Coastal development, loss of water quality threatening seagrass worldwide

October 7th, 2009 Orange County water main break creates sinkholeNEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — California officials say a burst water pipe has caused a giant sinkhole in the Orange County coastal city of Newport Beach.

September 14th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - People having illegal water connections in Punjab's rural areas could soon find their supply drying up. The Punjab water supply and sanitation department Monday warned people to immediately remove illegal water connections or be prepared to face legal action, as well as disconnection of supply.

September 7th, 2009 PANAJI - Goa Governor S.S. Sidhu Monday termed the beach erosion along the state's 105-km long coast as a matter of "serious concern".

September 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - A new report has painted a grim future for Australia's Great Barrier Reef, warning of declines in significant species and outbreaks of disease. According to a report carried out in www.news.com.au, the report is titled "The Great Barrier Reef Outlook report", which is the first and most comprehensive of its kind.

August 20th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - All villages in certain districts of Punjab that are affected by salinity in water will have reverse osmosis (RO) plants within 21 months to provide clean water to villagers, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said Thursday. The districts of Ferozepur, Bathinda, Faridkot, Mansa and Muktsar in south-west Punjab are known as the cancer belt of the state.

August 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Three small tropical storms were moving across the Caribbean Sunday including one threatening Florida, the first storms of the Atlantic season after two months of total quiet. The storms claimed the first letters of the alphabet - Ana, Bill and Claudette - and one of them, Ana, was found to be so "poorly organised" that it was "barely a tropical storm," the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, reported.

July 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Expansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, says a new study. Many megacities such as Tokyo (population 36 million), New York (22 million) and London (12 million) are found in the coastal zone.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has ranked 'hotspots' among coastal marine ecosystems that are at risk worldwide as a result of human activities. The study, by scientists at UC (University of California) Santa Barbara, US, is the first integrated analysis of all coastal areas of the world.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has warned that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems, with 58 percent of world's seagrass meadows currently declining. The assessment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows an acceleration of annual seagrass loss from less than 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at Rice University have warned that the US must be careful that the new emphasis on developing biofuels as an alternative to imported oil takes into account potential damage to the nation's water resources. "The ongoing, rapid growth in biofuels production could have far-reaching environmental and economic repercussions, and it will likely highlight the interdependence and growing tension between energy and water security," according to a report titled "The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue?" The report, written by Pedro Alvarez, the George R.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An analysis has revealed that caribou and reindeer numbers worldwide have plunged almost 60 percent in the last three decades. The dramatic revelation came out of the first ever comprehensive census analysis of this iconic species carried out by biologists at the University of Alberta in Canada.

April 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new report has determined that climate change and major water conservation projects are a major risk to the long-term "health" of the Yangtze River in China. The Yangtze Conservation and Development Report 2009, compiled by the China Academy of Science (CAS), states the basin of China's longest waterway has been hit by a yearly reduction in rain since 2006, brought on by global warming.

April 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found climate change will lead to a devastating loss of phosphorus from soil. The research was done by scientists from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-funded North Wyke Research.

March 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a paradoxical finding, scientists have discovered that an increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) may ironically counterbalance some of its negative effects on coastal wetlands, which are the planet's most valuable ecosystems. The team conducted their study for two years (2006 - 2007), during which they focused on the role that organic matter, both growing and decaying, plays on soil elevation in wetlands and the effect CO2 has on this process.

January 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Harmful algal blooms are increasingly poisoning seafood, causing respiratory and skin irritations, while killing off fish and mammals in coastal waters. Scientists presented a compilation of 21 studies outlining the role of nutrient pollution in the increasing frequency of these events.