Tag: wildlife

Study: Algal blooms – 2 articles

Environmental Health News: Algal blooms target sea otter hearts. A toxin formed during algal blooms, which are increasingly common due to climate change, leaves sea otters at risk of deadly heart disease. Within the past decade, those working on the frontlines of marine health have treated an unprecedented number of animals poisoned by harmful algal blooms. Jayme Smith, the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project’s harmful algal bloom expert, was an undergraduate student at Vanguard University of Southern California working with sea lions at a local marine mammal rehabilitation center when she consistently saw these devastating impacts. “It’s really heartbreaking,” Smith told EHN. “A lot of times it’s the adult female sea lions and they’re in really bad condition, they have seizures, and a lot of times they can’t recover.” The culprit behind these episodes: domoic acid. This biotoxin accumulates in the food web during algal bloom events and causes severe health effects in larger animals, humans included. Now, researchers warn that the potent toxin targets the hearts of sea otters, threatening already sensitive populations, according to a recent study in the Harmful Algae journal.

The Conversation: Water being pumped into Tampa Bay could cause a massive algae bloom, putting fragile manatee and fish habitats at risk. Millions of gallons of water laced with fertilizer ingredients are being pumped into Florida’s Tampa Bay from a leaking reservoir at an abandoned phosphate plant at Piney Point. As the water spreads into the bay, it carries phosphorus and nitrogen – nutrients that under the right conditions can fuel dangerous algae blooms that can suffocate sea grass beds and kill fish, dolphins and manatees. It’s the kind of risk no one wants to see, but officials believed the other options were worse.

 

Study: Earth’s most beloved creatures headed toward extinction under current emissions

CBS News: Earth’s most beloved creatures headed toward extinction under current emissions, study shows.

Snow leopards in the Himalayas, lemurs in Madagascar and elephants in central Africa: Some of Earth’s most beloved creatures are on a path to extinction, a new study shows, thanks to current greenhouse gas emissions. Unless humans stop pumping carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, researchers say the planet’s biodiversity will suffer devastating consequences.

n a study published Friday in the journal Biological Conservation, scientists warn that some of the richest concentrations of plants and animals on Earth will be “irreversibly ravaged” by global warming unless countries make a real effort toward their goals made under the 2015 Paris climate treaty. They report a high danger for extinction in almost 300 biodiversity “hot spots” if temperatures rise three degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

Under the Paris agreement, nations promised to keep warming “well below” two degrees Celsius. Even if these commitments are honored, temperatures are still expected to exceed three degrees Celsius before the end of the century.

The Daily Climate, April 5, 2021

Articles include: Algae blooms & otters; cars versus mass transit; Study: meat & dairy lobbyists; US offshore wind targets; EV battery availability problems; fossil fuel divestment; climate jobs; Green New Deal; Report: Must electrify transportation; rewilding our cities; pandemic and EVs; sunlight blocking tests.

Studies: Masks are adding to coastal trash & harming wildlife – 2 articles

OCRegister.com: Masks aren’t only reason pandemic is adding to coastal trash. A new study documents COVID-19’s role in increasing plastic pollution on beaches and in the ocean. Disposable masks, gloves and wipes are helping suppress the spread of COVID-19, but they’re adding significantly to plastic litter that’s trashing our shores and ocean, according to a study from the Ocean Conservancy released Tuesday, March 30. Coastal pollution has been further worsened by the pandemic-driven increase in take-out food and the subsequent littering of single-use plastic containers. And even as more trash reaches the beach, the pandemic also has meant fewer volunteers for beach cleanups. The report, based on data collected worldwide in the last half of 2020, documented 107,219 items of personal protective equipment gathered by the conservancy’s cleanup partners. On Sept. 19, California’s Coastal Cleanup Day, more than 6,000 masks and gloves were collected by some 13,000 volunteers, according to state organizers. Turnout was down dramatically, from the 75,000 people who volunteered to pick up beach litter in 2019.

The Guardian: Trapped in gloves, tangled in masks: Covid PPE killing animals, report finds. Mask and gloves protect people but harm animals from penguins to dogs when discarded, researchers say. The researchers searched news sites and social media posts from litter collectors, birdwatchers, wildlife rescue centres, and veterinarians and found incidents on land and in water across the world. But they said much more information is needed and have launched a website where anyone can submit a report. The study, published in the journal Animal Biology, is the first overview of cases of entanglement, entrapping and ingestion of Covid-19 litter by animals. The PPE litter was mainly single-use latex gloves and single-use masks, consisting of rubber strings and mostly polypropylene fabric.

 

Harp seal pups dying on beach as winter sea ice fails

National Geographic: Harp seal pups dying on beach as winter sea ice fails. Their unprecedented appearance on land is a sign of the drastic impact of climate change on northern sea ice and wildlife.

In Mario Cyr’s 40 years as a marine photographer and expedition leader in Canada’s north, he has never seen harp seal pups clustered on shore. Every December, a population of harp seals arrive in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, traveling south from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland to give birth on the sea ice around the Îles de la Madeleine in late February and early March. These harp seal nurseries attract hundreds of people each year, eager to see the fuzzy white pups bellying around the ice and getting fat on their mothers’ milk.

But in recent days, hundreds of pups instead have appeared on the beach just outside the small community of Blanc-Sablon, Québec, some 350 miles northeast of the islands.

Insecticide known for killing pollinators found in deer across Minnesota

Star Tribune: Insecticide known for killing pollinators found in deer across Minnesota. DNR says more research is needed on the insecticides’ possible effect on herds.

Powerful insecticides are turning up in deer in nearly every corner of Minnesota, raising concerns that the ubiquitous chemicals may be keeping fawns from surviving to maturity or harming deer reproduction.

Neonicotinoids, known for their devastating effects on pollinator populations across the continent, are typically applied to row crops and household lawns. But the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently found evidence of them inside deer in the state’s deepest and most remote forests.

The DNR tested 800 deer spleens sent in from hunters over the past two years and found buildup of neonicotinoids in 61% of them, the agency announced Monday.

The wide range of where the chemicals were found “was a surprise to us,” said Dave Olfelt, director of the DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Division.

Interior Department halts seismic surveys for oil in Alaska’s Arctic refuge

Arctic Today: Interior Department halts seismic surveys for oil in Alaska’s Arctic refuge. The company proposing to survey parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain missed a deadline for its plan to protect polar bears.

lans for seismic surveys to help find oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have fizzled due to a lack of protection for polar bears, according to a brief statement Saturday from the Department of the Interior.

The Kaktovik Inupiat Corp (KIC), the Alaska Native-owned company that applied for permission to conduct the survey, failed to do the required work to identify polar bear dens in the region that would be surveyed, Interior spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in an emailed statement.

The likely demise of the seismic plan is the latest in a series of setbacks that have deflated the decades-long ambition to convert the refuge into an oil-producing frontier.

Alaska’s oil production has been waning since the late 1980s, when the state produced more than 2 million barrels of crude per day. Now its output is roughly 500,000 bpd.

Former President Donald Trump pushed tax legislation that passed in 2017 and would have allowed for drilling in ANWR, and the federal government held a lease sale in the last days of his presidency.

As Extreme Weather Events Increase, What Are the Risks to Wildlife?

The Revelator: As Extreme Weather Events Increase, What Are the Risks to Wildlife? Last year the United States racked up nearly $100 billion in damages from weather and climate disasters. These events are starting to take their toll on wildlife, too.

A hailstorm in South Texas. Tornadoes in Tennessee. Wildfires across the West. A barrage of Gulf Coast hurricanes. Those are among the record 22 weather and climate disasters that each topped $1 billion in damages last year in the United States.

In all, the price tag for 2020 hit a whopping $95 billion — and that’s just in the United States. Reinsurance firm Swiss Re put global economic losses at $175 billion last year, including $32 billion for floods in China and $13 billion in damages from Cyclone Amphan across India and Bangladesh.

The worst news? Our profligate burning of fossil fuels means we’re in store for more.

Studies show that climate change is supercharging some weather and climate events and will lead to more severe and longer-lasting heat waves, stronger hurricanes, an increased wildfire risk and a longer wildfire season. We can also expect more heavy rain events and severe droughts, not to mention other extreme events like February’s polar vortex.

Arctic drilling plan in Alaska hits roadblock

Reuters: Arctic drilling plan in Alaska hits roadblock.

Plans for seismic surveys to help find oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have fizzled due to a lack of protection for polar bears, according to a brief statement Saturday from the Department of the Interior.

The Kaktovik Inupiat Corp (KIC), the Native-owned company that applied for permission to conduct the survey, failed to do the required work to identify polar bear dens in the region that would be surveyed, Interior spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz said in an emailed statement.

The likely demise of the seismic plan is the latest in a series of setbacks that have deflated the decades-long ambition to convert the refuge into an oil-producing frontier.