: Water Crisis in Asia

: Water Crisis in Asia

: NOAA Reopens More than 4,000 Square Miles of Closed Gulf Fishing Area

: NOAA Reopens More than 4,000 Square Miles of Closed Gulf Fishing Area

Tiny Antarctic creatures hint at sea level rise

(Reuters) - Tiny marine creatures found on the seabed on opposite sides of the vast West Antarctic ice sheet give a strong hint of the risks of sea level rise caused by climate change, scientists said Tuesday.

The discovery of very similar colonies of bryozoans, animals that anchor themselves to the seabed, in both the Ross and Weddell Seas are a clue that the ice sheet once thawed and the seas were once linked, they said.

West Antarctica holds enough ice to raise world sea levels by between 3.5 and 5 meters (11-16 ft) if the sheet collapsed. Some scientists believe it may have vanished during a natural warm period within the last few hundred thousand years.

"It was a very big surprise," said David Barnes, lead author of the study at the British Antarctic Survey, of the find of similar bryozoans 2,400 km (1,500 miles) apart in seas on either side of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which is 2 km thick.

"The most likely explanation of such similarity is that this ice sheet is much less stable than previously thought and has collapsed at some point in the recent past," he told Reuters.

"And if the West Antarctic ice shelf has been lost in recent times we have to re-think the possibility of loss in future with climate change," he said.

The bryozoans, sometimes called moss animals, are often microscopic as individuals but form colonies that can look like corals or some seaweeds. Those found were unlike others around the current coast of Antarctica.

Acidifying oceans spell bleak marine biological future 'by end of century', Mediterranean research finds

ScienceDaily (2010-08-25) -- A unique 'natural laboratory' in the Mediterranean Sea is revealing the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels on life in the oceans. The results show a bleak future for marine life as ocean acidity rises, and suggest that similar lowering of ocean pH levels may have been responsible for massive extinctions in the past.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825093651.htm

: New Findings on Carbon Dioxide Release from World's Oceans

: New Findings on Carbon Dioxide Release from World's Oceans