UC center maps human impact on oceans

Human activities heavily affect more than 40 percent of the world’s oceans and few, if any, areas remain untouched, according to the first global-scale study of human influence on marine ecosystems.

By overlaying maps of 17 different impacts such as fishing, climate change and pollution, the researchers have produced a composite map of the toll that humans have exacted on the seas.

The work, published in the Feb. 15 issue of Science, was conducted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UC Santa Barbara. Past studies have focused on single activities or single ecosystems in isolation, and rarely on the global scale. In this study, 19 scientists from UC and other universities and agencies looked at human activities across the entire ocean.

The most heavily affected waters in the world include large areas of the North Sea, the South and East China seas, the Caribbean Sea, the East Coast of North America, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bering Sea, and several regions in the Western Pacific. The least affected areas are largely near the poles.

For more information: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/GlobalMarine