Por Miprv.com

El Programa del Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan denunció que un vertido de pintura en la Laguna del Condado ha afectado un conocido experimento de ostras nativas que purifican el agua. El contaminante se derramó también sobre una de las praderas de hierbas marinas.

El derrame se originó desde el Hotel Olive, en la calle Aguadilla #55 de El Condado, según una inspección visual y las declaraciones que hiciera un empleado al Programa del Estuario. Mi Puerto Rico Verde se comunicó con la administración del hotel, donde se llevan a cabo mejoras de infraestructura, y está en espera de una respuesta.

El proyecto de ostras llevaba mes y medio en marcha, y había arrojado resultados positivos en las pruebas de calidad de agua, pero el vertido ha afectado a varias de las canastas en las que se encuentran los invertebrados. El Programa del Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan estima que una gran cantidad de ostiones fueron afectadas, por lo que habrá que restituirlas.


La organización lleva a cabo este experimento, con el auspicio de la Agencia de Protección Ambienta (EPA). Precisamente, Judith Enck, la Administradora de la región 2 de la EPA, estuvo visitando hace dos semanas este proyecto que sirve de modelo en el Caribe de cómo las ostras se pueden usar para purificar las aguas costeras.

“Queremos llamar la atención para que esto no vuelva ocurrir. Lo que lanzas en las alcantarillas llega a los cuerpos de agua, y afecta a las personas y las especies en la Laguna, como las ostras, estrellas de mar y los manatíes. Incluso tenemos bioluminiscencia intermitente en la Laguna”, comentó Javier Laureano, director ejecutivo del Programa del Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan. “Llamamos la atención de los hoteles, restaurantes y negocios del área, para que sean conscientes sobre esta situación, y adopten los protocolos correspondientes en caso de derrames de contaminantes”.

Este proyecto forma parte de una plataforma amplia de ciencia ciudadana del Programa del Estuario, donde las personas, en lugar de ser sólo observadores de los procesos que ocurren a su alrededor, toman acción en la restauración de su entorno. Los científicos y voluntarios miden mensualmente, en tres puntos de la Laguna en que estarán colocadas las canastas, parámetros como turbidez, clorofila, oxígeno disuelto y pH.

El proyecto tuvo los permisos necesarios del Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, la Junta de Calidad Ambiental y el Cuerpo de Ingenieros.

¿Qué es el Estuario?

El Programa del Estuario es una entidad sin fines de lucro fundada en el 1993 y afiliada al Programa Nacional de Estuarios de Estados Unidos, iniciativa creada por la Agencia de Protección Ambiental. La misión del Programa es mejorar la calidad del agua de la Bahía de San Juan y el sistema de caños, canales y lagunas asociados al ecosistema más importante para la economía de Puerto Rico. El 80% de los materiales importados a la Isla llegan por medio de la Bahía, al igual que 700 cruceros al año. El Aeropuerto Luis Muñoz Marín está localizado en los bordes de una laguna estuarina: la Torrecilla. Para más información puede acceder: www.estuario.org


Recurso: http://www.miprv.com/pintura-de-un-hotel-pone-en-jaque-proyecto-de-ostras-en-la-laguna-del-condado/

By CB Online Staff cbnews@caribbeanbusinesspr.com; cbprdigital@gmail.com

International insurer Catlin Group Limited is underwriting a massive expansion of its study of coral reefs with a new campaign in the Caribbean and Bermuda. The Catlin Seaview Survey program – which will significantly widen opportunities for ocean, coral and climate scientists to understand the changes that are occurring within the region – starts in Belize, Mexico, Bermuda, St. Vincent, Guadeloupe, Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

Coral reefs in the Caribbean, like elsewhere, are under growing environmental stress. Being highly sensitive to environmental change, corals are considered the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to impacts of climate change and ocean acidification. Exploitation, pollution, warming waters and increased storms linked with climate change has caused the massive loss of corals across the Caribbean Sea over the last 50 years.

Caribbean economies given their dependence on coral reefs and other marine ecosystems for goods, services and economic welfare. According to the World Resources Institute, the value of shoreline protection services provided by Caribbean reefs is between $700 million and $2.2 billion per year. Within the next 50 years, continuing coral degradation and death could lead to losses totaling $140 million to $420 million annually.

“We are committed to understanding the future risks posed by climate change,” said Catlin Group CEO Stephen Catlin. “It is not only important that scientists have access to this valuable data, but companies such as ours must understand the impact that significant changes to our environment will have on local economies.”

A scientific race against time

Coral reefs globally are in an unprecedented state of decline due to pollution, overfishing and climate change. The U.S. National Oceanic &d Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict increasing frequency and severity of mass bleaching events over the coming years. As the Catlin Seaview Survey embarks on a race against time to survey the coral reefs of the world, the Caribbean serves as an ideal launching point to take the campaign global because of the stress already experienced by its reefs.

“The Caribbean was chosen to launch the global mission because it is at the frontline of risk. Over the last 50 years, 80 percent of the corals in many places in the Caribbean have disappeared because of coastal development and pollution. They now are also threatened by invasive species, climate change and ocean acidification – it’s the perfect storm,” said Richard Vevers, project director for the Catlin Seaview Survey.

Coral reefs pump some $483 million annually into the U.S. economy tied to tourism and water sports, according to a study. NOAA says reef-based U.S. fisheries represent another $100 million in commercial activity every year.

An international conservation organization painted a grim picture of the Caribbean’s iconic coral reefs in a recent report.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said in September that the Caribbean’s reefs are in sharp decline. The report pointed to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands among the hardest-hit in the region.

The causes include overfishing, pollution, disease and bleaching caused by rising global temperatures.

Scientists say record amounts of coral have died off in the Caribbean from pollution, sedimentation and rising sea temperatures since the late 1990s and reefs in Puerto Rico are still under stress from an unprecedented bleaching event and die off that began in 2005. Puerto Rico’s reefs have shown some signs of recovering from the catastrophic bleaching event of 2005, which took a huge toll on vital coral populations.

When corals are exposed to very warm water, they either expel or consume the colorful algae they host, which leads to the bleached color. If the stress is not too severe and decreases in time, the affected corals can regain their symbiotic algae. But if the stress is prolonged and the algae populations do not recover, the coral host eventually dies.

In 2005, up to 90 percent of corals in parts of the eastern Caribbean suffered bleaching, and more than half died, according to previous research.

Tourism-dependent islands worry about the effect that bleaching will have on their economies. A rapid decline in the world’s coral reefs could damage economies that rely on underwater sea life for tourism revenue, researchers say. After the 2005 bleaching, the World Resources Institute estimated Caribbean reef degradation would cause between $350 million to $870 million in economic losses a year, according to a 2006 NOAA statement.

Pollution, habitat destruction, improper fishing and overfishing have contributed to the problem and corals in the eastern Caribbean have been hit hardest.

Survey focused on four main scientific goals

It is expected the state of the Caribbean reefs will provide insights into the future prospects for coral reefs in other regions of the world. Specifically, the new survey will focus on four major scientific goals:

– Change detection (creating a Caribbean-wide ecological baseline): Accurate measurements of the current state of the coral reefs in the Caribbean are crucial to support timely decisions about their management.

– Understand stress within the Caribbean – when, where and how much?: The survey team will use direct measurements as well as information from NOAA and NASA satellite systems to understand how patterns in the health of coral reefs (e.g. coral cover, reef complexity) are influenced by local and global stressors such as changes in sea temperature, coastal pollution, fishing intensity, and exposure to wave stress and storms. This will fill in critical gaps in our understanding of why coral reefs have been in decline over the past 50 years.

– Understanding climate change vulnerability: Develop deeper insights into mesophotic (deep-water) coral reef communities: The Catlin Seaview Survey’s work during 2012 on the Great Barrier Reef has revealed that mesophotic coral reefs may play an essential role in regenerating shallow water reef systems. The Survey will gather a more comprehensive understanding of the threat of climate change to coral reefs in the Caribbean by using similar techniques and technologies to map mesophotic coral reefs in the region and to investigate the genetic connectedness of those reefs to shallow water reef systems.

– Produce new tools for understanding changes in tropical reef systems: Rapid, semi-automated and rigorous surveys of coral reefs are essential for developing an understanding of the rates of change, vulnerability and priorities for management intervention. To aid in the Survey’s campaign, a new camera has been developed; the SVII-S is a lighter-weight version of the main SVII camera that can be operated by a single diver, allowing dive team members to cover extra survey areas

Climate change and implications for the insurance industry

500 million people worldwide rely on coral reefs for food, tourism, economic stability and shoreline protection. When reefs are harmed or destroyed due to climate change and regional drivers, the effects can be devastating and far-reaching. There is a shift in the insurance industry; evaluating and helping clients minimize risk is critical to business, the assessment of the impact of climate change is a natural extension for the future of the insurance industry.

The Geneva Association, the international association for the study of insurance economics, recently released a report, Warming of the Oceans and Implications for the (Re) Insurance Industry, highlighting how climate change has effected the warming of oceans and the correlating effect on the insurance industry’s risk assessment strategies. The report highlights three main drivers of change:

– Greater volumes of water = greater risk: Not only do rising sea levels increase the risk of flooding or the potential impact of storm surges, but they also decrease the protective lifespan of coastal infrastructure. While the probability of a storm is not increased, the damage caused by one is.

– Warmer ocean = more water in the atmosphere: A warmer atmosphere contains more water and therefore more energy. This has the potential to increase the intensity of extreme events and associated precipitation. This greater intensity increases the loss potential of natural catastrophes.

– Effect on large-scale climate patterns: The warming of the oceans is also likely to affect large-scale climate patterns such as El Niño, various monsoon systems or the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Scientific collaborators

The Catlin Seaview Survey has teamed up with the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland in Australia and Davey Kline, a project scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego. Kline and other Scripps collaborators are working with the Global Change Institute to develop autonomous assessments of the hundreds of thousands panoramic images taken of the reefs within the Caribbean using their sophisticated semi-automated image recognition software to analyse the percent coverage of the main benthic organisms (e.g. corals, algae, other invertebrates) in the photographs. Analysis of such a large data set of photographs would not be possible without a semi-automated computer analysis system.

These relationships are essential to the success of the research program,” said professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, chief scientist of the Catlin Seaview Survey. “By collecting and analyzing images in a semi-autonomous fashion, the research project can cover huge distances. This has never been done before.”

Catlin Group Limited is a global specialty property/casualty insurer and reinsurer operating worldwide through six underwriting hubs: London/UK, Bermuda, the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe and Canada.

Source: http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/global-insurer-maps-caribbean-coral-risk-87318.html

By Damian Carrington

A starved polar bear found found dead in Svalbard as "little more than skin and bones" perished due to a lack of sea ice on which to hunt seals, according to a renowned polar bear expert.

Climate change has reduced sea ice in the Arctic to record lows in the last year and Dr Ian Stirling, who has studied the bears for almost 40 years and examined the animal, said the lack of ice forced the bear into ranging far and wide in an ultimately unsuccessful search for food.

"From his lying position in death the bear appears to simply have starved and died where he dropped," Stirling said. "He had no external suggestion of any remaining fat, having been reduced to little more than skin and bone."

The bear had been examined by scientists from the Norwegian Polar Institute in April in the southern part of Svalbard, an Arctic island archipelago, and appeared healthy. The same bear had been captured in the same area in previous years, suggesting that the discovery of its body, 250km away in northern Svalbard in July, represented an unusual movement away from its normal range. The bear probably followed the fjords inland as it trekked north, meaning it may have walked double or treble that distance.

Polar bears feed almost exclusively on seals and need sea ice to capture their prey. But 2012 saw the lowest level of sea ice in the Arctic on record. Prond Robertson, at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, said: "The sea ice break up around Svalbard in 2013 was both fast and very early." He said recent years had been poor for ice around the islands: "Warm water entered the western fjords in 2005-06 and since then has not shifted."

Stirling, now at Polar Bears International and previously at the University of Alberta and the Canadian Wildlife Service, said: "Most of the fjords and inter-island channels in Svalbard did not freeze normally last winter and so many potential areas known to that bear for hunting seals in spring do not appear to have been as productive as in a normal winter. As a result the bear likely went looking for food in another area but appears to have been unsuccessful."

Research published in May showed that loss of sea ice was harming the health, breeding success and population size of the polar bears of Hudson Bay, Canada, as they spent longer on land waiting for the sea to refreeze. Other work has shown polar bear weights are declining. In February a panel of polar bear experts published a paper stating that rapid ice loss meant options such the feeding of starving bears by humans needed to be considered to protect the 20,000-25,000 animals thought to remain.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world's largest professional conservation network, states that of the 19 populations of polar bear around the Arctic, data is available for 12. Of those, eight are declining, three are stable and one is increasing.

The IUCN predicts that increasing ice loss will mean between one-third and a half of polar bears will be lost in the next three generations, about 45 years. But the US and Russian governments said in March that faster-than-expected ice losses could mean two-thirds are lost.

Attributing a single incident to climate change can be controversial, but Douglas Richardson, head of living collections at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie, said: "It's not just one bear though. There are an increasing number of bears in this condition: they are just not putting down enough fat to survive their summer fast. This particular polar bear is the latest bit of evidence of the impact of climate change."

Ice loss due to climate change is "absolutely, categorically and without question" the cause of falling polar bear populations, said Richardson, who cares for the UK's only publicly kept polar bears. He said 16 years was not particularly old for a wild male polar bear, which usually live into their early 20s. "There may have been some underlying disease, but I would be surprised if this was anything other than starvation," he said. "Once polar bears reach adulthood they are normally nigh on indestructible, they are hard as nails."

Jeff Flocken, at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: "While it is difficult to ascribe a single death or act to climate change it couldn't be clearer that drastic and long-term changes in their Arctic habitat threaten the survival of the polar bear. The threat of habitat loss from climate change, exacerbated by unsustainable killing for commercial trade in Canada, could lead to the demise of one of the world's most iconic animals, and this would be a true tragedy."

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/06/starved-polar-bear-record-sea-ice-melt

By Aviva Shen 

Unusually hot, dry weather in Alaska is wreaking havoc on fisheries, as thousands of fish perish in overheated waters. Last month, 1,100 king salmon died on their way up to the Crystal Lake hatchery due to water temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and lack of oxygen. That’s the bulk of the 1,800 adult salmon that were expected to return to the hatchery this season.

Earlier in the summer, another hatchery lost hundreds of grayling and rainbow trout in a Fairbanks lake where water temperatures reached 76 degrees. Alaska’s heat wave broke records last week, with 14 days straight above 70 degrees in Anchorage and 31 days of 80 degrees in Fairbanks.

Officials cited a number of factors affecting the fish, but observed that the die-off coincided with the hottest weather of the season. While die-offs are not uncommon, Doug Fleming, a sportfish biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, suggested the magnitude of the die-off was surprising.

“And so, getting through till Wednesday which appeared to be the hottest day, then on Thursday I was conducting an aerial survey just to get a grip on how many fish may have been killed by the warm water, not expecting to see a large die-off but some, and I was shocked to see the numbers of fish that we lost,” he told the Associated Press.

Besides the sheer heat, lack of rainfall is also contributing to the die-off. Many streams are too low to accommodate the fish waiting at the mouths, which essentially suffocate as more fish get backed up. The enormous salmon die-off in July was partly because large numbers of fish were trapped at the shallow Blind Slough rapids.

Alaska’s commercial fisheries are among the largest in the world. Salmon is the state’s largest export product after oil and natural gas.

While Alaska’s heat wave is expected to subside soon, the state has warmed up twice as fast as the rest of the nation in the past 50 years, and climate change is worsening extreme weather. Wildfires raged through subarctic forests as late as Friday, consuming more than a million acres and prompting emergency evacuations across the state. Thawing permafrost is also sinking villages, threatening fish stocks and water supplies that the communities rely on to survive.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/05/2410921/extreme-heat-is-killing-off-thousands-of-fish-in-alaska/

If current climate trends follow historical precedent, ocean ecosystems will be in state of flux for next 10,000 years, according to Scripps Oceanography researchers.

If history’s closest analog is any indication, the look of the oceans will change drastically in the future as the coming greenhouse world alters marine food webs and gives certain species advantages over others.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, paleobiologist Richard Norris and colleagues show that the ancient greenhouse world had few large reefs, a poorly oxygenated ocean, tropical surface waters like a hot tub, and food webs that did not sustain the abundance of large sharks, whales, seabirds, and seals of the modern ocean. Aspects of this greenhouse ocean could reappear in the future if greenhouse gases continue to rise at current accelerating rates.

The researchers base their projections on what is known about the “greenhouse world” of 50 million years ago when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were much higher than those that have been present during human history. Their review article appears in an Aug. 2 special edition of the journal Science titled “Natural Systems in Changing Climates.”

For the past million years, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have never exceeded 280 parts per million, but industrialization, forest clearing, agriculture, and other human activities have rapidly increased concentrations of CO2 and other gases known to create a “greenhouse” effect that traps heat in the atmosphere. For several days in May 2013, CO2 levels exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time in human history and that milestone could be left well behind in the next decades. At its current pace, Earth could recreate the CO2 content of the atmosphere in the greenhouse world in just 80 years.

In the greenhouse world, fossils indicate that CO2 concentrations reached 800-1,000 parts per million. Tropical ocean temperatures reached 35º C (95º F), and the polar oceans reached 12°C (53°F)—similar to current ocean temperatures offshore San Francisco. There were no polar ice sheets. Scientists have identified a “reef gap” between 42 and 57 million years ago in which complex coral reefs largely disappeared and the seabed was dominated by piles of pebble-like single-celled organisms called foraminifera.

“The ‘rainforests-of-the-sea’ reefs were replaced by the ‘gravel parking lots’ of the greenhouse world,” said Norris.


Changing marine life characteristics: Comparison of present, past, and future ocean ecosystemstates. Click on image for larger view. Image courtesy of Science

The greenhouse world was also marked by differences in the ocean food web with large parts of the tropical and subtropical ocean ecosystems supported by minute picoplankton instead of the larger diatoms typically found in highly productive ecosystems today. Indeed, large marine animals—sharks, tunas, whales, seals, even seabirds—mostly became abundant when algae became large enough to support top predators in the cold oceans of recent geologic times.

“The tiny algae of the greenhouse world were just too small to support big animals,” said Norris. “It’s like trying to keep lions happy on mice instead of antelope; lions can’t get by on only tiny snacks.”

Within the greenhouse world, there were rapid warming events that resemble our projected future. One well-studied event is known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) 56 million years ago, which serves as a guide to predicting what may happen under current climate trends.

That event lasted about 200,000 years and warmed the earth by 5-9° C (9-16° F) with massive migrations of animals and plants and shifts in climate zones. Notably, despite the disruption to Earth’s ecosystems, the extinction of species was remarkably light, other than a mass extinction in the rapidly warming deep ocean.

“In many respects the PETM warmed the world more than we project for future climate change, so it should come as some comfort that extinctions were mostly limited to the deep sea,” said Norris. “Unfortunately, the PETM also shows that ecological disruption can last tens of thousands of years.”

Indeed, Norris added that continuing the fossil fuel economy even for decades magnifies the period of climate instability. An abrupt halt to fossil fuel use at current levels would limit the period of future climate instability to less than 1,000 years before climate largely returns to pre-industrial norms. But, if fossil fuel use stays on its current trajectory until the end of this century, then the climate effects begin to resemble those of the PETM, with major ecological changes lasting for 20,000 years or more and a recognizable human “fingerprint” on Earth’s climate lasting for 100,000 years.

Co-authors of the review are Sandra Kirtland-Turner of Scripps Oceanography, Pincelli Hull of Yale University, and Andy Ridgwell of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

Source: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/disappearance_of_coral_reefs_drastically_altered_marine_food_web_on_the_hor#.UgFRxX_m57M.facebook

Por Osman Pérez Méndez / osman.perez@gfrmedia.com

Si alguna vez cuando  se dispone a dormir tiene la impresión que hay tan poca oscuridad que pareciera que la noche no llega nunca, sepa que no es una idea descabellada suya, sino más bien el efecto de una galopante contaminación lumínica que inunda los cielos de Puerto Rico.

Las causas de tal invasión lumínica son muchas:  una luz en el patio de una casa, los  grandes bombillos en parques, estadios, carreteras y estacionamientos, los focos de automóviles, las vallas publicitarias.

Y la suma  de todo es una luminosidad que, en lo que es quizás es el ejemplo más visible, le impide disfrutar de las estrellas, incluso en lugares relativamente oscuros.

“Uno de los problemas fundamentales de la contaminación es que trata de matar moscas con un cañón, o en otras palabras, se ilumina de más o se ilumina en la dirección que no debe ser”, comentó el arquitecto Fernando Abruña, mientras medía la cantidad de luz en el Jardín Botánico de Río Piedras, uno de los puntos más oscuros de la ciudad capital.

Allí, con todas las luces apagadas, los aparatos aún medían luz, y el resplandor de la luces de la ciudad era visible en el horizonte.

Los contornos de los árboles eran también visibles, así como algunos rasgos de las personas que no estaban muy distantes. Había claridad en el cielo y apenas unas 20 estrellas, cuando, según explicó Víctor Román, vicepresidente de la Sociedad de Astronomía de Puerto Rico, “debíamos ver miles y miles (de estrellas)”.

La famosa Vía Láctea, que debería ser visible, está desaparecida. Todas esas señales, explicaron los especialistas, son signos de contaminación lumínica.

La contaminación lumínica, por cierto, tiene efectos nocivos, no solo para el ambiente sino también para la salud humana. Por si fuera poco, ese despilfarro de luz conlleva una carga económica.

“También hay que considerar que, cuando tenemos un emisor (de luz) hacia el cielo, no solamente estamos contaminando, sino que también estamos perdiendo energía”, añadió.

“Así que hay varios beneficios. No solamente protegemos los cielos oscuros, sino que a la misma vez hacemos reducciones en los consumos de energía”, añadió Abruña.

Recurso: http://www.elnuevodia.com/contaminadodeluzpuertorico-1566021.html

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Por Michelle Soto

De ellos se dice que son solitarios, territoriales al punto de no tolerar a otro macho e incapaces de establecer relaciones sociales más allá de un encuentro casual con una hembra durante la temporada de reproducción.

Sin embargo, los jaguares macho que habitan la franja costera del Parque Nacional Tortuguero se encargaron de romper con esa idea al vérseles compartiendo espacio e interactuando entre sí, ya sea alimentándose de la misma presa, caminando, jugando o descansando juntos.

Así lo dio a conocer Stephanny Arroyo, investigadora de Global Vision International (GVI), quien desde junio del 2012 estudia la selección de hábitat por parte del jaguar ( Panthera onca ) en este parque nacional y su área de amortiguamiento.

Para ello, Arroyo cuenta con el poyo financiero de las organizaciones Panthera , The Rufford Small Grants Foundation , Idea Wild y el U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service .

Según Arroyo, la alta disponibilidad de tortugas marinas como fuente de alimento favorece el comportamiento social de los felinos porque ya no necesitan competir por comida.

“Hemos vistos a dos jaguares, Alex y Lucas, comiendo de la misma tortuga baula, sin ningún tipo de agresión”, comentó la investigadora a La Nación .

En los últimos 20 años se dio un aumento en la presencia de jaguares en la franja costera del Parque Nacional Tortuguero, el cual se ubica en Limón.

Eso la motivó a colocar 25 cámaras trampa dentro de los límites del parque, las cuales se activan con movimiento y permiten registrar la presencia de animales en ausencia del ser humano.

De esta manera, y desde entonces, las cámaras han captado a 22 individuos diferentes que son identificados a partir de sus manchas, las cuales son únicas y por eso fungen como huellas dactilares.

“Algunos son considerados residentes porque se reportan en la playa sin importar si hay o no tortugas marinas. Otros son considerados migratorios porque solo se reportan durante la temporada de anidación”, explicó Arroyo.

La alta presencia de felinos en playa se debe a la abundancia de tortugas verdes, las cuales –y ante la escasez de presas en el bosque como chanchos de monte ( Tayassu pecari ) y guatusas ( Dasyprocta punctata ) debido a la cacería– constituyen una fuente de alimento.

“Durante el pico de anidación, los eventos de depredación de tortugas marinas por jaguares se incrementaron, lo cual estuvo relacionado a una mayor presencia del jaguar en el hábitat costero”, señaló Arroyo en su tesis de maestría cursada en el Instituto Internacional en Conservación y manejo de Vida Silvestre (Icomvis) de la Universidad Nacional (UNA).

Ahora, los jaguares no representan una amenaza para la salud de la población de tortugas, ya que estos depredaron menos del 1% de los quelonios que llegaron a la playa de Tortuguero en el 2012.

Tampoco son una amenaza para las comunidades que viven cerca del parque nacional ya que los jaguares se concentran en el sector más alejado, precisamente porque allí no hay presencia de seres humanos quienes podrían convertirse en sus depredadores.

Para Arroyo, este aumento en la presencia de jaguares no debe verse tampoco como una oportunidad para desarrollar un turismo de observación de felinos.

“En el sector de playa donde se encuentran solo se permite la investigación. Si se permite que empiecen a llegar fotógrafos o turistas, no solo se puede afectar el comportamiento de los animales sino que también es peligroso porque son felinos que están cazando o pueden ser hembras con crías”, comentó Arroyo.

La segunda etapa del estudio continuará este año.

Recurso: http://www.nacion.com/vivir/ambiente/Machos-jaguar-toleran-misma-tortuga_0_1357664260.html

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By Fiona Harvey 

Comprehensive survey of the Caribbean's reefs is expected to act as a warning of problems besetting the world's coral.

A major survey of the coral reefs of the Caribbean is expected to reveal the extent to which one of the world's biggest and most important reserves of coral has been degraded by climate change, pollution, overfishing and degradation.

The Catlin scientific survey will undertake the most comprehensive survey yet of the state of the region's reefs, starting in Belize and moving on to Mexico, Anguilla, Barbuda, St Lucia, Turks & Caicos, Florida and Bermuda.

The Catlin scientists said the state of the regions' reefs would act as an early warning of problems besetting all of the world's coral. As much as 80% of Caribbean coral is reckoned to have been lost in recent years, but the survey should give a more accurate picture of where the losses have had most effect and on the causes.

Loss of reefs is also a serious economic problem in the Caribbean, where large populations depend on fishing and tourism. Coral reefs provide a vital home for marine creatures, acting as a nursery for fish and a food resource for higher food chain predators such as sharks and whales.

Stephen Catlin, chief executive of the Catlin Group, said: "It is not only important that scientists have access to this valuable data, but companies such as ours must understand the impact that significant changes to our environment will have on local economies."

Globally, coral reefs are under threat. The future of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is in doubt as mining and energy companies want to forge a shipping lane through it to form a more direct link with their export markets.

Warming seas owing to climate change can lead to coral being "bleached" – a state where the tiny polyps that build the reefs die off. The US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts increasing frequency and severity of mass bleaching events as global warming takes effect.

Richard Vevers, director of the project, told the Guardian that one important role of the new survey would be to describe a new "baseline" to establish how far such problems have taken their toll to date, which will enable future scientists to judge how degradation – or conservation – progresses.

He said the team of scientists would also probe the underlying reasons for such degradation, with a view to informing conservation efforts.

The team will use satellite data as well as direct observations to assess the reefs. As part of the survey, they will develop software that marine scientists can apply to other reefs around the world. A new camera has been constructed to assist their efforts.

Vevers said: "The Caribbean was chosen to launch the global mission because it is at the frontline of risk. Over the last 50 years 80% of the corals have been lost due mainly coastal development and pollution. They now are also threatened by invasive species, global warming and the early effects of ocean acidification — it's the perfect storm."


Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/01/caribbean-coral-reef-loss

Por Agencia EFE

Sídney- El ministro de la Presidencia de las Islas Marshall, Tony de Brum, alertó hoy del riesgo de que ocurra "una catástrofe" si no se toman medidas contra el cambio climático en los próximos doce meses, que calificó de "críticos".

"Seguir con lo de siempre desencadenará una catástrofe climática y el tiempo se nos acaba", dijo de Brum en Sídney, donde urgió a adoptar medidas para mitigar los efectos del cambio climático que afecta en particular a las pequeñas naciones del Pacífico.

De Brum señaló el grave problema de perdida de territorio que supone el cambio climático para las Islas Marshall y otros estados insulares del Pacífico como Kiribati o Tuvalu.

Según el ministro, el aumento de la temperatura en 4 grados y del nivel de los océanos en dos metros a finales de siglo "alterará fundamentalmente el mundo tal y como se conoce y será el fin de mi país y de otros parecidos".

El ministro hizo estas declaraciones durante un encuentro con la prensa antes de la cumbre regional que del 3 y el 6 de septiembre reunirá a los líderes de las islas del Pacífico junto a los de Australia y Nueva Zelanda.

De Brum dijo que se ha invitado también al nuevo secretario de Estado de EEUU, John Kerry, y advirtió que si este no acude, "sería como una bofetada en la cara y como si Estados Unidos revirtiera el llamado pivote del Pacífico".

Las Islas Marshall pretenden que el foro se centre en acelerar la transición del Pacífico hacia las energías limpias, promover un desarrollo sostenible que sea resistente al cambio climático y abordar amenazas de largo plazo a la seguridad.

La cumbre regional pretende lograr la firma de la Declaración de Majuro, que no es vinculante y que se prevé presentar ante la Asamblea General de la ONU a finales de septiembre para ganar apoyos en la lucha contra el cambio climático.


Recurso: http://www.elnuevodia.com/alertansobreunacatastrofeclimaticaenelpacifico-1563731.html