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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Saving our oceans: Why marine life needs us
ClearA Comprehensive Review of Climatic Threats and Adaptation of Marine Biodiversity
This comprehensive review examines how climate change threatens marine biodiversity through rising ocean temperatures, acidification, and habitat loss. Among the many environmental stressors discussed, microplastic pollution is highlighted as an additional threat that compounds the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. The paper evaluates adaptation strategies like marine protected areas and habitat restoration that could help protect the ocean ecosystems humans depend on for food.
Future importance of healthy oceans: Ecosystem functions and biodiversity, marine pollution, carbon sequestration, ecosystem goods and services
This review examines the health of the Bay of Bengal large marine ecosystem, identifying climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss as major threats. Microplastic pollution is among the chemical threats identified, with serious implications for fisheries that support hundreds of millions of people in South and Southeast Asia.
Trends and Evolution in the Concept of Marine Ecosystem Services: An Overview
This overview reviews the evolution of the marine ecosystem services concept, examining how human activities increasingly pressure ocean environments. Researchers found that pollution, including plastic and microplastic contamination, is among the growing threats to the marine ecosystem services that support food production, climate regulation, and coastal protection. The study emphasizes the need for effective management strategies to balance human use with ocean health.
Foreword
This foreword to an ocean conservation publication emphasizes the vital role of oceans in human survival and lists the major threats they face, including plastic pollution, acidification, and biodiversity loss. It frames ocean protection as a human health and economic priority, not just an environmental one.
Re-thinking human interactions with the oceans
This review examines the interconnected ways human activities are damaging marine ecosystems, including through chemical and microbial pollution, harmful algal blooms, and loss of biodiversity. The authors argue that despite international agreements and treaties, ocean-related risks continue to escalate due to a lack of political commitment. The study calls for new integrated approaches to balance human wellbeing with ocean sustainability.
Time for decisive actions to protect freshwater ecosystems from global changes
This review called for decisive actions to protect freshwater ecosystems from global changes including climate change, habitat modification, pollution, and invasive species, emphasizing the critical services these ecosystems provide to humans.
Impacts of plastic pollution in the oceans on marine species, biodiversity and ecosystems
This comprehensive report documented the extensive impacts of plastic pollution on marine species, biodiversity, and ecosystems worldwide, revealing a rapidly worsening situation that demands immediate international action to protect ocean health.
Valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services: a useful way to manage and conserve marine resources?
This review examines whether assigning monetary values to marine biodiversity and ecosystem services effectively supports ocean conservation and management. The authors find that while ecosystem valuation is an established approach on land, its use in marine environments lags behind due to the practical challenges of ocean research and complex governance structures.
Oceanic pollution; A threat to life
This brief overview discusses multiple forms of ocean pollution, including plastic debris, and their threats to marine ecosystems. The author calls for urgent global action to prevent further degradation of ocean health.
Time and tide
This commentary argues that ocean health is fundamentally linked to human health and wellbeing, emphasizing the urgent need to address marine pollution and ecosystem degradation to safeguard future generations.
Global Changes, Anthropogenic Impacts and the Future of the Oceans
This review covers multiple human-caused threats to ocean health, including pollution by mercury, lead, and plastics, as well as ocean acidification and deoxygenation. The discussion of plastic pollution highlights how microplastics compound other ongoing threats to marine ecosystems.
Ocean Sustainability
This editorial overview of ocean sustainability research highlights how interconnected threats — climate change, overfishing, chemical pollution, and microplastics, which have now reached the deepest ocean trenches — are pushing marine ecosystems toward collapse. It calls for research spanning the full range of ocean science, from ecosystem mapping to policy solutions, emphasizing that actions on land directly drive damage in the sea.
Transformative Governance for Ocean Biodiversity
This review examines transformative governance approaches needed to protect ocean biodiversity, analyzing how existing international frameworks, policies, and institutions can be restructured to meet the scale of threats facing marine ecosystems. The authors assess the barriers and opportunities for achieving systemic change in ocean management toward more effective biodiversity conservation.
Impact of microplastic pollution on the ocean and marine animals: A comprehensive review
This comprehensive review synthesized evidence on how microplastic pollution affects ocean health and marine animals, covering ingestion, entanglement, chemical toxicity, and ecosystem-level impacts. It found pervasive harm across marine food webs and called for urgent global reduction measures.
Micro Plastics in The Marine Environment: A Review of Their Effects on Marine Organisms and Ecosystems
This review examines the effects of microplastics on marine organisms and ecosystems, summarizing evidence for MP ingestion across trophic levels, physical and chemical harm to marine life, and the pathways through which marine MP pollution threatens biodiversity and fisheries.
The Ocean, Volume 2
This educational volume explores ocean science fundamentals — including the role of the ocean in climate regulation, biodiversity, and resource provision — while addressing major threats such as overfishing, pollution, and microplastics that endanger marine ecosystem health.
Ocean Solutions That Benefit People, Nature and the Economy
This report examines ocean-based solutions that can simultaneously benefit people, nature, and the economy. The study balances hope and concern while presenting concrete examples of sustainable approaches to ocean management and conservation.
Marine Protected Areas as Tools for Ocean Sustainability
This review argues that marine protected areas (MPAs) are essential tools for addressing the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, but only if they are well-designed, effectively managed, and embedded within broader ocean governance frameworks. The authors call for expanding global MPA coverage and improving enforcement.
Eight urgent, fundamental and simultaneous steps needed to restore ocean health, and the consequences for humanity and the planet of inaction or delay
This perspective article identified eight urgent simultaneous actions needed to restore ocean health—including reducing emissions, overfishing, and pollution—and argued that delay or partial action risks irreversible ratchet-like degradation of ocean systems. The authors emphasize that ocean restoration directly supports human wellbeing and that the window for effective intervention is narrowing.
Understanding microplastic pollution of marine ecosystem: a review
This review summarizes the current understanding of microplastic pollution in oceans, covering where they come from, how they spread, and their harmful effects on marine life and potentially human health. Microplastics are found throughout the ocean -- from surface waters to deep sediments -- and can transfer toxic chemicals to organisms that consume them. The authors highlight that significant gaps remain in detection methods and understanding the full scope of how marine microplastics affect the food chain that leads to our plates.
Global trends analysis of science development in the areas of marine research
Researchers analyzed global trends in marine science publications, finding that ocean research has rapidly expanded in recent decades but significant knowledge gaps remain, particularly regarding the interaction between human activities and ocean ecosystem functioning.
Victim of changes? Marine macroalgae in a changing world
Researchers reviewed the threats facing marine macroalgae (seaweeds) from anthropogenic stressors including climate change, ocean warming, and pollution. The study suggests that while habitat loss is less severe in oceans compared to land, climate change represents the most significant long-term threat to seaweed species, communities, and the ecosystem services they provide.
The web of life: Role of pollution in biodiversity decline
This review examines the role of various forms of pollution in driving biodiversity decline globally. The study highlights how human activities have reshaped natural habitats, and evidence indicates that biodiversity loss can affect ecosystems as significantly as climate change and other major environmental stresses.
Watershed Woes: Exploring the Ties Between Land-Based Pollution and Marine Health
This review explored how land-based pollutants including agricultural runoff, plastic waste, and chemical contaminants transition into marine ecosystems and affect biodiversity. It examined how microplastics, nutrient loading, and chemical contaminants from terrestrial sources interact to damage marine food webs and ecosystem function.