marine sciences Rare corals aplenty According to researchers from James Cook University rare coral species might not be at high risks of extinction due to small population sizes.Their tendency to hybridize saves them. The previous prediction was that small population sizes led to decreased genetic diversity, which in turn decreased their adaptive capability. However, some

Renault sees demand for as many as 50,000 electric vehicles in 2011, the year the carmaker will begin selling such zero emission cars in Denmark, Israel and Portugal, engineering and quality head Jean-Louis Ricaud said on Thursday in an interview with Reuters.

Ricaud confirmed the electric car will be based on the Megane platform and called the 'Fluence'.

Portugal is struggling to contain a new outbreak of nematodes, microscopic worm-like organisms that are killing wild pine trees and threaten to spread abroad despite drastic measures to stop their advance. The government cut a 430 km (265 mile) corridor through Portugal's southern forests last year to contain the Pine Wilt Nematode within a 1 million hectare (2.47 million acres) area, about one ninth of Portugal's forested land.

Outside the white-walled town of Moura in the rolling plans of southern Portugal, more than 240,000 solar panels covering an area equivalent to 150 football pitches are slowly being manoeuvred into position in what will be the world's biggest photovoltaic power plant. A few kilometres away, at Alqueva, the Guadiana river has been dammed to create the largest reservoir in western Europe and one of 18 hydroelectric power projects under way in Portugal's river valleys. In the north-west Alto Minho region, one of the world's biggest wind farms is under construction.

A string of three red steel tubes, each the size of a railway carriage, lies low in the water off the northern coast of Portugal. As the snub-nosed apparatus rises and dips in the Atlantic waves, it becomes immediately clear why this pioneering energy technology is called Pelamis after a mythical giant sea snake. Later this year, these wave energy converters, developed over many years of testing by Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power, will be pumping electricity into Portugal's national grid, making it the first country in the world to harness wave energy on a commercial basis.

Mozambique formally took over the Cahora Bassa dam from its former ruler, Portugal, on November 27. Mozambique had to pay Portugal us $700 million for control of the dam, which is the second

Massive forest fires