Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The loss has been spurred by a combination of factors including hurricanes, coral-eating starfish and coral bleaching. The paper is the most comprehensive survey of a…
Planktons constitute 98% of the ocean world and a group of researchers, after studying these in detail, believes that future oceanic changes would help in knowing which species of these would probably become extinct or migrate. Because these microscopic marine life forms, though very very small, contribute to the generation of oxygen on the planet…
Combine the tree-ring growth record with historical information, climate records, and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That’s the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Arizona, and…
Fish species are expected to shrink in size by up to 24% because of global warming, say scientists. Researchers modeled the impact of rising temperatures on more than 600 species between 2001 and 2050. Warmer waters could decrease ocean oxygen levels and significantly reduce fish body weight. The scientists argue that failure to control greenhouse…
The vast majority of the world’s fisheries are declining but could recover if properly managed, according to a paper published in the journal Science. The statistical analysis marks the first time researchers have assessed the globe’s roughly 10,000 fishing areas, more than 80% of which are unregulated. The group of five American scientists who wrote…
The top ocean predators in the North Pacific could lose as much as 35% of their habitat by the end of the century as a result of climate change , according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The analysis took data compiled from tracking 4,300 open-ocean animals over a decade and…
Researchers have made a startling discovery: the summer Arctic could be an open sea within a decade
The chance to save the world’s coral reefs from damage caused by climate change is dwindling as man-made greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, scientists said in a study released on Sunday. Around 70% of corals are expected to suffer from long-term degradation by 2030, even if strict emission cuts are enforced, according to the…
The species, known locally as the lesula, was discovered after a young female was seen kept captive at the home of a primary school director in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007. The young animal resembled an owl faced monkey (Cercopithecus hamlyni) but its colouring was different to that of any known species, the…
Scientists who found well preserved woolly mammoth remains in a remote part of Russia hope they might contain the necessary material to clone the long extinct beast. The Russian-led international team found the remains, including fur and bone marrow, with some cell nuclei intact, in the Ust-Yansk area of the Yakutia region on Russia’s Arctic…