Rising CO2 may benefit world’s coastal wetlands

September 16th, 2009 Worlds oceans warmest on record this summerWASHINGTON — The world's in hot water. Sea-surface temperatures worldwide have been the hottest on record over the last three months, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday.

September 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Reports indicate that climate change may affect critical water resources that support prey for 75 migratory bird species in the Great Basin in the US. As climate change either freshens wetlands or drier weather makes them saltier, the distribution and availability of waterbird prey species may impact which waterbirds can use the wetlands and when.

August 27th, 2009 New jobless claims and total benefit rolls dropWASHINGTON — The government says the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits dropped last week, and the number of people remaining on the rolls also fell, evidence that layoffs have eased. Still, both figures remain above levels associated with a healthy economy, and analysts expect the unemployment rate to keep rising.

July 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has successfully conducted the first remote detection of a harmful algal species and its toxin below the ocean's surface. The detection was made by scientists at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

July 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of international experts has determined that governments have largely failed to seriously implement integrated management in coastal zones, placing people at risk of disasters such as hurricane Katrina and the Banda Aceh tsunami. This was the conclusion of 40 international experts from wide ranging disciplines including economics, social sciences and natural sciences who met for an intensive, 5 day workshop near Oslo, Norway.

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 29th, 2009 Study: Coastal seagrass increasingly being lostWASHINGTON — Coastal development and declining water quality are threatening seagrasses worldwide, researchers report. A study of coastal grasses around the world shows that 58 percent of the seagrass meadows are in decline, according to a report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US is already being struck by the effects of climate change and the threats will only grow if the world does not speed up its efforts to reduce pollutants blamed for rising temperatures, the US government warned Tuesday. In a much-anticipated report that was compiled over years by US agencies and independent scientists, the government painted a broad picture of the threats that the United States faces from climate change.

April 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research by an international team of scientists has determined that an expansion of wetlands and not a large-scale melting of frozen methane deposits is the likely cause of a spike in atmospheric methane gas that took place some 11,600 years ago. The international research team was led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC (University of California) San Diego.

March 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Conservation efforts are helping stem dwindling numbers of some bird species, according to report based on 40 years of data analysed by official US agencies. The report shows such efforts have protected 30 million acres of wetlands and contributed to thriving populations of hunted waterfowl, herons, egrets and other birds, according to the US State of the Birds report.

March 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Rising global temperatures are likely to aggravate the rich poor-divide, according to a recent economic analysis at the MIT. Benjamin A. Olken, MIT associate professor of economics, concluded on the basis of global data from 1950 to 2003 that a degree Celsius rise in a given year reduces economic growth by an average of 1.1 percentage points in the world's poor countries but has no measurable effect in rich countries.

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New research has indicated that rising sea levels due to global warming would have major impacts around the world, with a maximum rise of one meter by 2100 endangering one in ten humans in low lying coastal areas. The research, presented at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen shows that the upper range of sea level rise by 2100 could be in the range of about one meter, or possibly more.

February 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Commercial ships account for almost half as much particulate pollution as the total amount released by cars, according to a new study. The study estimate that worldwide, ships emit about a million kilos of particulate pollution each year.