Abstract

Marine ecosystems are under high demand for human use, giving concerns about how pressures from human activities may affect their structure, function, and status. In Europe, recent developments in mapping of marine habitats and human activities now enable a coherent spatial evaluation of potential combined effects of human activities. Results indicate that combined effects from multiple human pressures are spread to 96% of the European marine area, and more specifically that combined effects from physical disturbance are spread to 86% of the coastal area and 46% of the shelf area. We compare our approach with corresponding assessments at other spatial scales and validate our results with European-scale status assessments for coastal waters. Uncertainties and development points are identified. Still, the results suggest that Europe's seas are widely disturbed, indicating potential discrepancy between ambitions for Blue Growth and the objective of achieving good environmental status within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Keywords

Anthropogenic pressures; Cumulative effect assessments; Europe's seas; Human activities; Marine assessment; Marine management

Published in

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
2021, Volume: 50, number: 7, pages: 1325-1336
Publisher: SPRINGER

SLU Authors

• Bergström, Lena

  • Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development


UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Wildlife Management
Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01482-x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/110676