Washington: A new research led by scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life and the University of Panama revealed that the globe-trotter is the largest fish in the ocean that can be found basking in the coastal waters of the Panamanian Pacific.There is more information known about the habits of whale shark Rhincodon typus. With the help of satellite tracking, a group of scientists found 30 of them in the region. The study also helps to discover the influencing factors that endangered change in species behaviour.The findings of the study were published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.The R. typus, like other large sharks, may take years or even decades to reach maturity and reproduce, making them vulnerable to population declines, especially when combined with human threats. For instance, they may be caught in fishing nets as bycatch or face the risk of vessel strikes when shipping lanes overlap with their feeding sites. Being able to understand and predict whale shark behavior is a necessary step for protecting the species.The satellite monitoring of this species, led by STRI marine ecologist Hector Guzman, found that whale sharks feed mainly in coastal waters, seamounts and ridges of the Panamanian Pacific, where they can find an abundance of their favorite foods: small fish and plankton. They were also spotted swimming north and southbound along the coast, towards Mexico and Ecuador, and towards the open ocean to feed."This species requires clear regional planning," said Guzman. "Once the feeding and breeding aggregation areas are identified, some protection measures should be implemented. The newly announced marine protected area expansions across the region provide an interesting platform for large-scale conservation practices."Although they used marine protected areas, the whale sharks also spent time in industrial fishing and vessel traffic zones, which could endanger them according to the new article published in Frontiers in Marine Science."The study shows how complex it is to protect whale sharks: tagged individuals visited 17 marine protected areas in 5 countries, but more than 77% of their time they were in areas without any protection," said Catalina Gomez, co-author of the study and marine ecologist at the University of Panama.Thus, for highly migratory and endangered species such as the whale shark, conservation measures should go beyond the establishment of local marine protected areas.Efforts should focus on protecting large oceanic areas and establishing marine corridors that transcend national borders, for example: the newly expanded Cordillera de Coiba Marine Protected Area in Panama or the Marine Conservation Corridor of the Eastern Tropical Pacific which connects Coiba with Costa Rica's Cocos Islands, the Galapagos in Ecuador and Colombia's Malpelo Island. "A periodic tagging program should continue for two main reasons: first, we still don't know where the species reproduces and tracking may lead us in the right direction," said Guzman. "Second, we know that they are moving across extensive areas. We have identified potential corridors or seaways, as well as aggregation areas, that require management attention and clear protection rules. Tracking will allow us to better identify those regional routes."The satellite tracking also revealed a whale shark migratory pattern that seems to be associated with circular ocean currents called eddies."Eddies are recognized as potential feeding areas for migratory species or food epicenters in the oceans, so they can swim in those areas for a long time while foraging and feeding," said Guzman. "However, eddies are dynamic systems and change constantly in speed or strength, size and location, even seasonally. These feeding areas are important for conservation, especially considering their dynamics and potential changes associated with climate change."&nbsp;—ANI

 A new research led by scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life and the University of Panama revealed that the globe-trotter is the largest fish in the ocean that can be found basking in the coastal waters of the Panamanian Pacific.

Scientists Find The Factors Influencing Behaviour Of Whale Shark

Washington: Tropical coastal ecosystems are among the most biodiverse areas on Earth. And they're also on the front lines of effects caused by human activity. That's why it's becoming increasingly important, especially as human populations increase, to manage the impacts of runoff and wastewater that flow into the sea."Tropical coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, are oligotrophic, meaning they are located in nutrient-poor waters and have therefore adapted to these conditions," said Madeline Berger, a researcher at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis &amp; Synthesis (NCEAS). "An increased influx of nutrients can therefore disrupt ecosystem functioning."In a paper that appears in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management, lead author Berger and her colleagues tackle the issue of nutrient pollution through a case study in coastal Central America. The result? Agricultural operations are responsible for the vast majority of nitrogen pollution that flows into the Mesoamerican Reef Region. Knowing where the pollution comes from, the researchers say, will help managers tailor solutions for mitigation."Our study highlights that different management strategies will need to be employed in different watersheds to help reduce nutrient input that can have detrimental impacts on coral reef and seagrass health in this area," Berger said.The Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, second only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef in terms of size. Shared by Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, it stretches for almost 700 miles and hosts a variety of creatures, including hundreds of fish species, critically endangered marine turtles, as well as mollusks, marine mammals and shorebirds. These habitats and communities, in turn, sustain local fishing as well as tourism. Millions of people flock each year to resorts and ports in Cancun, Cozumel, Belize City and other points along the coast on their Caribbean vacations.But the reef is also in trouble. More than half of it is in poor condition due to various threats that include ocean warming, unsustainable fishing and pollution."Nutrient pollution is a known threat to coral reef and seagrass," Berger said. Too much nitrogen, a common pollutant, results in a chain of events that results in oxygen-free "dead zones," and acidic conditions that can severely weaken or kill fish and other animals. Water quality issues are also among the main reasons for sindrome blanco, a pathogenic disease that leads to white lesions that spread over coral, leading to death in mere weeks. Nutrient pollution in this region, according to the researchers, "comes from four sources: agricultural production, human wastewater, atmospheric deposition and wild animal scat," with agriculture and human wastewater suspected of contributing the majority of the pollution.To tell how much of the pollution came from upstream agriculture or human wastewater, the researchers dove into several models examining the watersheds that feed into the MAR. One was a global wastewater model that estimates the amount of nitrogen pollution based on population maps, protein consumption and known human nitrogen excretion rates, which was adapted to this specific region."Another group at NCEAS was also creating a spatially-explicit global model quantifying the ecological footprint of food production, so we saw an opportunity to synthesize both models to compare nutrient pollution from wastewater to nutrient pollution from crop and livestock production," Berger said.The researchers also modelled impacts from the millions of tourists that roam up and down the coast using hotel location data, cruise ship location data and monthly statistics reported by tourism bureaus in each country. "Basically, we were trying to figure out where tourists were pooping, which turns out to be pretty tricky," she said.The researchers found that agriculture was by far the largest contributor (92%) of nitrogen to the MAR, due to fertilizer and livestock waste runoff that make their way to the ocean via rivers and streams. Two rivers, the Rio Ulua in Honduras and Rio Motagua in Guatemala, contributed more than 50% of the modeled nitrogen pollution, collecting runoff from several upstream tributaries and draining into the ocean. Meanwhile, 90% of the modeled nitrogen pollution was attributed to 20 (out of 430) watersheds, of which 11 are located in Guatemala or Honduras. An estimated 80% of coral reefs and 68% of seagrass beds were exposed to nitrogen pollution from watershed plumes.The results are indicative of the complexity of the pollution issue -- even land use changes and agricultural expansion very far inland can have impacts to marine ecosystems, Berger said. Additionally, the researchers found that high biodiversity habitats were more exposed to plumes originating from smaller, coastal watersheds. And while tourism represented a very small proportion of the overall pollution, the watersheds that contributed the most pollution tended to also have high number of tourists or be near those that did."The exercise also raised the questions of how tourists, or tourist demand, has larger impacts beyond just the physical presence of more people -- such as increased building or expanding agriculture -- that can also exacerbate pollution input," Berger said. The researchers hope that ultimately a granular approach that can be used to track the origins and paths of nitrogen and other nutrient runoff and their impacts will enable coastal managers to develop the sophisticated action plans necessary to mitigate the pollution of some of the world's most biodiverse coastal regions.&nbsp;—ANI

Tropical coastal ecosystems are among the most biodiverse areas on Earth. And they're also on the front lines of effects caused by human activity. 

Researchers Trace Source Of Nitrogen Pollution Affecting World's Second-Largest Barrier Reef

Macao (The Hawk): The tropical cyclone Nalgae is under the third-highest storm warning from the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau, which also issued a blue storm surge warning.
According to the bureau, the storm is anticipated to pass extremely close to Macao on Thursday and deliver rain, according to the Xinhua news agency.
It recommended locals to prevent waterlogging by taking precautionary action.
All marine transport, according to the Macao Marine and Water Bureau, has been suspended.
According to the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center, nucleic acid testing facilities have shut down around the city.
Due to safety concerns, three bridges connecting the Macao Peninsula and Taipa-Coloane as well as the Lotus Bridge between Taipa-Coloane and Zhuhai's Hengqin Island have been closed.
Kindergarten and primary school classes have been cancelled in Macao.
(Inputs from Agencies)

The tropical cyclone Nalgae is under the third-highest storm warning from the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau, which also issued a blue storm surge warning.

The third-highest tropical cyclone warning is issued by Macao. Nalgae

New Delhi: The World Health Organisation on Monday called on countries in the South-East Asia Region and globally to confront the inequalities that drive Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and asked them to make bold, sustainable investments to help free people across the world of NTDs who are vulnerable to their devastating health, social and economic costs.
On 31 May 2021, the World Health Assembly (WHA) recognized 30 January as World Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Day. This decision formalized 30 January as a day to create better awareness of the devastating impact of NTDs on the poorest populations around the world. The day is also an opportunity to call on everyone to support the growing momentum for the control, elimination and eradication of these diseases.
NTDs are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas. Globally, they affect more than 1 billion people, cost low- and middle-income countries billions of dollars every year, and perpetuate a cycle of poor educational outcomes and limited professional opportunities, mostly for impoverished communities, where they disproportionately affect women and children.
According to the WHO, the WHO South-East Asia Region accounts for the second highest NTD burden globally. At least one NTD is endemic to each of the Region's 11 Member States, and more than 938 million people in the Region require interventions against NTDs. In 2021, the Region accounted for 59% of the global population requiring interventions against lymphatic filariasis (LF), 66.5% of new cases of leprosy, and 56 per cent of children requiring regular deworming against soil-transmitted helminthiases.
"Since 2014, the WHO has supported countries of the Region to make rapid, equitable and sustained progress against NTDs, in line with the Region's Flagship Priority on eliminating NTDs and other diseases on the verge of elimination. In 2016 India was declared yaws-free. Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka have eliminated lymphatic filariasis (LF) as a public health problem. Bangladesh is currently being assessed for validation of elimination of LF as a public health problem, and Timor-Leste is now under post-treatment surveillance," the WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said.
Dr Singh further said that Nepal and Myanmar have eliminated trachoma as a public health problem.
"All kala-azar-endemic implementation units in Bangladesh have now reached the elimination target, which India and Nepal are also close to achieving. India, Indonesia and Nepal continue to roll out triple drug therapy to accelerate action against LF, which Myanmar is also preparing to introduce. Between 2010 and 2020, the Region reduced the total number of people who require interventions against NTDs by a remarkable 20 per cent," she added.
Underling the new challenges and opportunities across the region, she said, "New challenges and opportunities have emerged. In 2021, WHO launched a global NTD road map that aims to 'End the neglect', setting a series of global targets and milestones to prevent, control, eliminate or eradicate NTDs, as well as cross-cutting targets that are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals." "In implementing the road map, the region aims to accelerate momentum on its flagship priority, with a focus on several priorities," Dr Singh also said, adding, "First, optimizing existing interventions and leveraging new innovations to overcome last-mile gaps and challenges. For LF, the expanded roll-out of triple-drug therapy with effective coverage promises to fast-track elimination in the Region's remaining three LF-endemic countries. For leprosy, increased access to post-exposure prophylaxis will accelerate progress at the sub-national level, increasing protection for at-risk communities. For kala-azar, intensified efforts to detect cases early and ensure complete case management will continue to contain transmission."
WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia also highlighted the organisation's second priority. "Sustaining elimination status in the post-validation phase. When a country is validated for elimination as a public health problem, continued actions are required to maintain the targets, and even to advance interruption of transmission. For this, it is critical that vigilance is sustained, that donor fatigue is avoided, and that stakeholders continue to invest in post-validation interventions such as surveillance platform integration and accelerating R&amp;D of new tools and strategies to make further progress," she said.
According to Dr Singh, the organisation is also looking for expanding the range of priority NTDs.
"On an array of NTDs - kala-azar, LF, trachoma and yaws - the Region has made tremendous, path-breaking progress. But where appropriate, countries should increasingly broaden their scope, for example by intensifying action to address snakebite envenoming - for which a new Regional action plan has now been launched - as well as dog-mediated rabies, dengue, schistosomiasis and other parasitic zoonoses such as taeniasis, echinococcosis and food-borne trematodiases," she said.
A statement from the WHO South Asia Region said that the countdown to 2030 has already begun. Since 2014, under the Region's Flagship Priority, countries have made bold investments, and achieved game-changing results - results that must continue to be built upon. On World NTD Day, WHO reiterates its commitment to accelerate the Region's decade-long momentum to end the neglect, eliminate NTDs, and achieve a healthier, more equitable and sustainable future for everyone, everywhere.
WHO's South-East Asia Region comprises the following 11 Member States: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. —ANI

The World Health Organisation on Monday called on countries in the South-East Asia Region and globally to confront the inequalities that drive Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and asked them to make bold, sustainable investments to help free people across the world of NTDs who are vulnerable to their devastating health, social and economic costs.

Make Bold, Sustainable Investments To Help Free People Of Neglected Tropical Diseases: WHO

Texas: In a square mile of tropical forest, scientists often struggle to grasp how such a diversity of species can coexist. Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin revealed new insights into the answer in a paper published in Science by discovering a fundamental property of the spatial distribution of adult trees. Combining computational modeling with data collected during a 30-year period, the researchers discovered that adult trees in a Panamanian forest are three times as distant from other adults of the same species as what the proverbial “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” would suggest. Annette Ostling, an associate professor with the University’s Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and the Department of Integrative Biology, and postdoctoral researcher Michael Kalyuzhny used data collected from a forest research plot the size of 100 football fields located on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal, which has been studied for the past 100 years. The researchers discovered the distance that the trees are from one another is much greater than the distance that seeds typically travel. “This is a steppingstone to understanding the dynamics of things like carbon storage that matter in relation to climate change,” Ostling said. “It’s such a fundamental question that, even if the applications are not yet known, there’s still a lot to learn, and this is one ingredient in understanding,” The team wondered why there would be so much repulsion (repelling) of the juvenile from its parent tree. The only theoretical explanation is something that would prevent them from establishing near their parents. Using computational models, they found each tree species is much more negatively affected by its own kind than by other species, probably because species suffer from species-specific enemies: pathogens such as fungi or herbivores such as insects. These enemies “make room” for other species to establish around every tree, leading to a more diverse forest and keeping any one species from dominating. “Due to an abundance of available data on this particular forest, we knew the exact location of every tree and also how far seeds travel,” Kalyuzhny said. “We were able to ask: How should the forest look if trees just established where the seeds fell? With our computational models, it turned out that the real forest does not look like this at all – the real trees are much more far apart.” In a time of an ongoing mass extinction, scientists have been working to better understand what determines species diversity. The researchers said the study helps bridge the gap between contrasting theories on how forests are shaped and provides critical tools to learn how tropical forests in particular and their inhabitants change through time. “Trees are the engineers that provide resources for the entire ecosystem, and since most of the species in the world reside in the tropics, we must better understand what maintains the biodiversity of planet Earth,” Kalyuzhny said. “Many medications are sourced from the tropics, including thousands of substances with anti-cancer activity. The research digs into this fundamental question about the natural world.” —ANI

In a square mile of tropical forest, scientists often struggle to grasp how such a diversity of species can coexist

Research Reveals Tropical Trees Use Social Distancing To Maintain Biodiversity

Washington: Initiatives to halt risky trends have been prompted by the growing effects of global warming, frequently by planting trees to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. According to recent research led by Young Zhou from the Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Ecology Centre, small grasses, in addition to trees, have a significant role in carbon capture that is more significant than previously thought. An effort was recently made to capture carbon in tropical savannas, an area where grasses and trees coexist. The project began a campaign to plant trees (afforestation) in order to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which led to carbon being stored in soils and in the woody biomass of developing trees. Zhou and his colleagues set out to find out what role grasses played in this quest since, while the success of storing carbon in trees has been well proven through study, the role of carbon storage in soils has not been well defined. The research team used a case study conducted in South Africa's Kruger National Park and data synthesised from tropical savannas all over the world to discover that savanna soils enriched with carbon from grasses had noticeably higher carbon contents. They discovered that grasses, including soils directly under trees, accounted for more than half of the soil carbon concentration in tropical savannas. This highlights the crucial part grasses play in storing carbon in tropical savannas. As tree cover increased across tropical savannas, their data revealed both carbon gains and losses. The greatest difference was noted in savannas with more rainfall, where tree planting is more likely to succeed, as well as in places with clay soils and savanna sites with significant contributions of carbon storage from grasses. “This underscores the nuanced nature of increasing tree cover on the dynamics of carbon in savanna soils,” Zhou said. “On average, the increase in soil carbon storage resulting from the expansion of tree cover across tropical savannas is negligible.” This discovery is consistent with the team's earlier Nature paper, which found that increasing tree cover due to fire suppression boosted carbon storage in woody biomass but had no effect on soil carbon storage. "Our findings challenge the commonly held assumption that afforestation uniformly boosts soil carbon storage," Zhou said. "However, we have yet to pinpoint the precise factors responsible for the substantial variation observed in the soil carbon storage response to increased tree cover across tropical savannas." In general, forests primarily store their carbon in the woody trunks and aboveground leaves. In contrast, a significant portion of carbon in grassy ecosystems, such as savannas and grasslands, is stored in the soil, primarily within the extensive root systems of the grasses as well as decaying organic matter. In the context of long-term carbon storage, carbon retained in soils proves to be more reliable, particularly for a vulnerable future marked by warming and increased likelihood of drought and wildfires, he said. “It makes even more clear that savannas play crucial roles in the global carbon cycle in their unique ways, underscoring the importance of preserving and protecting these ecosystems in an equitable manner,” he said. —ANI

Initiatives to halt risky trends have been prompted by the growing effects of global warming, frequently by planting trees to absorb and store carbon dioxide

Study Highlights Significance Of Grasses In Preventing Climate Change

Antananarivo: A tropical cyclone that swept across the island of Madagascar this week killed at least 11 people and displaced thousands more, according to the country's disaster management office.
Tropical cyclone Gamane, which crossed the northeast of Madagascar on Wednesday and Thursday, displaced more than 18,000 people with three others still missing, the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said in a report late on Thursday.  Gamane made landfall north of Vohémar in northeast Madagascar on Wednesday morning with average winds of 150 km per hour and gusts of 210 km per hour, BNGRC said.
It slowly dissipated on Thursday afternoon while still over land, the disaster management office said, having dumped heavy rain and caused flooding in many localities.  Roads and bridges collapsed in the north of Madagascar, BNRGC said.  Photographs posted on the disaster management office's Facebook page showed its personnel wading in knee-deep water as they helped residents retrieve belongings from their flooded homes.
Gamane is the first this year in Madagascar's cyclone and storm season.  Early last year, cyclone Freddy and tropical storm Cheneso killed at least 37 people and forced thousands from their homes.
—Reuters

Cyclone Gamane hits Madagascar, causing 11 fatalities, thousands displaced, and significant damage.

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Scientists Find The Factors Influencing Behaviour Of Whale Shark

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Scientists Find The Factors Influencing Behaviour Of Whale Shark

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