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Posted August 16, 2017 07:56:34

When a Thai smuggler was arrested in 2014 carrying 5 million baht ($190,000) in cash he was allegedly on his way to buy protected rosewood from a forest near Bangkok.

But the man's sister owned a zoo in north-east Thailand, and a counter-wildlife trafficking organisation had suspected there were links between the zoo and tiger trafficking from Malaysia and Thailand.

Thanks to that tipoff, a routine wildlife crime was exposed as something more sinister.

Thai authorities launched a financial investigation into the smuggler as well as the zoo's operations.

And when the Thai Anti-Money Laundering Office investigated the man's complex web of business connections and money transfers, they discovered he was behind a substantial racket to smuggle not only protected rosewood into China, but also elephant ivory and live pangolins.

It turned out the zoo had been used as a front for smuggling and money laundering.

From 2011 to 2014, it had laundered almost $45 million through a series of investments in property, jewellery and a car dealership.

The man was charged with trafficking, attempting to bribe officials and money laundering, and his sister was charged with money laundering.

Wildlife crime still viewed as 'emerging crime'

But Thailand's decision to "follow the money" is far from common practice in wildlife crime investigation.

A report has shown few countries recognise or investigate the links between wildlife crime and money laundering, even though such links are well known.

Wildlife crime has grown into a significant area of transnational organised crime, worth between $9 billion and $29 billion a year.

It threatens the existence of thousands of species of plants and animals, and affects almost every country in the world as a source, transit or destination for illegal products.

But a joint investigation by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime found despite an increase in large seizures of protected wildlife species and products, and the increased involvement of organised criminal groups, wildlife crime was too often viewed as an "emerging crime" or "outside of mainstream crime".

"Wildlife criminal cases very often start and end with the seizure, with limited investigation into the wider criminal network beyond the poacher or courier," the report said.

"Financial investigation and anti-money laundering techniques are rarely used in the fight against wildlife crime.

"As a result, there are major gaps in our understanding of the financial flows behind wildlife crime and inadequate measures are being undertaken to mitigate the risks of wildlife crime and associated money laundering."

Sophisticated methods on a par with drug crime

And yet, the level of sophistication of methods to conceal wildlife crime is increasingly on par with those used to conceal drug smuggling, the report said.

But many jurisdictions allocate far fewer resources to the detection and investigation of wildlife compared to drug trafficking.

For example, 86 per cent of jurisdictions surveyed - including Australia - were affected by wildlife crime, but more than two-thirds did not regard it as a significant money laundering threat.

Only 26 per cent carried out financial investigations into wildlife crimes, and only 1 per cent of all wildlife crime cases were reported to have involved money laundering investigation, charges or prosecutions.

The investigators found a widespread lack of political will to prioritise or manage wildlife crime on par with the scale and urgency of the issue.

"The failure of many jurisdictions to recognise these crimes as transnational organised crimes and to employ the full range of law enforcement tools available - particularly financial investigations - is a short sightedness for which we are paying a heavy price," the report said.

"The impacts of wildlife crime are significant and far-reaching, from the extinction of iconic species, to the loss of livelihoods of local communities, and threats to sustainable development, good governance, rule of law, and national security.

"Genuine and concerted international action is essential before it is too late."

Prostitutes were paid to pretend to kill rhinos

The report said transnational cooperation among law enforcement agencies could, and did, play a crucial role in detecting and disrupting the illicit financial flow from wildlife crime.

For example, in 2012 a South African court sentenced a Thai national to a record 40-year prison sentence for an elaborate fraud to smuggle rhinoceros horns to Asia after the animals were killed in "pseudo" hunts.

The man had taken advantage of the fact it was legal for foreigners to hunt rhinos in South Africa and ship the horns back home as personal trophies.

He had paid Thai prostitutes to visit game farms and fire a few shots with a rifle, then pose next to a rhino killed by someone else.

But a financial investigation involving law agencies in two continents showed the horns of 24 rhinos, instead of being sent home as trophies, had been sent to the owner of a wildlife trading firm in Laos.

The Thai man had signed a deal with the South African owner of a hunting reserve requesting the horns of another 50 rhinos, with an estimated street value of $25 million.

More often the investigators found financial investigation and anti-money laundering techniques were rarely used by authorities when tackling wildlife crime - and often investigations were done in isolation without cooperating with financial intelligence agencies.

The investigators have made a series of recommendations to improve the flow of information and cooperation between domestic and international law enforcement agencies, strengthen legislation and boost resources, as well as introduce stronger measures to identify, freeze, seize or repatriate assets and the proceeds of crime.

Topics: environment, endangered-and-protected-species, law-crime-and-justice, thailand, australia

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Organised gangs making billions from trade in endangered animals

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Few countries recognise or investigate the links between wildlife crime - now worth between $9 billion and $29 billion a year - and money laundering, according to a new report that urges stronger measures be introduced to combat the practice.

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Groundwater-use ban possible for several Adelaide suburbs, EPA says - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said TCE had been detected in groundwater accessible from properties in Edwardstown, South Plympton, Plympton Park, Park Holme, Ascot Park and Melrose Park.

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In a groundbreaking study released today, scientists at the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the University of Southern California have found that widespread installation of certain "cool roof" materials in the region could slightly increase ozone and fine particulate pollution levels.

The study explains how the predicted increase in ozone levels can be minimized or possibly avoided by requiring more comprehensive performance standards for cool-roofing materials. However, small increases in fine particulate (PM2.5) levels are predicted to occur with or without enhanced standards.

"Cool roofs have many benefits including reduced energy use for cooling and mitigation of the significant health impacts of heat waves." said Wayne Nastri, SCAQMD's executive officer.

"While the future, widespread use of certain kinds of cool roofing materials could slightly increase air pollution levels, we in no way want to discourage this technology. This study shows what needs to be done to help cool our cities and avoid increasing ozone levels as an unintended consequence."

The study, titled "Air Quality Implications of Widespread Adoption of Cool Roofs on Ozone and Particulate Matter in Southern California," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The scientific paper was produced by a team of SCAQMD scientists led by Scott A. Epstein, Ph.D., in collaboration with George Ban-Weiss, Ph.D., a professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC. They used sophisticated meteorology and air quality computer models, measurements of cool roofing materials and detailed databases of the region's rooftops to predict the air quality impacts of the increasing use cool roof materials -- typically light-colored and highly reflective -- that are expected to result from current statewide energy efficiency standards.

Numerous scientific studies have established that replacing darker roofs and building materials with highly reflective materials can reduce peak daytime temperatures and mitigate the so-called "urban heat island effect" where cities can be several degrees warmer than less-urbanized surrounding areas.

However, many cool-roofing materials reflect more ultraviolet light (UV) than their traditional counterparts, increasing the potential for ozone formation. UV rays fuel smog formation on their way down to Earth. When cool roofs bounce UV rays back up into the atmosphere they create a "double-shot" of ozone formation.

This ozone increase can be avoided if a comprehensive roofing standard is adopted to prevent the overall UV reflectance of newly-installed cool roofs from increasing. Cool roofing materials are available today that reflect the same amount or even less UV than traditional, roofing materials.

"This study highlights the importance of considering how strategies used to mitigate one environmental issue can have co-benefits and/or unintended consequences on other environmental systems," Ban-Weiss said. "Whether air pollution improves or worsens from cool roof installations depends on a host of competing chemical and meteorological factors.

"Given that our study focuses on the Los Angeles basin, future research is needed to investigate how these competing processes dictate air pollution impacts in cities around California and beyond."

While an increase in ozone formation can be mitigated by changing cool roofing materials, the predicted small increase in PM2.5 levels is due to overall cooler surface temperatures resulting in weaker sea breezes and lower inversion layers, and will occur regardless of UV reflectance of roofing materials, according to the study.

The study also noted the installation of cool paving materials could have an even bigger impact on ozone and PM2.5 levels since the amount of area paved in the region is significantly larger than the total roofing area affected by state energy efficiency standards.

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air quality; environmental issues; air pollution; pollution; environmental science; ozone holes; atmosphere; earth science

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Choice of cool roofing materials can potentially impact region's air pollution

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In a groundbreaking study released today, scientists at the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the University of Southern California have found that widespread installation of certain "cool roof" materials in the region could slightly increase ozone and fine particulate pollution levels.

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Climate Change is changing Australia's ocean environment. The Marine Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Report Card for Australia demonstrates that climate change is having significant impacts on Australia's oceans and marine ecosystems.

The challenge

Climate change threatens our marine future

Australia's climate and prosperity is strongly connected to the oceans; we are highly sensitive to an ocean influenced climate, extract huge economic benefit from our ocean territory, are custodians of marine biodiversity of globally significant conservation value, and have a highly urbanised population living on or near the coast.

Australia's oceans generate considerable economic wealth through fisheries, aquaculture, tourism and mining. Marine ecosystems provide irreplaceable services including coastal defence, oxygen production, nutrient recycling and climate regulation. Unless we adapt and mitigate, climate change will threaten our economic prosperity and social well-being.

There is now striking evidence of extensive southward movements of tropical fish and plankton species in southeast Australia, declines in abundance of temperate species, and the first signs of the effect of ocean acidification on marine species with shells.

Our response

The 2012 Marine Report Card

98 of Australia's leading marine scientists from 37 universities and research organisations contributed to the 2012 Report Card. Each section contains information on what is already happening, what may happen it future, and describes the actions underway to prepare and adapt to changes.

The results

Improving information to help marine ecosystems adapt

The report card highlights that the Australian science community is widely engaged in research, monitoring and observing programs to increase our understanding of climate change impacts and inform management. The comprehensive information shows that adaptation planning is already underway, from seasonal forecasts for fisheries and aquaculture, to climate-proofing of breeding sites for turtles and seabirds. The up-to-date information presented will assist ocean managers and policy makers to improve and justify actions to help our marine ecosystems adapt to the threat of climate change.

Key findings:

Climate change is already happening: Widespread physical changes include rapid warming of the southeast and increasing flow of the East Australia Current. Increasing biological impacts include reduced calcification in Southern Ocean plankton and Great Barrier Reef corals from both warming and acidification.

Scientists, managers and resource users are working to design adaptation strategies that reduce the vulnerability of marine species, systems and industries to climate change.

We are observing and monitoring key physical and biological variables in the ocean, which is critical to evaluating effective adaptation strategies.

Preparation for climate change also involves changes in management or policy arrangements that currently limit adaptation responses.

Do business with us to help your organisation thrive

We partner with small and large companies, government and industry in Australia and around the world.

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Marine Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Report Card for Australia

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Climate Change is changing Australia's ocean environment. The Marine Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Report Card for Australia demonstrates that climate change is having significant impacts on Australia's oceans and marine ecosystems. Climate change threatens our marine future Australia's climate and prosperity is strongly connected to the oceans; we are highly sensitive to an ocean influenced climate, extract huge economic benefit from our ocean territory, are custodians of marine biodiversity of globally significant conservation value, and have a highly urbanised population living on or near the coast.

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The SMP21, a secondary standard pyranometer from Kipp & Zonen, integrates the CMP21 sensor technology. It has analog output, low maintenance and the RS-485 Modbus® interface. The SMP21 includes an internal desiccant that can function for up to 10 years, which significantly minimizes the maintenance costs.

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Effects of Increasing CO2 Levels on Coral Reefs

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The SMP21, a secondary standard pyranometer from Kipp & Zonen, integrates the CMP21 sensor technology. It has analog output, low maintenance and the RS-485 Modbus® interface. The SMP21 includes an internal desiccant that can function for up to 10 years, which significantly minimizes the maintenance costs.

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Rising CO2 threatens coral and people who use reefs

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As atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels rise, very few coral reef ecosystems will be spared the impacts of ocean acidification or sea surface temperature rise, according to a new analysis. The damage will cause the most ...

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The Aldabra's scientific coordinator explained that for 36 years the atoll has been fully protected from stressors such as sedimentation from coastal development. (Seychelles Island Foundation)

( Seychelles News Agency) - Coral reefs of the Seychelles' Aldabra Atoll, as well as the 28 others named UNESCO World Heritage sites, are under threat of disappearance by 2100 should water temperatures keep rising, according to a scientific assessment.

According to the first global scientific assessment on the impact of climate change on World Heritage coral reefs, rising ocean temperature is resulting in mass coral bleaching.

Though Aldabra, the most southwesterly group of the Seychelles islands, located some 1,100 kilometres from Mahe, the main island, is being actively managed and protected, "there is very little [that can be done] against sea surface temperatures," said April Burt, the atoll's scientific coordinator.

Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1982, is home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises and has been described as 'one of the wonders of the world' by Sir David Attenborough, now a veteran English broadcaster and naturalist.

The group of islands of the Aldabra Atoll is surrounded by coral reefs. Due to difficulties of access and the atoll's isolation, Aldabra has been protected from human influence. (Seychelles Island Foundation) Photo License: All Rights Reserved

What is coral bleaching and how does it affect us?
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre assessment states that: "Coral bleaching is a stress response [to heat] in which the coral animals expel their zooxanthellae, leaving the white coral skeleton visible through the transparent coral tissue."

Aldabra's scientific coordinator said that the temperatures during March 2016 were approximately 1.7 °C higher than the average temperature for that time of year, with a mean maximum temperature of 32.1 degrees Celsius.

"The hottest temperature recorded was 36.3°C in early April 2016. These temperatures are extreme for the reefs which are happiest between 23°-29°C," said Burt.

According to the World Heritage Centre, the social, cultural and economic value of coral reefs is estimated at US$1 trillion. The greatest impacts are likely to be experienced by people who rely upon reef services for day-to-day subsistence.

In the case of Seychelles, coral bleaching will have obvious impacts on fisheries and tourism, the two main pillars of the country's economy. A great number of tourists travel to the Seychelles, an 115-island archipelago the western Indian Ocean, to witness its colourful underwater 'forest'.

"People have a preconception of Seychelles being a pristine marine environment with beautiful coral reefs and some people will be disappointed when they jump in the water and see dead coral, piles of coral skeleton, lots of algae and fewer fish," said Burt.
What can be done?
The assessment stated that bleached corals are still alive, but "even mild bleaching can result in subsequent deleterious effects, such as reduced growth and reproduction."

"Aldabra might be better equipped to recover from extreme heating events but coral recovery can take 15 to 20 years and with an increasing frequency of heating events the reefs may not be able to keep up," said Burt.

April Burt -- Aldabra's scientific coordinator -- explained that for 36 years the atoll has been fully protected from stressors such as sedimentation from coastal development, nutrient input and fishing pressure, which reefs in the inner islands have been dealing with.

Countries with coral reef World Heritage sites are being urged to adopt measures that will greatly cut down the emission of greenhouse gases to net zero.

"Reducing greenhouse gas emissions reduces the rate at which heat stress increases this century, and delays the year when a critical threshold is crossed," stated the assessment.

Seychelles is already taking measures in this respect along with all the other countries that signed the Paris Climate agreement in 2016.

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Rising temperatures threaten World Heritage coral reefs, including Seychelles' Aldabra atoll

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Coral reefs of the Seychelles' Aldabra Atoll, as well as the 28 others named UNESCO World Heritage sites, are under threat of disappearance by 2100 should water temperatures keep rising, according to a scientific assessment. According to the first global scientific assessment on the impact of climate change on World Heritage coral reefs, rising ocean temperature is resulting in mass coral bleaching.

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How Do Higher CO2 Levels Impact Marine Life? - Center for Climate and Life

How Do Higher CO2 Levels Impact Marine Life? - Center for Climate and Life

As the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere continues to climb, a group of researchers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are investigating how this change will impact the Earth system, with a focus on oceans and marine life.

Atmospheric CO2 exchanges with carbon dissolved in the surface ocean, depending on the relative concentrations of each. This gas exchange is similar to the process that allows 'bubblers' in fish tanks exchange gases for fish to thrive. As CO2 enters the surface ocean, the acidity of surface seawater generally increases, a process commonly referred to as ocean acidification.

With support from World Surf League PURE, Lamont paleoceanographer Bärbel Hönisch and postdoctoral researcher Kelsey Dyez are studying the respective effects of ocean warming and acidification on plankton collected from a global suite of sediment cores. The time period of this study covers the last ice age (characterized by colder and more alkaline seawater) and into the current warm period (warmer and more acidic seawater).
Influence on Ocean Life
Scientists are interested in what influence warming temperatures and ocean acidification may have on marine life. To test these effects on marine communities, researchers have mapped the changing composition of species across the globe and in all types of ecosystems. A group of calcifying marine plankton called foraminifera has proven particularly useful for tracing ocean changes: The group as a whole is ubiquitous in the ocean, but individual species are sensitive to specific environmental conditions. The foraminifera community consists of up to 40 different species, and past changes have been catalogued from every ocean basin and for past time periods.

An analogy for the terrestrial environment is as follows: If you found a cliff made out of old soil and a certain layer had bones from wolves, arctic hares, and reindeer, you would infer that the climate at that time was fairly cold, given their modern preferences. On the other hand, if you found the fossil remains of alligators, parrots, and tree frogs, you would infer a warmer climate.

To date, the primary interpretations of foraminifera assemblages have focused on their sensitivity to ocean temperature, which is closely related to past climate changes. From such data, scientists have learned a great deal about how and where in the ocean the impacts of past ice ages and interglacial warm periods were felt most keenly.

However, because surface ocean acidification and warming went hand in hand at the end of ice ages, part of the observed changes in foraminifera assemblage may have been caused by ocean acidification. To decipher whether and which of these two parameters affects foraminifera growth more than the other, Hönisch and Dyez aim to quantify the respective assemblage response to ocean warming and acidification. To do so, they leverage the vast database of foraminifera assemblages with geochemical reconstructions of past ocean temperature and seawater acidity from a wide range of locations in the ocean.

Since the start of the project, Dyez (with the help of Columbia University undergraduate student Hailey Riechelson) has selected, obtained, and washed samples from twelve sediment cores from tropical to polar latitudes, which contain material from the last glacial maximum (the most extreme portion of the last ice age) and from the more recent warm interval.

The samples are currently being analyzed for their boron isotopic composition (a seawater acidity indicator), their Mg/Ca ratio (a temperature indicator) and their radiocarbon and oxygen isotopic composition (as time markers). As the climate warmed from the last ice age to the present, the plankton's geochemical composition also changed in response to environmental changes in the seawater.

Data collected to date indicate that while some of the core sites reflect both warming and acidification into our current warm period, some core sites located in upwelling areas - places where cold, nutrient-rich waters from the deep ocean rise to the surface - show little variation in acidity but large changes in temperature and foraminiferal species composition. If this trend is corroborated in further analyses, it would suggest that warming is more important for ecosystem changes than acidification, at least over the slow rate of acidification and warming from the last ice age to the preindustrial.
Carbon Pathways Through the Ocean
Ocean acidity can also be a signal of where carbon is entering and exiting the surface ocean. By estimating surface ocean acidity of past time periods, these geochemical data will also help the scientists map carbon dioxide as it enters and exits the ocean surface.

Today, the ocean is a net sink of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; nearly one quarter of anthropogenic carbon emitted into the atmosphere has already been dissolved in the surface ocean. As surface ocean acidity is being mapped for the last ice age with geochemical data, scientists may discover more precisely how and where carbon was released from the ocean to the atmosphere at the end of the most recent ice age.
- Kelsey Dyez is a postdoctoral researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

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How Do Higher CO2 Levels Impact Marine Life? - Center for Climate and Life

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As the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere continues to climb, a group of researchers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are investigating how this change will impact the Earth system, with a focus on oceans and marine life. Atmospheric CO2 exchanges with carbon dissolved in the surface ocean, depending on the relative concentrations of each.

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Posted August 07, 2017 09:52:22

Tensions between Tasmania's long-held identity as a logging state and its emerging brand as an ecotourism destination are being put to the test in Derby.

The small north-east Tasmanian town is caught in a political fight over legislation that could open parts of its world-renowned mountain bike trail to logging.

In recent years, Derby and the surrounding region have suffered from a decline in traditional industries like mining and forestry.

"I've seen it go up and down a couple of times," says local Ronny Hayes, who has lived in the town for over 70 years.

"Mining towns when they cease mining just sort of die."

But Derby has been given a new lease on life by a multi-million-dollar investment in a series of mountain bike trails stretching through 85 kilometres of pristine wilderness.

Mr Hayes, who is commonly regarded as the "Grandfather of Derby", says the Blue Derby trails are the best thing to have happened to the town since they found tin in the 1800s.

"It will mean the town will never die now," he says.

A political tussle

Despite the State Government's support of the tourism venture, it is intent on passing legislation that would unlock 365,000 hectares of forest around Tasmania for logging, including a section of the Blue Derby trails.

The legislation failed to pass the Upper House in June, but Resources Minister Guy Barnett says the Tasmanian Liberals will seek a fresh mandate at the next state election.

"We'll have that election in March [2018] when it is due and put forward the legislation again," he says.

"If we are re-elected ... [we'll] ensure the production forests are opened to create more jobs and remove the subsidies."

But Dorset Council, the main driving force behind the mountain bike development, is convinced the legislation will have no impact on the Blue Derby trails.

Mayor Greg Howard says the forest around Derby is commercially unviable and even if unlocked, it won't be logged.

"The trail network is under absolutely no risk whatsoever from harvesting," he says.

"Unless the price of woodchips and sawn timber goes through the roof by 300 to 400 per cent."

While the council maintains the legislation won't impact the Blue Derby trails, local business owners like Christine Booth are not convinced.

"There are business owners and other people in this area who are not happy with the threat of forestry activities that may damage the brand and could potentially damage the beautiful asset we're developing here," she says.

Christine Booth says she can't understand why the Government is so determined to pursue the legislation, when they've so clearly prioritised the tourism industry.

"I'm totally gobsmacked that the State Government is even proposing to do this," she says.

"I can't believe they would do anything that would jeopardise the economic development of this region given that tourism is an expanding industry for us here."

A town in transition

For some locals the transition to a tourism-based economy hasn't been easy.

Many residents, including local Peter Coxhead, complain a lack of community consultation has led to tensions.

"Derby had the mountain bikes foisted upon them," he says.

"The council didn't come to Derby and say: 'Would you like to be the centre of mountain biking in Australia?' Because I can tell you, the people would have said no if they'd done that."

Mr Coxhead says adapting to tourism hasn't been easy for many long-established business owners.

"They've got no idea what these yuppies on mountain bikes require," he says.

"They don't know a macchiato from a Nescafe cup of coffee."

Stuart Rainbow runs the Dorset Hotel with his partner Leonie Smithurst, who has owned the establishment for 26 years.

He says many locals have sold out and left since the mountain bikers arrived, and he fears the town has lost its culture.

"I'm concerned about the loss of a town and I believe Derby's lost its town," he says.

New business

As tourism expands in the region, new businesses continue to emerge. But local shuttle bus owner Damian von Samorzewski says many of those businesses are coming in from out of town.

"A lot of the businesses now all actually employ blow-ins from either Launceston or out of the state even," he says.

"There's definitely potential for growth for local employment. I guess the trick is to develop the appropriate skill set to be employable."

Mark Cornish is one those blow-ins. He moved to Derby for the mountain biking, and says he feels like the town is at a turning point.

"We feel like now is a really good time to get into it and see the mountain biking and Derby bloom," he says.

Like Tasmania more broadly, Derby has morphed and altered into a different kind of town - one where forestry and ecotourism need to co-exist peacefully together to survive.

Its fate now rests on how it negotiates the balance between old and new.

Topics: forestry, environment, government-and-politics, tourism, derby-7264

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Tassie battle between ecotourism, forestry playing out in Derby

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Posted August 07, 2017 09:52:22 Tensions between Tasmania's long-held identity as a logging state and its emerging brand as an ecotourism destination are being put to the test in Derby. The small north-east Tasmanian town is caught in a political fight over legislation that could open parts of its world-renowned mountain bike trail to logging.

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Updated August 08, 2017 13:25:54

Reefs of discarded beer bottles on the bed of the River Derwent are believed to have a role in helping to save the critically endangered spotted handfish from extinction.

The fish lives in highly localised habitats in only nine areas of the River Derwent and one site in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

The rare fish walks along the Tasmanian seabed on long fins resembling hands and is the first marine species in the world to be classified as critically endangered.

Senior researcher at CSIRO Dr Tim Lynch said handfish liked complex breeding habitats but boat moorings and invasive pest species like the North Pacific seastar were damaging the breeding grounds.

But Dr Lynch said discarded beer bottles had proven to be an ideal breeding location.

"There are a couple of sites, one over near Bellerive and Howrah and another one near Battery Point, where there are bottle reefs ... which provide good habitat," he said.

"The seastars can't eat the bottles at least, and we often find spotted handfish hiding behind discarded bottles.

"There's quite a few bottles out there, I think is some places where people have mooring up their yachts or windjammers since the 1800s and drinking their rum and throwing them overboard."

Artificial habitats essential for survival

Dr Lynch has been part of a program to help create artificial spawning habitats in the river.

Over the past 10 years a range of people, including other scientists and volunteer groups, has placed about 6,000 plastic sticks on the river bed for handfish to lay eggs on.

Dr Lynch said there were various projects to help the handfish's survival and the work over past 20 years had probably kept the species going.

A $40,000 grant from the industry-backed Zoo Aquarium Association and matching funds from the CSIRO's Marine Diversity Hub will fund a new program to start a captive breeding program for the species.

Dr Lynch said it has been found the handfish breed well in captivity.

Each fish lays up to 200 eggs after a courtship dance between the male and the female, and the female then cares for the eggs until they hatch.

The breeding program will begin with the capture of a small breeding population which will then be propagated at the Sea Life Aquarium in Melbourne and at Seahorse World at Beauty Point.

"Let's let people have a look at these things - hardly anyone has seen them," Dr Lynch said.

The second step would be an insurance population and the third step would be captive breeding and the release of fish back into the wild.

"They shouldn't be a rare fish, they used to be very common," Dr Lynch said.

"There should be a spotted handfish every five metres of so in good habitat."

First posted August 08, 2017 06:13:13

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Beer bottle reefs make ideal home for endangered handfish

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Updated August 08, 2017 13:25:54 Reefs of discarded beer bottles on the bed of the River Derwent are believed to have a role in helping to save the critically endangered spotted handfish from extinction. The fish lives in highly localised habitats in only nine areas of the River Derwent and one site in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

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Europe's native animals and plants can be protected from invasive species by well-designed conservation areas.

Belinda Gallardo at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology in Zaragoza, Spain, and her team investigated the current and future stomping grounds of 86 of Europe's most invasive species, including the grey squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis) and the rose-ringed parakeet ( Psittacula krameri). They found that just one-quarter of European sites protected during the past century have been settled by any of these intruders. In addition, invasive species were rarer in older, more remote nature reserves than in recently designated or more-accessible reserves.

The authors also modelled how the invaders' distribution might change under projected global warming. They found the abundance of invaders will be 11-18% lower inside protected areas than outside them, despite certain species expanding their ranges by more than 20%.

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Nature reserves shield native species from invaders

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Europe's native animals and plants can be protected from invasive species by well-designed conservation areas. Belinda Gallardo at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology in Zaragoza, Spain, and her team investigated the current and future stomping grounds of 86 of Europe's most invasive species, including the grey squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis) and the rose-ringed parakeet ( Psittacula krameri).

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maybe not environment but hey...

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Learn more about risks of vaping and e-cigarettes here from our collections landing page.

A. Bridges and J. Raloff. " Most students wrong on risks of smoking occasionally." Science News for Students. February 4, 2015.

J. Raloff. " E-cigarettes lower immunity to flu and other germs." Science News. February 4, 2015.

J. Raloff. " E-cigarettes may inflame lungs as much as cigarettes do." Science News. Vol. 186, July 12, 2014, p. 20.

J. Raloff. " Health risks of e-cigarettes emerge." Science News. June 3, 2014.

J. Raloff. " FDA announces plans to regulate e-cigarettes and more." Science News for Students, April 24, 2014.

J. Raloff. " E-cigarette makers focus on teens." Science News for Students, April 17, 2014.

J. Raloff. " Poisonings linked to e-cigarettes." Science News for Students, April 8, 2014.

N. Seppa. " E-cigarettes don't help smokers quit, study finds." Science News. Vol. 185, May 3, 2014, p. 16.

J. Raloff. " Many teens try alternatives to cigarettes." Science News for Students, November 29, 2013.
Questions for 'Vaping may harm the lungs'

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Learn more about risks of vaping and e-cigarettes here from our collections landing page. A. Bridges and J. Raloff. " Most students wrong on risks of smoking occasionally." Science News for Students. February 4, 2015. J. Raloff. " E-cigarettes lower immunity to flu and other germs." Science News. February 4, 2015.

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You have taste buds through your whole body!

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It was an exciting day when Thomas Finger looked inside the nose of a small black mouse. Finger had borrowed the animal from another scientist. It was not your average mouse.

The mouse's genes had been changed so that the taste buds on its tongue turned green when you shined light on them - like a secret message written in secret ink.

But no one had ever looked inside its nose. When Finger finally did look there with a microscope, he saw thousands of green cells dotting the soft pink lining. "It was like looking at little green stars at night," says Finger, who is a neurobiologist at the Rocky Mountain Taste and Smell Center at the University of Colorado in Denver. (A neurobiologist studies how the nervous system develops and functions.)

Seeing that green starry sky was Finger's first glimpse of a new world. If he and other scientists are right, we don't taste things just on our tongues. Other parts of our body can also taste things - our nose, our stomach, even our lungs!

You might think of taste as something that you experience when you put chocolate in your mouth - or chicken soup, or salt. But for you to taste chocolate or chicken soup, special cells on your tongue have to tell the brain that they detected chemicals that are in the food. We have at least five kinds of these chemical-detecting cells (commonly called taste cells) on our tongues: cells that detect salt, sweet compounds, sour things, bitter things and savory things like meat or broth.

You might call these five things the primary colors of your mouth. The unique taste of every food is made up of some combination of salt, sweet, sour, bitter or savory, just as you can make any color of paint by mixing together bits of red, yellow and blue.

It's these chemical-sensing cells that scientists are now finding all over the body.

"I'll bet you that in terms of total number of cells," says Finger, "there are more [taste cells] outside the mouth than inside the mouth."

This gives us clues about other functions the sense of taste has in our bodies. It could also help scientists find new treatments for certain diseases.
Fish skin: more than a feeling
It's an exciting time for scientists who study taste. Finger spent 30 years working toward this big moment. Some of the first clues came from fish.

Back in the 1960s, scientists looking at fish skin under microscopes discovered that the outside of a fish's slippery body is dotted with thousands of funny cells shaped like bowling pins. Those funny cells look just like the chemical-detecting cells on your tongue. At the time, no one was sure what those bowling-pin cells on fish skin did. But years later, scientists found that they actually can taste. When food chemicals were sprinkled onto the fish skin, those cells sent a message to the fish brain - just like the cells on your tongue tell your brain when you taste food.

For fish, being able to taste things all over their body comes in handy. Some fish called searobins use this to find their next meal. When searobins poke their pointy fins into the mud on the seafloor, they can "taste" the worms they're looking to eat. Other fish called rocklings use these cells to sense the presence of larger fish that might want to eat them.

In these cases, the buried worms and big fish leak small amounts of chemicals into the water and mud. Taste cells on the skin of searobins and rocklings detect the chemicals (sort of the way you might be able to taste what's in the bathwater after your filthy little brother sat in the tub for a while).

As Finger studied searobins, goldfish and other wet critters, he began to wonder whether land animals like cats, mice and people could also sense taste outside of their tongues. "Why wouldn't it be a good idea?" he asks. "The more information you get from your environment, the better off you are."
Peeling mud
But finding taste cells on land animals wasn't easy. Unlike fishes', their skin is covered in a dry crust of dead cells, like the layer of cracked mud that forms as a water puddle dries. A taste cell hidden under that crust wouldn't function. It needs to come into contact with chemicals in the outside world in order to detect them. So Finger decided to look at the wetter, fishier parts of our body. He started his search deep inside the nose.

That's when he borrowed the mouse with the green taste buds - and found those green, bowling pin-shaped cells inside its nose. The cells were scattered instead of being clumped together, as they are in the tongue. But one thing was for sure: Those cells could taste.

When Finger tested them, the cells contained the same special proteins, called receptors, that your tongue uses to detect chemicals in food. Different kinds of receptors detect different kinds of chemicals - like sugars, sour things and so on. Those in the mouse's nose specialized in detecting bitter chemicals.

Since Finger's discovery of this in 2003, other scientists have found bitter-sensing taste cells inside the hundreds of branching tunnels that move air through the lungs of animals.

Some scientists have also found taste cells along the path that food travels through a person's body - a journey of at least 12 hours. From the stomach, where food is first digested, those taste cells can be found all of the way to the large intestine at the lower end. Some in your gut taste bitter things, others scout for sweet sugars.
(Not) tasting your poop
"There is an enormous number of these cells in the lower gut," notes Enrique Rozengurt, a biologist at UCLA (the University of California campus in Los Angeles) whose team first found taste cells in the gut in 2002. "Why do you have all of these receptors?" asks Rozengurt. "There are some very profound possibilities."

It might seem like a really bad idea to have taste cells beyond the tongue. In your nose, wouldn't you taste salty buggers? And wouldn't you also taste the brown gooey stuff in your large intestine - which is pretty much just poop waiting to be excreted? If we have taste cells inside our body, shouldn't we be tasting nasty stuff all day long?

No, says Finger. What you experience when your body "tastes" something depends on what part of your brain the taste cells are talking to.

When you put a bitter pill in your mouth, the cells on your tongue talk to a part of your brain called the insular cortex. This part of your brain is part of your moment-to-moment thoughts. It gets the message from your tongue - bitter! And yuck! Immediately, your face scrunches up. You want to spit the pill out.
Your inner worm
But when cells in the gut detect something bitter, they send a little telegram to a deeper, older part of the brain. Scientists call it the nucleus of the solitary tract, but you might well think of it as your inner worm.

This part of the brain takes care of simple things that a mindless worm would do: pushing food through the gut, digesting it and pooping it out. You don't have to think about those things. They just happen.

When your brain's inner worm senses the arrival of something bitter in the intestines, it tells your brain: Stop. You've eaten something bad. Get rid of it - quickly! You may suddenly feel sick, throw up, or have diarrhea. And these things happen without any conscious decisionmaking on your part.

The world is full of bad things like poisonous plants and spoiled foods. These are things that bitter-taste cells in your digestive system scout for. Says Rozengurt, they "are there to defend us against all of these harmful substances."
Bitter sneeze
Bitter-detection cells in your nose and lungs protect you in kind of the same way. Bad bacteria sometimes enter your nose or lungs.They cause infections that can make it hard to breathe. Bitter-taste cells sound an internal alarm when they detect chemicals that the bad bacteria squirt out.

That alarm signals your body to sneeze or cough the bad stuff out. Bitter-taste cells can also trigger a process that tells white blood cells to attack the unwelcome germs.

It makes sense that you'd want to get rid of nasty, bitter-tasting stuff. But your stomach and intestines also have cells that detect sweet sugars. And they send out very different messages.

It's one thing to taste sugary pancakes and syrup in your mouth, but what about along the rest of the 30 feet that your breakfast travels through the stomach and intestines?

Those other parts of your body also need to know when something sweet has arrived, says Robert Margolskee of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Cells scattered up and down your gut act as a tracking system to let your body know when the sugary food arrives at each location. "It starts things going further down in the digestive tract to digest those things," says Margolskee.

Scientists have some evidence that the gut also contains taste cells that detect meaty, savory chemicals. Like the sweet-taste cells, these probably also alert different parts of the gut to what's coming.
Taste medicines
Margolskee lent Finger those green-tongued mice in 2001. In 2009, Margolskee discovered that sugar-detecting cells of the intestine squirt out a messenger substance, called a hormone, that prepares the intestine to soak up sugars. Those hormones also let another part of the body, called the pancreas, know that sugar is on its way. The pancreas oozes out its own hormone - called insulin - that tells other parts of the body, from the muscles to the brain, to prepare for that sugar.

Making drugs that affect the gut's taste cells could help treat a common disease called diabetes. In diabetes, the rest of the body appears almost deaf to the insulin message that the pancreas sends out. So the muscles and brain don't take in much of the sugar, a major source of energy, from the blood. A drug that "turns up the sound in these gut taste cells," says Margolskee, might help the gut and the pancreas more effectively shout out to the rest of the body that sugar is coming - and to get ready.

Some people have another problem called irritable bowel syndrome. Here, food oozes through their intestines too quickly or too slowly, causing painful traffic jams. Drugs that tickle the bitter-detecting cells might help the intestine push food through more quickly and smoothly, reducing belly aches.

Just this past November, scientists made a more surprising discovery: Bitter-tasting cells in the lungs might one day help doctors treat a disease called asthma.

People with asthma have trouble breathing because the airways in their lungs close up. Now scientists have found that some bitter substances actually open those airways. And these substances do it better than one medicine that doctors frequently use to treat asthma.

It's was only the latest surprise. People who study taste outside the mouth expect more will keep on coming.

Until recently, says Rozengurt, a universe of taste sensors existed "that we were vaguely aware of, but we didn't have any clues of how to study. Now we do."
POWER WORDS
asthma A disease characterized by a difficulty in breathing, and by wheezing, coughing and constricted airways.

gut The intestine.

hormone A molecule the body produces to serve as a messenger to help the body in its basic functions.

insulin A protein hormone that helps the body get energy from fats and carbohydrates.

pancreas A gland behind the stomach that serves several functions, including releasing molecules that help with digestion and releasing insulin.

taste bud Small organs on the tongue that help mediate taste.

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It was an exciting day when Thomas Finger looked inside the nose of a small black mouse. Finger had borrowed the animal from another scientist. It was not your average mouse. The mouse's genes had been changed so that the taste buds on its tongue turned green when you shined light on them - like a secret message written in secret ink.

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Updated August 08, 2017 16:27:18

The creatures behind an alarming incident in Brighton over the weekend have been identified as amphipods, and they usually don't go around attacking people like piranhas, a Museums Victoria marine biologist says.
Melbourne teenager, Sam Kanizay, went for a half-hour-long dip at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton on Sunday and came out with his legs and feet covered in blood.
When he arrived home, still bleeding profusely from hundreds of little pinhole bites all over his legs, his father Jarrod Kanizay described the scene as "horror movie-ish".
WARNING: This story contains a graphic image showing pooling of blood.
Mr Kanizay returned to the beach with Sam's siblings the next day to see if they could collect some of the culprits.

"I went out to the same distance and same area that Sam was in, and we loaded the net up with some bloodied meat, some bones, and after 15 minutes I came out of the water," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

"We caught thousands of little mite-type characters, we took them home in the Esky, and we were playing scientists for an hour thereafter, putting them in different dishes and feeding them different things.

"What we found is they were very attracted to red meat, they went straight for it."

Marine biologist Genefor Walker-Smith has also since studied the samples Mr Kanizay collected and identified them as lysianassid amphipods, a scavenging sea creature.

"They are naturally occurring in the environment," she said.

"These animals are scavengers, they live on meat or animal matter, they've got a really keen sense of smell I suppose you'd say.

"They have chemo-receptors, so they can detect chemicals in the water and the chemicals given off by decaying meat or fish, so they're attracted to that smell.

"They occur in swarms, so they'll swarm on a dead fish and eat it in next to no time."

But she said swimmers at Melbourne's beaches were unlikely to suffer the same fate as Sam.

"It was just unlucky. It's possible he disturbed a feeding group but they are generally not out there waiting to attack like piranhas," she said.

"It's possible that he just happened to be standing quite close to a dead fish, or maybe he knocked it or touched it with his foot.

"The crustaceans would have swarmed off that piece of dead fish and unto his leg, he may have already had a cut perhaps and they were able to smell that wound or any chemicals that the wound was giving off."

She said he was probably also an easy target for the creatures because he was standing still in the water.

"His legs were numb, he couldn't feel the biting ... I think as long as you're moving around, they're unlikely to attack you," he said.

Lysianassid amphipods not venomous

Mr Kanizay said his son was still in a bit of pain after the attack, but was doing well.

"Sam's a really positive kid and remains in the great spirits and when he got home, he said 'look Dad, look what happened' and he was sort of anaesthetised by the cold water at that stage," he said.

"But throughout the process, he's been really positive and happy ... he's in good health and we expect a full recovery."

Dr Walker-Smith said the creatures were not venomous.

"It's really just that they've punctured the skin and he's bled," she said.

"It's possible that because there was so much bleeding it's indicating that they've possibly got some sort of anti-coagulant chemical that they're releasing, so a bit like when a leech bites you and it bleeds a lot, it just stops the blood clotting."

Topics: human-interest, animal-attacks, animals, animal-science, brighton-3186, vic, melbourne-3000

First posted August 07, 2017 21:13:18

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The creatures behind bloody attack on teen's legs

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Updated August 08, 2017 16:27:18 The creatures behind an alarming incident in Brighton over the weekend have been identified as amphipods, and they usually don't go around attacking people like piranhas, a Museums Victoria marine biologist says.

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The giant African land snail is a poster child of a global epidemic: the threat of invasive species. The snails are native to coastal East Africa, but are now found across Asia, the Pacific and the Americas - in fact, almost all tropical mainlands and islands except mainland Australia.

Yet, despite their fearsome reputation, our research on Christmas Island's invasive snail population suggests the risk they pose to native ecosystems has been greatly exaggerated.

Giant African land snails certainly have the classic characteristics of a successful invader: they can thrive in lots of different places; survive on a broad diet; reach reproductive age quickly; and produce more than 1,000 eggs in a lifetime. Add it all together and you have a species recognised as among the worst invaders in the world.

The snails can eat hundreds of plant species, including vegetable crops (and even calcium-rich plaster and stucco), and have been described as a major threat to agriculture.

They have been intercepted at Australian ports, and the Department of Primary Industries concurs that the snails are a " serious threat ".

Despite all this, there have been no dedicated studies of their environmental impact. Some researchers suggest the risk to agriculture has been exaggerated from accounts of damage in gardens. There are no accounts of giant African land snails destroying natural ecosystems.

REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Quietly eating leaf litter

In research recently published in the journal Austral Ecology, we tested these assumptions by investigating giant African land snails living in native rainforest on Christmas Island.

Giant African land snails have spread through Christmas Island with the help of another invasive species: the yellow crazy ant.

Until these ants showed up, abundant native red land crabs ate the giant snails before they could gain a foothold in the rainforest. Unfortunately, yellow crazy ants have completely exterminated the crabs in some parts of the island, allowing the snails to flourish.

We predicted that the snails, which eat a broad range of food, would have a significant impact on leaf litter and seedling survival.

Author provided

However, our evidence didn't support this at all. Using several different approaches - including a field experiment, lab experiment and observational study - we found giant African land snails were pretty much just eating a few dead leaves and little else.

We almost couldn't distinguish between leaf litter removal by the snails compared to natural decomposition. They were eating leaf litter, but not a lot of it.

We saw almost no impact on seedling survival, and the snails were almost never seen eating live foliage. In one lab trial, we attempted to feed snails an exclusive diet of fresh leaves, but so many of these snails died that we had to cut the experiment short. Perhaps common Christmas Island plants just aren't palatable.

It's possible that the giant African land snails are causing other problems on Christmas Island. In Florida, for example, they carry parasites that are a risk to human health. But for the key ecological processes we investigated, the snails do not create the kind of disturbance we would assume from their large numbers.

Author provided

The assumption that giant African land snails are dangerous to native plants and agriculture comes from an overriding sentiment that invasive species are damaging and must be controlled.

Do we have good data on the ecological impact of all invasive species? Of course not. Should we still try to control all abundant invasive species even if we don't have evidence they are causing harm? That's a more difficult question.

The precautionary principle drives much of the thinking behind the management of invasive species, including the giant African land snail. The cost of doing nothing is potentially very high, so it's safest to assume invasive species are having an effect (especially when they exist in high numbers).

But we should also be working hard to test these assumptions. Proper monitoring and experiments give us a true picture of the risks of action (or inaction).

In reality, the giant African land snail is more the poster child of our own knee-jerk reaction to abundant invaders.

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Who's afraid of the giant African land snail? Perhaps we shouldn't be

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The giant African land snail is a poster child of a global epidemic: the threat of invasive species. The snails are native to coastal East Africa, but are now found across Asia, the Pacific and the Americas - in fact, almost all tropical mainlands and islands except mainland Australia.

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What if there was a humane, targeted way to wipe out alien pest species such as mice, rats and rabbits, by turning their own genes on themselves so they can no longer reproduce and their population collapses?

Gene drives - a technique that involves deliberately spreading a faulty gene throughout a population - promises to do exactly that.

Conservationists are understandably excited about the possibility of using gene drives to clear islands of invasive species and allow native species to flourish.
Read more: Gene drives may cause a revolution, but safeguards and public engagement are needed.
Hype surrounding the technique continues to build, despite serious biosecurity, regulatory and ethical questions surrounding this emerging technology.

Our study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that under certain circumstances, genome editing could work.

Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Good and bad genes

The simplest way to construct a gene drive aimed at suppressing a pest population is to identify a gene that is essential for the pest species' reproduction or embryonic development. A new DNA sequence - the gene-drive "cassette" - is then inserted into that gene to disrupt its function, creating a faulty version (or "allele") of that gene.

Typically, faulty alleles would not spread through populations, because the evolutionary fitness of individuals carrying them is reduced, meaning they will be less likely than non-faulty alleles to be passed on to the next generation. But the newly developed CRISPR gene-editing technology can cheat natural selection by creating gene-drive sequences that are much more likely to be passed on to the next generation.
Read more: Now we can edit life itself, we need to ask how we should use such technology.
Here's how the trick works. The gene-drive cassette contains the genetic information to make two new products: an enzyme that cuts DNA, and a molecule called a guide RNA. These products act together as a tiny pair of molecular scissors that cuts the second (normal) copy of the target gene.

To fix the cut, the cell uses the gene drive sequence as a repair template. This results in a copy of the gene drive (and therefore the faulty gene) on both chromosomes.

This process is called "homing" and, when switched on in the egg- or sperm-producing cells of an animal, it should guarantee that almost all of their offspring inherit the gene-drive sequence.

As the gene-drive sequence spreads, mating between carriers becomes more likely, producing offspring that possess two faulty alleles and are therefore sterile or fail to develop past the embryonic stage.

Will it work?

Initial attempts to develop suppression drives will likely focus on invasive species with rapid life cycles that allow gene drives to spread rapidly. House mice are an obvious candidate because they have lots of offspring, they have been studied in great detail by biologists, and have colonised vast areas of the world, including islands.

In our study we developed a mathematical model to predict whether gene drives can realistically be used to eradicate invasive mice from islands.

Our results show that this strategy can work. We predict that a single introduction of just 100 mice carrying a gene drive could eradicate a population of 50,000 mice within four to five years.

But it will only work if the process of genetic homing - which acts to overcome natural selection - functions as planned.

Evolution fights back

Just as European rabbits in Australia have developed resistance to the viruses introduced to control them, evolution could thwart attempts to use gene drives for biocontrol.

Experiments with non-vertebrate species show that homing can fail in some circumstances. For example, the DNA break can be repaired by an alternative mechanism that stitches the broken DNA sequence back together without copying the gene-drive template. This also destroys the DNA sequence targeted by the guide RNA, producing a " resistance allele " that can never receive the gene drive.

A recent study in mosquitos estimated that resistance alleles were formed in at least 2% of homing attempts. Our simulation experiments for mice confirm this presents a serious problem.

After accounting for low failure rates during homing, the creation and spread of resistance alleles allowed the modelled populations to rebound after an initial decline in abundance. Imperfect homing therefore threatens the ability of gene drives to eradicate or even suppress pest populations.

One potential solution to this problem is to encode multiple guide RNAs within the gene-drive cassette, each targeting a different DNA sequence. This should reduce homing failure rates by allowing "multiple shots on goal", and avoiding the creation of resistance alleles in more cases.

To wipe out a population of 200,000 mice living on an island, we calculate that the gene-drive sequences would need to contain at least three different guide RNA sequences, to avoid the mice ultimately getting the better of our attempts to eradicate them.

From hype to reality

Are gene drives a hyperdrive to pest control, or just hype? Part of the answer will come from experiments with gene drives on laboratory mice (with appropriate containment). That will help to provide crucial data to inform the debate about their possible deployment.

We also need more sophisticated computer modelling to predict the impacts on non-target populations if introduced gene drives were to spread beyond the populations targeted for management. Using simulation, it will be possible to test the performance and safety of different gene-drive strategies, including strategies that involve multiple drives operating on multiple genes.

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'Gene drives' could wipe out whole populations of pests in one fell swoop

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What if there was a humane, targeted way to wipe out alien pest species such as mice, rats and rabbits, by turning their own genes on themselves so they can no longer reproduce and their population collapses? Gene drives - a technique that involves deliberately spreading a faulty gene throughout a population - promises to do exactly that.

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Updated August 02, 2017 15:41:42

The Tasmanian Government has said it is expecting strong community support for the introduction of fish farming to the state's far north west.

Offshore areas around Circular Head and King Island have been identified as possible "grow zones" in the Government's yet-to-be released Sustainable Salmon Industry Growth Plan.

Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff said it was an enormous opportunity for the area.

"This is a region that values resource-based industries, values agriculture, values the fishing industry, values aquaculture and I know values jobs in rural and regional Tasmania," he said.

Mr Rockliff said a strong regulatory framework was in place to make sure the state's natural resources were looked after.

"There is resource for everyone, tourism and aquaculture can, have done and will continue to co-exist," he said.

Petuna Aquaculture has been granted an environmental monitoring permit to explore future salmon farming near Three Hummock Island.

Petuna's acting chief executive, David Wood, said the expansion would result in about 50 jobs in the region.

"Apart from the jobs that would be be created we are taking about an investment of tens of millions of dollars to establish a farm," he said.

Mr Wood said the company would work with the local community to ensure any new development had a social licence to operate.

"Realistically, there is a lot of work to be done in terms of looking at the environment, looking at the growing conditions, looking at the community needs and concerns," he said.

"We think it's three years before you see fish in the water."

Circular Head mayor Daryl Quilliam said with the impending closure of Murray Goulburn's Edith Creek facility jobs were needed in the region.

"Fishing has always been an important industry for Circular Head ... further development would be really good for us," he said.

"Some will need to be re-trained to do these jobs."

Expanding the salmon industry to the state's north west comes as fierce debate continues over the introduction of salmon farming off Tasmania's east coast at Okehampton Bay.

Topics: fishing-aquaculture, environmental-management, stanley-7331, triabunna-7190

First posted August 02, 2017 15:23:15

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Petuna looks to expand fish farming into north-west Tasmania

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Updated August 02, 2017 15:41:42 The Tasmanian Government has said it is expecting strong community support for the introduction of fish farming to the state's far north west. Offshore areas around Circular Head and King Island have been identified as possible "grow zones" in the Government's yet-to-be released Sustainable Salmon Industry Growth Plan.

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Updated August 03, 2017 16:29:57

There is a date every year when the world's resource bank goes into overdraft.

This year, Earth Overshoot Day is marked globally on August 2. For the rest of year we're in the burning red.

It's the point when the amount of natural resources - think trees, fish and water - humanity takes from the Earth reaches the total that can be regenerated over the entire year.

It's when the amount of carbon emitted reaches the amount the forests and oceans are able to absorb.

This year it happened in seven months, according to the Global Footprint Network.

That's the earliest it's ever been and it's no thanks to Australia.

If every country in the world lived like Australia, Earth Overshoot Day would have been on March 12.

If you reckon that's not your debt, you can calculate how you are personally tracking via the Footprint calculator and then compare it to the national date.

We were at a break-even point in 1971 and even had a surplus before that (the UN started collecting this data in 1961).

Since then, the date has been creeping further from December - we're demanding more from the Earth while reducing its capacity to regenerate.

The Global Footprint Network calculates each year's overshoot day.

The equation has four main factors:

1. How much we consume

2. How efficiently products are made

3. How many of us there are

4. How much nature's ecosystems are able to produce.

According to their calculations, we're using the resources of 1.7 planets every year.

To rein in our ecological spending, we'd need to push Earth Overshoot Day back 4.5 days each year to be living within our single-planet means by 2050.

In a story for The Conversation, tutor in Sustainability Science at the University of Newcastle Bonnie McBain said it's a confusing concept, since we continue to live, while using more and more resources.

She used this analogy:

"Imagine a bathtub full of water, with the tap running and the plug out at the same time.

"It is possible for more water to flow out of the bath than into it for some time without the water in the tub running out.

"This is because the significant store of water in the bath acts like a buffer.

"The same goes for nature."

Dr McBain told the ABC there were many interweaving factors at play.

In her research, which compared future ecological footprints with research about planetary boundaries, they found that our global cropping footprint is likely to exceed the planetary boundary for land clearing between 2025 and 2035.

Yep. It could be less than 10 years away.

"If you have what we've got slow incremental changes in things so the planetary boundary, that's informed by that group of research, they were saying we can't have more than a 15 per cent increase in cropping areas ... of the global ice-free land surface," Dr McBain said.

"Generally, we don't want more than 50 percent of land turned into crop land.

"The trend is going that way so that's the concern.

"We haven't reached it yet but it's likely that it won't be long before that is reached.

"This is our opportunity to heed that warning and introduce policy ... and that's the point of the research."

Topics: climate-change, environment, energy, science-and-technology, australia

First posted August 03, 2017 14:17:56

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We've used a year's worth of Earth's resources in seven months

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Updated August 03, 2017 16:29:57 There is a date every year when the world's resource bank goes into overdraft. This year, Earth Overshoot Day is marked globally on August 2. For the rest of year we're in the burning red.

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Updated August 07, 2017 13:56:48

Melbourne researchers are calling on Australian governments and the construction industry to start putting cigarette butts into the surfaces of roads, to stop their toxic chemicals reaching rivers and oceans.

A research team from RMIT University, led by senior engineering lecturer Abbas Mohajerani, said it had found a way to mix cigarette butts in asphalt to help with road construction.

Testing showed the roads would not only be able to handle heavy traffic but the compound would also reduce heat conduction, which in turn would help reduce the urban heat common in big cities.

Most cigarette butts are not biodegradable and their toxic chemicals are released into the environment.

Around the world, 1.2 million tonnes of cigarette butt waste is created each year. That is expected to increase by more than 50 per cent by 2025 as the world's population grows.

Smokers in Melbourne put about 9 million cigarette butts into landfill each year, prompting the local council to ship some of them overseas to be turned into furniture.

In Sydney, the city council hands out free canisters for smokers to use as a personal ashtrays to discourage littering.

'We can solve the whole cigarette butt problem'

Dr Mohajerani said the study, published in the journal of Construction and Building Materials, involved the use of bitumen and paraffin wax to prevent chemicals escaping from the cigarette butts.

He said if cigarette butts were used in roads on a large scale in Australia, toxic litter could be dramatically reduced.

"Let's say for example we put 10 to 15 kilograms of cigarette butts in one cubic metre of asphalt concrete, which is 2,200kg, [the cigarette butts] don't change the structure very much," he said.

"But because the volume of asphalt concrete we are producing in Australia and in the world is huge - hundreds of thousands of cubic metres in Australia - if you add just a little bit, we can solve the whole cigarette butt problem."

Dr Mohajerani said bitumen had been used to store nuclear material in France for many years.

"The function of [cigarette] filters is to filter and trap the chemicals. There are over 4,000 chemicals in the smoke of a cigarette and most of them are trapped in the filter, and many of them are carcinogenic," he said.

"We actually saturate and encapsulate the cigarette butt, and we don't use them on the surface of the pavement, we use them in the second layer.

"The encapsulation prevents the leeching of those chemicals. The water cannot reach inside the filters so chemicals cannot escape from the filters."

An earlier study, published in the International Journal of Environment Research and Public Health, found cigarette filters were the single most collected item in beach clean-ups around the world.

It said the butts caused environmental havoc by washing from streets into drains, then making their way into rivers and oceans.

Topics: environment, environmental-health, research, recycling-and-waste-management, melbourne-3000, vic

First posted August 07, 2017 10:15:11

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How using cigarette butts in road construction could cut pollution

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More than a million tonnes of cigarette butt waste is created around the world every year - creating a massive pollution problem. Now, Melbourne researchers say they've come up with a solution, by mixing the butts into asphalt for road construction.

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Posted August 08, 2017 06:51:55

Surplus renewable energy could soon be converted to hydrogen and injected into Australia's gas networks to help decarbonise the nation's gas supply, if a trial in Adelaide proves successful.

Adelaide will next year host a trial of a new type of electrolyser, which uses electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Funded by a $5 million grant from the Federal Government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the trial would inject hydrogen in small quantities into the gas distribution network owned by Australian Gas Networks (AGN).

"It turns out you can inject hydrogen into the gas main up to at least 10 per cent of the total gas in there, perhaps quite a bit higher without any modification," ARENA's chief executive Ivor Frischknecht said.

The hydrogen would be burnt alongside the natural gas molecules in the pipeline system - in gas power plants, homes and businesses.

But unlike the fuel source the pipelines were built for, the hydrogen produces no carbon dioxide - only water vapour.

"In the future we're going to have a lot of excess renewable energy on very windy days, on very sunny days, and we're looking for useful things to do with that energy," Mr Frischknecht said.

He said the Australian-first trial of so-called "power-to-gas" technology could complement other forms of storage like batteries and pumped hydro.

"What we think that will be good for is long-term storage," Mr Frischknecht said.

"You can easily store the hydrogen for days, weeks or even months and then run it through a gas peaking plant or use it to supply other types of services like heating hot water.

"A battery is really only good for seconds to hours of storage at very most, and pumped hydro you might be looking at hours through to days."

Mr Frischknecht said the hydrogen technology is also being trialled in Germany.

"It's certainly not a new idea. The challenge is that it's expensive. But we're looking to a future where renewable energy at certain times of the day is going to be free or almost free," he said.

Forecasts from the Australian Energy Market Operator show a high uptake of rooftop solar systems and other renewable energy sources mean SA could have a surplus of power on some days within a decade.

Pilot plant to be installed in Adelaide's west

The pilot plant to be installed at AGN's Kidman Park in Adelaide depot will be designed by Wollongong based company AquaHydrex.

Managing director Paul Barrett considered hydrogen to be "an outstanding energy carrier" with the potential to connect the electricity and natural gas grids and significantly increase renewable energy's storage capacity.

"This renewable hydrogen also opens up the possibility to exporting renewable energy, which Australia - with its vast renewable resources - is well positioned to exploit," he said.

AGN chief executive officer Ben Wilson said Australia's gas infrastructure could eventually store enough hydrogen to provide as much power as six billion household lithium ion batteries.

"This provides what is for all intents and purposes a 'bottomless battery' that is already in place and capable of storing and transporting vast amounts of time-shifted renewable energy," he said.

But Mr Frischknecht warned Australia's gas pipelines and appliances would need significant modification if the system was to shift to high penetrations of hydrogen.

"Years from now, if this takes off and it makes sense to put lots of hydrogen into the gas network, then we will have to change how the network operates," he said.

"The main change is changing the burners, but at some point you also have to upgrade the gas lines."

Topics: alternative-energy, hydro-energy, solar-energy, wind-energy, environmental-technology, adelaide-5000, sa

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Hydrogen to be injected into Adelaide's gas grid in 'power-to-gas' trial

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Posted August 08, 2017 06:51:55 Surplus renewable energy could soon be converted to hydrogen and injected into Australia's gas networks to help decarbonise the nation's gas supply, if a trial in Adelaide proves successful. Adelaide will next year host a trial of a new type of electrolyser, which uses electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

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Genetically modified salmon

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Paul Darrow/NYT/Redux/eyevine

Genetically engineered salmon has reached the dinner table. AquaBounty Technologies, the company in Maynard, Massachusetts, that developed the fish, announced on 4 August that it has sold some 4.5 tonnes of its hotly debated product to customers in Canada.

The sale marks the first time that a genetically engineered animal has been sold for food on the open market. It took AquaBounty more than 25 years to get to this point.

The fish, a variety of Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar), is engineered to grow faster than its non-genetically modified counterpart, reaching market size in roughly half the time - about 18 months. AquaBounty sold its first commercial batch at market price: US$5.30 per pound ($11.70 per kilogram), says Ron Stotish, the company's chief executive. He would not disclose who bought it.

AquaBounty raised the fish in tanks in a small facility in Panama. It plans to ramp up production by expanding a site on Canada's Prince Edward Island, where local authorities gave the green light for construction in June. In the same month, the company also acquired a fish farm in Albany, Indiana; it awaits the nod from US regulators to begin production there.

The sale of the fish follows a long, hard-fought battle to navigate regulatory systems and win consumer acceptance. "Somebody's got to be first and I'm glad it was them and not me," says James West, a geneticist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who co-founded AgGenetics, a start-up company in Nashville that is engineering cattle for the dairy and beef industries. "If they had failed, it might have killed the engineered livestock industry for a generation," he says.

Swimming upstream

AquaBounty's gruelling path from scientific discovery to market terrified others working in animal biotechnology, and almost put the company out of business on several occasions. Scientists first demonstrated the fast-growing fish in 1989. They gave it a growth-hormone gene from Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), along with genetic regulatory elements from a third species, the ocean pout ( Zoarces americanus). The genetic modifications enable the salmon to produce a continuous low level of growth hormone.

AquaBounty formed around the technology in the early 1990s and approached regulators in the United States soon after. It then spent almost 25 years in regulatory limbo. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the salmon for consumption in November 2015, and Canadian authorities came to the same decision six months later. Neither country requires the salmon to be labelled as genetically engineered.

But unlike in Canada, political battles in the United States have stalled the salmon's entry into the marketplace. The law setting out the US government's budget for fiscal year 2017 includes a provision that instructs the FDA to forbid the sale of transgenic salmon until it has developed a programme to inform consumers that they are buying a genetically engineered product. Senator Lisa Murkowski (Republican, Alaska), who inserted the provision, has called AquaBounty's salmon "fake fish".

Activists in both the United States and Canada have demanded that regulators reconsider their decisions, and some have filed lawsuits. The Center for Food Safety, an environmental-advocacy group in Washington DC, sued the FDA last year in an attempt to overturn its salmon decision. The group says the agency lacks the legal authority to oversee genetically engineered animals, and that it made its decision without fully considering the environmental risks.

The announcement that AquaBounty's fish are landing on Canadian tables is sure to dredge up opposition, says Stotish. He argues that the genetically engineered fish are good for the economy - attractive because they can be grown near metropolitan areas rather than being flown in from overseas, bringing salmon-farming jobs back to the United States and Canada. And because the AquaBounty salmon are grown in tanks, he adds, they don't encounter many of the pathogens and parasites that often afflict salmon raised in sea cages.

"I think the larger market is viewing it as a more predictable, sustainable source of salmon," Stotish says. "As a first sale this was very positive and encouraging for us."

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First genetically engineered salmon sold in Canada

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Paul Darrow/NYT/Redux/eyevine Genetically engineered salmon has reached the dinner table. AquaBounty Technologies, the company in Maynard, Massachusetts, that developed the fish, announced on 4 August that it has sold some 4.5 tonnes of its hotly debated product to customers in Canada.

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Ravens can plan ahead and barter for food

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Ravens can plan ahead and barter for food

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The clever corvids show cognitive abilities that were believed to exist only in primates, according to a new study.

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Fish pretend it's night to cope with warming oceans

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Fish pretend it's night to cope with warming oceans

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A Great Barrier Reef resident reveals a surprising strategy for surviving climate change. April Reese reports.

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Rising CO2 is making the world's plants more water-wise

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Land plants are absorbing 17% more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere now than 30 years ago, our research published today shows. Equally extraordinarily, our study also shows that the vegetation is hardly using any extra water to do it, suggesting that global change is causing the world's plants to grow in a more water-efficient way.

Water is the most precious resource needed for plants to grow, and our research suggests that vegetation is becoming much better at using it in a world in which CO₂ levels continue to rise.

The ratio of carbon uptake to water loss by ecosystems is what we call "water use efficiency", and it is one of the most important variables when studying these ecosystems.

Our confirmation of a global trend of increasing water use efficiency is a rare piece of good news when it comes to the consequences of global environmental change. It will strengthen plants' vital role as global carbon sinks, improve food production, and might boost water availability for the well-being of society and the natural world.

Yet more efficient water use by the world's plants will not solve our current or future water scarcity problems.

Boosting carbon uptake

Plants growing in today's higher-CO₂ conditions can take up more carbon - the so-called CO₂ fertilisation effect. This is the main reason why the terrestrial biosphere has taken up 17% more carbon over the past 30 years.

The enhanced carbon uptake is consistent with the global greening trend observed by satellites, and the growing global land carbon sink which removes about one-third of all CO₂ emissions generated by human activities.

Increasing carbon uptake typically comes at a cost. To let CO₂ in, plants have to open up pores called stomata in their leaves, which in turn allows water to sneak out. Plants thus need to strike a balance between taking up carbon to build new leaves, stems and roots, while minimising water loss in the process. This has led to sophisticated adaptations that has allowed many plant species to conquer a range of arid environments.

One such adaptation is to close the stomata slightly to allow CO₂ to enter with less water getting out. Under increasing atmospheric CO₂, the overall result is that CO₂ uptake increases while water consumption does not. This is exactly what we have found on a global scale in our new study. In fact, we found that rising CO₂ levels are causing the world's plants to become more water-wise, almost everywhere, whether in dry places or wet ones.

Growth hotspots

We used a combination of plot-scale water flux and atmospheric measurements, and satellite observations of leaf properties, to develop and test a new water use efficiency model. The model enables us to scale up from leaf water use efficiency anywhere in the world to the entire globe.

We found that across the globe, boreal and tropical forests are particularly good at increasing ecosystem water use efficiency and uptake of CO₂. That is due in large part to the CO₂ fertilisation effect and the increase in the total amount of leaf surface area.

Importantly, both types of forests are critical in limiting the rise in atmospheric CO₂ levels. Intact tropical forest removes more atmospheric CO₂ than any other type of forest, and the boreal forests of the planet's far north hold vast amounts of carbon particularly in their organic soils.

Meanwhile, for the semi-arid ecosystems of the world, increased water savings are a big deal. We found that Australian ecosystems, for example, are increasing their carbon uptake, especially in the northern savannas. This trend may not have been possible without an increase in ecosystem water use efficiency.

Previous studies have also shown how increased water efficiency is greening semi-arid regions and may have contributed to an increase in carbon capture in semi-arid ecosystems in Australia, Africa and South America.

CREDIT, Author provided

It's not all good news

These trends will have largely positive outcomes for the plants and the animals (and humans) consuming them. Wood production, bioenergy and crop growth are (and will be) less water-intensive under climate change than they would be without increased vegetation water use efficiency.

But despite these trends, water scarcity will nevertheless continue to constrain carbon sinks, food production and socioeconomic development.

Some studies have suggested that the water savings could also lead to increased runoff and therefore excess water availability. For dry Australia, however, more than half (64%) of the rainfall returning to the atmosphere does not go through vegetation, but through direct soil evaporation. This reduces the potential benefit from increased vegetation water use efficiency and the possibility for more water flowing to rivers and reservoirs. In fact, a recent study shows that while semi-arid regions in Australia are greening, they are also consuming more water, causing river flows to fall by 24-28%.

Our research confirms that plants all over the world are likely to benefit from these increased water savings. However, the question of whether this will translate to more water availability for conservation or for human consumption is much less clear, and will probably vary widely from region to region.

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Rising carbon dioxide is making the world's plants more water-wise

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Land plants are absorbing 17% more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere now than 30 years ago, our research published today shows. Equally extraordinarily, our study also shows that the vegetation is hardly using any extra water to do it, suggesting that global change is causing the world's plants to grow in a more water-efficient way.

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How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate

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This is an edited extract from Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power and Clean Up the World by Tim Flannery, published by Text Publishing.
Bren Smith, an ex-industrial trawler man, operates a farm in Long Island Sound, near New Haven, Connecticut. Fish are not the focus of his new enterprise, but rather kelp and high-value shellfish. The seaweed and mussels grow on floating ropes, from which hang baskets filled with scallops and oysters. The technology allows for the production of about 40 tonnes of kelp and a million bivalves per hectare per year.

The kelp draw in so much carbon dioxide that they help de-acidify the water, providing an ideal environment for shell growth. The CO₂ is taken out of the water in much the same way that a land plant takes CO₂ out of the air. But because CO₂ has an acidifying effect on seawater, as the kelp absorb the CO₂ the water becomes less acid. And the kelp itself has some value as a feedstock in agriculture and various industrial purposes.

After starting his farm in 2011, Smith lost 90% of his crop twice - when the region was hit by hurricanes Irene and Sandy - but he persisted, and now runs a profitable business.

His team at 3D Ocean Farming believe so strongly in the environmental and economic benefits of their model that, in order to help others establish similar operations, they have established a not-for-profit called Green Wave. Green Wave's vision is to create clusters of kelp-and-shellfish farms utilising the entire water column, which are strategically located near seafood transporting or consumption hubs.

Read more: Seaweed could hold the key to cutting methane emissions from cow burps

The general concepts embodied by 3D Ocean Farming have long been practised in China, where over 500 square kilometres of seaweed farms exist in the Yellow Sea. The seaweed farms buffer the ocean's growing acidity and provide ideal conditions for the cultivation of a variety of shellfish. Despite the huge expansion in aquaculture, and the experiences gained in the United States and China of integrating kelp into sustainable marine farms, this farming methodology is still at an early stage of development.

Yet it seems inevitable that a new generation of ocean farming will build on the experiences gained in these enterprises to develop a method of aquaculture with the potential not only to feed humanity, but to play a large role in solving one of our most dire issues - climate change.

Globally, around 12 million tonnes of seaweed is grown and harvested annually, about three-quarters of which comes from China. The current market value of the global crop is between US$5 billion and US$5.6 billion, of which US$5 billion comes from sale for human consumption. Production, however, is expanding very rapidly.

Seaweeds can grow very fast - at rates more than 30 times those of land-based plants. Because they de-acidify seawater, making it easier for anything with a shell to grow, they are also the key to shellfish production. And by drawing CO₂ out of the ocean waters (thereby allowing the oceans to absorb more CO₂ from the atmosphere) they help fight climate change.

The stupendous potential of seaweed farming as a tool to combat climate change was outlined in 2012 by the University of the South Pacific's Dr Antoine De Ramon N'Yeurt and his team. Their analysis reveals that if 9% of the ocean were to be covered in seaweed farms, the farmed seaweed could produce 12 gigatonnes per year of biodigested methane which could be burned as a substitute for natural gas. The seaweed growth involved would capture 19 gigatonnes of CO₂. A further 34 gigatonnes per year of CO₂ could be taken from the atmosphere if the methane is burned to generate electricity and the CO₂ generated captured and stored. This, they say:

...could produce sufficient biomethane to replace all of today's needs in fossil-fuel energy, while removing 53 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year from the atmosphere... This amount of biomass could also increase sustainable fish production to potentially provide 200 kilograms per year, per person, for 10 billion people. Additional benefits are reduction in ocean acidification and increased ocean primary productivity and biodiversity.

Nine per cent of the world's oceans is not a small area. It is equivalent to about four and a half times the area of Australia. But even at smaller scales, kelp farming has the potential to substantially lower atmospheric CO₂, and this realisation has had an energising impact on the research and commercial development of sustainable aquaculture. But kelp farming is not solely about reducing CO₂. In fact, it is being driven, from a commercial perspective, by sustainable production of high-quality protein.

Daniel Poloha/shutterstock.com

What might a kelp farming facility of the future look like? Dr Brian von Hertzen of the Climate Foundation has outlined one vision: a frame structure, most likely composed of a carbon polymer, up to a square kilometre in extent and sunk far enough below the surface (about 25 metres) to avoid being a shipping hazard. Planted with kelp, the frame would be interspersed with containers for shellfish and other kinds of fish as well. There would be no netting, but a kind of free-range aquaculture based on providing habitat to keep fish on location. Robotic removal of encrusting organisms would probably also be part of the facility. The marine permaculture would be designed to clip the bottom of the waves during heavy seas. Below it, a pipe reaching down to 200-500 metres would bring cool, nutrient-rich water to the frame, where it would be reticulated over the growing kelp.

Von Herzen's objective is to create what he calls "permaculture arrays" - marine permaculture at a scale that will have an impact on the climate by growing kelp and bringing cooler ocean water to the surface. His vision also entails providing habitat for fish, generating food, feedstocks for animals, fertiliser and biofuels. He also hopes to help exploited fish populations rebound and to create jobs. "Given the transformative effect that marine permaculture can have on the ocean, there is much reason for hope that permaculture arrays can play a major part in globally balancing carbon," he says.

The addition of a floating platform supporting solar panels, facilities such as accommodation (if the farms are not fully automated), refrigeration and processing equipment tethered to the floating framework would enhance the efficiency and viability of the permaculture arrays, as well as a dock for ships carrying produce to market.

Given its phenomenal growth rate, the kelp could be cut on a 90-day rotation basis. It's possible that the only processing required would be the cutting of the kelp from the buoyancy devices and the disposal of the fronds overboard to sink. Once in the ocean depths, the carbon the kelp contains is essentially out of circulation and cannot return to the atmosphere.

The deep waters of the central Pacific are exceptionally still. A friend who explores mid-ocean ridges in a submersible once told me about filleting a fish for dinner, then discovering the filleted remains the next morning, four kilometres down and directly below his ship. So it's likely that the seaweed fronds would sink, at least initially, though gases from decomposition may later cause some to rise if they are not consumed quickly. Alternatively, the seaweed could be converted to biochar to produce energy and the char pelletised and discarded overboard. Char, having a mineralised carbon structure, is likely to last well on the seafloor. Likewise, shells and any encrusting organisms could be sunk as a carbon store.

Once at the bottom of the sea three or more kilometres below, it's likely that raw kelp, and possibly even to some extent biochar, would be utilised as a food source by bottom-dwelling bacteria and larger organisms such as sea cucumbers. Provided that the decomposing material did not float, this would not matter, because once sunk below about one kilometre from the surface, the carbon in these materials would effectively be removed from the atmosphere for at least 1,000 years. If present in large volumes, however, decomposing matter may reduce oxygen levels in the surrounding seawater.

Large volumes of kelp already reach the ocean floor. Storms in the North Atlantic may deliver enormous volumes of kelp - by some estimates as much as 7 gigatonnes at a time - to the 1.8km-deep ocean floor off the Bahamian Shelf.

Submarine canyons may also convey large volumes at a more regular rate to the deep ocean floor. The Carmel Canyon, off California, for example, exports large volumes of giant kelp to the ocean depths, and 660 major submarine canyons have been documented worldwide, suggesting that canyons play a significant role in marine carbon transport.

These natural instances of large-scale sequestration of kelp in the deep ocean offer splendid opportunities to investigate the fate of kelp, and the carbon it contains, in the ocean. They should prepare us well in anticipating any negative or indeed positive impacts on the ocean deep of offshore kelp farming.

Only entrepreneurs with vision and deep pockets could make such mid-ocean kelp farming a reality. But of course where there are great rewards, there are also considerable risks. One obstacle potential entrepreneurs need not fear, however, is bureaucratic red tape, for much of the mid-oceans remain a global commons. If a global carbon price is ever introduced, the exercise of disposing of the carbon captured by the kelp would transform that part of the business from a small cost to a profit generator. Even without a carbon price, the opportunity to supply huge volumes of high-quality seafood at the same time as making a substantial impact on the climate crisis are considerable incentives for investment in seaweed farming.

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How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate

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This is an edited extract from Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power and Clean Up the World by Tim Flannery, published by Text Publishing. Bren Smith, an ex-industrial trawler man, operates a farm in Long Island Sound, near New Haven, Connecticut.

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If we stopped emitting greenhouse gases right now, would we stop climate change

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Best-case scenario, how much are we locked into? Kletr/Shutterstock.com

Earth's climate is changing rapidly. We know this from billions of observations, documented in thousands of journal papers and texts and summarized every few years by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The primary cause of that change is the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and natural gas.

One of the goals of the international Paris Agreement on climate change is to limit the increase of the global surface average air temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, compared to preindustrial times. There is a further commitment to strive to limit the increase to 1.5℃.

Earth has already, essentially, reached the 1℃ threshold. Despite the avoidance of millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions through use of renewable energy, increased efficiency and conservation efforts, the rate of increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remains high.

International plans on how to deal with climate change are painstakingly difficult to cobble together and take decades to work out. Most climate scientists and negotiators were dismayed by President Trump's announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

But setting aside the politics, how much warming are we already locked into? If we stop emitting greenhouse gases right now, why would the temperature continue to rise?

Basics of carbon and climate

The carbon dioxide that accumulates in the atmosphere insulates the surface of the Earth. It's like a warming blanket that holds in heat. This energy increases the average temperature of the Earth's surface, heats the oceans and melts polar ice. As consequences, sea level rises and weather changes.

Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, and Climateguide.fi, CC BY-ND

Since 1880, after carbon dioxide emissions took off with the Industrial Revolution, the average global temperature has increased. With the help of internal variations associated with the El Niño weather pattern, we've already experienced months more than 1.5℃ above the average. Sustained temperatures beyond the 1℃ threshold are imminent. Each of the last three decades has been warmer than the preceding decade, as well as warmer than the entire previous century.

The North and South poles are warming much faster than the average global temperature. Ice sheets in both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting. Ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting and the permafrost is thawing. In 2017, there's been a stunning decrease in Antarctic sea ice, reminiscent of the 2007 decrease in the Arctic.

Ecosystems on both land and in the sea are changing. The observed changes are coherent and consistent with our theoretical understanding of the Earth's energy balance and simulations from models that are used to understand past variability and to help us think about the future.

NASA, CC BY

Slam on the climate brakes

What would happen to the climate if we were to stop emitting carbon dioxide today, right now? Would we return to the climate of our elders?

The simple answer is no. Once we release the carbon dioxide stored in the fossil fuels we burn, it accumulates in and moves among the atmosphere, the oceans, the land and the plants and animals of the biosphere. The released carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Only after many millennia will it return to rocks, for example, through the formation of calcium carbonate - limestone - as marine organisms' shells settle to the bottom of the ocean. But on time spans relevant to humans, once released the carbon dioxide is in our environment essentially forever. It does not go away, unless we, ourselves, remove it.

In order to stop the accumulation of heat, we would have to eliminate not just carbon dioxide emissions, but all greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide. We'd also need to reverse deforestation and other land uses that affect the Earth's energy balance (the difference between incoming energy from the sun and what's returned to space). We would have to radically change our agriculture. If we did this, it would eliminate additional planetary warming, and limit the rise of air temperature. Such a cessation of warming is not possible.

So if we stop emitting carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels today, it's not the end of the story for global warming. There's a delay in air-temperature increase as the atmosphere catches up with all the heat that the Earth has accumulated. After maybe 40 more years, scientists hypothesize the climate will stabilize at a temperature higher than what was normal for previous generations.

This decades-long lag between cause and effect is due to the long time it takes to heat the ocean's huge mass. The energy that is held in the Earth by increased carbon dioxide does more than heat the air. It melts ice; it heats the ocean. Compared to air, it's harder to raise the temperature of water; it takes time - decades. However, once the ocean temperature is elevated, it will release heat back to the air, and be measured as surface heating.

Scientists run thought experiments to help think through the complex processes of emissions reductions and limits to warming. One experiment held forcing, or the effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's energy balance, to year 2000 levels, which implies a very low rate of continued emissions. It found as the oceans' heating catches up with the atmosphere, the Earth's temperature would rise about another 0.6℃. Scientists refer to this as committed warming. Ice, also responding to increasing heat in the ocean, will continue to melt. There's already convincing evidence that significant glaciers in the West Antarctic ice sheets are lost. Ice, water and air - the extra heat held on the Earth by carbon dioxide affects them all. That which has melted will stay melted - and more will melt.

Ecosystems are altered by natural and human-made occurrences. As they recover, it will be in a different climate from that in which they evolved. The climate in which they recover will not be stable; it will be continuing to warm. There will be no new normal, only more change.

Best of the worst-case scenarios

In any event, it's not possible to stop emitting carbon dioxide right now. Despite significant advances in renewable energy sources, total demand for energy accelerates and carbon dioxide emissions increase. As a professor of climate and space sciences, I teach my students they need to plan for a world 4℃ warmer. A 2011 report from the International Energy Agency states that if we don't get off our current path, then we're looking at an Earth 6℃ warmer. Even now after the Paris Agreement, the trajectory is essentially the same. It's hard to say we're on a new path until we see a peak and then a downturn in carbon emissions. With the approximately 1℃ of warming we've already seen, the observed changes are already disturbing.

There are many reasons we need to eliminate our carbon dioxide emissions. The climate is changing rapidly; if that pace is slowed, the affairs of nature and human beings can adapt more readily. The total amount of change, including sea-level rise, can be limited. The further we get away from the climate that we've known, the more unreliable the guidance from our models and the less likely we will be able to prepare.

It's possible that even as emissions decrease, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will continue to increase. The warmer the planet gets, the less carbon dioxide the ocean can absorb. Rising temperatures in the polar regions make it more likely that carbon dioxide and methane, another greenhouse gas that warms the planet, will be released from storage in the frozen land and ocean reservoirs, adding to the problem.

If we stop our emissions today, we won't go back to the past. The Earth will warm. And since the response to warming is more warming through feedbacks associated with melting ice and increased atmospheric water vapor, our job becomes one of limiting the warming. If greenhouse gas emissions are eliminated quickly enough, within a small number of decades, it will keep the warming manageable and the Paris Agreement goals could be met. It will slow the change - and allow us to adapt. Rather than trying to recover the past, we need to be thinking about best possible futures.
Richard B. Rood, Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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If we stopped emitting greenhouse gases right now, would we stop climate change?

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Earth's climate is changing rapidly. We know this from billions of observations, documented in thousands of journal papers and texts and summarized every few years by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The primary cause of that change is the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and natural gas.