In Dead Water

THREATS TO THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Each of the big five stressors (not in order of magnitude), 1) Climate change ; 2) Pollution (mainly coastal), 3) Fragmenta- tion and habitat loss (from e.g. dredging/trawling, use of explosives in fishing on coral reefs etc.), 4) Invasive species infestations , and 5) Over-harvest from fisheries may individu- ally or combined result in severe impacts on the biological production of the worlds oceans and the services they provide to billions of people today. If climate change accelerates, the impacts on marine life from the other stressors will become severely exacerbated and the ability of ecosystems to recover will be impaired.

Climate change

Frag- mentation and habitat loss

Over- harvesting from fisheries

Pollution (mainly coastal)

Invasive species

Figure 8. Primary threats to the Worlds oceans include the ‘Big Five’ stressors.

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