Metal Pollution Reduction Linked to Increased Biodiversity in English Rivers, Study Finds

It stands to reason that if you reduce the amount of pollution in an environment, the organisms there will thrive. Now, a study confirms that is happening in rivers in England. According to the research, reducing the amount of metal pollutants like zinc and copper in English rivers led to an increase in the aquatic biodiversity of macroinvertebrates.

As coal and heavy industry have declined, related river pollution also cleared up, allowing more invertebrates to thrive, the study published in Environmental Science & Technology found.

A team led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) analyzed over 65,000 observations 1,457 sites from 1989 to 2018 found in the UK Environmental Agency’s data.

In their findings, reduction in metal pollutants had the biggest impact on invertebrate biodiversity, although other pollution reduction, such as sewage, also impacted the variety of invertebrate species. According to the findings, zinc levels below 14 micrograms per liter and copper levels below 3.3 micrograms per liter led to the biggest improvements in species richness.

The authors estimated that metal pollutants and sewage may have declined for multiple reasons, including reduced coal dependence, which would lead to a decline in acid rain that contribute to metal pollution in waterways. Some of the ammonia, organic matter, and other pollutant declines could also be attributed to the 1991 European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and improved agricultural practices, according to the study.

With strong evidence that zinc & copper concentrations have the biggest influence on invertebrate species richness, efforts to increase freshwater biodiversity are unlikely to bear fruit without further reductions in these metals, lead author Prof Andrew Johnson said 🔗 www.ceh.ac.uk/press/biodiv…

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— UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) (@ukceh.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 8:09 AM

“There is a widespread desire by the public to improve water quality and biodiversity in our rivers but the problem for policymakers is what steps would be most likely to achieve results,” Andrew Johnson, lead author of the study and environmental research scientist at UKCEH, said in a statement. “Our study provides strong evidence that concentrations of zinc and copper have the biggest influence on invertebrate species richness, so future attempts to increase freshwater biodiversity are unlikely to bear fruit without further reductions in these metals.”

The study determined that while river biodiversity improved in the 1980s and 1990s with reduced metal pollution, the species richness has mostly plateaued since 2000, and the authors cited other research that has shown similar trends across North America and Europe.

The authors wrote that more research is needed to determine what urban land cover pollutants most impact biodiversity of invertebrates, and that runoff from urban areas could still contribute to higher levels of zinc and carbon pollution that may not be detected in routine river sampling. Further, the study found that higher levels of metal pollution continue to exist downstream from former mines.

These factors will need to be considered for environmental protection efforts, as the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set a target to reduce the length of rivers impacted by metal pollutants from mines by half by 2038.

“The way priority chemicals are currently identified for action, ensuring aquatic wildlife may be better protected, could be described as ‘top-down,’” the authors concluded in the study.

“Here, we used a ‘bottom-up’ approach, relying on a statistical analysis of large wildlife and stressor field data sets (consistent monitoring by regulatory agencies being critical to this approach) to identify factors that are most closely associated with biodiversity. We suggest that this approach has considerable merit and at the very least can act as a sense check on the traditional approach.”

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Brazil Joins OPEC+ Ahead of Hosting UN Climate Summit

Brazil’s National Council for Energy Policy has approved the joining of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) just months before the country is set to host the United Nations COP30 climate change summit.

The approval was in response to a 2023 invitation from OPEC.

“OPEC welcomes the decision approved today by the National Energy Council of the Federative Republic of Brazil (CNPE) that formally paves the way for the participation of Brazil as a Member of the Charter of Cooperation (CoC) between oil producing countries,” a press release from OPEC said. “The decision comes after an initial announcement made by HE Hon. Alexandre Silveira, Minister of Mines and Energy of Brazil, at the 36th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting (ONOMM) on 30 November 2023.”

OPEC was initially established with 12 members in 1960 to stabilize oil markets and coordinate production. Since then, 10 other significant oil-producing countries have joined the organization.

Alexandre Silveira, Brazil’s mines and energy minister, said that Brazil, as a member of OPEC, will not have any binding obligations to the group, such as cuts to production, or participate in decision-making, as The Associated Press reported. The country’s participation will involve being a member of the Charter of Cooperation forum, where nations discuss industry-related issues.

“We should not be ashamed of being oil producers. Brazil needs to grow, develop and create income and jobs,” Silveira said.

Brazil will join OPEC+, [cartel] of oil-exporting nations, months before hosting UN climate summit #COP30 – 'We should not be ashamed of being oil producers,' said Brazilian energy minister HT @carbonbrief.org www.cbc.ca/news/busines…

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— Damian Carrington (@dpcarrington.bsky.social) February 19, 2025 at 5:31 AM

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has worked to battle Amazon deforestation and protect Indigenous rights, but has also said new oil revenues could be used to finance the country’s green energy transition.

Recently, Lula has pushed the nation’s environmental regulator to allow exploratory drilling close to the Amazon River delta, one of the planet’s most biodiverse regions.

Brazil is the seventh-largest producer of oil in the world, with roughly 4.3 million barrels per day — four percent of global output, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. Last year, crude oil became Brazil’s biggest export, surpassing soy.

The U.S. is the biggest producer of oil in the world, pumping out almost 22 million barrels a day. In comparison, Saudi Arabia — OPEC’s largest producer — produces approximately 11 million barrels.

Oil expert Luís Eduardo Duque Dutra, a chemistry professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said that Brazil’s energy council had also approved its membership in the International Renewable Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency.

“This helps keep track of the global situation, matching the country’s growing importance after developing pre-salt (offshore oil) reserves and its wind and solar energy potentials,” Dutra told The Associated Press.

Lula’s interest in increasing Brazil’s oil production has been met with criticism as the country prepares to host COP30 in November.

“Brazil’s entrance to any OPEC body is another sign of the government’s setback,” said Climate Observatory spokesperson Suely Araújo, as reported by The Associated Press.

Opening new areas to fossil fuel exploration “indicates that we are choosing solutions from the past in the face of a huge challenge for the present and the future,” Araújo added.

The post Brazil Joins OPEC+ Ahead of Hosting UN Climate Summit appeared first on EcoWatch.

Top U.S. Prosecutor Resigns After Trump-Appointed Official Orders Investigation Into Biden Climate Funding

Denise Cheung, the top criminal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, resigned on Tuesday after she declined to follow an order from a Trump-appointed superior at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to start a grand jury investigation, people with knowledge of the matter said, as CNN reported.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove initially gave the instruction to Ed Martin — a Donald Trump nominee for U.S. Attorney in DC. — for Cheung to direct an investigation of a Biden EPA funding decision, then freeze the funding.

Cheung, a long-time employee of the Department of Justice, did not feel there was sufficient evidence to comply with the order and was asked to resign.

“Earlier yesterday, I was asked to review documentation supplied by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General to open a criminal investigation into whether a contract had been unlawfully awarded by an executive agency before the change in Administration and to issue grand jury subpoenas pursuant to this investigation,” Cheung wrote in her resignation letter on Tuesday, as seen by CNN.

As Cheung noted in the letter, she and other experienced prosecutors did not believe there was enough evidence to meet the threshold requirements to conduct a grand jury investigation. Bove insisted that the DOJ had met that threshold.

Top US prosecutor quits over pressure to investigate Biden climate spending: Denise Cheung resigns after Trump appointees demand she open grand jury investigation into EPA grants A top federal prosecutor has quit after refusing to launch what she called a politically driven investigation …

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— The Guardian Climate News (unofficial) (@guardian-climate.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM

In the resignation letter to Martin, Cheung wrote that she and other prosecutors believed there was insufficient evidence despite senior officials citing an undercover Project Veritas video, reported The Guardian.

“When I explained that the quantum of evidence did not support that action, you stated that you believed that there was sufficient evidence,” Cheung wrote to Martin. “You also accused me about wasting five hours of the day ‘doing nothing’ except trying to get what the FBI and I wanted, but not what you wanted.”

Cheung noted her obligation to follow the law and the code of legal ethics, as well as her sworn oath of office.

“When I started as an AUSA, I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution, and I have executed this duty faithfully during my tenure, which has spanned through numerous Administrations,” Cheung wrote in a farewell email to colleagues. “I know that all of the AUSAs in the office continue to honor their oaths on a daily basis, just as I know that you have always conducted yourself with the utmost integrity.”

The dispute originated from a claim by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin last week regarding $20 billion in EPA funding being held in an account at Citibank.

The funding at issue was earmarked for eight nonprofits in charge of climate change mitigation projects as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Zeldin has criticized what he called “rushed” funding for the climate organizations, saying he would attempt to claw back funding in conjunction with the DOJ and return it to the U.S. Treasury Department.

“We will review every penny that has gone out the door. I will be referring this matter to the inspector general’s office, and will work with the Justice Department as well,” Zeldin said, as The Hill reported.

A former official at the EPA who was responsible for implementation of the funding told CNN that it had not been rushed or set up in a nefarious manner.

The EPA and the U.S. Treasury had set up an arrangement with the bank to distribute the funding to the grantees, and while it was the first time that type of agreement was employed by the EPA, it is a process that the Treasury Department had been using for years.

Cheung’s departure comes during a period of upheaval across the DOJ, as prosecutors deemed untrustworthy by the Trump administration are dismissed and the president’s political appointees clash with long-time federal prosecutors.

In her departure email, Cheung encouraged colleagues to “fulfill your commitment to pursuing Justice without fear or prejudice,” as The Hill reported.

I'm leading my colleagues in writing to the DOJ Inspector General after Denise Cheung was forced to resign after defying her Trump-appointed superiors and refusing to freeze climate bank funding in the absence of any crime. You need your climate bank money and we need answers.

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— Senator Ed Markey (@markey.senate.gov) February 19, 2025 at 8:06 PM

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Used Coffee Grounds and Mushroom Spores Can Be 3D Printed Into a Compostable Plastic Alternative, Researchers Say

In a new study, researchers have made a promising discovery: a compostable material that can serve as an alternative to plastic. The material is made from a combination of used coffee grounds and spores from Reishi mushrooms that are made into a paste, then 3D printed.

The idea started when Danli Luo, corresponding author of the study and doctoral student of human-centered design and engineering at University of Washington, noticed the amount of coffee grounds that accumulated from making espresso at home.

Luo, along with co-author Junchao Yang and senior author Nadya Peek, explored how coffee grounds could serve as an ideal growing base for the strong mycelial network that precedes mushroom growth. The team set out to explore a way to use up the spent coffee grounds and make them into a strong, lightweight material that would be a more sustainable alternative to plastic.

First, they turned the coffee grounds into a Mycofluid paste by combining them with the spores of Reishi mushrooms, brown rice flower, water and xanthan gum to act as a binder. This created a promising material that would work with a 3D printer. 

From there, Luo developed a bespoke printer head to print the paste into more intricate and complex designs that could mimic the versatility of plastic without a need for molds. The researchers made multiple objects using the design, including shipping packing materials that could be a substitute for plastic foam (or Styrofoam), a vase, a small statue and a miniature coffin.

“We’re especially interested in creating systems for people like small businesses owners producing small-batch products — for example, small, delicate glassware that needs resilient packaging to ship,” Luo said. “So we’ve been working on new material recipes that can replace things like Styrofoam with something more sustainable and that can be easily customized for small-scale production.”

After printing, the team kept the objects moist and in a sealed plastic tub for 10 days to allow the mushroom spores to develop into a mycelial skin. Then, they removed the objects and dried them to prevent mushroom development. The team published their method in the journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

From the upper left to bottom right: the 3D printer creates a design; three printed pieces of a vase; the partially set vase pieces are put together; the mycelium grows on the coffee paste; the vase grows together; the finished vase holds flowers and water. Luo et al./3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing

According to the authors, their method costs $1,700 for hardware for the experiment, and the 3D printer could hold up one liter of paste at a time. By comparison, they noted that other similar solutions cost more than $7,000. However, they did note that the Mycofluid paste was dependent on uniform coffee grounds, which would limit scaling ability.

Moving forward, the researchers behind the coffee-and-mushroom material also hope to explore other food waste materials that could be developed into paste for 3D printing that may have better scaling opportunity.

“We’re interested in expanding this to other bio-derived materials, such as other forms of food waste,” Luo said. “We want to broadly support this kind of flexible development, not just to provide one solution to this major problem of plastic waste.”

More and more scientists are looking into ways to make use of the estimated 60 million tons of spent coffee grounds that are wasted globally each year. For instance, New Atlas reported that RMIT University researchers found a way to incorporate spent coffee grounds into concrete to make the concrete up to 30% stronger

Other coffee waste, such as the husks, have also been valuable to a Colombian company called Woodpecker, which has used coffee husks combined with recycled plastic to build low-cost, prefabricated buildings.

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Gap Between Water Supply and Demand to Widen as Climate Warms: Study

Stronger water management efforts will be essential to overcoming the gap between supply and demand as the planet continues to warm, according to a new analysis by Lorenzo Rosa, principal investigator at Carnegie Science, and Matteo Sangiorgio, a researcher at the Polytechnic University of Milan.

For the study, the pair of researchers quantified issues of water scarcity under 1.5 and three degrees Celsius of global heating above pre-industrial levels, a press release from the Carnegie Institution of Science said.

“Water scarcity is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity this century,” Rosa said in the press release. “About 4 billion people reside and about half the world’s irrigated agriculture is in regions that experience water scarcity for at least one month each year.”

Life on Earth cannot exist without water. It is necessary for human health, food and energy security, environmental resilience, economic development and a wide range of human activities. Even though it is so important, in many places on our planet, demand for water exceeds available supply.

When water consumption is greater than the natural availability of water at any time during a month, it is referred to as a “water gap.” As time goes on, this kind of unsustainable use leads to depleted rivers, lakes, aquifers, groundwater and other natural water reserves.

“Water gaps are already an issue for communities around the world, resulting in either inadequate supplies of water or environmental degradation,” Rosa explained. “And as climate change further disrupts precipitation patterns and alters the water cycle, it will add even more stress.”

A sailing boat lays stranded on the dried-up bottom of Liptovska Mara freshwater reservoir that is at 40% of its normal capacity due to winter droughts, near Liptovsky Mikulas in Slovakia on Feb. 18, 2025. Robert Nemeti / Anadolu via Getty Images

Earlier research approached the subject by quantifying groundwater depletion or other reductions in water availability globally, while other studies looked at unsustainable use of water at the regional level.

This study combined the two strategies in order to fully comprehend the scope of the problem and make well-informed water management policies and plans going forward.

“We must be able to balance environmental resilience and the growing need for water in a warming world with a burgeoning population,” Rosa emphasized. “As cities grow, pollution, industrial water use, and irrigation will all increase, which will, in turn, exacerbate the water gap.”

Sangiorgio and Rosa quantified water gaps for scenarios under baseline, 1.5 and 3 degrees Celsius of warming, accounting for factors such as surface and groundwater depletion and water requirements for aquatic ecosystems.

The findings showed that there are already almost 458 billion cubic meters in water gaps annually. They are predicted to grow by 6% under a 1.5 degrees Celsius warming scenario and by 15% if the planet warms by 3 degrees Celsius.

“Even relatively modest increases in the water gap can put pressure on ecosystems and lead to severe shortages for agricultural use, resulting in food insecurity,” Rosa said.

Options to consider for water resources managers and lawmakers in order to increase water supplies include enhancing water storage capabilities by investing in resilient infrastructure, reusing treated wastewater, desalinating saltwater and bringing in water from other areas.

Farmers can prepare for the potential of water scarcity by planting crops that are less water intensive while investing in irrigation technologies that are more efficient.

“While water scarcity can affect entire regions, the most severe consequences are borne by the most vulnerable and impoverished populations, underscoring the important influence of economic and institutional factors in determining water scarcity,” the authors wrote in the study. “Under global warming, this fragile balance between supply and demand is likely to worsen, leading to a future where water resources struggle to meet growing societal and environmental needs. Consequently, many areas face a widening water gap, which threatens not only economic development and societies but also the health of aquatic ecosystems.”

The study, “Global water gaps under future warming levels,” was published in the journal Nature Communications.

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UK Agency Developing Early Warning System for Major Climate Tipping Points

The United Kingdom’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) plans to invest 81 million pounds in the development of an ambitious early warning system designed to detect climate tipping points.

The new system will use drones, plankton bloom patterns and cosmic ray detection combined with artificial intelligence and detailed, cutting-edge computer models, reported The Guardian.

“Major parts of the Earth system are at risk of crossing climate tipping points within the next century, with severe consequences for biodiversity, food security, agriculture, and humanity. Despite the potential impact, we’re poorly equipped to characterise the long-term trends of our climate systems, or predict the future risk of runaway, self-perpetuating change,” ARIA said in a press release. “Combining expertise in observation and modelling with innovative sensing systems, we’ll look to develop a proof-of-concept for an early warning system for climate tipping points that is affordable, sustainable and justified.”

Early warning system for climate tipping points given £81m kickstart: Ambitious UK project aims to forecast climate catastrophes using fleets of drones, cosmic ray detection, patterns of plankton blooms and more An ambitious attempt to develop an early warning system for climate tipping p…

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— The Guardian Climate News (unofficial) (@guardian-climate.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 9:07 AM

ARIA has awarded roughly $102 million to 27 project teams with a goal of finding signals that warn of the biggest climate disasters that could be triggered by the climate crisis.

ARIA’s early warning system program will be focused on two major tipping points: the collapse of the subpolar gyre (SPG) ocean current — a part of the crucial Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — and the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet.

The collapse of ocean currents like AMOC would lead to global weather pattern changes, triggering extreme weather and wreaking havoc on the world’s food supplies, while the collapse of Greenland’s ice sheet would cause significant and potentially damaging sea level rise.

“In a similar way to how we use monitoring stations to detect and warn for tsunamis, we’re aiming to establish networks of climate monitoring systems to detect early signs of critical shifts in our climate,” said Sarah Bohndiek and Gemma Bale, who co-lead the ARIA program, as The Guardian reported. “Through these systems, we can equip decision-makers with the data they need to confront the threat of abrupt climate change head on.”

Sarah Bohndiek, 1 of 2 scientists leading the #ClimateChange program at ARIA, warned the world was less prepared for climate #TippingPoints than it was for #COVID19. “What would happen if we cross one of the climate tipping points?"

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— Carbon Tracker Initiative (@carbontracker.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 5:30 AM

At least 16 tipping points have been identified by scientists, some of which may have already been passed, from the thawing of permafrost in the north to a shift in west Africa’s monsoon.

ARIA hopes to come up with an early warning system capable of forecasting tipping points a decade ahead of time, where possible.

Professor Tim Lenton, an ARIA team leader and director of the Global Systems Institute at University of Exeter, said a warning like ARIA is proposing would incentivize the world to speed up climate action, since even if it wasn’t possible to stop a particular tipping point, having advance notice would give society time to prepare.

One of the program’s teams is developing small, high-speed drones to be used to gather better data in Greenland.

“Greenland is the fastest melting place on Earth, but this ice loss has knock-on effects for both North Atlantic ocean currents and fisheries. This crucial research will help us to understand how much freshwater the ice sheet is releasing, and what the subsequent effects will be on the ocean currents that bring warm waters and weather to the UK,” said Kelly Hogan of the British Antarctic Survey in the press release.

Another ARIA team is working on making devices that can move vertically through the ocean to collect data on the SPG.

“The UK and northern Europe could experience much harsher winters, similar to parts of Canada [if the SPG collapses], while the east coast of the U.S. could see dramatic sea level rises,” said Dr. Bieito Fernández Castro, a lecturer at University of Southampton who leads the SPG project, as reported by The Guardian.

One of the projects will develop detailed computer simulations of real-world data to evaluate the reliability of prospective early warning signals.

“We will make use of real-world examples of past tipping points to better understand these events,” said David Thornalley, a professor of ocean and climate science at University College London.

Another team will develop models to pinpoint where and when climate tipping points might happen.

“Forecasting tipping points is a formidable challenge,” said Dr. Reinhard Schiemann, associate professor of climate science at University of Reading. “But the fantastic range of teams tackling this challenge from different angles, yet working together in a coordinated fashion, makes this programme a unique opportunity.”

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Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says

Scientists have found that preservation and restoration for peat swamp forests and mangroves could help lower land-use emissions in Southeast Asia by about 54%. Because the region contributes to about one-third of global land-use carbon emissions, the reduction could also have a big impact globally, with a potential 16% reduction in land-use emissions worldwide.

Peatlands and mangroves account for around 5.4% of land area in Southeast Asia, but they have huge carbon sequestration properties, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. As National University of Singapore (NUS) reported, peatlands and mangroves can sequester around 90% of carbon in the soil. The natural peatland and mangrove ecosystems also promote biodiversity.

Further, the scientists noted that Southeast Asia is home to a significant portion of the world’s tropical peatlands and mangroves, with Brunei, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam accounting for 33% of global mangroves and 39% of global tropical peatlands.

Half of land use carbon emissions in Southeast Asia can be mitigated through peat swamp forest and mangrove conservation and restoration www.nature.com/articles/s41…

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— Ian Hall (@ianhall.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 6:40 AM

But with land-use changes, these ecosystems are under threat and risk emitting carbon rather than storing it. According to the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, some of the biggest threats to mangroves include coastal development and pollution. As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported, peatland threats include drainage, burning, agriculture and mining.

“If we conserved and restored the carbon-dense peatlands and mangroves in Southeast Asia, we could mitigate approximately 770 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) annually, or nearly double Malaysia’s national greenhouse gas emissions in 2023,” Massimo Lupascu, senior author of the study and associate professor of geography at NUS, said in a statement.

As Mongabay News reported, restoring the peatlands and mangroves that are currently degraded — which includes around 5.34 million hectares (13.4 million acres) drained peatlands and 2.64 million hectares (6.52 million acres) otherwise degraded peatlands — could reduce emissions by around 94 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year alone.

Conservation of remaining peatlands should be a major focus. As NUS reported, it is difficult to recover sequestered carbon once the natural peatlands or mangroves have been disturbed by human activities. While restoration will still be important, conserving the remaining ecosystems is critical to reducing land-use emissions.

“These ecosystems pack a climate mitigation punch far beyond their size, offering one of the most scalable and impactful natural solutions to combat the planet’s climate crisis,” said Sigit Sasmito, first author of the study and a researcher at TropWATER at James Cook University.

In addition to prioritizing peatland and mangrove restoration and conservation, the study authors pointed out that these carbon-sequestering ecosystems could also provide economic value, such as through carbon credits, to outweigh the potential economic benefits of land-use changes.

“Wetland soils may have little agronomic value, as it is generally not well-suited for traditional farming or crop cultivation, but they are unmatched in their ability to store and preserve carbon,” Pierre Taillardat, co-author of the study and a principal investigator at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore’s Wetland Carbon Lab, said in a statement. “If carbon were valued like other critical commodities, such as being traded on the carbon credits market, it could unlock vast opportunities for conservation and restoration projects. This will enable local communities to lead carbon management efforts with a win-win scenario where livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems thrive together.”

It will be important for countries to act quickly on peatland and mangrove preservation and restoration efforts. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently reported that around 500,000 hectares of peatlands are destroyed each year, with East and Southeast Asia particularly affected. Degraded peatlands contribute to around 4% of all global anthropogenic carbon emissions.

The post Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says appeared first on EcoWatch.

Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says

Scientists have found that preservation and restoration for peat swamp forests and mangroves could help lower land-use emissions in Southeast Asia by about 54%. Because the region contributes to about one-third of global land-use carbon emissions, the reduction could also have a big impact globally, with a potential 16% reduction in land-use emissions worldwide.

Peatlands and mangroves account for around 5.4% of land area in Southeast Asia, but they have huge carbon sequestration properties, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the journal Nature Communications. As National University of Singapore (NUS) reported, peatlands and mangroves can sequester around 90% of carbon in the soil. The natural peatland and mangrove ecosystems also promote biodiversity.

Further, the scientists noted that Southeast Asia is home to a significant portion of the world’s tropical peatlands and mangroves, with Brunei, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam accounting for 33% of global mangroves and 39% of global tropical peatlands.

Half of land use carbon emissions in Southeast Asia can be mitigated through peat swamp forest and mangrove conservation and restoration www.nature.com/articles/s41…

[image or embed]

— Ian Hall (@ianhall.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 6:40 AM

But with land-use changes, these ecosystems are under threat and risk emitting carbon rather than storing it. According to the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, some of the biggest threats to mangroves include coastal development and pollution. As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported, peatland threats include drainage, burning, agriculture and mining.

“If we conserved and restored the carbon-dense peatlands and mangroves in Southeast Asia, we could mitigate approximately 770 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) annually, or nearly double Malaysia’s national greenhouse gas emissions in 2023,” Massimo Lupascu, senior author of the study and associate professor of geography at NUS, said in a statement.

As Mongabay News reported, restoring the peatlands and mangroves that are currently degraded — which includes around 5.34 million hectares (13.4 million acres) drained peatlands and 2.64 million hectares (6.52 million acres) otherwise degraded peatlands — could reduce emissions by around 94 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year alone.

Conservation of remaining peatlands should be a major focus. As NUS reported, it is difficult to recover sequestered carbon once the natural peatlands or mangroves have been disturbed by human activities. While restoration will still be important, conserving the remaining ecosystems is critical to reducing land-use emissions.

“These ecosystems pack a climate mitigation punch far beyond their size, offering one of the most scalable and impactful natural solutions to combat the planet’s climate crisis,” said Sigit Sasmito, first author of the study and a researcher at TropWATER at James Cook University.

In addition to prioritizing peatland and mangrove restoration and conservation, the study authors pointed out that these carbon-sequestering ecosystems could also provide economic value, such as through carbon credits, to outweigh the potential economic benefits of land-use changes.

“Wetland soils may have little agronomic value, as it is generally not well-suited for traditional farming or crop cultivation, but they are unmatched in their ability to store and preserve carbon,” Pierre Taillardat, co-author of the study and a principal investigator at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore’s Wetland Carbon Lab, said in a statement. “If carbon were valued like other critical commodities, such as being traded on the carbon credits market, it could unlock vast opportunities for conservation and restoration projects. This will enable local communities to lead carbon management efforts with a win-win scenario where livelihoods and sustainable ecosystems thrive together.”

It will be important for countries to act quickly on peatland and mangrove preservation and restoration efforts. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) recently reported that around 500,000 hectares of peatlands are destroyed each year, with East and Southeast Asia particularly affected. Degraded peatlands contribute to around 4% of all global anthropogenic carbon emissions.

The post Peatland and Mangrove Preservation Could Reduce Land-Use Emissions in Southeast Asia by Half, Study Says appeared first on EcoWatch.

World’s Richest Nations Are ‘Exporting Extinction’ With Demand for Agricultural and Forestry Imports: Study

The richest countries in the world are “exporting extinction” by destroying 15 times more biodiversity globally than they do within their own borders, according to a new Princeton University study.

The researchers found that 13.3 percent of biodiversity loss worldwide came from the consumption of high-income countries, a press release from Princeton said.

“Biodiversity loss has accelerated at an alarming rate in recent decades, driven largely by human activities such as clearing forests to grow crops or harvest timber. While countries often degrade ecosystems within their own borders through these activities, they also play a significant role in driving habitat loss overseas by outsourcing agricultural production, i.e., importing food or timber from other countries, thereby leading those other countries to destroy their forests to produce the exports,” the press release said.

The study is the first to quantify the degree of countries’ contributions to worldwide biodiversity loss when they shift the environmental impact of their consumption abroad.

The researchers looked at how 24 high-income countries impacted 7,593 forest-dependent animal species, from mammals and reptiles to birds. They integrated economic trade data with deforestation maps derived from satellites and information on species’ ranges from 2001 to 2015. By integrating the information, they were able to pinpoint severe biodiversity loss “hotspots” and quantify how much of each species’ habitat loss was attributable to the individual country’s imports.

“Tracing the impacts that countries have on the environment outside of their borders is difficult to do,” said lead author of the study Alex Wiebe, a doctoral student in Princeton’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, in the press release. “By combining satellite imagery with economic and biodiversity data, we are now able to measure and map exactly where countries impact species around the world for the first time.”

A scarlet-bellied mountain tanager. Alex Wiebe

The findings revealed that deforestation driven by the countries’ imports of crops and timber from beyond their borders caused over 13 percent of range loss for forest-dependent vertebrates worldwide, in addition to domestic biodiversity loss.

Each of these nations caused an average level of biodiversity loss that was 15 times higher than their own domestic impacts. The United States, France, Germany, China and Japan were among the top contributors. Eighteen of the two dozen countries had higher global than domestic effects on biodiversity loss.

“By importing food and timber, these developed nations are essentially exporting extinction,” said David Wilcove, the study’s co-author and a professor of ecology, evolutionary biology and public affairs at Princeton. “Global trade spreads out the environmental impacts of human consumption, in this case prompting the more developed nations to get their food from poorer, more biodiverse nations in the tropics, resulting in the loss of more species.”

The findings also showed that nations tend to have the biggest impact on species living in the nearest tropical regions.

U.S. consumption had the largest effect on Central American wildlife, while consumption by Japan and China strongly impacted Southeast Asia’s rainforest species.

The results also highlighted the harmful impacts international trade has on endangered species. The researchers discovered that over half of the ranges of a quarter of critically endangered species were lost due to international consumption over the course of the study period.

“By increasingly outsourcing their land use, countries have the ability to affect species around the world, even more than within their own borders,” Wiebe explained.  “This represents a major shift in how new threats to wildlife emerge.”

Wilcove highlighted the necessity of collaboration between exporting and importing countries in order to improve habitat conservation and boost the sustainability of trade practices.

”Global trade in food and timber is not going to stop,” Wilcove said. “What’s important is for the importing nations to recognize the environmental impacts this trade has on the exporting countries and to work with those countries to reduce those impacts. All nations stand to benefit by promoting habitat protection and sustainable agriculture because biodiversity benefits all nations.”

The study, “Global biodiversity loss from outsourced deforestation,” was published in the journal Nature.

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Reintroducing Wolves to Scottish Highlands Could Boost Woodlands, Study Finds

The reintroduction of wolves to the Scottish Highlands could help expand native woodlands, which could in turn absorb and sequester one million additional tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to a new study.

The research, led by scientists at the University of Leeds, modeled wolves’ potential impact in four areas of Scottish Wild Land, where increasing populations of red deer feeding on tree saplings is suppressing the natural regeneration of woodland trees, a press release from the University of Leeds said.

“There is an increasing acknowledgement that the climate and biodiversity crises cannot be managed in isolation,” said Dominick Spracklen, a professor of biosphere-atmosphere interactions in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, in the press release. “We need to look at the potential role of natural processes such as the reintroduction of species to recover our degraded ecosystems and these in turn can deliver co-benefits for climate and nature recovery.”

To estimate that the reintroduction effort to areas in the Southwest, Northwest and Central Highlands, as well as in the Cairngorms, would result in a total wolf population of approximately 167 wolves, the team used a predator-prey model. That number of wolves would be sufficient to reduce populations of red deer enough to allow trees to grow back naturally.

Reintroducing wolves to Scottish Highlands could help expand native woodlands, says study – Researchers say the animals could keep red deer numbers under control, leading to storage of 1m tonnes of CO2 www.theguardian.com/environment/…

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— Damian Carrington (@dpcarrington.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 4:19 AM

With wolves keeping the red deer population in check, native woodland could expand to take up 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, or roughly five percent of the United Kingdom’s carbon removal target for woodlands. The UK Climate Change Committee has said that is the amount needed to achieve net-zero by 2050.

The researchers estimate the presence of each wolf would result in an uptake of 6,702 tons of carbon each year, giving each of the predators a carbon valuation “worth” of roughly $194,554.

The findings of the study, “Wolf reintroduction to Scotland could support substantial native woodland expansion and associated carbon sequestration,” were published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence.

The research is the first time wolf reintroduction’s potential impacts on woodland expansion and the resulting carbon storage have been assessed in the UK. According to the research team, the results are further evidence that large carnivores play an important role in providing essential nature-based solutions to address the climate crisis.

Scotland eradicated its wolves roughly 250 years ago, which left red deer without natural predators. Red deer numbers in the country have exploded in the past century, despite ongoing management, with the most recent estimates as high as 400,000.

A lack of natural regeneration of trees has led to the decline and loss of Scotland’s native woodlands. Today, the country’s levels are some of the lowest in Europe, with just four percent of it covered in native woodland.

Natural tree regeneration has been largely restricted to fenced areas where deer are excluded. More intensive deer management has been proven to help trees regenerate, with seedling numbers rising when deer numbers are lower than four per square kilometer.

Western Europe’s wolf population is now more than 12,000, with wolves occupying 67 percent of their historical range in Europe, including in Central Europe’s human-dominated landscapes.

The researchers said the financial benefits of carbon uptake and storage that would come from reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands would be added to other proven ecological and economic impacts of wolf reintroduction, such as ecotourism, a reduced number of deer-vehicle accidents, fewer cases of deer-associated Lyme disease and fewer deer culls.

“Our aim is to provide new information to inform ongoing and future discussions about the possibility of wolf reintroductions both in the UK and elsewhere,” said farmer and author Lee Schofield, who co-authored the study. “We recognise that substantial and wide-ranging stakeholder and public engagement would be essential before any wolf reintroduction could be considered. Human-wildlife conflicts involving carnivores are common and must be addressed through public policies that account for people’s attitudes for reintroduction to be successful.”

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