Shell weights of marine snails are getting lighter
Tasmanian scientists are worried a microscopic marine snail species found in the Southern Ocean may soon die out due to climate change:
The scientists say it is field evidence that sea life in the Southern Ocean is being affected by warmer water, and if these snails die out it could have dire consequences on the ocean’s food chain.
They took an expedition deep into the Southern Ocean on board the Aurora Australis in February, and collected a number of microscopic marine snails.
The scientists have found the snails have dropped half their shell weight over the past decade.
Dr Donna Roberts says it is evidence that climate change is affecting sea life in the Southern Ocean.
“Many researchers have been assuming we would see this kind of result for the past 50 years and this is the first time we’ve got a measured response to the changing of the ocean chemistry,” she said.
“It’s interesting to know what’s going to happen to commercial fish that eat them because a change in their diet might mean a change in where they actually are living, so it’s not just we might loose one variety of snail it actually could change the whole eco-system of the southern ocean.
“That’s what we’re most worried about that it could completely upset our commercial fish stocks.”
[From ABC News]
ABC News photograph
Tasmania’s Derwent Valley Concert Band has cleaned up at the World Marching Band Championships.
The band was judged the winner over 14 other outfits in the open event in Germany.
The conductor Layton Hodgetts has told ABC Local Radio the award took everyone by surprise.
“And to cap it all off they decided to give me the gold medal conductor award, so we’re all feeling pretty excited over here tonight, it’s been an amazing outcome,” he said.
What do fungi and stonewash jeans have in common? What has a moss got to do with the Tyrolean iceman? What are the tallest mosses? What is a reindeer moss? How can lichens read pollution?
The answers to these questions and many more will be answered in a remarkable free touring exhibition, Hidden in Plain View: the forgotten flora, staged by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne which goes on display in Launceston in August.
Dr Teresa Lebel, one of the organisers, says the exhibition is about encouraging people to investigate the influence of the forgotten flora on their daily lives through curiosities, rarities, and everyday items, and gain an understanding of the importance of conserving the ‘often overlooked’ in our world.
[click to continue…]
Today is the 25th anniversary of the High Court’s decision to block the Franklin Dam in Tasmania’s south-west Wilderness.
In 1982 Tasmanians elected a Liberal Government for the first time ever. The Premier, Robin Gray, had campaigned on building the Franklin Dam.
After losing the battle to save Lake Pedder from being dammed in the 1970s conservationists launched a highly co-ordinated battle to save the Franklin River, beginning in late 1982.
Over three months about 6,000 protesters blockaded the river and construction roads.
Current Australian Greens leader Bob Brown was among the hundreds sent to jail.
“I came out of jail and the next day found myself a member of Parliament,” said Senator Brown.
One of Tasmania’s Supreme Court judges, Pierre Slicer, also ended up in jail for three weeks.
“And I’m the only judge in Australia that I know of who’s been refused bail by his own Chief Justice,” he said.
In 1983, the then Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, took the Tasmanian Government to the High Court. It decided by just one vote to allow the Federal Government to stop Tasmania building the dam. Later that year, Mr Hawke provided Tasmania with $276 million in compensation.
