“Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth’s oceans, caused by their uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.18 to 8.1. PH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a solution.” Read […]
WASHINGTON — A 22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, where it will probably loiter for months or more, scientists reported Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume from the BP spill. Read the August 19, 2010 Associated Press article
ST. PETERSBURG — Far from being gone, the oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster appears to still be causing ecological damage in the Gulf of Mexico, according to new findings from University of South Florida scientists. Read the St. Petersburg Times article
WASHINGTON — A newly discovered type of oil-eating microbe is suddenly flourishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Read the August 24, 2010 Associated Press article
It’s the biggest environmental disaster in American history – and BP is making it worse Read the August 5, 2010 Rolling Stone article
A few million dollars invested by governments in restoring nature could prevent far greater losses of the free services that ecosystems provide to people around the world, a U.N. report said on Thursday. Read the Reuters article
Coral populations in the Gulf of Mexico could fall because of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster—from contact not with oil but with the dispersant that’s supposed to get rid of it. Read the New Scientist article
ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2010) — Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have created the first frozen bank for Hawaiian corals in an attempt to protect them from extinction and to preserve their diversity in Hawaii. Read the full article
“Nature has provided Sydney scientists with a brilliant underwater palette of colours that will help cancer research.” Read the Sydney Morning Herald August 14, 2010 article