Recent Pace of Change in Human Impact on the World’s Ocean

Author:

Benjamin S. Halpern, Melanie Frazier, Jamie Afflerbach, Julia S. Lowndes, Fiorenza Micheli, Casey O’Hara, Courtney Scarborough, and Kimberly A. Selkoe

Publication Year:

2019

Citation:

Halpern, Benjamin S., Melanie Frazier, Jamie Afflerbach, Julia S. Lowndes, Fiorenza Micheli, Casey O’Hara, Courtney Scarborough, and Kimberly A. Selkoe. “Recent Pace of Change in Human Impact on the World’s Ocean.” Scientific Reports 9, no. 1 (December 2019): 11609. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47201-9.

Description:

A fundamental gap in understanding how humanity is affecting the oceans is our limited knowledge about the pace of change in cumulative impact on ocean ecosystems from expanding human activities – and the patterns, locations and drivers of most significant change. To help address this, the authors combined high resolution, annual data on the intensity of 14 human stressors and their impact on 21 marine ecosystems over 11 years (2003–2013) to assess pace of change in cumulative impacts on global oceans, where and how much that pace differs across the ocean, and which stressors and their impacts contribute most to those changes.

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