Prix d'Excellence marine science winner supports carbon tax

University of WA's internationally recognised marine scientist Carlos Duarte has today used his award-winning platform to back the Australian government's carbon tax, saying not enough has been done towards tackling climate change. Professor Duarte, Director of the UWA Oceans Institute, was awarded the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea's highest honour, its Prix d'Excellence, at the Annual Science Conference in Gdansk, Poland. Awarded every three years, ICES Awards Committee Chair Edward Houde commended Professor Duarte for being an outstanding marine ecologist who had made many valuable contributions to marine science and oceanography. "His broad reach extends to all parts of the globe where he has conducted research on marine ecosystems, especially the flux of carbon, microbial ecology, and comparative analysis of ecosystems," Dr Houde said. Professor Duarte has conducted research across Europe, South-East Asia, Cuba, Mexico, the US, Australia, the Amazonia, the Arctic, the Southern Ocean, and the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. He also led the Spanish Malaspina 2010 Expedition that sailed the world's oceans to explore biodiversity and study the impacts of global change on ocean ecosystems. Through his research he has found that while people may wish to ignore the issues of climate change it was already active and in operation in the Arctic. "A new minimum in ice extent has just been reached in the Arctic, along with a dramatic loss of ozone over the winter," he said. "The rapid loss of ice in the Arctic is much faster than any current model is able to predict and is a threat to all species that depend on ice as a habitat. It is the fastest rate of seawater warming observed anywhere in the ocean.

Japan utilities near CO2 goal with 2010/11 credit use

Japan's power companies drew close to meeting their carbon dioxide emissions goals after using 57 million tons of carbon credits in the latest business year to March, industry data showed on Tuesday, although protracted nuclear reactor shutdowns have cast doubt on progress in the current year. The use of credits under the Kyoto Protocol cut the sector's CO2 emissions to 317 million tons, largely meeting protocol targets, the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan said. The federation said, however, that it could no longer project how many carbon credits would be needed to meet protocol targets in the future, given uncertainties over how long nuclear reactors may remain idled while public worries over safety delay the restart of units taken offline for routine maintenance. Japanese power companies, like their counterparts in the European Union, have been among the biggest buyers of globally traded carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol. The 10 regional utilities, which account for about 30 percent of Japan's greenhouse gas emissions, have each pledged to meet a goal of 0.34 kg of CO2 per kilowatt hour, for a 20 percent improvement from 1990 levels over the five years to March 2013. Using CO2 credits, the industry cut emissions to 0.35 kg of CO2 per kwh. In the three years to March 2011, the industry used a cumulative 172 million tons of carbon credits to reduce emissions. The federation last September announced that it expected to buy 260 million tons of CO2 credits during the five years to the end of 2012.

Huge Australian bushfires ignited rare plant growth

Rare plants are springing up in an Australian park ravaged by bushfires - plants that had never been recorded there before the fire. The astonishing revival is providing new insights into the way ecosystems recover from fire damage. Over 90 per cent of Kinglake National Park in Victoria was damaged by bushfires in a February 2009 disaster that also claimed 173 lives. "Very few areas were unaffected by the fire, leaving minimal refuge for flora and fauna," says Richard Francis, a botanist at Abzeco, an ecological science consultancy based in Melbourne, Australia. Now Francis and colleagues have completed a two-year survey of the 330,000-hectare park and found that the fires not only stimulated dormant seeds to grow but also attracted previously unknown plants to the region. More than 60 plant species never before recorded in the park have flourished since the fires, including blue-spike milkwort (Comesperma calymega) and tufted lobelia (Lobelia rhombifolia). In addition, plants that had been under threat before the bushfires are now germinating prolifically. These include round-leaf pomaderris (Pomaderris vaccinifolia), silky golden-tip (Goodia lotifolia var. pubescens) and swamp bush-pea (Pultenaea glabra). Francis says the seeds of these species were buried in the soil but could not grow because mature plants such as rough tree ferns (Cyathia australis) were outcompeting them. But when the fires decimated the mature flora, exposing the ground beneath to heat, smoke and more light, the underdogs were able to thrive. Seeds are thought to be stimulated by chemicals in the smoke and ultraviolet light, he says.

Source: Green Times