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NHM Science Strategy - All
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Ed Vaizey, the minister with responsibility for Museums, gave a speech at the Museums Association conference yesterday. As ever with these things, he was supportive of Museums, but short on the likely impact of the coming spending review. Lots of interest in networking, innovative approaches, sharing expertise, partnerships. "More with Less"
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Big excitement at the ten year mark for the Census of Marine Life which has established a baseline for marine diversity. Song out on 6 October, apparently, for any marine biologists for whom science and spectacular images are not enough.
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Assessing Biodiversity in Europe 2010 was published yesterday by the European Environment Agency.
Points to some success stories and progress, but continuing threats to European Biodiversity from habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, pollution, pressures on water resources and climate change. Summaries and graphics by ecosystem, biogeographic area, taxonomic groups and other perspectives.
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New iPhone app from the British Geological Survey - iGeology. Seems to work pretty well, giving the geological map, with info on surface and subsurface geology. Might be a bit slow in places because the maps are streamed.
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Interesting paper in PLoS ONE showing that the disturbance impact of bottom trawling in the NE Atlantic is at least an order of magnitude greater than other activities.
Benn AR, Weaver PP, Billet DSM, van den Hove S, Murdock AP, et al. (2010) Human
Activities on the Deep Seafloor in the North East Atlantic: An Assessment of
Spatial Extent. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12730. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012730 -
Changes in UK seas are assessed in the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership's report card. Thoroughly recommended.
Patterns of change, including increased sea temperature, erosion, acidification and sea level are assessed and future patterns predicted. Also information on invasive species, fisheries, and digests of impacts on a regional basis.
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Upcoming conference in November - looks likely to look at the way forward on biodiversity policy in the UK.
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Some progress but still a lot of brackets on the run up to Nagoya for the Access and Benefit Sharing protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity. A negotiating meeting finished in Montreal earlier this week with a final report that will be further discussed in Nagoya.
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Running up to Nagoya, the EU parliament adopted a report on 21 September 2010 that has been evolving from various committee disusssions and reports. Gives a view on what the Commission and Council should be doing and has done.
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High-level meeting on 22 September 2010 on biodiversity at the UN General Assembly in New York. Interesting background paper focusing on future strategy, including the relation to poverty alleviation.