Climate change: 'Wetlands vital to protect cities'

By Navin Singh Khadka
Environment Correspondent, BBC World Service
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Cities around the world are frequently flooding during extreme weather, largely because they are fast losing the wetlands that work as a natural defence, experts warn.

Wetlands are ecosystems like lakes, rivers, marshes and peatlands, as well as coastal marine areas including mangroves and coral reefs.

The experts say wetlands work as a giant sponge that soaks up and stores extra rainfall and water from storm surges.

Conservation of these water bodies in urban areas was the focus of an international meeting on wetlands that concluded in Dubai on Monday.

Disappearing wetlands

The warning follows an alarming recent report that the world's wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests.

The recent study by the global wetland convention found that nearly 35% of the world's wetlands were lost between 1970 and 2015.

Latin America has seen the highest rate of loss - nearly 60% in that period - while Africa lost 42%, according to the report.

Urban encroachment

To safeguard flood control and other benefits, the international meeting on wetlands has launched accreditation for cities that conserve wetlands.

Under this scheme, 18 cities around the world have so far been recognised as conserving their wetlands.

Expanding cities frequently encroach on wetlands because they are often viewed as wasteland to be used for other purposes, such as dumping sites.

About half of the world's population today lives in urban areas and the figure is expected to increase to nearly 70% by 2050.

"The idea of accreditation for cities is to make them realise the value of wetlands and to integrate them into urban planning," Lew Young, a wetland expert with the Wetland Convention, told the BBC.

"On the top of the list of benefits of having wetlands is an increased resilience against natural disasters, including Tsunamis."

Cities at risk

Scientists have long warned that climate change will bring extreme rainfall and powerful sea-storms that could flood cities.

They say lakes, marshlands and river-floodplains absorb excess rainfall, while saltmarshes and mangroves work as a buffer against storm surges.

Some experts also claim inland wetlands are five times more economically valuable than tropical forests.

They provide - directly or indirectly - almost all of the world's supply of freshwater, and so are critical to human and planet life.

The recent report by the Wetland Convention said more than one billion people depended on them for a living, and 40% of the world's plant and animal species lived and bred in wetlands.

The convention warned, however, that wetlands remained dangerously undervalued by policy and decision-makers in countries' national plans.

Pollution threatens the future of killer whales

By Jonathan Amos and Victoria Gill
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Killer whales are in deep trouble because of persistent chemical pollution in the environment, researchers say.

A new study suggests the long-term viability of more than half of the different orca groups around the globe is now in question.

Some populations, such as those around the UK, the Strait of Gibraltar, off Brazil, Japan and California, are almost certainly doomed.

The assessment is in Science magazine.

The issue is polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

These chemical compounds were once manufactured in vast quantities, and used in everything from plastics and paints to electrical equipment and sealants. But they are highly toxic and although banned decades ago have amassed in the environment, leaching into the ocean.

Killer whales, or orcas, are top predators so they absorb all the PCB pollution taken in by the different prey in their food chain - from fish, right up to seals and sharks.

The PCBs stunt the ovaries of female orcas, limiting their ability to produce calves. The chemicals also suppress the immune system.

• A last refuge for European orcas

• 'Shocking' pollutant levels in UK whale

• Banned chemicals persist in deep ocean

What is the outlook for orcas?

The new study models the future of the killer whales' reproductive success and survivability against the chemical challenge.

For those populations living in clean waters, it is positive. Orcas in places like the Antarctic and the Arctic should increase their numbers.

But for those living in the most polluted seas, the next 30-50 years will be grim.

The killer whales that live on the west coast of Scotland, for example, are now down to just eight individuals and they have not produced a calf in more than 20 years.

Paul Jepson, from the Zoological Society of London, says this group will "disappear in my lifetime".

"Over 50% of the populations that we've got data for will actually collapse in our model," he told the BBC's Science In Action programme.

"PCBs are such highly toxic chemicals, and they persist in the environment. And it's the killer whales that have by a long way the highest exposures now of any species on Earth; certainly any mammalian species."

The Scottish orcas have been found to be heavily contaminated.

The curse of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyls were manufactured from the 1920s

• Banned in the US in 1979, the UK in 1981 and the rest of the EU

• Europe produced some 300,000 tonnes from 1954 to 1984

• The majority has yet to be destroyed or safely stored away

• PCBs were popular in coolant fluids in electrical apparatus

• They were used in building construction, especially in sealants

• Also in cutting fluids for machining, and carbonless copy paper

• Today, only North Korea still manufactures polychlorinated biphenyls

Why are the animals so exposed?

Everything in this story works against the killer whales.

Not only do they accumulate contaminants because of their position as top predators, but the toxic effects hit them where they are particularly vulnerable - in their ability to reproduce.

These are animals that take a long time to reach sexual maturity and even then have perhaps one calf every few years. This puts very precise pressure on a population.

In addition, PCBs are soluble in fat - and killer whales are extremely fat-rich animals. A mother's milk will be loaded with PCBs which she will pass on to her offspring during lactation.

How do we tackle the PCB legacy?

Most PCBs have yet to be destroyed or safely stored away.

Some countries have done better than others. In the US, where federal "superfunds" have been used to clean up the most heavily contaminated sites, PCB levels entering the ocean have come down.

But there needs to be much more urgency in places such as Europe.

"Improper disposal of PCB-containing equipment in landfills may lead to leakage and leaching of PCBs into nearby streams, river, estuaries, and ocean," said lead author on the new report, Jean-Pierre Desforges from Aarhus University, Denmark.

"We know that PCBs were used in paints and sealants in old buildings and for outer coating on ships, so if contaminated building materials are improperly disposed of they could also reach the environment, and demolition of buildings may cause PCBs to enter the air."

Can we help the orcas themselves?

There is very little that can be done to recover the PCBs once they have reached the ocean. And the robustness of the chemicals means they will hang around in the environment for a very long time.

But there are parallel problems we could conceivably fix, said co-author Ailsa Hall from the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University, UK.

"We should recognise that this is just one of many stresses on the animals," she told BBC News.

"There are things such as noise, changes in habitat, changes in the availability of prey - that we do have influence over. And if we do something about these factors, maybe we can reduce the overall burden of stress, and perhaps then our predictions won't be so dire."

Paul Jepson added: "I don't think there'll ever be another PCB story.

"I think the chemical industries have learnt the lesson - we know that being fat-soluble is a big risk factor, because that allows things to bioaccumulate.

"So, nowadays, no chemical with those properties would be allowed. But PCBs are so difficult to get rid of that we'll be dealing with the legacy for a long time."

Eutierra - At One With Nature Concert

Presented by The Sechelt Arts Festival, EUTIERRIA - at one with nature, CONCERT, will run October 19th - 21st at the Sechelt Botanical Gardens. This all original musical work by award winning composer Kenneth Norman Johnson, with script and additional lyrics by Nancy Pincombe is sure to be a crowd pleaser. An all star local cast is well into rehearsals with solos and Choral work that are sounding great. Seating is limited. Get your tickets early!

Microplastics can spread via flying insects, research shows

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Fluorescent microplastics (bright green) are visible inside an adult mosquito. The particles can then spread to animals that eat the insects. Photograph: Al-Jaibachi et al/Biology Letters

Microplastic can escape from polluted waters via flying insects, new research has revealed, contaminating new environments and threatening birds and other creatures that eat the insects.

Scientists fed microplastics to mosquito larvae, which live in water, but found that the particles remained inside the animals as they transformed into flying adults. Other recent research found that half of the mayfly and caddisfly larvae in rivers in Wales contained microplastics.

Concern over microplastic pollution is rising rapidly as it is discovered in ever more places, and very little research has been done on how it may harm wildlife or humans. The particles can harbour bacteria or leach toxic chemicals. Microplastics have been found in tapwater around the world, in vast numbers in the oceans and sea creatures and even in remote Swiss mountains.

“It is a shocking reality that plastic is contaminating almost every corner of the environment and its ecosystems,” said Prof Amanda Callaghan, at the University of Reading, UK, who led the new research on mosquitoes. “Much recent attention has been given to the plastics polluting our oceans, but this research reveals it is also in our skies.”

The new study, published in the journal Biology Letters, used Culex pipiens mosquitoes, as they are found across the world in many habitats. The researchers found the larvae readily consumed fluorescent microplastic particles that were 0.0002cm in size.

“Larvae are filter feeders that waft little combs towards their mouths, so they can’t actually distinguish between a bit of plastic and a bit of food,” Callaghan said. “They eat algae, which are more or less the same size as these microplastics.”

The larvae matured into a non-feeding pupa stage and then emerged as adult mosquitoes, which still had significant microplastic within them. The researchers are now studying if this damages the mosquitoes.

Callaghan said it is “highly likely” that other flying insects that begin as water larvae will also eat and retain microplastics. Birds, bats and spiders are among the species that eat large numbers of insects, suggesting these are also consuming microplastics. “You can get swarms of insects,” she said. “You could have a lot of plastic going up. It’s totally depressing. These plastics are going to be around forever.”

Plastics have been found inside many seabirds, but this is the first research suggesting terrestrial birds that eat insects are at risk. “This is a new pathway to get plastics up in the air and expose animals that are not normally exposed,” said Callaghan. “We don’t know what the impact will be.”

Matt Shardlow, chief executive of the conservation charity Buglife, said: “Aquatic insects are in the microplastic front line. We emit billions of plastic fibres every year, many of which go straight into rivers, so there is an urgent need for more research into the role microplastics may be playing in observed declines in aquatic life.”

Many microplastics are fibres shed by synthetic clothing during washing – a single wash can release 700,000 fibres. “While research proceeds, we can all think carefully about our clothing choices,” said Shardlow. Other microplastics are formed by the abrasion of larger pieces of plastic in rivers and oceans.

Large pieces of plastic are easily seen and clearly harm animals, from turtles to albatrosses. But research has also found microplastics, defined as smaller than 5mm, in many marine creatures, from worms to plankton and up the food chain to fish. Where investigated, they have been shown to damage the health of the animals.

Like the oceans, freshwater rivers and lakes are also heavily contaminated – a river near Manchester, UK, has the worst microplastic pollution yet recorded – but the impact on wildlife in these habitats has been much less studied.

The research in the Welsh rivers found microplastics in larvae both upstream and downstream from wastewater treatment plants, indicating that plastic pollution enters rivers directly, not just via sewage.

The researchers, led by Prof Steve Ormerod at Cardiff University, said the overall dearth of data on the effect of microplastics on freshwater creatures means that the understanding of the risk to the ecosystem remains “seriously limited”.

It is widely accepted that humans are also consuming microplastics. “We all eat them, there’s no doubt about it,” said Callaghan. Eating seafood such as mussels or cod is one route, while beer, sugar and sea salt have all been found to contain microplastics. Exposure is likely to rise, as plastic production is expected to climb by 40% in the next decade, prompting scientists to call for urgent research on the effects of microplastics on people.

The secret life of fungi: Ten fascinating facts

View original article here.
By Helen Briggs

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW

They're all around us, in the soil, our bodies and the air, but are often too small to be seen with the naked eye.

They provide medicines and food but also wreak havoc by causing plant and animal diseases.

According to the first big assessment of the state of the world's fungi, the fungal kingdom is vital to life on Earth.

Yet, more than 90% of the estimated 3.8 million fungi in the world are currently unknown to science.

"It's such an interesting set of organisms and we really know so little about them," says Prof Kathy Willis, director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which led the report.

"They're really weird organisms with the most bizarre life cycle. And yet when you understand their role in the Earth's ecosystem, you realise that they underpin life on Earth."

Many people are familiar with edible mushrooms or the mould behind penicillin. But fungi have a range of vital roles, from helping plants draw water and nutrients from the soil to medicines that can lower blood cholesterol or enable organ transplants.

Fungi also hold promise for breaking down plastics and generating new types of biofuels. But they have a darker side: devastating trees, crops and other plants across the world, and wiping out animals such as amphibians.

Jekyll and Hyde

Dr Ester Gaya, who leads a research project at Kew exploring the diversity and evolution of the world's fungi, says fungi are a bit like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

"They can be good and also bad at the same time," she says. "The same fungus, it can be seen as a detrimental thing - it can be bad - but also can have a lot of potential and have a lot of solutions."

The report sheds light on a number of gaps in our knowledge of a group of organisms that may hold the answers to food security. The fungal kingdom contains some of the most damaging crop pathogens. But fungi also recycle nutrients and play a role in the regulation of carbon dioxide levels.

"We ignore fungi at our peril," says Prof Willis. "This is a kingdom we have to start to take seriously, especially with climate change and all the other challenges that we're being faced with."

Fascinating facts about fungi

1. Fungi are in a kingdom of their own but are closer to animals than plants

2. They have chemicals in their cell walls shared with lobsters and crabs

3. A fungus has been discovered capable of breaking down plastics in weeks rather than years

4. There is evidence to suggest that yeasts - a type of fungus - were being used to produce the alcoholic drink mead as long ago as 9,000 years ago

5. At least 350 species are consumed as foods including truffles, which can sell for thousands of dollars apiece, quorn, and those in marmite and cheese

6. Plastic car parts, synthetic rubber and lego are made using itaconic acid derived from a fungus

7. 216 species of fungi are thought to be hallucinogenic

8. Fungi are being used to turn crop waste into bioethanol

9. Products made from fungi can be used as replacements for polystyrene foam, leather and building materials

10. DNA studies show that there are thousands of different fungi in a single sample of soil, many of which are unknown and hidden - so-called "dark taxa"

The report, State of the World's Fungi, involved over 100 scientists from 18 countries. It found:

• More than 2,000 new fungi are discovered each year, from a variety of sources, including a human fingernail

• Hundreds of species are collected and eaten as food, with the global market for edible mushrooms worth £32.5bn a year

• Only 56 types of fungi have been evaluated for the IUCN Red List, compared with more than 25,000 plants and 68,000 animals

At the last count, there were at least 15,000 types of fungi in the UK, some of which could be on the edge of extinction.

Citizen scientists are helping to identify fungi across the country, adding to a database of more than 1,000 new records.

Dr Brian Douglas of The Lost and Found Fungi Project says fungi are as beautiful as orchids and just as important to protect. "I think we need to teach people, invite people in to admiring fungi."

Colleague Dr Oliver Ellingham adds. "Fungi is a whole another kingdom equal if not greater than in diversity than both the plants and animals."

UN treaty would protect high seas from over exploitation

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By Matt McGrath

The first significant steps towards legally protecting the high seas are to take place at the UN in New York.

These waters, defined as the open ocean far from coastlines, are threatened by deep-sea mining, over-fishing and the patenting of marine genetic resources.

Over the next two years, government representatives aim to hammer out a binding agreement to protect them against over-exploitation.

But several nations, including the US, are lukewarm towards the proposals.

Experts believe that the oceans of the world are vital for a number of reasons. Scientists say they capture around 90% of the extra heat and about 26% of the excess carbon dioxide created by humans through the burning of fossil fuels and other activities.

• Marvels of the deep and their superpowers
• Renewables' deep-sea mining conundrum
• Why are countries laying claim to the deep-sea floor?

"The half of our planet which is high seas is protecting terrestrial life from the worst impacts of climate change," said Prof Alex Rogers from Oxford University, UK, who has provided evidence to inform the UN treaty process getting under way on Tuesday.

"Yet we do too little to safeguard that or to protect the life within the ocean which is intrinsic to our collective survival. Protecting the biodiversity of the high seas by bringing good governance and law to the whole ocean is the single most important thing we can do to turn the tide for the blue heart of our planet."

So what exactly does 'high seas' mean?

The high seas are defined as the oceans that lie beyond exclusive economic zones. These zones are usually within 370km (200 nautical miles) of a country's coastline. These waters cover one and a half times the total land area of the planet and are home to some of the rarest and most charismatic species - but all countries have the right to navigate, fly over, carry our scientific research and fish on the high seas without restriction.

Aren't these water already protected?

In 1982, the UN adopted the Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which, when it became active in 1994, regulated sea-bed mining and cable-laying to some extent. There are also a host of other international groups, including the International Whaling Commission that look after aspects of the seas, but there is no overarching treaty that would protect biodiversity or limit exploitation.

What are the big threats to the high seas?

Researchers believe the high seas may be a major source of mineral resources in years to come. Just last year, a team of British scientists exploring an underwater mountain in the Atlantic Ocean discovered high concentrations of a rare and valuable substance used to build solar panels.

They're not the only ones - companies are also targeting deep-sea hydrothermal vents, home to a range of extremely rare and often exotic species.

The undersea world far from shore is also of growing interest because the strange and wonderful creatures that live there may lead to new pharmaceuticals - certainly a select group of research bodies believe this to be the case with 84% of patents related to marine species filed by just 30 institutions over the past 30 years.

It's the same story when it comes to fishing. Ships from 10 rich countries - among them Japan, Korea and Spain - take around 70% of the catch. Several studies using satellite data have shown the scale of fishing taking place away from national waters, including the practice of unloading catches on to other ships in international waters, something that allows boats to evade monitoring and enforcement.

How would a new treaty work?

There would be three likely elements to any new treaty. Firstly, it would allow the setting up of Marine Protected Areas in international waters - something many countries have already done in their own jurisdictions. A new pact would also allow the carrying out of environmental impact assessments to guard against potential harm from activities on the high seas. In addition, a new, legally binding deal would allow poorer countries to benefit from any discoveries developed from marine genetic resources.

"A strong global ocean treaty would allow us to create a network of ocean sanctuaries to protect wildlife, ensure food security for billions of people and help us to tackle climate change," Sandra Schoettner, a marine biologist with Greenpeace, told news agencies.

Why are some governments reluctant to support the treaty?

The US rejected the UNCLOS treaty back in 1994 and is reticent about these new proposals. Some whale-hunting countries, such as Japan, Iceland and Norway, are said to be cautious about the idea because they fear it will restrict their fishing operations. Russia is also said to be dragging its feet.

Campaigners, though, are optimistic that eventually a deal will be reached.

"The current high seas governance system is weak, fragmented and unfit to address the threats we now face in the 21st Century from climate change, illegal and over-fishing, plastics pollution and habitat loss," said Peggy Kalas, from the High Seas Alliance,

"This is a historic opportunity to protect the biodiversity and functions of the high seas through legally binding commitments."

Electric cars exceed 1m in Europe as sales soar by more than 40%

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By Adam Vaughan

Between January and June around 195,000 plug-in cars were sold across the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Photograph: Miles Willis/Getty Images for Go Ultra Low

There are now more than a million electric cars in Europe after sales soared by more than 40% in the first half of the year, new figures reveal.

Europe hit the milestone nearly a year after China, which has a much larger car market, but ahead of the US, which is expected to reach the landmark later this year driven by the appetite for Tesla’s latest model.

Between January and June around 195,000 plug-in cars were sold across the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, a 42% increase on the same period a year before.

With growth speeding up, the cumulative total is expected to hit 1.35m by the end of the year, according to industry analysts EV-Volumes.

Viktor Irle, a market analyst at the group, said: “A stock of one million electric vehicles is an important milestone on the road to electrification and meeting emission targets but it is of course not enough.”

The figures include fully electric cars and vans, plus plug-in hybrid ones, which can travel a short distance off a battery before switching to a conventional engine.

While plug-in sales are growing, they still account for only 2% of all new car and van registrations across Europe in the first half of the year. By the year’s end, the share is forecast to hit 2.35%.

Norway continued to lead the pack, with 36,500 sales and a share of 37% of new registrations. The country has long been ahead on battery-powered vehicles, thanks in large part to generous government incentives.

However, rapid growth in Germany means Europe’s biggest car market is set to overtake Norway by the end of the year for total sales.

The Netherlands and Denmark also posted good growth but the UK had only moderate growth because of what EV-Volumes called a lack of compelling models from domestic manufacturers Ford and Vauxhall.

The UK sold 30,040 plug-in cars and vans in the first half of the year. Sales of fully electric cars dipped by 6% but plug-in hybrids surged by 50%.

Pivot Power, a firm which hopes to build a UK-wide network of rapid electric car chargers, said the UK was well-positioned to catch up with its Nordic peers.

“The one millionth sale this year is a clear signal of consumer intent. Access to low-cost, well-located charging from abundant power sources is crucial for capturing this momentum,” Matt Allen, the firm’s CEO, said.