Groundwater pumped from the depths of the coastal Bengal Basin supporting more than 80 million people is largely secure from contamination, according to new research by UCL and the British Geological Survey.
Mangroves account for only 0.7 per cent of the Earth's tropical forest area, but they are among the world's most productive and important ecosystems. They provide a wealth of ecological and socio-economic benefits, such as serving as nursery habitat for fish species, offering protection against coastal surges associated with storms and tsunamis, and storing carbon.
A new study highlights that sub-Antarctic seabirds are most at risk from unsustainable fishing during the southern hemisphere winter and in the south Atlantic and Southwest Indian Oceans. The link between fishing and the steep decline in seabird populations is well established, but the identification of problem 'hotspots' will better help agencies to conserve a number of threatened species. The study is published in the Journal of Applied Ecology this week (22 May).