Aquatic food webs and the effect on humans lives

The world's waters were once seen as a boundless source of fish for humans to eat, but over-fishing and aquaculture have depleted some species and left others famished and weak. These conditions accumulated with climate change and degrade which cause more stressful to fish populations. Different temperature causes uncertainty water masses in the ocean. This means warm water more forced to the poles. These differences affect food webs and habitats.

While, in many countries in developing aquaculture, are not supplied with sufficient sustainable management, which is in turning, the food linkages are being cut, such as mangrove areas have been changed for the aquaculture site. Changing the natural functions of mangrove also contributed in increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When the excessive carbon dioxide present, photosynthesis eliminates and the rest absorbed by ocean. In the ocean, this may lead to acidic condition that causes coral bleaching. It then causes breaking off food web and biodiversity.

In addition, the big fish seems mostly appeared on the wealth countries. For example, salmon and tuna have been over-fished. When these are hard to obtain, then small fish is targeted and it’s under pressure. Which is not supposedly used for human consumption. The potential problems are remained lying ahead, and all about how we are going to deal with these situations to sustain our lives.

Aquaculture is the option, but how sustainable management can be reached to address the issues and to derive maximum production in sustaining human life. There have been many adverse effects raised. In future, development has to be considering the adverse effects. And any single project has to be included a comprehensive assessment which is environmentally friendly. The objective is to minimise any impact that may rise and allow sustainable resources management.

Climate Change and Overfishing Trigger Food Problem. Sustainable Aquaculture Is Suggested

The UN body of FAO warns that climate change and overfishing would drive fishing – reliant community in the developing countries to be more vulnerable. Fisheries authorities must do more to understand and prepare for rising temperatures. To cope with climate change and overfishing, fishing practices must be widely implemented and management plans should be expanded.

Aquaculture currently contributes 47 percent of total fish consumed by human as food. Whereas, many fisheries are being exploited at the top range of their productive capacity. The areas with the highest proportions of fully-exploited fish stocks are the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Western Indian Ocean and the Northwest Pacific Ocean.

Aquaculture continues to be the fastest-growing animal food producing sector and is poised to provide half of all fish consumed worldwide, finds the FAO report, adding that future developments should move towards hatchery-based aquaculture, cutting dependence on wild stocks. With aquaculture set to be the basis of all future growth in global seafood production, the global environment organization WWF responded to the new report with an urgent call to put aquaculture on a more sustainable basis.

"The dramatic growth in aquaculture makes it more and more urgent to ensure that aquaculture becomes more sustainable and that supplying the stock and the feed for fish farming becomes less of a burden on traditional fisheries. Coastal aquaculture must also stop making inroads into fish habitat such as mangrove areas, it must become less polluting and less of a disease risk and it must be carried out without making communities more vulnerable to natural disasters. They warn that conversion of wetlands and mangrove forests into shrimp ponds contributes to climate change by releasing stored carbon in the soil into the atmosphere and by nullifying the mangroves' function of sequestering carbon.

On the other hand, with long roots that shelter juvenile fish and protect coastlines from erosion, hurricanes, storm surges, and tsunami, mangrove trees grow in the intertidal areas and estuary mouths between land and water.

"Producers want to see some change in the industry, They are willing to change farming practices to protect the environment. Shrimp dialogue participants have identified some key impacts they want to try to minimize - water pollution, salt water from shrimp farms can seep into the groundwater; chemicals and antibiotics; destruction of natural habitat; and the clearing of mangrove forests."

The aquaculture’s standards would ne soon produced to guide industries and farmers. This is an unprecedented effort to ensure that future aquaculture is environmentally sustainable, and well-positioned to meet the growing demand for seafood worldwide."These new standards will raise the bar in the industry, giving consumers assurance that their food purchases are good for the environment.

For more detail: http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0250e/i0250e00.htm

Reducing carbon dioxide on the earth

European Union (EU) raises a project in term to reduce carbon dioxide to atmosphere. It is believed that by conducting this project would be able to capture and store carbon dioxide in underground or seabed. This sophisticated and crucial technology is built in order to reduce global warming impact of fossil fuel and gases that the word is relying. Relying on these sources of energies has been estimated to continue for decades.

This project could be raised from experimental data that has been obtained since 1996. The data show that this project will be successful and visible project in future. The experimental result shows burry 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in a sandstone formation 1,000 metres underneath seabed, has no negative impact up to date. Further study shows that the liquid CO2 tend to sink deeper underground instead return to the surface. Burying 10 million tonnes every year is equivalent to carbon emission from 300,000 cars.

Although the project seems visible but scientists still argue releasing carbon dioxide into seabed may be harmful for marine ecosystem especially coral reef. A recent study shows that excesses carbon dioxide would cause acidic condition in the sea. The more acids the more energy would be need to sustain coral reef. The more energies spend on it would cause coral to be die off. This suggested that more experiments need to be carried out before the implementation of the project.

For more detail: http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/carbon-capture-storage/article-157806

Major Environmental Problems of Asia

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region, rapid economic and population growth creates serious social consequences from environmental problems of urban excess, deforestation, overfishing, global warming, air pollution, and limited safe water supplies. The Asian economic crisis has aggravated this trend. Economic policies have encouraged growth in some sectors while ignoring damage to others. Further, little regard is given to sustainability of the exploited resources. The social costs in terms of health, economic efficiency, and cultural dislocation are immediate, while the long-term costs of environmental rehabilitation are humbling. Left unbridled, environmental damage can lead to economic decline.

Urban exess

Urban Excess Environmental problems arise from the urban by-products of transport, industrial activities, and the overcrowding of human habitation. Economic policies have encouraged mass migration of labor to urban industries. The shift from rural to urban Asia will accelerate in the coming century, aggravating urban crowding and increasing the risk of social and political conflict. Asia’s urban profile increased from 27% (0.7B people) in 1980 to 38% (1.4B) in 2000 and will rise to 50% (2.3B) in 2020.

To date, governments have stimulated urban migration by maintaining low food costs, which reduce rural incomes and increase the flight to the cities. About a third of the people in the Third World’s cities live in desperately overcrowded slums and squatter settlements, with many people unemployed, uneducated, undernourished and chronically ill. Conditions will worsen as their numbers swell and transport, communication, health and sanitation systems break down. One solution to urban excesses is to divert industry and its induced labor migration away from the mega cities towards surrounding areas. This requires significant infrastructure investment, however, and establishes competing centers of political power.

Deforestation/Desertification

Asian food security is threatened by deforestation and desertification. More than a third of the arable land in Asia is at risk. Nearly 75% of Southeast Asia’s original forest cover has been destroyed at an annual loss rate that is the size of Switzerland. The loss of forests and agricultural land is due to both the exploitation for profit and the ignorance of good practices. Isolated, rogue regimes such as Burma exploit timber, oil, and mineral resources to support their governments. Poor farmers across Asia use improper irrigation and fertilization practices, resulting in increased salinity and toxic soils.

Regardless of motive and method, the loss of workable land hurts not only the harvester, but also has broad consequences for his neighbors in terms of erosion, downstream flooding, and pollution. Indonesia’s provinces refuse to properly manage the annual smog threatening the health and productivity of its own people as well as in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. These failings point to an obvious need to invest in improved oversight, management, monitoring, methods, and conservation.

Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance After years of conflict, large quantities of mines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO) litter the landscape, killing and maiming thousands of innocent victims annually. The problem is most acute in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.

In Cambodia, one out of every 245 individuals is an amputee. Landmines and/or UXO maim or kill 100 people per month in Cambodia. Death or injury remove many victims from the work force during their productive years, further debilitating economically disadvantaged families.

Landmines and UXO create vast numbers of internally displaced people, remove valuable real estate from productive use, serve as physical barriers to the movement of people, goods and services, and dramatically increase the mortality rate of both people and livestock.

Cambodia’s 4 to 6 million landmines are scatter over 1,800 square kilometers, or roughly 1% of the country. Estimates are that 200,000 tons of UXO affect up to 50% of the Laotian landmass.
Major projects have been delayed, and, before activities proceed, accountants must set aside up to 10% of project costs for mine clearance. Large-scale development is difficult or impossible because of landmines.

Agricultural production could increase by 135% in Cambodia without the impediments of mines and UXO. The United States has provided millions of dollars in monetary aid and has carried out or proposed a number of projects to help these countries deal with this problem. Progress toward removing all mines and UXO is slow, and may be impossible due to technical difficulties in identifying mines and UXO in the field.

Areas of greatest economic value should receive highest priority for clearance, barriers need to be constructed for those areas that cannot be cleared at this time, and educational programs should be initiated. The U.S. military’s unique technical knowledge helps these clearing efforts, but domestic programs need sound funding and implementation.

Water
As the demand for water grows with population and the economy, water supplies will be increasingly polluted from untreated sewage, from industrial discharges, and from salt-water intrusion of overexploited water tables.

In Jakarta, it costs $20M to $30M annually to boil water for home use. In Manila Bay, heavily polluted by sewage, fish catches have dropped 40% in the last decade. Fish catches near cities in India and China also have experienced major declines. Of Taiwan's 20 million people, less than 1 million are served by sewers. Each day in Hong Kong, about 1 million tons of sewage and industrial effluent pour untreated into the sea - a volume to fill 500 Olympic swimming pools, according to Hong Kong officials. Projecting to 2025, water shortages will affect India, China, North and South Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Water disputes have affected international relations for years. Although an agreement was reached in 1996, India and Bangladesh have disagreed on the sharing of the waters of the Ganges for more than 20 years. Greater numbers of international disputes will arise and be more difficult to resolve as populations increase and economies grow, thereby placing a greater demand on scarce resources.

A domestic resource allocation problem that is common to the Pacific Islands soon will prevail over Asia: high-use agriculture will compete with populations for scarce water supplies. While more than 80% of the water consumed in Asia is used for agricultural purposes, 60 to 75% is lost to evaporation before reaching the crops. A technological solution may be to encourage the use of water-efficient drip irrigation techniques, which are employed in less than 1% of all irrigated areas.

Overfishing

Fish are a key source of food for virtually all Asian states, providing one of the largest sources of animal protein to the world's fastest growing commodity market. The world’s largest tuna fishery crosses the jurisdiction of at least 21 countries—as well as extensive high-seas areas of the Pacific Ocean—and involves harvesting by fishing vessels from 26 different nations.

Across the Pacific and in many coastal and riparian parts of Asia, fishing is a significant part of the economic base, providing food, employment, revenue, and foreign exchange earnings. World fisheries are being overfished as marine catches increased from 17 million metric tons (MMT) in 1950 to a peak of 87.1 MMT in 1996. As a result, there has been a steady increase in the frequency of clashes and incidents at sea caused by foreign fishing trawlers illegally encroaching into Exclusive Economic Zones and territorial seas.

Aquaculture production is a growing part of the fisheries sector. In 1996, 20% of all global fisheries production was from aquaculture. Asia dominates world aquaculture for fish, shrimp and shellfish, with China producing 68% of the global total. If done in an environmentally friendly manner, aquaculture can be a positive contributor to the world food supply.

For example, giant tiger prawn production in Thailand has exploded from 900 to 277,000 tons in the last decade. However, reckless pumping of seawater into shrimp ponds can damage neighboring fields and hurt coastal marine life. To protect fisheries and insure sustainability, cooperative resource management schemes such as fishing quotas need to be established and enforced. Militaries, coast guards, law enforcement, and courts should cooperate to reduce the possibility of disputes, collisions, and pollution, such as negligent oil spills.

Global Warming
Carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, and nitrous oxide act like a glass in a greenhouse, letting the sun’s rays in but trapping heat that would otherwise be released back into space. Carbon dioxide accounts for more than half of the warming affect, while CFCs contribute about a quarter and methane and nitrous oxide cause the remainder. Temperatures have increased .3 to .6 degrees C over the last century, consistent with the rise in greenhouse gases as predicted in recently developed computer models. Climate models predict that temperatures will be 1 to 3 degrees C higher in 2100.

Rising ocean temperatures and melting polar caps will elevate sea levels by 15 to 95 cm in the next century. Bangladesh could lose 17% of its land area to rising seas, while several island nations, such as the Maldives and Tuvalu will become uninhabitable or disappear. Parts of Northern Europe and Canada will benefit from better harvests, but crop yields in India could decline by 30% by 2050.

The controversial solution of the Kyoto Protocol of December 1997 places legally binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol aims to reduce emissions from developing countries to approximately 95% of their 1990 levels by the 2008 to 2012 timeframe.

Air Pollution

Air pollution from vehicles, power plants, incinerators and industry is a major problem in Asia. Outdated pollution control technology and the use of high polluting fuels compound this problem.

Health.

Nine of the fifteen cities with the highest particulate levels in the world and six out of the fifteen cities worst affected by sulfur dioxide are in East Asia. Air pollution in China caused more that 175,000 premature deaths in 1995 and nearly 2 million cases of chronic bronchitis. Damage to health and buildings cost Bangkok $1B annually, while air pollution in Delhi decreased crop yields by 30%.

Cross-impacts.

Air pollution, in the form of acid rain, can be transported hundreds of miles by wind before being deposited through fog, rain or snow. The acidic deposition damages buildings, degrades the environment and reduces crop yields. In India, wheat growing near a power plant suffered a 49% reduction in yield compared with that grown 22 kilometers away.

Transnational interest.

South Korea and Japan are concerned about economic and health effects of airborne pollutants and acid rain from coal burning power plants in nearby China. China's heavy use of air-polluting coal blurs the distinction between domestic economics and transnational threats.

Technology.

The developed countries have dramatically reduced the amount of pollutant emissions in the last 20 years through the implementation of new technologies. Widespread use of these proven technologies in developing and advanced Asian economies, coupled with cleaner burning fuels such as unleaded gasoline, natural gas and low sulfur coal can reduce total emissions regardless of rising energy consumption. Implications for Cooperation Since trade has a significant effect on environmental conditions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is making efforts to address these problems in a multilateral forum. Also, the APEC forum is discussing environmental policy, technologies, sustainability, and education and information.

Countries are increasingly participating in global and regional conventions on atmosphere and oceans, protection of wildlife and habitat, and the handling of hazardous substances. The United Nations and the World Bank are providing aid through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for countries suffering from spillover pollution of neighboring countries.

Fledgling regional organizations are develop a dialog for resolving contentious issues by discussing environmental management; nature conservation; industrial, marine, and urban settings; and education, training, and information.

Among these organizations are ASEAN, the South Asia Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP), the South Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP), and the Lower Mekong Basin Development Environment Program (LMBDEP). The latter organization links economic cooperation and development in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, addresses food and power production, flood control, and navigation in the lower Mekong River basin.

Conclusions
Environmental issues are an underlying—and often neglected—cause for conflicts, disasters, or dislocations. Militaries in the region may be called upon not only to resolve conflicts, but—like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—to use their organizational skills and resources to address both crisis relief and long-term issues of security and infrastructure. Further—at the micro-economic level—each country's military faces a broad array of environmental challenges from the impact of their infrastructure and operations. The U.S. military is highly skilled in confronting these challenges. By sharing these environmental security practices with other countries, the U.S. military promotes good governance and sets an example for reducing environmental threats.

World's fisheries face climate change threat

A new international study has warned that millions of people dependent on fisheries in Africa, Asia and South America

could face unprecedented hardship as a consequence of climate change.

Researchers examined the fisheries of 132 nations to determine which were the most vulnerable, based on the potential environmental impact of climate change, how dependent their economy and diet were on fisheries, and the capacity of the country to adapt.

Climate change can affect the temperature of inland lakes, the health of reefs and how nutrients circulate in the oceans, the researchers say.

They identified 33 countries as "highly vulnerable" to the effects of global warming on fisheries.

These countries produce 20 per cent of the world's fish exports and 22 are already classified by the UN as "least developed". Inhabitants of vulnerable countries are also more dependent on fish for protein — 27 per cent of dietary protein is gained from fish, compared with 13 per cent in other countries. Two-thirds of the most vulnerable nations identified are in tropical Africa.

The study, led by the Malaysia-based WorldFish Center, was published inFish and Fisheries this month (6 February).

Using an approach developed from the International Panel on Climate Change's methods for assessing the vulnerability of nations to climate change as a whole, the authors determined that both coastal and landlocked African countries such as Guinea, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda; Asian countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen; and Colombia and Peru in South America, are among the most vulnerable.

The 33 countries should be a priority for climate change adaptation efforts and, more importantly, their fisheries should be maintained or enhanced to ensure they can make contributions to poverty reduction, say the authors.Edward Allison, director of policy, economic and social science at WorldFish Center and the paper's lead author, says that to ensure fisheries continue to support the poorest people policies should be implemented on two fronts: mitigation and adaptation.

But while mitigation can be valuable — because of relationships between emission reductions, energy saving and responsible fisheries — "the challenge of adaptation is both significant and potentially urgent", he says.

"Policy support for adaptation involves supporting measures to reduce exposure of fishing people to climate-related risks, reducing dependence of peoples' livelihoods on climate-sensitive resources, and supporting people's capacity to anticipate and cope with climate-related changes", he concludes.

Source cited from http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/39359

Climate Change Erodes Marine Reserves

Shifting species may mean less protection for imperiled fisheries

By Andrew McGlashen.

Climate change has undermined fundamental assumptions about oceanic conservation, challenging the notion that today’s sanctuaries will protect tomorrow’s fish.

Conservationists have long assumed fish harvested at a sustainable rate will forever be available for future generations. Instead, scientists now find that a warming ocean is mobilizing fish populations, sending them to the poles with little regard for marine preserve boundaries.

Many of the areas set aside for fish protection are the most vulnerable to climate change, scientists say.

“This basic belief behind conservation is no longer the case,” said Emily Pidgeon of Conservation International, speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.Conservationists must adapt their management plans to that poleward shift, Pidgeon said.On average, fish are expected to migrate 25 miles per decade, according to a new study led by William Cheung of the University of East Anglia.

"Our research shows that the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity and fisheries is going to be huge," Cheung said. "We must act now to adapt our fisheries management and conservation policies to minimize harm to marine life and to our society.”The oceans are suffering from “a pretty significant overdose of temperature, acidification and nutrients,” said Patrick Halpin, director of the Geospatial Analysis Program at Duke University.

Worse, climate models predict that the areas where marine preserves are most prevalent—coastal regions in the northern hemisphere—will see greater increases in temperature than the oceans as a whole, Halpin said. Those same areas are also especially susceptible to other environmental disturbances, like nutrients from agricultural runoff, which can create oxygen-depleted “dead zones” where most marine life can’t survive. According to Pidgeon, inflexible political boundaries are ill-suited to protecting fish in our rapidly changing seas, and conservationists must find a way to include species migration in their strategies.“This stuff’s critical to conservation in the future,” she said.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=climate-change-erodes-marine-preserves

Ocean Acidification Hits Great Barrier Reef

By David Biello

Coral growth has been sluggish since 1990 due to an increase in both sea temperature and acidity as a result of global warming

The largest coral reef system in the world—and the biggest sign of life on Earth, visible from space—is not growing like it used to. A sampling of 328 massive Porites coral (large structures resembling brains that are formed by tiny polyps) from across the 133,000-square-mile (344,000-square-kilometer) reef reveals that growth of these colonies has slowed by roughly 13 percent since 1990.

The most likely reason is climate change caused by increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, according to a new paper published today in Science.

The burning of fossil fuels over the past century or so has driven atmospheric CO2 levels from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 387 ppm—and growing. More than 25 percent of this extra CO2 is absorbed by the world's oceans and reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid. A rising carbonic acid level means a more acidic ocean. And a more acidic ocean is bad news for coral and other sea creatures, which form their shells from calcium carbonate they extract from seawater. The more acidic the water, the more difficult it is to build the shells in the first place—as well as keeping them from dissolving.

To probe how corals are faring, marine biologist Glenn De'ath and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, Queensland, examined Porites coral samples stretching as far back as 1572. Because Porites lay down annual layers—like tree rings—changing environmental conditions are etched into their skeletons.The record has not been good in recent years: Since 1990 coral have been extending and thickening by less and less each year.

"The data suggest that such a severe and sudden decline in calcification is unprecedented in at least the past 400 years," the researchers wrote."This study put all this worry and discussion [about ocean acidification] into a real-world context," says marine biologist John Bruno of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It shows that coral growth is indeed slowing—over a huge range and at many reefs—potentially due to increased acidity.

"Slower growth will mean both that existing coral will find it difficult to cope with escalating acidity and rising sea levels. This will have enormous knock-on effects in sea life that relies on coral reefs for habitat—as well as human fisheries and other ecosystem services.

In the meantime, it appears that changes in sea temperatures and increased acidity are already beginning to impact the Great Barrier Reef. "Our data show that growth and calcification of massive Porites in the Great Barrier Reef are already declining and are doing so at a rate unprecedented in coral records reaching back 400 years," the researchers wrote. "These organisms are central to the formation and function of ecosystems and food webs, and precipitous changes in the biodiversity and productivity of the world's oceans may be imminent."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=ocean-acidification-hits-great-barrier-reef