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Expert-reviewed information about the Earth. For everyone.
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Composting tips
Composting turns household wastes into valuable fertilizer and soil organic matter. All organic matter eventually decomposes. Composting speeds the process by providing an... More »
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Featured Article
Endangered species
An endangered species is a biological taxon that is at risk of becoming extinct in a proximate time frame much sooner than the long term horizon in which species typically... More »
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Trinity Site, New Mexico
Trinity Site, Alamogordo Bombing Range, New Mexico ( 33°40'30.00"N, 106°28'30.00"W) was the site of the first atmospheric atomic bomb test which took... More »
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Biological diversity in the Himalayas
Stretching in an arc over 3,000 kilometers of northern Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and the northwestern and northeastern states of India, the Himalaya hotspot includes all of... More »
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Healthy Community Design
The way we design and build our communities can affect our physical and mental health. Healthy community design integrates evidence-based health strategies into community... More »
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Marine microbes
The term 'Marine microbes' encompasses all microscopic organisms generally found in saltwater. Most micro-organisms are acellular and fall into the major categories of... More »
Eastern Canadian forests
Last Updated on 2014-12-28 16:24:05
WWF Terrestrial Ecoregions Collection
The Eastern Canadian forests ecoregion is distinguished from the Central Canadian Shield forests by a greater maritime influence, and a dominant tree, Balsam fir, as the climatic climax species. The Eastern Canadian forests, part of the Nearctic Realm, characterise forested land in eastern Quebec, much of Newfoundland, and disjunct occurrences in the highlands of New Brunswick, and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; in all, this ecoregion comprises seven major disjunctive geographic units.
The ecoclimate of this ecoregion ranges from high and mid-boreal and perhumid mid-boreal to Oceanic, Atlantic, and Maritime mid-boreal. Summers are generally cool, with average temperatures ranging between 8.5°C in the north to 14.5°C in the south. Winter temperatures vary according to proximity to the ocean and... More »
Denmark
Last Updated on 2014-12-19 12:32:19
Denmark is a nation of just over five-and-a-half million people in Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, on a peninsula north of Germany (Jutland) and includes roughly 500 islands, including several major islands (Sjaelland, Fyn, and Bornholm). It is a part of the generally fertile and mostly agricultural region known as the North European Plain. This entire region is generally flat to slightly rolling and is overlain with glacial deposits.
Denmark also includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
Its major environmental issues include:
air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant emissions;
nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea;
drinking and surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and pesticides
Flooding is a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of Jutland, along the southern... More »
Marine biodiversity
Last Updated on 2014-12-15 19:53:24
Biodiversity is now commonly defined as the variety of life in genes, species and habitats. According to the definition of the Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity is the variability among living organisms from all sources, including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.
The three domains of life, bacteria, archaea and eukarya are present in the marine environment. In addition there are viruses. About 230,000 species of marine plants and animals have been scientifically described and a few thousand bacteria and archaea. This known biodiversity only represents a small fraction of the number of species existing, except for the macrophytes and seagrasses which are living in coastal environments and, in general, for the pelagic... More »
Malaysia- FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture
Last Updated on 2014-12-07 21:15:44
Malaysia is situated in southeast Asia. It consists of two regions: peninsular Malaysia in the west lying between Thailand and Singapore, and the states of Sabah and Sarawak located in the east on the island of Borneo. The two regions are separated by the South China Sea. The total land area of the country is 328 550 km². Malaysia is a federal country, divided into 13 states plus the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan Island..
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information.
In peninsular Malaysia, a mountainous spine known as Banjaran Titiwangsa sepa-rates the east of the... More »
Fisheries and aquaculture
Last Updated on 2014-12-07 21:08:51
In 2002 the global production from fishing and aquaculture combined reached about 133 million tonnes. The global yield from capture fisheries is stagnating, but aquaculture has been expanding.
The quantities of fish captured remained stable at about 93 million tonnes per year between 1999 and 2002. China and Peru are leading the top ten of countries with the largest catches. The same countries have remained in the top ten for over a decade.
Oceans and seas provide 90% of the world's fishery catches. During the past decade marine catches brought to land increased slightly compared to the preceding decade. It should be noted that the quantity of marine fish caught and discarded fell by several million tonnes in the same time period. Trends vary greatly across different regions and for different species. The species yielding the largest harvest is the Peruvian... More »
