Accidental catch of three Risso’s dolphin at Beemapally, near Vizhinjam

Three Risso’s dolphins Grampus griseus of size 130, 132, 138 cm were caught dead along with oil sardine in Beemapally, near Vizhinjam on 30-06-1999

The Indian marine pearls- A culture technique for pearl production

Even though experiments on production of cultured pearls were initiated in India in early 1930's, success was achieved only in the 70's when the free spherical pearls were produced. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), after successfully producing the spherical pearls, has developed a technology to produce the pearl oyster seed by the hatchery method and farming the oysters at sea. Training was imparted on these important technologies to technicians both at national and international levels

On the mass stranding of dolphins at Vellapatty near Tuticorin in the Gulf of Mannar.

The mass stranding of dolphins is not a rare phenomenon along the Indian coast. On 28-06-99 a total of 42 no of dolphins stranded at Vellapatty near Tuticorin in the Gulf of Mannar. The dolphins were identified as Sousa chinnensis (Osbeck), the hump-back dolphin (28 Nos) and Stenella longtrostris Gray, the spinner dolphin (9 Nos)

Airborne Emissions from 1961 to 2004 of Benzo[a]pyrene from U.S. Vehicles per km of Travel Based on Tunnel Studies

We identified 13 historical measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in U.S. vehicular traffic tunnels that were either directly presented as tailpipe emission factors in μg per vehicle-kilometer or convertible to such a form. Tunnel measurements capture fleet cruise emissions. Emission factors for benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) for a tunnel fleet operating under cruise conditions were highest prior to the 1980s and fell from more than 30-μg per vehicle-km to approximately 2-μg/km in the 1990s, an approximately 15-fold decline. Total annual U.S. (cruise) emissions of BaP dropped by a lesser factor, because total annual km driven increased by a factor of 2.7 during the period. Other PAH compounds measured in tunnels over the 40-year period (e.g., benzo[ghi]perylene, coronene) showed comparable reduction factors in emissions. PAH declines were comparable to those measured in tunnels for carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and particulate organic carbon. The historical PAH “source terms” determined from the data are relevant to quantifying the benefits of emissions control technology and can be used in epidemiological studies evaluating the health effects of exposure, such as those undertaken with breast cancer in New York State

Characterizing the Atmospheric Mn Cycle and Its Impact on Terrestrial Biogeochemistry

The role of manganese (Mn) in ecosystem carbon (C) biogeochemical cycling is gaining increasing attention. While soil Mn is mainly derived from bedrock, atmospheric deposition could be a major source of Mn to surface soils, with implications for soil C cycling. However, quantification of the atmospheric Mn cycle, which comprises emissions from natural (desert dust, sea salts, volcanoes, primary biogenic particles, and wildfires) and anthropogenic sources (e.g., industrialization and land-use change due to agriculture), transport, and deposition, remains uncertain. Here, we use compiled emission data sets for each identified source to model and quantify the atmospheric Mn cycle by combining an atmospheric model and in situ atmospheric concentration measurements. We estimated global emissions of atmospheric Mn in aerosols (<10 mu m in aerodynamic diameter) to be 1,400 Gg Mn year(-1). Approximately 31% of the emissions come from anthropogenic sources. Deposition of the anthropogenic Mn shortened Mn "pseudo" turnover times in 1-m-thick surface soils (ranging from 1,000 to over 10,000,000 years) by 1-2 orders of magnitude in industrialized regions. Such anthropogenic Mn inputs boosted the Mn-to-N ratio of the atmospheric deposition in non-desert dominated regions (between 5 x 10(-5) and 0.02) across industrialized areas, but that was still lower than soil Mn-to-N ratio by 1-3 orders of magnitude. Correlation analysis revealed a negative relationship between Mn deposition and topsoil C density across temperate and (sub)tropical forests, consisting with atmospheric Mn deposition enhancing carbon respiration as seen in in situ biogeochemical studies

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon¹⁻³. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses⁴⁻⁹. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.Keywords: Ecology, Environmental scienc

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Not AvailableThree Risso’s dolphins Grampus griseus of size 130, 132, 138 cm were caught dead along with oil sardine in Beemapally, near Vizhinjam on 30-06-1999.Not Availabl