{"id":962,"date":"2021-11-19T09:07:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T09:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/?p=962"},"modified":"2021-11-19T09:07:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T09:07:42","slug":"river-thames-is-back-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/?p=962","title":{"rendered":"River Thames is back to life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest State of the Thames report, released by the Zoological Society <\/strong>of London<\/strong>, found that cleanup efforts <\/strong>over recent decades <\/strong>have brought down levels <\/strong>of chemicals such <\/strong>as phosphorus <\/strong>and conserved salt marshes <\/strong>for birds <\/strong>and fish<\/strong>, making the river \u201chome <\/strong>to myriad wildlife <\/strong>as diverse <\/strong>as London<\/strong> itself<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aerial view of river Thames in London from an airplane.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The report also highlighted <\/strong>many challenges <\/strong>the Thames faces<\/strong>, including rising water temperatures <\/strong>and sea levels <\/strong>due to climate change<\/strong>. For instance, summer temperatures in parts of the river have increased <\/strong>an average of 0.19 degrees Celsius<\/strong> (0.34 degrees Fahrenheit) each year since 2007<\/strong>, researchers found. Even slight alterations in seasonal heat may upset the river\u2019s ecosystem <\/strong>and erode living habitats<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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River Thames is home to hundreds of wildlife species, such as sea horses and sharks.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also found elevated nitrate concentration <\/strong>that threatens water quality<\/strong>. Much <\/strong>of London\u2019s drinking water comes <\/strong>from the river<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

River Thames became heavily polluted during the Industrial Revolution <\/strong>as toxic runoffs from tanneries and human waste found their way to the river. The \u201cGreat Stink<\/strong>\u201d of 1858, caused in part by human sewage flowing into the Thames, forced the British Parliament to build better wastewater disposal systems<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Great Stink was an event in Central London in July and August 1858 during which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames.<\/span><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Thames <\/strong>may be free <\/strong>of much toxic waste <\/strong>these days, but it has one of the higher concentrations <\/strong>of microplastics <\/strong>in the world<\/strong>, reportedly ahead of other urban waterways such as the Chicago River <\/strong>and the Danube in Europe, according to a study from British scientists<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest State of the Thames report, released by the Zoological Society of London, found that cleanup efforts over recent decades have brought down levels of chemicals such as phosphorus and conserved salt marshes for birds and fish, making the river \u201chome to myriad wildlife as diverse as London itself.\u201d The report also highlighted many… Continue reading River Thames is back to life<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":967,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mermaidthea.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}