Ukraine | Destruction of dam threatens PAs along Dnipro River; Russia, Ukraine trade blame

Flooding from the destroyed Kakhovka dam poses a threat to a diverse array of wildlife and ecosystems that call its network of estuaries, wetlands and marshes home.

Experts on Tuesday were still waiting to understand the scale of the disaster, with the flooding expected to intensify as the waters from the Kakhovka reservoir continue to flow. But they expressed concern about the potential for industrial pollution and the flooding of nearby nature conservation areas.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/06/world/russia-ukraine-news#the-deluge-of-water-could-threaten-the-dnipro-rivers-wildlife-and-ecosystems

Study: Globally, PAs store carbon equivalent to about 1 year's worth of fossil fuel emissions

A new study in Nature Communications finds that the world's PAs store an amount of carbon equal to about one year's worth of the planet's fossil fuel-based emissions of greenhouse gases.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38073-9

5000 new species identified in deep-sea region slated for mining

Scientists have discovered more than 5,000 new species living on the seabed in an untouched area of the Pacific Ocean that has been identified as a future hotspot for deep-sea mining, according to a review of the environmental surveys done in the area.

It is the first time the previously unknown biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich area of the ocean floor that spans 1.7m sq miles between Hawaii and Mexico in the Pacific, has been comprehensively documented. The research will be critical to assessing the risk of extinction of the species, given contracts for deep-sea mining in the near-pristine area appear imminent.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/25/more-than-5000-new-species-discovered-in-pacific-deep-sea-mining-hotspot