Jun 082014
 

news release from The Ocean Cleanup

Feasibility study proves efficiency and financial viability

The Ocean Cleanup, founded by Dutchman Boyan Slat, has unveiled its feasibility report today, concluding that its concept is a viable method to clean the oceans from plastic. The report is the result of more than a year of extensive scientific research in engineering, oceanography, ecology, maritime law, finance and recycling. The feasibility study was financially supported by crowd funding and professional in kind contributions. The research was done by an international team of over 100 experts, predominantly on a voluntary basis. The next step, building and testing large-scale operational pilots, will be initiated as soon as sufficient funding has been raised.19-Year-old invents feasible solution to cleanup ocean garbage patches

The conclusions of the study mark the end of the first phase of the project in which the assumption that a cleanup of the infamous ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ is impossible has been disproven. Within ten years’ time, almost half of the plastic could be removed. Continue reading »

Jun 072014
 

Original story by Damien Larkins and Russell Varley, ABC Gold Coast

Racehorse trainers and conservationists are angry at plans to fill in a wetland area near the Gold Coast Turf Club.
The wetland is home to a nesting black swan and dozens of other bird species. Photo: Damien Larkins

The wetland is home to a nesting black swan and dozens of other bird species. Photo: Damien Larkins

Trainers received an email on Thursday afternoon that work was going to start the next morning, as preparations continue for the Gold Coast Show to move to the Turf Club.

The email says the 2.75 hectare swamp area will be used for parking at the show and large race days but otherwise will be free for trainers to walk their horses the rest of the time. Continue reading »

Jun 042014
 

Original story by David Adamson and Adam James Loch, University of South Australia at The Conversation

The federal government’s approach for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has shifted again, and now favours water-saving infrastructure over purchasing water rights. But is it the right move?
Spending on water-saving infrastructure could expose Murray-Darling farmers to debt and drought. Photo: Michelle Bartsch/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Spending on water-saving infrastructure could expose Murray-Darling farmers to debt and drought. Photo: Michelle Bartsch/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

The new scheme proposes to cut the amount of water bought back from farmers by 200 billion litres — from 1,500 billion litres down to 1,300 billion litres. Continue reading »

May 202014
 

Original story by Ian Rutherfurd, University of Melbourne and Andrew Campbell, Charles Darwin University at The Conversation

Among the environmental fallout of the federal budget, Australia’s Landcare program has taken a hit, losing A$484 million. In return, the government’s environmental centrepiece, the Green Army, receives A$525 million.
Australia already has a world-leading system for managing the environment - why are we dumbing it down? Photo: Andrew Campbell

Australia already has a world-leading system for managing the environment – why are we dumbing it down? Photo: Andrew Campbell

But switching money from Landcare to the Green Army is trading down for a less effective conservation model. It also repeats a pattern of reduced funding and weakened delivery started under former Prime Minister John Howard, and confuses improved agricultural productivity with improved environmental management. Continue reading »

May 192014
 

Original story by Sharnie Kim, ABC News

A tourism industry group is mounting a legal challenge against the decision to allow the dumping of dredge spoil in the Barrier Reef marine park area off far north Qld.
 Coal export terminal at Abbot Point.

Coal export terminal at Abbot Point.

The Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO) is taking the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation (NQBPC) to the Federal Court next month.

It is challenging the decision to allow three million cubic metres of dredge spoil from the Abbot Point coal terminal expansion at Bowen to be dumped at sea.

AMPTO spokesman Col McKenzie alleges the marine park authority breached its own rules.

“Their own environmental scientists weren’t happy with granting the permit and on that basis alone the precautionary principle should’ve come into play,” he said.

He says the association is not against development but wants the dredge spoil dumped on land.

Mr McKenzie says the permit should never have been issued.

“The reality is there is simply just not enough science that would indicate the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredge spoil will not have a bad effect on the environment,” he said.

A number of green groups are running separate challenges.

The matter goes before the Federal Court in Cairns in June.

May 192014
 

Original story by Rachel Sullivan, ABC

While warming temperatures will produce more female than male sea turtle hatchings, sea turtle populations will not crash — at least for the next few decades, a new study suggests.
A few male loggerhead turtles will go a long way as temperatures warm. Although females will rule, males breed more often and can fertilise multiple clutches.

A few male loggerhead turtles will go a long way as temperatures warm. Although females will rule, males breed more often and can fertilise multiple clutches.

In fact, sea turtle populations will increase because males breed more frequently than females, report researchers today in Nature Climate Change.

Sex in many reptile species is determined by temperature during incubation. For sea turtles incubation temperatures below 29°C produce male hatchlings; above that temperature females are produced. Continue reading »

May 062014
 

Press release by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Empty nets and few species – environmental hormones are believed responsible for the diminishing numbers of fish. How damaging are these substances really, though? Studies that depict a complete picture of the lives of fish provide clues.

 

Flow-through facility at Fraunhofer IME. All test aquaria can handle adult animals as well as those at the larval stage. Photo: © Fraunhofer IME

Flow-through facility at Fraunhofer IME. All test aquaria can handle adult animals as well as those at the larval stage. Photo: © Fraunhofer IME

You cannot see, smell, or taste them – and yet, environmental hormones are components of many materials and products. They can be found for example in colorants and dyes, pesticides, cosmetics, plastics, and in pharmaceuticals. Environmental hormones are molecules that behave like hormones, because they resemble them in their structure. It has been suspected that the substances getting into an organism via the air, the skin, through foodstuffs, and through medications influence the human reproductive system and cause a reduction in the quality of spermatozoa, with an associated drop in male fertility. The animal world is affected as well. In addition to other factors, environmental hormones are believed responsible for the reduction in fish populations.

Life cycle studies with freshwater fish

Experts and scientists have been in disagreement for over two decades about whether fish stocks and amphibian populations are actually threatened by any stress from hormonally active substances in bodies of water, because the effects of the environmental hormones actually remain insufficiently understood. Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Schmallenberg, Germany, want to shed light on this question. To investigate the effects of hormonally active substances on fish, the scientists have established and continually refined a model using life cycle studies of the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a freshwater fish. “Using the life cycle test, we can record all of the relevant aspects in the life of fish within a reasonable period of time,” says Matthias Teigeler, an engineer in the Ecotoxicology Department at IME. “These include the growth, the embryonic and especially the sexual development, as well as the animals’ ability to reproduce. Those are factors that react sensitively to hormonally active substances.”

Groups of like-sized fish are exposed to potentially active hormonal substances at differing concentrations while in a flow-through facility. A control group of fish kept in water with no hormone load serves as a comparison with which the possible effects on the subject animals can be discerned. “A life cycle test begins by employing fertilized eggs obtained from unstressed P generation (parental) animals. The fish embryos hatch three days later. We determine the number of surviving animals and record their lengths in the computer. After about three months, the animals are mature enough to be able to reproduce. Their ability to reproduce can be accurately determined from the number of eggs they lay. During the spawning phase, we remove eggs from the experimental aquaria each day and count them. Since they are transparent, you can examine whether they were fertilized or not,” explains Teigeler.

The researchers were actually able to determine that zebrafish were no longer able to reproduce – mating and deposition of eggs did not occur – under administration of very low concentrations of ethinyl estradiol, a synthetic estrogen and component of contraceptive pills. They observed negative effects with other substances under test as well. Tests with the synthetic sexual hormone trenbolone led to a masculinization of the animals, for example. The gender ratio shifted considerably. 100% of the fish developed as males following administration of the test substance. This could also be observed for aromatase inhibitors employed as a fungicide for plant protection. As a comparison, researchers would expect a gender ratio of 50 percent male to 50 percent female in the unstressed control group. “Several well-known substances negatively influence the hormone system. However, other factors besides hormonally active substances are under discussion as being responsible for the reduction in fish species, such as poorer constitution of waters and climate change,” says Teigeler.

Stricter approval requirements for manufacturers of plant protection products

Manufacturers of chemicals for protecting plants meanwhile anticipate being confronted with a prohibition if it turns out that an active ingredient causes a lasting disruption to the hormone system of humans and animals. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry must likewise present data on the effects of hormone-like substances in bodies of water if they want to bring a new product out on the market in Europe. The testing system of Fraunhofer IME enjoys a high level of acceptance in industry as well as among regulatory authorities. Moreover, IME researchers offer support through their expertise with life cycle experiments, studies, and conclusions to committees of the OECD, the EU and their Member States having to develop guidelines for fish testing and to evaluate of test results. They help find answers to questions dealing with problems of hormonally active substances in the environment.

May 022014
 

Wildlife Preservation Society of QueenslandOriginal story by Peter Ogilvie, Wildlife Queensland

The assault on nature conservation in Queensland

Why has the Newman Government chosen to comprehensively neutralise nature conservation and its associated legislation in Queensland, particularly in relation to national parks?

There doesn’t appear to be any political imperative, as is the case in NSW where a party with the balance of power in the Upper House is demanding hunting access to national parks. The Liberal National Party (LNP) government in Queensland has had complete and unassailable control of the uni-cameral parliament since it reduced the Labor opposition to seven members following the March 2012 election. Neither can it be explained purely as a matter of ideology. Coalition governments in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia have been responsible for some significant advances in nature conservation. After all, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) was enacted by a Coalition government in Canberra, as was the latest strongly protective zoning plan for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. There has been the suggestion that the government is undoing what was created by former Goss, Beattie and Bligh Labor governments. However, several matters that have been neutralised are actually products of earlier Coalition governments. Which leaves one other possible explanation, perverse though it may be, that they are doing it simply because they can.

Kondalilla falls, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Photo: Damien Dempsey/Wikimedia Commons

Kondalilla falls, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Photo: Damien Dempsey/Wikimedia Commons

Nevertheless, what they have done needs to be clearly documented so this government can be held to account, perhaps sadly not in its lifetime, but by future generations that will want to know where the blame lies.

The Banishment of National Parks

Continue reading »

May 022014
 

Original story at news.com.au

QUEENSLAND’S government is confident the dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park won’t lead to the reef being listed as a World Heritage site in danger.
UNESCO says the federal government needs to reconsider approving dredging in the Great Barrier Reef. Photo: AAP

UNESCO says the federal government needs to reconsider approving dredging in the Great Barrier Reef. Photo: AAP

UNESCO says it regrets the federal government’s decision to allow dumping three million tonnes of spoil in the park as part of the expansion of Abbot Point coal port near Bowen.

The UN body regrets that the government approved the dumping without properly assessing alternatives.

This was one of a number of points sent in a draft report on Wednesday to the World Heritage Committee which is assessing whether to list the reef on its “in danger” list.

The body requested the federal government provide a new report detailing how dumping is the least damaging option that won’t affect the reef’s value.

State Environment Minister Andrew Powell says all alternatives were considered and it’s just a matter of passing this information onto UNESCO.

“A lot of work was done which showed it would be inappropriate to put the spoil on land due to acidification,” he told AAP on Thursday.

“We will certainly be making information available to UNESCO on that project and any other project.”

UNESCO has requested the federal government’s report by February 1 next year.

WWF-Australia reef campaigner Richard Leck says other options, such as extending terminals into deeper waters so ships can access them, should be considered.

“We’re not anti-development, what we want to see is development done smarter,” he told AAP.

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt welcomed UNESCO’s draft recommendations, saying they show progress was being made in protecting the reef.

He said this included developing a long-term plan to protect the ecosystem and improving water quality.

Mr Hunt said the Abbot Point dredging project complies with Australia’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention and approval had been subject to rigorous environmental assessment.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters disputed his claims, saying the state and federal governments had failed to implement a long-term plan to protect the reef.

UNESCO also raised concerns that a long-term plan to protect the reef hasn’t been completed despite recent approvals of coastal developments.

Apr 292014
 

News release from the University of Guelph

A surprising recent rise in atmospheric methane likely stems from wetland emissions, suggesting that much more of the potent greenhouse gas will be pumped into the atmosphere as northern wetlands continue to thaw and tropical ones to warm, according to a new international study led by a University of Guelph researcher.

The study supports calls for improved monitoring of wetlands and human changes to those ecosystems – a timely topic as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prepares to examine land use impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, says Prof. Merritt Turetsky, Department of Integrative Biology.

Turetsky is the lead author of a paper published today in Global Change Biology based on one of the largest-ever analyses of global methane emissions. The team looked at almost 20,000 field data measurements collected from 70 sites across arctic, temperate and tropical regions.

Agnieszka Kotowska, a former master’s student, and David Olefeldt, a post-doc at Guelph, also were among 19 study co-authors from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany and Sweden.

One of the strongest greenhouse gases, methane comes from agriculture and fossil fuel use, as well as natural sources such as microbes in saturated wetland soils.

The amount of atmospheric methane has remained relatively stable for about a decade, but concentrations began to rise again in 2007. Scientists believe this increase stems partly from more methane being released from thawing northern wetlands.

Scientists have assumed that wetland methane release is largest in the tropics, said Turetsky.

“But our analyses show that northern fens, such as those created when permafrost thaws, can have emissions comparable to warm sites in the tropics, despite their cold temperatures. That’s very important when it comes to scaling methane release at a global scale.”

The study calls for better methods of detecting different types of wetlands and methane release rates between flooded and drained areas.

Fens are the most common type of wetland in Canada, but we lack basic scientific approaches for mapping fens using remote sensing products, she said.

“Not only are fens one of the strongest sources of wetland greenhouse gases, but we also know that Canadian forests and tundra underlain by permafrost are thawing and creating these kinds of high methane-producing ecosystems.”

Most methane studies focus on measurements at a single site, said co-author Narasinha Shurpali, University of Eastern Finland. “Our synthesis of data from a large number of observation points across the globe is unique and serves an important need.”

The team showed that small temperature changes can release much more methane from wetland soils to the atmosphere. But whether climate change will ramp up methane emissions will depend on soil moisture, said Turetsky.

Under warmer and wetter conditions, much more of the gas will be emitted. If wetland soils dry out from evaporation or human drainage, emissions will fall – but not without other problems.

In earlier studies, Turetsky found drying peatlands can spark more wildfires.

Another study co-author, Kim Wickland, United States Geological Survey, said, “This study provides important data for better accounting of how methane emissions change after wetland drainage and flooding.”

Methane emissions vary between natural and disturbed or managed wetlands, says Wickland, who has helped the IPCC improve methods for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from managed wetlands.

Turetsky holds a Canada Research Chair in Integrative Ecology. She and her students examine how ecosystems regulate climate in field sites in Canada and Alaska.