David Evans and Associates, Inc.’s Post

🙌Celebrating 50 years of HELCOM 🙌 ➡️Key takeaway 11/12 - State of the Baltic Sea 2023 ⬅️ Thematic assessment: Spatial distribution of pressures and impacts ✔️ Potential cumulative impacts from human activities on the environment can be identified in all parts of the Baltic Sea but there are some clear spatial differences, indicate the findings of the 2023 State of the Baltic Sea assessment. ✔️ Shallow coastal areas are generally subject to the highest levels of impact, due to a high number of ecosystem components, as well as many human activities. ✔️ Regarding potential cumulative pressures, however, the highest level of pressure is identified in open sea areas. ✔️ Eutrophication and hazardous substances are the two most influential pressures for both potential cumulative pressures and impacts, having a wide distribution across the whole Baltic Sea region. ✔️ A thematic analysis on the potential effect of continuous noise on mobile species shows the relatively highest impact levels in the south, especially around the Arkona Basin. ✔️ Regarding physical loss, less than one percent of the whole Baltic Sea was estimated to be impacted by long-term potential loss of seabed. The sub-basins with the highest shares of lost seabed were The Sound and Great Belt. 📌State of the Baltic Sea 2023 is the most comprehensive assessment of the Baltic Sea ecosystem health to date: 🌐 https://bit.ly/45KeU27 #BalticSea #SOBS #HOLAS3 #marineenvironment

[PUBLIC TALK] The shape of the seabed is as diverse as it is deep. Join Rachel Nanson to explore a world-first geoscience classification scheme to map the seabed to support the development of Australia’s sustainable Ocean Economy [11am Wed 21 Aug] 👉 https://bit.ly/3SSszRk #DGAL 📷 Flinders Reefs (Coral Sea) have grown on flat-topped seamounts that rise over 1000 m from the surrounding seabed.

It's been a cruel summer for our Reef. The 2023−24 summer has seen substantial climate driven impacts across the Great Barrier Reef, with widespread coral bleaching, two cyclones and several severe flood events. Today we released the Reef Snapshot 2023−24 with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Australian Institute of Marine Science, which confirms the cumulative impacts experienced across the Reef this summer have been higher than previous summers. Aerial surveys were conducted over 1000 reefs spanning the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Torres Strait. Coral bleaching was observed on 73 per cent of surveyed reefs within the Marine Park and 6 per cent in the Torres Strait. The Great Barrier Reef is but one of many coral reef systems across 53 countries that have experienced widespread coral bleaching in the last 12 months, prompting the USA’s NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration to announce a fourth global bleaching event.

Too later for coral, the start of the slide to extinction? Will mass bleaching lead to mass extinction - in some localities yes, in some probably, in some, maybe. Has the ocean temperature, acidity and oxygen levels become too unpredictable to support long term coral reef survival in their current locations? These changes are essentially locked-in the ocean for at least the foreseeable future - so what are solutions for coral survival? https://lnkd.in/epKHcWPG

UPCOMING DEPOSIT IN THE ARCTIC WORLD ARCHIVE: A TESTAMENT TO OUR FRAGILE FUTURE Next week, I will return to the Arctic World Archive, hidden deep in an abandoned coal mine on Spitsbergen at 78 degrees North. The Arctic World Archive, similar to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, safeguards humanity's cultural heritage, knowledge, and data for up to 2,000 years. This deposit marks an important moment in my Pacific project, where I will deposit visual footage of the disappearing Marshall Islands, including Ebeye, Lib, Ejit, and Majuro. Due to the irreversible impact of climate change, these islands may vanish completely by the end of this century. This deposit is more than a collection of photographs; it is a voice for the islanders facing rising sea levels, which threaten their homes, culture, and existence. The images I bring in stands as a testimony to the profound loss faced by Pacific nations. It highlights the need to protect knowledge, human achievement, and fragile ecosystems. It complements my earlier deposit, which included images from the "TalPro22" expedition on the R/V BELGICA, an oceanographic expedition on the Belgian research vessel. By safeguarding these images for future generations, we ensure that the voices and heritage of the Pacific islanders endure. This project serves as a reminder that our actions today are vital for the future. The Arctic World Archive is a beacon of hope and an insurance policy for our cultural memory. It will be part of the new book publication I am currently working on, which will be launched on 21 November. More information soon! Arctic World Archive Piql AS Gruve 3 Store Norske The University Centre in Svalbard Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences BELSPO Pacific Community-SPC Pacific Islands Forum Aloha McGuffie Mark McGuffie Gay Mathews Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP The Explorers Club #AWA #deposit #svalbard

🚢 NIOZ at Sea BLOG: update 8 May of 2nd North Sea Atlantic Exchange (NoSe) expedition: In situ experiments with benthic landers ♻ During the NoSE expedition, we study the carbon and nutrient cycles in the water column and the seafloor, where some of us have special interest in the processes at the interface between the two. For this, we use benthic landers that we deploy at the seafloor equipped with many different instruments to measure the near-bed environmental conditions like current speed, temperature and oxygen concentrations. As a special treat, the system includes three NIOZ-designed benthic chambers to measure rates of carbon and nutrient cycling right there at the seafloor. 📥 After the lander lands on the seafloor small boxes are pushed into the sediment, enclosing a small part of the seafloor and the overlying seawater. During the following 10 hours we measure the rate at which oxygen is decreasing and take water samples in- and outside the chamber to analyse changes in nutrient concentrations such as phosphate, ammonium, and nitrate. 💡 These data will tell us how much carbon is consumed at the seafloor per square meter and if the sediments are a source or sink for nutrients. Finally, the sediment is sieved to quantify the species and abundance of deep-sea fauna that were present in the chambers to determine their role in the carbon and nutrient cycles. Follow the expedition via the blog on the NIOZ website: 👇 https://lnkd.in/gYDUWiiu

Explainer: What Is Coral Bleaching?

Bleached and at-risk reefs under AIMS microscope - Australian Institute of Marine Science: - The fifth mass coral bleaching event since 2016 is unfolding on the Great Barrier Reef. - AIMS scientists have been working with the Reef Authority to monitor the Reef from the air to assess the spatial extent of coral bleaching.  - For the past few months they have also been underwater to understand the reef response to the accumulating heat, from onset through to the peak of bleaching, and to document the prevalence of fully bleached corals.  - Underwater teams are also collecting data to identify naturally heat resilient corals to better understand adaptation potential within the reef community, to improve reef restoration practices. https://lnkd.in/exQzZ3e9

🌊For decades, our Working Group on Oceanic Hydrography #WGOH has provided policy-makers and the oceanographic community with information on the condition of the North Atlantic Ocean, summarizing trends in ICES Report on Ocean Climate #IROC. The group relies on repeated long-term oceanographic sampling at key sites around the North Atlantic, Nordic Seas, and adjacent shelf seas to summarize trends in regional hydrography and identify patterns linking these changes across the North Atlantic. The working group continues a long tradition of international collaboration, bringing together physical oceanographers with regional expertise and a rich collection of ocean data to contribute to this assessment. While global ocean observation has evolved in the past decade, greatly increasing in volume and complexity, WGOH and IROC continue to provide a key link between regional ocean monitoring, research, and actual policy advice. Following their annual meeting, #WGOH present highlights of climatic conditions in the North Atlantic Ocean climate in 2023 🔵Sea temperature 🟠Salinity 🟡Atmospheric conditions 🟢Observed trends & recent variability ℹ https://lnkd.in/en33Smp8 Agnieszka Beszczynska-Moeller Almudena Fontan Tycjan Wodzinowski Tomasz Dabrowski Glenn Nolan Barbara Berx William Hunter César González-Pola Caroline Cusack 📷Paco Baldo