4: Marine conservation principles Flashcards

1
Q

Give some examples of human impacts on marine ecosystems

A

Land-based:
- Coastal development
- Habitat destruction
Marine-based:
- Commercial activity

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2
Q

Why are mangrove forests in mexico important?

A

Important nursery habitats for many fishes
Important for tropical storm protection
Important for carbon sequestration

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3
Q

Give some examples of commercial activities

A

Oil rigs, gas, offshore renewables, communications pipelines
Shipping

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4
Q

what are some of the consequences of shipping?

A

Direct impacts (e.g collisions)
Invasive species (in ballast water)
Pollution (noise, oil, rubbish)

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5
Q

Define acute pollution + example

A

→ sudden event that causes a massive release of pollution

e.g deepwater horizon oil spill, 2010:
7 years later still impacts on coastal birds and deepsea

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6
Q

Define chronic pollution + example

A

→ going on all the time without ‘major catastrophic events’
E.g Plastic pollution: Great Pacific Garbage patch
Marine plastics
Everywhere we have looked in the sea, we’ve found plastic
Bio and eco impacts of this remain unclear

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7
Q

Give 3 examples of the effects of climate change

A

Increased temp and sea level
Depleted seawater carbonate conc.s
Decrease in ocean pH (ocean acidification)

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8
Q

How has climate change affected planktons regime?

A

plankton experiencing a poleward shift to colder areas

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9
Q

Describe coral bleeching

A

Corals bleach in response to increasing ocean temperatures
- happens because they’re a sessile species that cannot shift their distributions to more favourable areas
- have been 4 mass events on the GBR since 2016

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10
Q

Describe ocean acidification
- reasons and effects

A

→ chemical consequence of CO2 levels increasing in the atmosphere, 25% gets absorbed into the ocean
- 530 billion tonnes of CO2 have been disposed of in the ocean since the industrial revolution
- CO2 reacts with seawater to produce carbonic acid and so lowers pH (expected to reach levels not seen for 25 MY)
- Reduced amount of carbonate available to calcifying marine organisms
- Reduced rates of calcification → important for e.g corals, many phytoplankton and many other organisms…

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11
Q

In marine conservation, why is history important?

A

Explicit statement of what conservation aims to achieve
We need to know what state were restoring something to
History can inspire us
It can also put recent conservation success/decline into context
Some kind of return to ‘natural’ often implied e.g ‘rewilding’ → But what was natural?

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12
Q

Give an example of how marine ecosystems have changed in recent decades

A

Species of high conservation value used to be commodities → e.g the 19th century was lit by sperm whale oil

Species that are high valued commercially today were next to worthless in the past
E.g Bluefin Tuna

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