 22% que aconteceu dentro das unidades de conservação ou nas reservas indígenas. Isso é um absurdo e dá vontade de pular sem para-pente. Se a unidade não tem gestor, fiscal ou plano de manejo, é natural que estejam desprotegidas”, disse o ministro Carlos Minc. “Sem o plano não tem crédito. Reserva biológica - Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre. Origem: Wikipédia, a enciclopédia livre. A Reserva Biológica consiste em uma categoria de unidade de conservação ambiental na legislação brasileira.
Uma Reserva Biológica tem como objetivo a preservação integral da biota e demais atributos naturais existentes em seus limites, sem interferência humana direta ou modificações ambientais, excetuando-se as medidas de recuperação de seus ecossistemas alterados e as ações de manejo necessárias para recuperar e preservar o equilíbrio natural, a diversidade biológica e os processos ecológicos naturais.
É de posse e domínio públicos, sendo que as áreas particulares incluídas em seus limites serão desapropriadas, de acordo com o que dispõe a lei. Pela lei, é proibida a visitação pública nas reservas biológicas, exceto aquela com objetivo educacional, de acordo com regulamento específico. Reservas Biológicas[editar | editar código-fonte] Região Norte[editar | editar código-fonte] Acre[editar | editar código-fonte] Amapá[editar | editar código-fonte]