Ecological and Environmental Indicators

The US Environmental Protection Agency, in collaboration with other agencies, has released a report that discusses the impacts of sea level rise on the coast, coastal communities, and the habitats and species that depend on them. The report, Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region, examines multiple opportunities for governments and coastal communities to plan for and adapt to rising sea levels. Sea-level rise can affect coastal communities and habitats in a variety of different ways, including submerging low-lying lands, eroding beaches, converting wetlands to open water, intensifying coastal flooding, and increasing the salinity of estuaries and freshwater aquifers. It is caused by a number of natural and human-induced factors and can vary by region. Some impacts of sea-level rise can already be observed along the U.S. coast. The primary causes of global sea-level rise are the expansion of ocean water due to warming and the melting of glaciers and ic...

I am 56 years old with a vivid memory of my Dad [ 1 ] . He is a WW2 vet with 4 years tenure from D–day plus 3 days and 4 years of Germany war experiences, Battle of the Buldge etc. He never talks of his experience. However: One thought that stays in my mind dates back when I was 7–8 years old. We would go hiking and camping in the Adirondack Mts. Dad would stress as we cleaned up our campsite that it was to be left as clean or cleaner than found. As the years pass, I think how sage is this advice, apropos to today’s histrionics. The worldwide challenge of remediating the Earth’s increasing inventory of contaminated soils and eliminating toxicity in polluted soils is a daunting one. Issues such as The PCB Mess in Bloomington, Indiana is but one example. After about 30 years of manufacturing PCB—filled capacitors and processing defective ones at its Bloomington, Indiana, plant, Westinghouse Electric exited the Big 11 college town, population 74,000. It lef...

Overview USGS scientists recently completed a quantitative analysis, published in the July 2007 issue of Geology, documenting effects of accelerated coastal land loss and thermokarst lake expansion and drainage along a section of the Alaska North Slope coastline Check out this article re: Alaska Coastal Erosion on your newest erosion article page 6 found here Thank you for subscribing Spread the word Cheers

Urban rivers are typically heavily-engineered and polluted with degraded habitats. They are therefore a priority for biodiversity restoration. Research suggests that relatively simple modifications to river walls may potentially encourage biodiversity by significantly improving habitats for plants and animals. The EU's Water Framework Directive requires good ecological status in surface waters by 2015, and as such it is important to encourage biodiversity in rivers and waterways. One way of achieving this is to alter the structure of a river. Naturalistic landscape features, such as meanders, ... Read more

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