Study Projects Unprecedented Loss of Corals in Great Barrier Reef Due to Warming
The coverage of living corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could decline to less than 10 percent if ocean warming continues, according to a new study that explores the short- and long-term consequences of environmental changes to the reef.
Hidden Battles on the Reefs
How do you drown a coral reef? The very idea seems unfathomable for animals that spend their entire lives under water. But the deep ocean is actually riddled with “drowned” coral reefs, the remains of ancient reefs that slipped into the dark ocean depths and starved without sunlight.
Coral Reefs Threatened by Changing Ocean Conditions
Erosion rates increase tenfold in areas where corals are also exposed to high levels of nutrients, according to a study published January 2015 in the journal Geology. As sea level rises, these reefs may have a harder time growing toward the ocean surface, where they get sunlight they need to survive.
UN Sends Team to Clean Up Sunderbans Oil Spill in Bangladesh
The United Nations said on Thursday it has sent a team of international experts to Bangladesh to help clean up the world’s largest mangrove forest, more than a week after it was hit by a huge oil spill.
Acidic Oceans Could Quiet Coral Reefs
Scientists have been monitoring underwater sounds for decades, in part because sound propagates so efficiently underwater. But in the past 10 years, scientists have started exploring how sonic cues influence fish behavior and give a snapshot of reef health and biodiversity.
Oil Spill in Bangladesh’s Unique Mangrove Forest
On December 12, three days after a cargo vessel collided with a tanker, oil coats mangrove trees in the Sundarbans, a delta that forms the world’s largest contiguous tidal mangrove forest—a haven for a spectacular diversity of animals. More than 90,000 gallons of oil have spilled into the rivers and creeks of the region.
Women on the Edge of Land and Life
November is the cruelest month for landless families in the Indian Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal mangrove forest in the world lying primarily in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
A Luxury Resort Threatens Belize’s Mesoamerican Reef
Belize’s Lighthouse Reef Atoll is the home of the world-famous Great Blue Hole, a massive underwater sinkhole and World Heritage Site. But two of the islands that make up this special place could soon be dredged and paved to make way for race cars, golfers, and a tarmac.
Environmental Bleaching Impairs Long-Term Coral Reproduction
Bleaching, a process where high water temperatures or UV light stresses the coral to the point where it loses its symbiotic algal partner that provides the coral with color, is also affecting the long-term fertility of the coral…