Big, old fish key to restoring groundfish stocks
...larval birth with peak food availability. A marine ecosystem routinely has more than 99 percent mortality of fish larvae due to predation, starvation and fluctuating ocean conditions. So anything that helps young larvae pass through their most vulnerable lifestyle stages can significantly increase their chance...New evidence indicates biggest extinction wasn't caused by asteroid or comet
...with a mass extinction resulting from catastrophic ecosystem changes over a long time scale, not sudden changes associated with an impact. The work, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Astrobiology Institute, the National Science Foundation and the National Research Foundation of Sou...Arid Australian interior linked to landscape burning by ancient humans
...tinct in Australia roughly 50,000 years ago due to ecosystem changes caused by human burning. The new study in...for the rapid transformation of a drought-tolerant ecosystem high in broad-leaf species to the modern desert scrub," he said. "In the process, vegetation feedba...First view of a world without fire
... look if we could 'switch fire off'? A new type of ecosystem model, Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) developed to answer questions on the link between global climate change and vegetation, was used to simulate a world without fire for this research. Dr William Bond, University of Cape Town, explains: ......ained by it. For instance, the "noise" in a marine ecosystem due to temperature changes, ocean currents, wind-driven waves, fluctuations in nutrient levels, the movement of schools of fish, and wind-driven waves affect how plankton blooms grow and recede. If the conditions are below an optimum the plankton do ...Selective predation and productivity jointly drive complex behavior in host-parasite systems
...ndings stress the importance of the biological and ecosystem background in which hosts and parasites interact....Self-organization and vegetation collapse in salt marsh ecosystems
...elatively stable, and hence that sudden changes in ecosystem are likely to result from external, mostly human i...processes within salt-marsh ecosystems can lead to ecosystem destruction. They model salt-marsh development based on the mutually enforcing interaction between p...Blasted coral reefs need tender, low-cost care
...tructive fishing practice and restore value to the ecosystem are critical, both economically and biologically," the researchers conclude....Scientists propose new approach to estimating global ocean productivity
...authors continue to work with colleagues to refine ecosystem models of plankton production at Princeton, UMaine and other institutions....Assumptions of effects of rising carbon dioxide probed
...k has overestimated the magnitude of community and ecosystem responses to carbon dioxide changes, the researche...anges that will occur to population, community and ecosystem structures, and functions in response to these expected CO2 increases. Climate change is one of sev...USGS featured at AAAS - Nation's largest science meeting
...ive alien species are any species not native to an ecosystem and whose introduction causes harm, or is likely to cause harm, to the economy, environment, or human health. Unlike chemical pollution, this "biological pollution," is self sustaining, often propagating explosively. Invasives are often well establis......er to risk introducing exotic salmon into a marine ecosystem than to farm native ones there. "The biggest environmental danger we face from salmon escapes is when farming species within their native range, such as Atlantic salmon in the Atlantic Ocean," says Dr. Ian Fleming, Director of the Ocean Sciences Cent...New science sheds light on rebuilding fisheries
...uggling populations. "We have to move toward true ecosystem based management," he explains. "Commercial and r...l ages, genetic diversity and a functioning marine ecosystem if we expect to recover the huge losses have incurred by overexploitation in the past," says Rosenbe...Coastal dead zones may lead to ecosystem-based fisheries management
...is symposium, I will show that things we do to the ecosystem in terms of nutrient additions can ramify to effects on fisheries," he said. "So we will have to manage fisheries in the context of changes generated somewhere up in a watershed, thousands of miles away."...First ever estimate of cod fishery in 1850s reveals 96% decline on Scotian Shelf
...earchers emphasize the importance of understanding ecosystem trends and determining baseline levels of marine s... cod comprised a much larger fraction of the total ecosystem biomass 150 years ago or the marine ecosystem was far more productive then. "An important, and ofte...One step closer to prediction: Baltimore to host international scientific meeting
... (March 1, 2004) -- Fish kills, seafood toxins and ecosystem damage worldwide: harmful algal blooms such as Pfiesteria have been at the center of controversy as the number of outbreaks around the globe appears to be on the rise. Excess nutrient loading to water bodies, also known as eutrophication, is recogn...Man-made wetland's effectiveness similar to natural marsh
...id. "So it reverted pretty quickly to that kind of ecosystem when it had the chance." Over the two-year study, the wetland reduced concentrations of nitrates by 40 percent and phosphorus by 59 percent. It also retained these nutrients during periods of high precipitation, such as during storms and torrential d...Finding hidden invaders in a Hawaiian rain forest
...ive species, but to develop the next generation of ecosystem monitoring capabilities. On Kilauea Volcano, the n... sensing showed me something new concerning how an ecosystem works. Up to this point, remote sensing has been invaluable for understanding how features or proces...Oceans more vulnerable to agricultural runoff than previously thought, study finds
...cessively large blooms can also overwhelm a marine ecosystem by depleting oxygen in the water. Scientists suspect that many harmful blooms are artificially fueled by fertilizer runoff from farms, which dump tons of excess nitrogen into rivers that eventually flow into the sea. "There has been an international ...Marine researchers deliver blueprint for rescuing America's troubled coral reefs
...s will recover, water quality will improve and the ecosystem will be more resilient to unforeseen future threats. Ultimately, we will have increased tourism and the possibility of renewed sustainable extraction of abundant megafauna. One day, reefs of the United States could be the pride of the nation." The S...