Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
population lives along its 95,181 km of coastline (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2009),
a proportion which increases to around 95 per cent for the island countries of
the Indo-Pacific (CIA, 2010). Marine resources, consequently, are central to
the well-being and food security of people throughout South-East Asia and the
Indo-Pacific region. Risks posed by climate change to the economies, livelihoods
and security of the region will impact Australia, given Australia's economic and
development role in the South Pacific region.
Human impacts on marine environments and ecosystems
Despite the overriding importance of oceans and coasts to people, the world's
coastal areas are rapidly degrading as result of human activities (Boesch et al.,
2001; Boesch, 2002; Kremer et al., 2005). Human settlement, deforestation and
agriculture along coastal areas have resulted in greater amounts of sediment,
nutrients, pesticides and herbicides entering coastal waters. These additions to
the coastal systems have consequently modified coastal marine ecosystems and
contributed to algal blooms and the problematic outbreak of organisms such as
the Crown of Thorns Starfish (Brodie et al., 2005; 2012). An increase in the
movement of solid waste, plastics and toxins into coastal waters has further
added to the degradation of coastal marine ecosystems (Shannon et al., 2011).
Expanding coastal populations have increased the extraction of fish and other
organisms in many parts of the world to unsustainable levels (Pauly et al., 1998;
Jackson et al., 2001; Pauly et al., 2003; Jackson, 2010,). As a result, fisheries have
subsequently experienced dramatic decreases in abundance, with many fisheries
collapsing. While these impacts have had serious implications for livelihoods and
industry, the loss of ecologically important species such as herbivorous fish has
also resulted in large-scale changes in the ecological structure and function of
coral reefs (Hughes, 1994; Jackson et al., 2001). When combined with pollution
and deteriorating water quality, these changes have transformed coastlines and
subsequently reduced the well-being of coastal people. While Australia is in
a good position to reduce and possibly reverse many of these human related
impacts on its coastal regions, many countries, particularly many in SE Asia and
the Indo-Pacific, have far less capacity to do so (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2009).
The impacts on marine ecosystems of pollution, unsustainable coastal devel-
opment and overexploitation of fisheries are occurring under large-scale and
fundamental changes to the physical and chemical properties of the ocean. The
impacts and ramifications of these changes, however, are poorly understood or
described. Particularly important is the likelihood that many of the changes
arising from anthropogenic climate change will interact synergistically (Crain et
al., 2008; Griffith et al., 2012) and amplify the sole influence of variables such as
declining water quality, degrading coastal areas and overexploitation of marine
organisms and ecosystems.
 
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