permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

20 June 2011 Last updated at 08:24 ET
World's oceans in 'shocking' decline
Richard Black By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

BBC News - World's oceans in 'shocking' decline
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13796479

The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to 
an expert panel of scientists.

In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering 
a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".

They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate 
change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised.

The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity.

The panel was convened by the International Programme on the State of 
the Ocean (IPSO), and brought together experts from different 
disciplines, including coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and 
fisheries scientists.

Its report will be formally released later this week.

"The findings are shocking," said Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific 
director and professor of conservation biology at Oxford University.

"As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the 
oceans, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised.

"We've sat in one forum and spoken to each other about what we're 
seeing, and we've ended up with a picture showing that almost right 
across the board we're seeing changes that are happening faster than 
we'd thought, or in ways that we didn't expect to see for hundreds of 
years."
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

    The challenges are vast; but unlike previous generations, we know 
what now needs to happen”

Dan Laffoley IUCN

These "accelerated" changes include melting of Arctic sea ice and the 
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea level rise, and release of 
methane trapped in the sea bed.

But more worrying than this, the team noted, are the ways in which 
different issues act synergistically to increase threats to marine life.

Some pollutants, for example, stick to the surfaces of tiny plastic 
particles that are now found in the ocean bed.

This increases the amounts of these pollutants that are consumed by 
bottom-feeding fish.

Plastic particles also assist the transport of algae from place to 
place, increasing the occurrence of toxic algal blooms - which are also 
caused by the influx of nutrient-rich pollution from agricultural land.

In a wider sense, ocean acidification, warming, local pollution and 
overfishing are acting together to increase the threat to coral reefs - 
so much so that three-quarters of the world's reefs are at risk of 
severe decline.
Carbon deposits

Life on Earth has gone through five "mass extinction events" caused by 
events such as asteroid impacts; and it is often said that humanity's 
combined impact is causing a sixth such event.
Fish at market Some marine fish are already fished way beyond their 
limits - and may also be affected by other threats

The IPSO report concludes that it is too early to say definitively.

But the trends are such that it is likely to happen, they say - and far 
faster than any of the previous five.

"What we're seeing at the moment is unprecedented in the fossil record - 
the environmental changes are much more rapid," Professor Rogers told 
BBC News.

"We've still got most of the world's biodiversity, but the actual rate 
of extinction is much higher [than in past events] - and what we face is 
certainly a globally significant extinction event."

The report also notes that previous mass extinction events have been 
associated with trends being observed now - disturbances of the carbon 
cycle, and acidification and hypoxia (depletion of oxygen) of seawater.

Levels of CO2 being absorbed by the oceans are already far greater than 
during the great extinction of marine species 55 million years ago 
(during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum), it concludes.
Blue planet

The report's conclusions will be presented at UN headquarters in New 
York this week, when government delegates begin discussions on reforming 
governance of the oceans.
Flowers between solar panels In the long run, greenhouse gas emissions 
must be cut to conserve ocean life, the report concludes

IPSO's immediate recommendations include:

    stopping exploitative fishing now, with special emphasis on the 
high seas where currently there is little effective regulation
    mapping and then reducing the input of pollutants including 
plastics, agricultural fertilisers and human waste
    making sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon dioxide levels are now so high, it says, that ways of pulling the 
gas out of the atmosphere need to be researched urgently - but not using 
techniques, such as iron fertilisation, that lead to more CO2 entering 
the oceans.

"The challenges for the future of the ocean are vast; but unlike 
previous generations, we know what now needs to happen," said Dan 
Laffoley, marine chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas and an 
adviser to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now."
More on This Story
Related Stories

    Acid oceans turn 'Nemo' fish deaf 31 MAY 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
    Coral reefs heading into crisis 23 FEBRUARY 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
    2010 sets new temperature records 02 DECEMBER 2010, SCIENCE & 
ENVIRONMENT
    'Ten years' to solve nature loss 18 OCTOBER 2010, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

Related Stories

    Acid oceans turn 'Nemo' fish deaf
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13605113
    Coral reefs heading into crisis
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12530439
    2010 sets new temperature rec
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11903397

Related Internet links

    IPSO  http://www.stateoftheocean.org/
    IUCN  http://www.iucn.org/

More Science & Environment stories

    Planting an acacia sapling (Image: FAO/Sayllou Diallo)Trees 'help 
stem desertification'
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/53488000/jpg/_53488188_planting_sapling_fao_seylloudiallo.jpg

    A UN-led pilot scheme highlights how trees can help protect people 
in drylands, considered to be one of the most hostile habitats on the 
planet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13767255