Transitioning to Sustainable Life below Water

The ocean plays a central role in the life and development of humankind. Besides being a space for navigation and trade (roughly 10 billion tons of commodities are transported across the oceans each year), the provision of biological and non-living resources is the most important service of the marine ecosystems. Yet, these ecosystems are increasingly impeded by human activities and interventions. Human and naturally induced changes in climate are buffered by the ocean, but its capacity to compensate for the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere is at its limit. The increase in global temperatures and the decrease in oxygen concentration and pH are severe stressors for aquatic species and thus for the whole ecosystem. Urbanisation and population growth at the coast, along with severe levels of pollution, are stressing coastal environments and hampering or interrupting life cycles of species as well as the well-established and naturally balanced internal interconnections within and between ecosystems. Mining for oil and gas is interfering with fisheries, competing for space with other sectors and increasing the risks for large-scale pollution. The result is a decline in ecosystem services and negative feedback into the socio-economic systems. The recent reports by IPBES and IPCC underline the degrading conditions in which the ecosystems are situated today. The IPBES report evaluates a number of direct and indirect drivers. Population increase, technical development, the malfunctioning of governance, and the spreading of conflicts affect direct drivers such as sea use change, direct exploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species, and others.

Transitioning to Sustainable Life below Water is part of MDPI's Open Access book series, Transitioning to Sustainability, which aims to add to the conversation about regional and global sustainable development according to the 17 SDGs.