Marine Biodiversity
The value of biodiversity #2
Still today, the vast majority of life below water is unknown and unexplored. To that, physical distance from the oceans fades the potential of creating a deep connection with marine biodiversity and its functioning. Especially for those living inland, whether in the city or the countryside, it is difficult to even imagine what exactly lies within our seas.
“You will love the ocean. It makes you feel small, but not in a bad way. Small because you realize you’re part of something bigger.” — Lauren Myracle
Starting from this premise, what exactly is marine biodiversity?
When everything is deeply interlinked
The most common representation of life below the sea is usually a rich, colorful, and diverse plurality of species, from the smallest fish to big marine mammals, from crustaceans to coral reefs. Marine biodiversity includes all the beautiful complexities of interconnected ecosystems, from krill and microbial organisms to marine plants, algae, seamounts, and marine animals, composing the “seascape system.”
Indeed, in a teaspoon of salted water we can find hundreds of thousands of unicellular livings and thousands of minuscule algae.
In a perfect balance of diversity (how many different species exist) and the plurality of species (numbers of the same species), everything is interlinked. Algae provide nutrients to marine life; seagrass preserves oceans from chemical contamination; underwater forests shelter crustaceans and fish, a shelter that allows juvenile fish to become adults and reproduce to ensure the continuation of the species; smaller fish represent precious food for bigger species. There are a plethora of visible species, but one of the most important is barely visible: plankton. Right at the foundation of the marine food pyramid, plankton harmonically dances in the water, with nutrients, warmth, and sunlight gently cradling their growth and cycles. We owe from plankton 20% of all photosynthesis on Earth and 95% of recycling of organic matters in the oceans. In a few words, this means ensuring the global ecological and climatic equilibrium.
The balance between marine life, marine ecosystems, and ocean food webs ensures food security, nutritional quality, oxygen generation, carbon uptake, and even genetic resources for pharmaceutical purposes.
Marine (bio)diversity: more than just fish
Besides underwater life, our oceans are becoming progressively more crowded with additional forms of man-induced diversity. Following the same dynamic of marine biodiversity, abnormal substances are also the most diverse, reacting to one another, reaching the remotest areas of the oceans. Diverse forms of plastic have been increasingly populating our seas: macroplastics, microplastic (particles smaller than 5 mm), and nanoplastic (particles smaller than 100 nm) that, following the natural food web, pass from the smaller to the biggest fish, and on up to humans. With eight million tons ending up in our oceans annually, “it would be naive to believe there is plastic everywhere but just not in us,” noted scientists at the Guardian.
But also polyethylene terephthalate (PET), bisphenol A (BPA), mercury, phosphorus, nitrogen, and most recently, the risk of tritium contamination, a radioactive (cancerogenic) isotope of hydrogen, are dangerously compromising our seas.
These kinds of anthropogenic diversity inevitably alter the basic chemistry of oceans, which is changing at an alarming rate, undermining its natural mitigation role against climate change. A higher concentration of man-made nutrients facilitates the excessive development of algae blooms which, absorbing more oxygen and accelerating the emission of carbon dioxide (by the microorganisms that decompose them) suffocates the surrounding marine life.
“Protecting biodiversity is as vital as fighting climate change.” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
Tackling emptier oceans
The Anthropocene Era, in which we are currently living, is right in the middle of a dangerous domino effect heading towards the progressive depletion of the ocean’s resources. Overfishing is clearly one of the most evident causes: amongst the fish stocks at risk, there is Chilean jack mackerel, Atlantic cod, Japanese pilchard, and also Bluefin tuna and Monkfish, the most requested on the market. An even darker side of depletion comes with the destruction of the marine habitats: large-scale and intensive fishing, covering more than half of the oceans, are mainly responsible for clearing the seafloor and, with it, all the forms of life living on it and with it. Moved by the “profit first” mantra, driftnets, bottom trawling, dynamite fishing, are often used to catch as many fish as possible. No matter if these practices, in some cases even illegal, rely on nets as high as skyscrapers, catch too young species, or even accidentally catch non-targeted species (the so-called bycatch).
10.1% percent of annual catches is discarded because of unintentional collection, reports FAO. It amounts to 9.1 million tonnes of fish, to which we need to add sea turtles, seabirds, dolphins, and other sea mammals accidentally entangled.
Humans cannot survive on this planet with empty or dead seas. Yet, scientists have already identified 415 dead zones worldwide, areas where the levels of oxygen in the water are minimal, hindering any form of life.
Everybody pays the price of these effects, especially coastal communities directly relying on fish as their primary protein source. 10% of the global population relies on fisheries for their livelihoods, including both developing countries and communities closer to us, such as those in the Mediterranean Basin. Small-scale fishermen suffer from ocean degradation and unfair competition of large-scale fisheries. But also worldwide consumers, as fish represent high-quality protein. Today, 3.3 billion people receive their daily animal protein intake from fish.
Preserving a common heritage
Preserving our oceans, and with them the immense richness of their biodiversity, is even more crucial now that mankind is approaching and exploring the most mysterious places on Earth: the deep seas. The vast open seas and their deep seabeds beyond national jurisdictions, host the greatest varieties of biodiversity because of their remoteness and difficulty to be reached.
We know more about Mars, having already mapped its entire surface, than our deep seas, where scientists estimate the presence of millions of unknown species, organisms, microbes living in extreme natural conditions (let’s think about pressure, lack of light, lack of oxygen), just as mineral stocks.
The deep seas are already defined as a common heritage of mankind, meaning that they should be held in trust for future generations and protected from exploitation by individual nations or corporations. In this sense, the call for a moratorium on deep seabed mining, a new conservation treaty for protecting biodiversity living in the open seas, increasing efforts for more efficient and coordinated Marine Protected Areas, all confirms the multilevel will of safeguarding the health of marine ecosystems and its environmental services, both within and beyond national borders.
Now it is the time to move from intentions to actions. It is time to learn again from nature the beauty of living in an entangled ecosystem. Ecosystem-based approaches are crucial to succeed, meaning considering the connections between marine life, habitats, physical and chemical conditions within an ecosystem. Increasing data confirms that economic prosperity is rooted in environmental restoration.
Humanity, as well, depends on marine biodiversity health.
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected on the deep.” — William James
Nature offers the greatest representation of richness, prosperity, and variety. It does so through its fruits, its gifts: the biological diversity, better known as biodiversity. Far beyond terrestrial and marine biodiversity, the variety and variability of life on Earth embrace “diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems” (Convention of Biological Diversity). But how much do we really know about biodiversity and its functioning? The aim of this series of articles is to lead the reader towards the beautiful complexities, interconnections, and harmonies at the basis of Mother Earth. Why should we protect biological diversity? How its preservation is interlinked with individual, community, and economic prosperity? Enjoy this journey!
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