Ecological extinction and evolution in the brave new ocean
August 26, 2008
A new report by Jeremy B. C. Jackson*
This year has been full of bad news regarding marine ecosystems:
one-third of coral species threatened with extinction, dead-zones spread
to 415 sites, half of U.S. reefs in fair or bad condition, increase in
ocean acidification, tuna and shark populations collapsing, and only
four percent of ocean considered pristine. Jeremy Jackson, director of
the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the
University of California, San Diego, synthesizes such reports and others
into a new paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, that boldly lays out the scope of the oceanic
emergency and what urgently needs to be done.
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