Posted on 07 July 2009
- WWF's work with polar bears The world’s
top experts have just confirmed that Arctic
warming is continuing its ravages
of polar bear populations. The Polar Bear
Specialist Group of the International Union
of the Conservation of Nature has added
to its list of declining polar bear populations.
“There is a disturbing
downward trend apparent in world polar bear
populations,” says Geoff York, polar bear
coordinator for WWF International’s Arctic
Programme. “In 2005, there were five declining
populations – now there are eight. The experts
have clearly identified climate change as
the major culprit, but they are also optimistic
that these trends can be reversed, given
timely and effective action on greenhouse
gas emissions.”
The main effect of warming
on the bears is that their hunting is restricted
by a lack of sea ice. The bears use the
ice as a platform from which they can hunt
seals, their favourite prey. Research has
shown a definite link between the time the
bears have to stay on land, and a decline
in health, and in the numbers of cubs that
survive.
At a meeting in Norway
earlier this year, representatives of the
countries that are home to polar bears agreed
to refer the climate change problem to the
UN-sponsored climate negotiations. WWF continues
to push those countries to live up to the
treaty they signed in 1973, obliging them
to protect polar bear habitat.
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Kamchatka geyser’s sudden
eruption a peculiar challenge for scientists
Posted on 07 July 2009
- The new geyser – dubbed “Prikolny” or
“Peculiar” in English – has appeared in
the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, in Uzon Caldera,
14 kms away from the world-renowned Valley
of Geysers.
A reserve ranger was
the first person to see the geyser – a column
of boiling liquid shooting three meters
high. A short while later, one of the observers
said “Prikolny!” leading to the geyser’s
naming, which will now appear on maps of
the region.
Research on the geyser’s
sudden appearance is ongoing, although scientists
already have presented theories on its origin,
including that serious changes affecting
the entire Uzon thermal field caused its
appearance, or that it was created from
rising water levels in the field’s spring.
“Some theorize that
Prikolny Geyser evolved from a pulsating
hot spring,” said Valery Droznin, a senior
researcher in Kronotsky Nature Reserve.
“The process of a spring transforming to
a geyser is not unknown to science.”
Currently, scientists
are measuring the temperature of the water,
the periodicity of its cycle, its diameter,
the depth of its underground structure and
its exact geographical position to better
understand the Prikolny Geyser.
“The new geyser functions
near one of the reserve’s ranger stations
and can be easily viewed from a tourist
boardwalk,” said Tikhon Shpilenok, Director
of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve. “The geyser
erupts every 6 to 20 minutes, so is very
convenient for observations.”
A geyser is a hot spring
characterized by intermittent discharges
of water ejected turbulently and accompanied
by a vapor phase (steam), and are generally
found in volcanic areas. Geyser activity
is marked by periodical repetitions of phases
of rest, water ejection, erupting of a water-steam
mixture, and ending in calm exhalation until
ceasing entirely.
The Prikolny Geyser
is unique because it uses the same water
over and over again. Water from the five
meter fountain gets back into the funnel
and then it "spits out" the same
water again.
In Kamchatka, a large
geyser field – the only in Eurasia – was
discovered in 1941 in the Geyser River valley
(Valley of the Geysers) near Kikhpinich
volcano. Altogether Kamchatka had 100 geysers
(20 of them of significant size) before
a mudslide covered them in June 2007.
There are four large
geysers fields in the world: in Iceland,
New Zealand, the US and Kamchatka. The last
time a new geyser appeared on Kamchatka
was in the 1960s, and in the United States’
Yellowstone National Park in the early 20th
century.
WWF has worked in Kamchatka
for years in efforts to preserve the region’s
unique volcanoes and thermal springs, which
also houses a large population of polar
bears. Kamchatka’s rich natural resources
face threats from poaching, destructive
tourism, and potential oil developments.
“In June 2007, a mudslide
wiped out half of Russia’s geysers in the
Valley of the Geysers, but in June of this
year a new miracle has appeared in another
part of the reserve,” said WWF’s Alexandra
Filatkina. “We have the rare opportunity
to witness these natural processes as they
become history.
