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Grenada welcomes the Third National Congress on Biodiversity which will meet about 40 experts. The meeting, held at the Experimental Station of Zaidín (EEZ-CSIC) from Wednesday until Friday June 10, aims to respond to new challenges in this field.
(For three days, experts respond to how it evolved biodiversity in space and time.)
Researchers at the Department of Soil Microbiology and Symbiotic Systems of the EEZ with scientists of Microbiology and Environmental Technologies Water Institute (part of the University of Granada) organized the III National Congress on Biodiversity. With this meeting, which begins on Wednesday and ending 10 June, is intended to review the new information to which the investigation has resulted in this field and try to respond to new challenges.
The conference focuses on answering a series of questions that restrict the current state of the science of biodiversity. For three days, experts in this field give answers to how biodiversity evolved in space and time to reach its current state, how much biodiversity exists and how alteration or loss affect the system as a whole.
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A U.S. study published today in the journal Nature , shows that biodiversity-rich streams are easier to filter contaminants from the water nutrients than those in which the number of species is more limited. The division of functions between the diversity of organisms that live in the same habitat the creek becomes a ‘sponge’ with greater absorption capacity.
“The diversity of natural habitat can clean the pollutants released into the environment, so that the loss of biodiversity caused by the extinction of species, could jeopardize the ability of the planet to clean up the mess humans “says Bradley Cardinale, study author and professor at the University of Michigan (USA).
Cardinale analyzed 150 streams varied models that simulated miniature natural streams. In each, grew from one to eight species of algae, diatoms and green-and measured the ability of every community of algae to absorb nitrate, a nitrogen compound that contaminates water nutrients. The results showed that the higher the species richness was in the stream, more nitrate is absorbed, eight algae removed nitrate at a rate 4.5 times higher than that achieved alone.
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Researchers from Conservation International (CI) shown in a new study presented at the Climate Summit in Cancun (Mexico) that extinction rates of the 2,500 unique species of amphibians, birds and mammals that inhabit the forests, could fall between 46 and 80% in five years by reducing, well funded, emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
The researchers examined national rates of deforestation from 85 countries have established a mechanism for REDD + (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest degradation), as a tool for climate mitigation over the past five years (2005-2010).
The results, which were published in Conservation Letters, show that the REDD + would have reduced “substantially” the combined rate of deforestation in 85 countries, compared with the actual rate of deforestation during the same period of time.
“REDD + can be a solution to protecting our climate and biodiversity conservation in which everyone wins,” said Jonah Busch, author of the study, economist and climate and forest of the NGO Conservation International (CI .)
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More than 500 scientists from 34 countries see the year 2013 as the new target for Biodiversity in Europe.
At the fortieth annual meeting of the “Gesellschaft fur Okologie” (GFO), or “Society for Ecology”, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Julius Liebig University (JLU) in Giessen (Hesse), participants wondered about the future of biodiversity. “We are very concerned that the commitments made by the convention on biodiversity in the context of” target 2010 “were not met,” says Volkmar Wolters, Institute of Animal Ecology of the JLU, President the GFO. “We were not able to permanently stop the dramatic loss of biodiversity” insists Wolters, “On the contrary, ecosystems, species and genetic information is lost more quickly and this mainly due to intensive and unsustainable land in Europe. “
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Scientists from the Census of Marine Life published in the journal PLoS One An inventory of biodiversity and distribution of known marine species and new in 25 regions from Antarctica to the Arctic. More than 360 researchers involved in its development in the last ten years documented in this inventory of marine life and highlight all that remains to be known in the oceans. The census , which states that the biodiversity of the Mediterranean is the most threatened , it will be the basis for measuring future changes.
“We know much, but there are still many habitats that are poorly studied , such as deep sea areas . Many groups of organisms is not well known , especially smaller ones, and even there are significant knowledge gaps more visible groups such as fish or marine mammals , “says Marta Coll SINC , a researcher at the Mediterranean Centre for Marine Research and Environmental ( CMIMA ) of the CSIC, who led the work of synthesis on marine biodiversity of the Mediterranean.
Australian and Japanese waters , home to nearly 33,000 respectively scientist named species , among which the white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), Are hosting more diversity. China ‘s oceans , the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico complete the five areas with the greatest diversity of species known . Inventories of Indonesia , Madagascar and the Arabian Sea are still under development and awaiting delivery.
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Geologists affiliated to the General Secretariat of the Sea and biologists of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) have discovered a coral reef cold water over 800 meters deep in the Bay of Biscay. Until now ignored the existence of such deep coral reef in Spanish waters.
This discovery marks a milestone for science because it is unaware of the existence of such deep coral reefs in Spanish waters. For many years these ecosystems, with high levels of biodiversity, have been associated with warm tropical waters and bright due to its dependence on symbiotic algae.
The finding has occurred in the area of influence of the Aviles Canyon during the campaign aboard the research vessel Eza Viscount General Secretariat of the Sea, and the project INDEMARES.
The project is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation, which contributes to the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in the Spanish seas through the identification of areas of value to the Natura 2000 network. In the first phase of this multidisciplinary scientific effort was devoted to know the characteristics of ecosystems and habitats and map their communities with modern technology to get data from up to 5,000 meters deep.
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According to information received by the Slovak National Radio by Marian Jasika, Director of the NGO Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) [1] for the protection of forests in Slovakia: The Slovak Ministry of Environment has given its green light logging in primary forest nature reserve in Central Slovakia Zadní Polana without taking into account either the negative position of the Office for Protection of Slovak nature, nor those of scientists. The Environment Ministry has defined a zone comprising 40% of the reserve zone (340 ha). Many observers believe that this area is poorly defined, poorly framed human action and severely impact the most sensitive parts of the forest.
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The British government has decided on 1 April 2010, creating the world’s largest marine reserve around the British territory of the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The reserve covers an area of 545,000 km 2 around the archipelago, and David Miliband, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and says it will double the area currently protected ocean areas on the surface of the globe. The Chagos Archipelago is considered one of the richest marine ecosystems on the planet and is compared in terms of biodiversity, the Galapagos Islands and Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Originally attached to Mauritius, Chagos Archipelago is detached in 1965 following independence from the British colony, and is therefore British territory of the Indian Ocean. The construction in the 1960s from a British military base open to U.S., located on the island of Diego Garcia, has led to a full movement of the Chagossians to Mauritius and Seychelles. Since 1998, the Chagossians are engaged in a series of legal challenges against the British government, claiming a better compensation, the right to return to the archipelago and obtaining British citizenship. In October 2008, the House of Lords endorsed the position and leaves no possibility of return for the Chagossians, who continue to present their case before the European Court.
A highly commendable environmental standpoint, the decision to award the status of protected marine area around the islands, however, revived the issue of relocation of indigenous people. They see that decision impossible to return to their country since all fishing activity, which is their main resource, is prohibited. From a conservative point of view, however, the protection of this region will prevent commercial fishing and mining underwater.
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It is a platform which we speak very little these days. The IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) has no luck: its relevance, however abundant, is overshadowed by that of another platform, oil it, in the Gulf of Mexico. The alternative model of IPBES, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), it remains too fragile for us to take advantage in terms of communication, whether in politics or in the U.S. media . The platform dedicated to biodiversity is therefore very quiet, despite the high stakes it represents.
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Comprising lizards and snakes, Squamata among their families living in one of the one with the richest biodiversity: about 7,000 species, ranging in size from centimeters to several meters. All these species have such different characteristics, however, a common ancestor. The process of causing mutations of this diversity have recently been highlighted in a study led by Dr. Denis Duboule of the University of Geneva and EPFL.
The role of Hox genes, determining the specification of structures in the anterior-posterior axis of the body, has been highlighted. They control the number, position and shape of the vertebrae.
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