Native to England, Wales and Scotland, the Eurasian beaver was hunted to extinction in the 16th century, according to The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. But they have been slowly returning to England and conservationists say they are now being reintroduced to the Nene Wetlands nature reserve in Northamptonshire, England, for the first […]
Coastal wetlands are vitally important ecosystems. They store carbon dioxide, protect seaside communities from storms and provide habitats for marine life. Yet in the past two decades, Earth has lost 4,000 square kilometers (approximately 1,544 square miles) of tidal flats, tidal marshes and mangroves, a new study published in Science Thursday found. That’s a loss […]
Saltwater pollution of the world’s freshwater ecosystems caused by agriculture fertilizers, road de-icing salts, mining operations and climate change is on the rise, and the current water quality guidelines in North America and Europe aren’t stringent enough to prevent it. An international study conducted by scientists from Europe and North America found that freshwater lakes […]
By Kimberly M.S. Cartier Mangrove forests, marshes and seagrass beds protect inland areas from storm surges and strong winds. Over long periods, coastal wetlands like these build up sediment that mitigates sea level rise and local land subsidence. A new analysis of property damage from Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal storms has shown that […]
The Trump administration repealed the 2015 Clean Water Rule rule Thursday, a rule intended to protect 60 percent of the nation’s waterways from pollution, The New York Times reported. At stake is the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. The Obama-era rule expanded that definition from larger bodies of […]
By Jennifer Weeks World Wetlands Day on Feb. 2 marks the date when 18 nations signed the Convention on Wetlands in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Since that time, scientists have shown that wetlands provide many valuable services, from buffering coasts against floods to filtering water […]
Most people have heard of the Amazon, South America’s famed rainforest and hub of biological diversity. Less well known, though no less critical, is the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland. Like the Amazon, the Pantanal is ecologically important and imperiled. Located primarily in Brazil, it also stretches into neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay. Covering an […]
By Jake Johnson In a move environmentalists are warning will seriously endanger drinking water and wildlife nationwide, President Donald Trump‘s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly gearing up to hand yet another gift to big polluters by drastically curtailing the number of waterways and wetlands protected under the Clean Water Act. “As a result […]
By Robert McSweeney Emissions of CO2 and methane from wetlands and thawing permafrost as the climate warms could cut the “carbon budget” for the Paris agreement temperature limits by around five years, a new study says. These natural processes are “positive feedbacks”—so called because they release more greenhouse gases as global temperatures rise, thus reinforcing […]
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