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An Analysis of Threats to Marine Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecosystems

Working Paper · May 2017

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22771.94248

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 Preliminary Draft

An Analysis of Threats to Marine Biodiver-

sity and Aquatic Ecosystems
by Sidharta Chatterjee
Visiting Researcher, Andhra University
Department of Social Work, Visakhapatnam, India
Email: [email protected]

May 3, 2017

Abstract
Marine ecosystems and aquatic habitats face a number of threats from humans.
Serious conservation attention and eorts should be drawn and directed
towards restoration of fragmented marine habitats and estuarine ecosystems.
Threats are manifold: i.e., primarily from overexploitation of marine resources,
overshing, climate warming, sewage disposal, industrial chemical discharge,
oil spills, invasive species, and dredging. The Corals are particularly fragile
animals and very sensitive to changes in temperature and salinity. Coral reefs
are coastal habitats build by corals that are also one of the most produc-
tive habitats within the marine ecosystems, but they are however, at great
danger of going extinct from any drastic changes in sea surface temperature
and salinity. Ecosystem services provided by coastal areas helps to sustain
coastal people whose livelihood depends on shing and sh products, aqua-
culture and exploitation of biologically diverse resources that the seas and
the oceans provide them. For this reason, it is essential to monitor marine
biodiversity and prevent further degradation of marine habitats. This paper
attempts to address this critical issue to stimulate conservation eorts among
policy makers and ecologists. Besides, it is also relevant to understand how
ecosystem gets degraded, and what measures are best and should be under-
taken to prevent further degradation of marine habitats.
Keywords: Marine biodiversity, ecosystem services, habitat destruction, coral
bleaching, coral reefs, IUCN

1 Introduction
Biodiversity is the sumtotal of richness and variation of all living things. It repre-
sents variability among living organisms that include marine, terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems. Of these, the marine ecosystem represents the most biologically diverse
bionetwork of ora and fauna which is still largely unexplored. Such diversity is
a provider of economic services which comes as a blessing to coastal people (MoE
Report 2011). However, marine ecosystems are under pressure and the global bio-

. Corresponding author.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this paper are those of author's, and do not necessarily represent the
views of Andhra University of any other entity.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2964468

diversity is threatened. These presents as broad-scale threats to marine biodiversity
(Helm and Hepburn 2014; Mapstone 2010; Imtiyaz, Sweta and Prakash 2011).
Broadly, such threats can be categorized as follows (Nevill, 2008):
i. Climate change induced Global warming
a) Physical changes: change in sea water surface temperature
b) Chemical changes: change in salinity
ii. Habitat destruction
a) Commercial exploitation and dredging activities,
b) Destruction of Coral habitats
c) Habitat damage from bottom trawling
iii. Problem of overshing and bycatch
a) Illegal shing, bycatch problems
b) Unregulated and overshing
iv. Pollution from sewage disposals which include harmful chemicals
a) Hazardous pollutants (includes toxic and radioactive chemicals etc.)
b) Sewage litters (e.g., plastic, inorganic debris, cans etc.)
The threats to global biodiversity (See also Sechrest and Brooks 2002) and marine
ecosystems are real (Casper 2010), because marine habitats are fragile. Marine
ecosystems are highly responsive to uctuations and changes in physical environ-
ments (Pan et al. 2013) while at the same time, they are resilient and adaptable to
such changes (Steele 1998). Like terrestrial ecosystems, marine ecosystems and habi-
tats are susceptible to destruction (Walker and Kendrik 2006), pollution and climate
warming (Craig 2012, Walker and Kendrik 2006). Coastal ecosystems are also prone
to destruction due to high population pressure and construction of port facilities,
marinas and other logistic amenities (Burke et al., WRI Report 2001, Ólafsson 2017).
Unquestionably, expansion of human activities threatens ocean-wide biodiversity
(Dulvy et al. 2014). Continuous dredging causes damage to riverine and estuarine
ecosystems. Furthermore, marine wildlife and ecosystems of the polar regions are
susceptible to the impacts of climate warming and enhanced anthropogenic activ-
ities. In simple words, coastal biodiversity is at risk and marine environments are
threatened (Imtiyaz, Sweta and Prakash 2011) from heightened human activities
(Dulvy et al. 2014). It may not be reasonable to reduce coastal human activities,
but it may be feasible to think about means and methods to reduce further damage
to coastal ecosystems. The goal of this paper, therefore, is to address these critical
issues regarding conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems and advocate eec-
tive strategies, and convert those into actions. Furthermore, this research analyzes
the importance of habitats and why habitats are essential for propagation and sur-
vival of species. The analytic model simply reinforces the signicance of habitat
quality and the eect of habitat protection on the survival of species.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2964468

2 Ecosystem Services
Marine ecosystems provide many essential servicesas for example, food resources
for millions of people. Ecosystem services (Cowling et al. 2008) provided by marine
environments and coastal areas are varied in nature. These can be enumerated as
(adapted from Burke 2001):
i. Fish and sheries for food production
ii. Maintenance of Biodiversity
iii. Tourism and recreation
iv. Marine transport and port facilities
v. Shoreline stabilization
vi. Water quality
vii. Hydrologic functions
There are other services provided by marine ecosystems for instance; deep sea oil
exploration and drilling, mining for minerals, etc. In a nutshell, biodiversity plays a
positive role in maintaining the ecosystem services which supports a growing human
population (Worm et al. 2006). However, marine ecosystems are facing accelerating
loss of aquatic species and they are threatened by various anthropogenic activities
that are damaging to marine habitats. Habitat loss can lead to decline in ecosystem
services (Dobson et al. 2006). Although the immediate consequences are not known,
such accelerated loss of marine species could impact smooth ow of ecosystem ser-
vices in the long term.

Figure 1. Major threats to marine biodiversity

3
 Damage to coastal ecosystems has economic implications as well. The economic
value of coastal ecosystems depends on the marine biological diversity. Ocean bio-
diversity loss aects ecosystem services (Worm et al. 2006). Marine species are
largely dominated by arthropods (phylum crustaceans), molluscs and sh. Economic
value of shes are well acknowledgedthey are the sources of food and nutrition
for millions of people. Besides, the phylum crustaceans which include crabs, cray-
sh, shrimp, prawns and lobsters have immense economic value. They are mostly
found along the coastlines of seas and oceans. The coastlines of seas and oceans are
therefore, biologically active areas of productivity, and they represent a substantial
share of economic activities for the coastal people. The business of mariculture
(seaweeds) is also an important contributor to ecosystem services. Beyond doubt,
erosion of biodiversity has denite impact on humanity (MA 2005, Cardinale et al.
2012, Worm et al. 2009). Therefore, the ongoing erosion of marine biodiversity could
have economic and ecological implications in the long run.

3 Marine Biodiversity under Threat

It is now evident that there are many marine species including some marine animals
and mammals which are threatened, endangered or vulnerable to climate change and
susceptible to being severely aected by augmented human activities. Some marine
species have already become extinct (See Estes, Burdin and Doak, 2015), while
some othersfor instance, polar bear (Ursus maritimus), is facing risk of extinction
from the melting Arctic ocean ice due to climate warming (Hunter et al. 2010).
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) monitors species diversity across regions.
It maintains a listThe IUCN Red List (Rodríguez et al. 2015) which species the
degree of abundance or scarcity of plants and animal species by assigning measurable
categories to describe their relative occurrence in a particular region. To put it
simply, IUCN Red List is an approach for monitoring and assessing the status of
global biodiversity1. This has important implications; e.g., the Threatened species
are candidates for protection and conservation, whereas the Endangered species are
candidates for close observation as well as protection.
Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being (Díaz et al. 2006). With an
unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss, the uninterrupted provision of goods and
services from marine ecosystems are threatened. So it is important to evaluate the
loss of biodiversity at the ecosystem level. Of importance to note, biodiversity is a
dominant driver of ecosystem productivity (Tilman, Reich and Isbell 2012). Marine
ecosystems are highly productive, and there is a positive relationship between diver-
sity and ecosystem functions and services (Worm et al. 2006). However, valuation
of biodiversity is a dicult and tricky job (See Nunes and van den Bergh 2001). It is
easy to assume the impact of biodiversity on human welfare, but it is rather dicult
to perform a valuation analysis of all the possible indicators of ecosystem services.

1. See Baillie, J.E.M., Hilton-Taylor, C. and Stuart, S.N. (Editors) 2004. 2004 IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species. A Global Species Assessment. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

4
It is because ecosystem functions (Odum 1971) are varied, and so it may not be
easy to perform a valuation of life support functions that ecosystems provide which
include provision of clean air, healthy environment, and carbon storage (Nunes
et al. 2000). However, valuation of biodiversity loss could be an alternative approach
as an economic indicator of the loss of biological products and services ows. It
is particularly relevant to Coral biodiversity and coastal ecosystems. Local degrada-
tion and loss of habitat for marine ora and fauna may reduce the overall ecosystem
services being provided by the coastlines. The value of Ecosystem serviceswhich
according to some estimate (Boesch 1999), amounts to around $21 trillion a year,
wherein, coastal systems contribute 63% of this total amount. According to another
estimate, world's coral reefs produces goods and services worth of economic value
$29.8 billion per year. Of this amount, tourism accounts for $9.0 billion, and sh-
eries $5.7 billion (Conservation International, 2008). So, loss of coral reefs would
also result in loss of substantial ecosystem services. Obliteration of coral reefs may
also result in loss of aesthetic beauty of many shallow shorelines. Destruction of
coral reefs follow coral bleaching, and scientists know how exactly this happens.
Corals have low physiological tolerance to high temperature. Therefore, one of the
biggest enemy of corals is global warming. Coral bleaching2 results from high stress
factors such as rising or falling temperatures, intense light, low salinity (ocean acid-
ication) all of which causes loss of endosymbionts (zooxanthellae).

Figure 2. Mechanism of Coral Bleaching

Corals are temperature sensitive; rise in sea surface water temperature by only

2. See for example, Brown B., 1997; Coral Bleaching: Causes and Consequences. Coral Reefs 16, S129-
S138.

5
1.1C can initiate the bleaching eect (see Fig.1) which if prolonged, will result in
death of corals (See Veron et al. 2009 ). In fact, the ecosystems most threatened by
climate change are coral reefs (McClenachan et al. 2007). Several incidents of coral
bleaching (Brown 1997, Eakin et al. 2016) are on record (see for example, Global
bleaching episode, NOAA3 1998, 2010, and 2015). Although bleaching itself does
not always lead to mass mortality of corals (Eakin CM et al. 2010), nevertheless,
climate anomalies have been linked to coral bleaching (Glynn 1990) that resulted
in local extinction of coral populations (See Cahill et al. 2012). The fact is, coral
reefs around the world are threatened (Eakin et al. 2016). For instance, the Coral
Triangle (Hoegh-Guldberg 2009) is home to the greatest number of marine species,
and contains 76% of world's coral species. It is a global centre of marine biodiversity.
Coral triangle constitutes much of the Indian Ocean and encompasses Indonesia,
Malaysia, The Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste.
However, this epicentre of marine biodiversity faces several threats and challenges.
Coral reefs are constituents of coastal ecosystems. They provide critical ecological
services. So, it is very important to preserve and device methods to limit further
damage to the coastal ecosystems. Besides, the marine biodiversity of India also faces
a multitude of challenges since according to the IUCN (Joshi, Varsha and Sruthi
2015), several species are either endangered or threatened. Signicant among them
is Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) which is critically endangered, and the
well known Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), which is endangered. There are
several endangered species associated with the Mangroves ecosystems of India (See
for instance, Joshi, Varsha and Sruthi 2015).

4 Importance of Marine Biodiversity

Marine ecosystems are valuable but vulnerable. They are biologically so diverse
that they are home to 97% of all species on earth (Lefèvre, IUCN Report 2007). It
is factual that the oceans and seas support a large number of biologically diverse
species which contribute immensely to ecological diversity. Marine species diversity
is immense; estimates of known and unknown marine species diversity could be
obtained from a compilation by a consortium of scientists, ecologists, conserva-
tionists which have been published in Current Biology by Appeltans et al. 2012.
They report a total number of 226,000 eukaryotic marine species, and speculate
that there could be another one third or two thirds of marine species that may be
undescribed. Of the total 222,000230,000 marine species described, nearly 200,000
belongs to Animalia (Appeltans et al. 2012).

3. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). See NOAA, 2015; NOAA Coral Reef
Watch : 2015 Annual Summaries of Thermal Conditions Related to Coral Bleaching for NCRMP Jurisdic-
tions.

6
 Figure 3. Estimate of marine animal species (See Appeltans et al. 2014: How Many
Species in the Ocean? )

Figure 2 above depicts the number of estimated marine animal species as a com-
ponent of marine biodiversity. It shows the relative contribution of dierent animal
phyla and their relative known or unknown species diversity as computed from
Appeltans et al. 2014. Thus, it may not come as a surprise to consider the fact that
such a diversity is a ready storehouse of a wide variety of biological resources (prod-
ucts) that could hold immense medicinal or economic value. In fact, marine ecology
provides ecosystem services that have economic, biological and non-economic value.
These include Fish and sh products, mollusks, seaweeds and algae (sources of
phycocolloids 4) which are among the primary sources of ecosystem services. Phyco-
colloids are polysaccharides derived from seaweeds (Gonçalves et al. 2014) that have
applications in food, cosmetic and chemical industries. Therefore, conservation of
biodiversity (Hourigan 1999) should be a priority to enable smooth and sustainable
ow of ecosystem services, without overexploiting the nature. This requires periodic
asessment of marine biodiversity and the impact of human activities on marine
ecosystems. The United Nation's The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA)
and the Ministry of Environment (MoE 2011) of Japan periodically analyzes the
anthropogenic impact on the structure of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

4. Phycocolloids include algin, alginates, carrageenan etc. These are gelatinous chemicals produced
by seaweeds that are used in food processing, as emulsier, stabilizer and toppings, and in the production
of dairy products. Other phycocolloids like for example, ulvan, chitosan, fucoidan, laminarin have many
applications. See for instance, Marine Biology : Castro & Huber, chapter 6: Multicellular Primary Pro-
ducers: Seaweeds and Plants, 7th edition pg. 109.

7
 Critically endangered Threatened Extinct
Alabama cavesh Rockhopper Penguins Steller's sea cow
Yangtze sturgeon Paddlesh Short-barbeled barb
Vaquita Green sturgeon Syr-Dar shovelnose sturgeon
Extinct in the wild

Table 1. Source: IUCN Red List

It is necessary to conserve and protect marine biodiversity as much as it is

essential to preserve terrestrial and estuarine ecosystems. Identifying the factors
that aect marine population dynamics, habitation composition, and stress eect (or
constraints) is crucial for eective conservation of marine species. Another important
aspect is to monitor how species respond to constraints posed in dierent types
of aquatic ecosystems, for instance, freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems.
Marine ecosystem is the home to many animals and mammals which also include
molluscs, and the largest biomass of green plants occurs in the oceans which happen
to be the microscopic algae (phytoplankton5). However, marine ecology is threat-
ened by elevated sea surface temperature (SST) which could adversely aect coral
survival. Survival-extinction dynamics and its outcome depends on the adaptive
capacity of a species under stress, as well as on various other factors. Since several
exotic and charismatic marine species are threatened with extinction, dierent con-
servation focus is required in marine ecosystems (McClenachan et al. 2012) that
include oceans and sea. Table 1 shows several marine species that are categorized
according to their current status of abundance or scarcity. Table 1 also depicts
three extinct species that have been enumerated alongside those that are critically
endangered or threatened. The reader is referred to the IUCN Red List 6 for more
detailed information on threatened species.

5 Methods

5.1 Analysis of Ecosystem Threats

Threats facing aquatic ecosystems and marine habitats are manifold (vide section
1). Owing to extensive human activities, marine biodiversity is at crisis. Illegal
overshing has resulted in a decline in marine animal population. Degradation of
marine habitat has resulted in obliteration of coral reefs. This has been compounded
by climate warming which has furthermore compromised marine habitats. This
section undertakes a systematic analysis of threats to marine biodiversity and the
ecosystem. We attempt to model such threats using a simple mathematical repre-
sentation to study and analyze the current threats to marine ecosystems and their
eects on marine life and habitats.

5. Phytoplanktons are microscopic oating plants which are mostly algae. See Encyclopedia of Marine
sciences; Baretta-Bekker et. al., (Eds.) pg. 201.
6. IUCN Red List website: http://www.iucnredlist.org

8
5.2 The Model
We construct a simple model to examine and illustrate the importance of habitat
for species survival. For our model, we dene the variables as follows:  =
extinction risk; #1 = species diversity, x = threats,  = habitat,  = population,
and  = error term. Habitats are characterized by distribution, range, depth, phys-
iography, zone (i.e., benthic), salinity, etc. The system of equation representing
the model can be represented as;
 = #1  (1 ¡ )x +  (1)
By solving equation (1), we derive,
 + (1 ¡ )x  #1 (2)
By plotting equation (2) below, we derive a graphical relationship between species
survival and habitat threshold:

Figure 4.

The area under curve (AUC) in Fig. 4 depicts the optimum habitat threshold
for a given species. Habitats determine species diversity. Survival of a species is
dependent on habitat quality which is more specic for habitat specialists like for
example, corals. Equation (2) denes a scenario of max(optimum) level of population
of dierent species that could explain the diversity of a given habitat. It also explains
that the population density is highly dependent on the habitat quality which strictly
aects species diversity of a particular region. There is a certain limit (or extent) to
which a reduction in population is sustainable and which do not lead to extinction.
A drastic reduction in habitat, however, negatively impacts population density and
no other factor could compensate for habitat destruction. So, preservation of habitat
and restoration of a fragmented habitat should be the overriding precedence to avoid
species loss through extinction. This explains why conservation of habitats are so
essential. And nally, to asess whether if a species is threatened or not, there is need
for collection of better data on population size and evaluation of the habitats.

6 Results and Discussion

Diverse threats threaten marine biodiversity. It is essential to understand the nature
and dynamics of such threats to marine biodiversity and undertake proactive mea-
sures in order to manage such threats. Goals should be directed towards conservation
of marine biodiversity (Jone, Srinivasan and Almany 2007) by undertaking activities
that are benecial to marine habitats. The analytic model depicted above reinforces

9
the importance of habitat conservation and management of threats to marine bio-
diversity. Although the model is simply linear, and employs very few variables, it
nevertheless, provides a straightforward analysis of the importance of habitat protec-
tion. It also reinforces the importance of collective measures to prevent degradation
of marine habitats that are home to 97% of global biodiversity. Ecosystem degra-
dation is a gradual ongoing process; various factors contribute to degradation of
marine habitats. So, eective monitoring is required to identify and protect keystone
species. Given that the marine ecology provides ecosystem services, overexploitation
of marine resources is an important issue to consider. In fact, overshing has been
implicated as the principle cause of decline of many species of sh, shellsh (Pauly
et al. 2002, Rosenberg 2003), marine mammals, The coral ecology for example, is a
source of rich and precious ecosystem services. However, corals are so sensitive to
changes in temperature and salinity, that a rise in SST (Burke et al. 2001) of less
than a few degrees centrigrade (>1.1C) leads to coral bleaching and ultimately
causes death of corals7. Unusual rise in ocean water temperature (OWT) due to
marked El Niño phenomenon has alarmed scientists who have observed intense coral
bleaching event that is likely to extend well beyond 2017 (Ezzat and Courtial 2016).
Rise in OWT or SST has been implicated to climate change which has threatened the
future of the world's coral reefs (Guldberg 1999, Guldberg and Ridgway 2016). In a
nutshell, almost all and every ecosystem are under threat; ie., equatorial, temperate,
marine, estuarine, riverine, and freshwater ecosystems are reeling under stress from
a multitude of anthropogenic activities. The coral bleaching event is not restricted
to a single region; it spreads over three major ocean basins (Pacic, Atlantic and
Indian). In fact, widespread assault on marine and terrestrial ecosystems have
threatened global biodiversity. This paper attempts to analyze and understand the
basis of threats to marine and aquatic ecosystems and reinforces the importance
of habitat protection and conservation, as well as restoration of fragmented and
threatened habitats. Habitats of marine ecosystems are under threat, as well as the
ora and fauna that ourishes under such habitats.

7 Conclusion
Loss of habitat threatens habitat specialists with extinction risk. The stress on
major ecosystems has resulted in erosion of biodiversity due to various anthropogenic
activites. The drivers of marine biodiversity loss have been enumerated in this paper.
This was followed by an analytic model of ecosystem risks that depicts a simple
representation of threats to marine biodiversity which reinforces the importance of
biodiversity conservation and ecosystem protection. This research also attempts to
open up debates and discussions on the importance of conservation management,
and further points to new directions on this frontier.

Acknowledgments.

The author extends his thanks to the library sta of Dr. V.S. Krishna Central
Library, Andhra University, for their kind assistance.

7. http://www.globalcoralbleaching.org

10
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