Global water news September 2011

Abstract

Global news unexpectedly increased transmission of intestinal parasites from baboons to humans as the primates were forced to forage closer to human settlements; As large ungulates recovered from a devastating rinderpest epidemic in the Serengeti in Africa, herbivory increased, and the frequency of wildfire declined in that region; Industrial whaling in the 20th century resulted in the loss of large numbers of plankton-consuming great whales, which are now known to sequester carbon into the deep sea through deposition of faeces. The result has been the transfer of about 105 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere that would have been absorbed by whales, contributing to climate change. “We must assume going forward that significant changes to the ecosystem are occurring when large predators and herbivores are removed from the top of the food web, and, thus, that efforts to manage and conserve nature must include these animals, ” notes co-author Dr Ellen Pikitch of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, New York.

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