Hunting tourism in Estonia in decline over past decade
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NASA-Funded Studies Explain How Climate Is Changing Earth’s Rotation
Earth’s Water Is Rapidly Losing Oxygen, And The Danger Is Huge
ENVIRONMENT19 July 2024
https://www.sciencealert.com/earths-water-is-rapidly-losing-oxygen-and-the-danger-is-huge
(Colors and shapes of underwater world/Getty Images)
Supplies of dissolved oxygen in bodies of water across the globe are dwindling rapidly, and scientists say it’s one of the greatest risks to Earth’s life support system.
Just as atmospheric oxygen is vital for animals like ourselves, dissolved oxygen (DO) in water is essential for healthy aquatic ecosystems, whether freshwater or marine. With billions of people relying on marine and freshwater habitats for food and income, it’s concerning these ecosystems’ oxygen has been substantially and rapidly declining.
A team of scientists is proposing that aquatic deoxygenation be added to the list of ‘planetary boundaries‘, which in its latest form describes nine domains that impose thresholds “within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.”
So far, the planetary boundaries are climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, interference with the global phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, rate of biodiversity loss, global freshwater use, land-system change, aerosol loading, and chemical pollution.
A team led by freshwater ecologist Kevin Rose from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US is concerned that this list overlooks one of the Earth’s most important limits.
“The observed deoxygenation of the Earth’s freshwater and marine ecosystems represents an additional planetary boundary process,” the authors write, “that is critical to the integrity of Earth’s ecological and social systems, and both regulates and responds to ongoing changes in other planetary boundary processes.
“Relevant, critical oxygen thresholds are being approached at rates comparable to other planetary boundary processes.”
The concentration of dissolved oxygen in water drops for a number of reasons. Warmer waters can’t hold as much dissolved oxygen, for instance, and with greenhouse gas emissions continuing to raise air and water temperatures above their long-term averages, surface waters are becoming less able to hold on to this vital element.
Dissolved oxygen can also be depleted by aquatic life faster than it is replenished by the ecosystem’s producers. Algal blooms and bacterial booms triggered by an influx of organic matter and nutrients in the form of agricultural and domestic fertilizers, sewage, and industrial waste, quickly soak up available dissolved oxygen.
In the worst cases, the oxygen becomes so depleted that the microbes suffocate and die, often taking larger species with them. Populations of microbe that don’t rely on oxygen then feed on the bounty of dead organic material, growing to a density that reduces light and limits photosynthesis to trap the entire water body in a vicious, suffocating cycle called eutrophication.
Aquatic deoxygenation is also driven by an increase in the density difference between layers in the water column. This increase can be attributed to surface waters warming faster than deeper waters and melting ice decreasing surface salinity in the oceans.
The more distinctly defined those layers are, the less movement there is between those layers of the water column, which the vertical strata of underwater life relies upon. These density fluctuations power the movement of oxygenated surface water into the deep, and without this temperature-powered freight, ventilation in the lower depths of aquatic environments grinds to a halt.
All this has wrought havoc on aquatic ecosystems, many of which our own species rely on for our own food, water, incomes, and wellbeing.
The paper’s authors call for a concerted, global effort to monitor and research deoxygenation of the ‘blue’ parts of our planet, along with policy efforts to prevent rapid deoxygenation and the associated challenges we are already beginning to face.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient runoff and organic carbon inputs (for example, raw sewage loading) would slow or potentially reverse deoxygenation,” they write.
“The expansion of the planetary boundaries framework to include deoxygenation as a boundary [will help] to focus those efforts.”
This paper was published as a Perspective in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
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Washington officials will vote to remove gray wolf from endangered species list
https://www.aol.com/washington-officials-vote-remove-gray-154308349.html
SYDNEY BORCHERS
July 19, 2024 at 8:43 AM
The gray wolf population in Washington may no longer be considered to be endangered.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is preparing to take a vote that may result in the removal of gray wolves from the state’s endangered list.
“The status of species listed as endangered, threatened, or sensitive is supposed to be reviewed every five years by WDFW staff through what we call a periodic status review (PSR) process to assess available species information and recommend whether the species’ status warrants its current listing or if a reclassification is recommended,” Staci Lehman, communications manager for the WDFW told Fox News Digital in an email.
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Based on the current status of the species, the population could be reclassified to the list of sensitive species and taken off the state’s endangered list.
This reclassification comes after more than a decade of data trends based on a population model developed at the University of Washington, according to a WDFW press release.
An animal is considered to be “state endangered” when it is “seriously threatened with extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range within the state,” the WDFW continued.
Sensitive species is defined as “vulnerable or declining and likely to become endangered or threatened in a significant portion of its range within the state without cooperative management or removal of threats.”
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The state department extended the public’s comment period regarding the proposal to reclassify wolves to early May and the commission meeting in which a decision on reclassification will be proposed today, Lehman noted.
While the wolf population will be relabeled, the WDFW will continue to manage the wolves, “with a focus on reducing conflict between wolves and livestock, emphasizing proactive nonlethal conflict deterrence, achieving statewide recovery objectives, and supporting wolf expansion into all suitable habitat statewide,” the press release continued.
For the past 14 years, the wolf population in Washington has continued to increase each year — it went up 20% from 2023-2024.
Two hundred and sixty wolves in 42 packs across Washington were reported last year, according to data collected by the WDFW.
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While the Washington gray wolf population was “virtually eliminated” in the 1930s, there was a significant rebound beginning in 2008.
In April, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list, the Associated Press reported.
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This would mark the first time in Washington that gray wolves will no longer be classified as endangered since the animal initially received state protection in 1980, according to the WDFW.
“Wolves were first listed as endangered by the Washington Department of Game in 1980 because of their historical occurrence in the state and subsequent extirpation,” the WDFW said.
Original article source: Washington officials will vote to remove gray wolf from endangered species list
There is no justification for trophy hunting
Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation says we should all strive for ethically acceptable ways to deliver effective conservation and sustainable livelihoodsFri 19 Jul 2024 12.31
Your article exposes the schism between trophy hunting advocates and the numerous scientists, conservationists and community representatives who oppose it (Trophy hunter killings spark fierce battle over the future of super tusker elephants, 8 July).
However, it states that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) concluded in 2017 that there is “substantial evidence” that trophy hunting produces positive outcomes for wildlife conservation. I don’t think this is the case.
The Born Free Foundation (an IUCN member) asked the IUCN for its position on trophy hunting in 2020. The acting director general, Dr Grethel Aguilar, confirmed that “while different IUCN constituents have differing views on this issue, as an organisation IUCN has not adopted a policy in favour of or against trophy hunting”.
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The IUCN world commission for environmental law and ethics specialist group also concluded that “trophy hunting is not consistent with ‘sustainable use’”, and that “any other view would threaten IUCN’s credibility for providing moral and ethical leadership in conservation policies”.
The quote attributed to the IUCN more accurately reflects the views of the 11 authors of an article entitled The Baby and the Bathwater: Trophy Hunting, Conservation and Rural Livelihoods.
The nine authors, some of whom are members of the IUCN species survival commission’s sustainable use and livelihoods specialist group – which, to be clear, may not represent itself as the IUCN – argue that trophy hunting is a conservation activity, frustrating the UK parliament’s longstanding intention to introduce a prohibition on the import of trophies from threatened species – a commitment reiterated by the new government.
While some IUCN members cleave to trophy hunting – an elitist, colonial anachronism – we should all strive for ethically acceptable ways to deliver effective conservation, sustainable livelihoods and financial benefits for those who live alongside wildlife. I will welcome the day when the UK refuses the import of trophies from threatened species and ends the killing of wild animals – including “super tuskers” – for “fun”.
Will Travers
Co-founder, Born Free Foundation
Exposing the Big Game 