Human footprint along marine ecosystems  

 

Evidences accumulated over the last few decades reveal a growing human impact on marine ecosystems, but effects on biological communities are still largely unknown.

Human activities such as fisheries, urban development, tourism, and maritime traffic, greatly influence distribution and quantity of marine litter from shores to deeper regions of continental margins, where may enter directly through a wide variety of maritime activities including disposal (e.g. clinker, sewage, chemical products or radioactive materials) and exploitation of natural resources (e.g. lost fishing gears, oil and gas, mining, pipelines). Any material discarded, disposed, or abandoned at the coast or even far inland can potentially become marine debris!

Today, we have evidences that terrestrial human activities are the main source of marine debris worldwide and are responsible for 70-80% of all debris that end up in the ocean dragged by the wind, rain, and tides or transported by rivers.

Anthropogenic litter has been accumulating in marine environments from heavily populated coastlines to remote shorelines in high latitudes, floating on the surface or sunk at the bottom of the oceans. In fact, plastic materials and glass are frequently observed in marine ecosystems along coasts, continental margins and even in the deep abyssal plains.

Accumulation of plastics has harmful consequences for marine animals (seabirds, turtles, mammals, fishes, but also corals and sponges), to which ingestion, strangulation and obstruction of respiratory or digestive systems, led most of the times to permanent damage or dead. 

Since human impact on the deep sea confirms the significant threat to its biodiversity, societal awareness is fundamental to take effective actions for the conservation of vulnerable habitats so that they can continue contributing to healthy and productive oceans.