Man and the Last Great Wilderness: Human Impact on the Deep Sea

By E. Ramirez-Llodra, P. Tyler, M. Baker, O. Bergstad, Malcolm R. Clark, E. Escobar, L. Levin, Lénaick Menot, A. Rowden, C. Smith and 1 more. PLoS ONE, 2011

804 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The deep sea, the largest ecosystem on Earth and one of the least studied, harbours high biodiversity and provides a wealth of resources. Although humans have used the oceans for millennia, technological developments now allow exploitation of fisheries resources, hydrocarbons and minerals below 2000 m depth. The remoteness of the deep seafloor has promoted the disposal of residues and litter. Ocean acidification and climate change now bring a new dimension of global effects. Thus the challenges facing the deep sea are large and accelerating, providing a new imperative for the science community, industry and national and international organizations to work together to develop successful exploitation management and conservation of the deep-sea ecosystem. This paper provides scientific expert judgement and a semi-quantitative analysis of past, present and future impacts of human-related activities on global deep-sea habitats within three categories: disposal, exploitation and climate change. The analysis is the result of a Census of Marine Life – SYNDEEP workshop (September 2008). A detailed review of known impacts and their effects is provided. The analysis shows how, in recent decades, the most significant anthropogenic activities that affect the deep sea have evolved from mainly disposal (past) to exploitation (present). We predict that from now and into the future, increases in atmospheric CO2 and facets and consequences of climate change will have the most impact on deep-sea habitats and their fauna. Synergies between different anthropogenic pressures and associated effects are discussed, indicating that most synergies are related to increased atmospheric CO2 and climate change effects. We identify deep-sea ecosystems we believe are at higher risk from human impacts in the near future: benthic communities on sedimentary upper slopes, cold-water corals, canyon benthic communities and seamount pelagic and benthic communities. We finalise this review with a short discussion on protection and management methods.

Subfields: Ecology, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/120a5cf42cbe8af5b446c714b35dbf51518185f6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

In Oceanography

Citations in the corpus

The mechanics of blue growth: Management of oceanic natural resource use with multiple, interacting sectors (2018, background): “Antagonism can be found when seabed mining is located on seamounts or other prime fishing zones, excluding fishermen from access to the area [39,74].”
Mapping ecosystem services provided by benthic habitats in the European North Atlantic Ocean (2014, positive): “According to our estimations, between 93 and 99% (depending on the sub-regions) of the benthic habitats of the European North Atlantic Ocean deliver food provision and biodiversity maintenance services; meanwhile, reproduction and nursery services are provided by 53% of the area. We consider that th”
The historical reference in restoration ecology: Re-defining a cornerstone concept (2014, background): “, 2012), even including the deep sea (Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2011; Van Dover et al., 2013; Barbier et al., 2014).”
A global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone (2017, background): “Our limited knowledge of these ecosystems is increasingly problematic as they may be vulnerable to global issues such as climate warming, deoxygenation, acidification, commercial fishing, seabed mining, and other threats with unknown potential for feedback to the climate system (Sarmiento et al., 20”
Twenty thousand sterling under the sea : Estimating the value of protecting deep-sea biodiversity (2014, background): “The most immediate threats however, are related to the fishing sector, oil and gas exploitation, cable laying, pipeline construction, underwater noise and water pollution from shipping routes, waste dumping, drill cuttings from mining activities, and pollution from terrestrial sources (Armstrong et ”
Deep, diverse and definitely different: unique attributes of the world's largest ecosystem (2010, methodology): “A revision of past, present and future anthropogenic impacts on the deep sea and analysis of the effects in the habitats and fauna is being prepared based on available knowledge and scientific expert advice (SYNDEEP workshop; Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2010).”
Interlinking backscatter, grain size and benthic community structure (2014, background): “Various estimates predict that no area of the ocean remains unaffected by some form of anthropogenic degradation (Halpern et al., 2008; Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2011).”
Predicting the distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea using presence-background models (2014, background): “…explicit need for the scientific community to collaborate with industry, national and international organisations to gather and develop the information required to inform the conservation and management of deep-sea ecosystems (Clark et al., 2012; Davies et al., 2007; Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2011).”