A holistic vision for our future deep ocean

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-206
Author(s):  
Eva Ramirez-Llodra ◽  
Maria Baker ◽  
Paul Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Industrial Solutions ◽  
Sound Management ◽  
Holistic Vision

Healthy oceans are essential to maintain a healthy planet, but the ocean is facing many challenges that need urgent attention. Robust scientific data and innovative technological, policy, and industrial solutions are essential to support sound management of the deep-ocean natural capital, both within and beyond national jurisdiction, to ensure future healthy and productive oceans. As with many systems on Earth, there is a delicate ecological balance in the deep ocean that must be maintained. Understanding the interactions of the different components of natural capital in the deep sea is complex, as many of the variables are interlinked and many have cumulative and synergistic effects on the ecosystem. Add to this the global and changing effects of climate change and ocean acidification, and legislators and managers have a tough job ahead to account for all of these issues when designing appropriate conservation measures. It is important that scientists work hand in hand with multiple stakeholders to identify issues and research needs that contribute to enhancing knowledge and the science needed for decision-making to help towards securing a healthy future for our deep-ocean ecosystems and their long-term natural capital.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Maria Baker ◽  
Eva Ramirez-Llodra ◽  
Paul Alan Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sound Management ◽  
Future Work

There has never been a time like the present when there is so much media, scientific, and economic interest in the deep waters of the world ocean and the animals that live there. It is increasingly important for students and new researchers, as well as experienced scientists, to understand how their research can help to address pressing societal challenges. It is beneficial for deep-sea scientists, social scientists, lawyers, authorities, conservationists, industry, and civil society to have broad knowledge of the issues surrounding exploitation in the deep ocean, which has gradually become an increasingly important research focus. The current and future work of deep-sea scientists in all disciplines provides rigorous scientific data and knowledge to support sound management of human activities in this highly complex and variable realm. In this volume, we have brought together internationally recognised scientists, economists, and legal experts to describe the processes by which humans can benefit from the natural capital of the deep sea in a sustainable framework. For this to happen, communication between all deep-sea stakeholders is essential, and this volume aims to facilitate future discussions between the many different sectors of society who may influence the global deep ocean for future generations.

Natural Capital and Exploitation of the Deep Ocean

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Direct Function ◽  
High Profile ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Oil Gas

The deep ocean is, by far, the planet’s largest biome and holds a wealth of potential natural assets. Most of the ocean lies beyond national jurisdiction and hence is the responsibility of us all. Human exploitation of the deep ocean is rapidly increasing, becoming more visible to many through the popular media. The scientific literature of deep-sea exploitation and its actual and potential effects has also rapidly expanded as a direct function of this increased national and global interest in deep-sea resources, both biological (e.g. fisheries, genetic resources) and non-biological (e.g. minerals, oil, gas, methane hydrate). At the same time there is a growing interest in deep-sea contamination (including plastics), with many such studies featured in high-profile scientific journals and covered by global media outlets. Finally, climate change is affecting even the deepest regions of our oceans and is a major priority for the international scientific and political agendas. However, there is currently no comprehensive integration of information about resource extraction, pollution and effects of climate change and these topics are only superficially covered in classic textbooks on deep-sea biology. The human race is at a pivotal point in potentially benefitting from the deep ocean’s natural resources and this concise and accessible work provides an account of past explorations and exploitations of the deep ocean, a present understanding of its natural capital and how this may be exploited sustainably for the benefit of humankind whilst maintaining its ecological integrity. The book gives a comprehensive account of geological and physical processes, ecology and biology, exploitation, management, and conservation.

The deep ocean’s link to culture and global processes

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-160
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Thurber ◽  
Amanda N. Netburn
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Surface Ocean ◽  
Societal Benefits ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Nonuse Values ◽  
The Mind

The ocean covers a vast region of the planet and is often thought of as remote and poorly known. However, more than a century of research has made it clear that the ocean provides many beneficial and critical services to society, including a diversity of society–ocean interactions beyond what humans extract (or may extract) from it. The deep sea is no different; it provides a wealth of societal benefits that span the spectrum from inspiring art and captivating the mind to mitigating the rate of climate change through its connectedness with the Earth’s ecosystems. These processes and societal impacts fall within the broad category of ‘nonuse’ ecosystem services, or societal benefits that occur in addition to, or instead of, the services realised through resource extraction. Much like the surface ocean, while there is much more to discover, there is a significant body of information about the deep sea that has resolutely identified this environment as an important resource for nonuse benefits. In this chapter we give an overview of the nonuse services that are provided by the deep ocean, identify some of the advances to date on incorporating these values into the discussion of the natural capital of the deep, and highlight the challenges and opportunities that face incorporation of nonuse values into management-decision processes.

Long term changes in the deep sea: examples from two Mediterranean Channels

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Schroeder ◽  
Sana Ben Ismail ◽  
Jacopo Chiggiato ◽  
Mireno Borghini ◽  
Stefania Sparnocchia
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Marginal Sea ◽  
The Mediterranean

<p>Climate change is one of the key topics of our century. The study of processes related to climate change in the atmosphere, the open ocean, the deep sea or even in shallow coastal waters require sustained long-term observations, often deploying sophisticated and expensive equipment. According to the Deep-Ocean Observing Strategy (DOOS, http://deepoceanobserving.org/), the deep ocean (below 200 m water depth) is the least observed, but largest habitat on our planet by volume and area. With more than 90% of anthropogenic heat imbalance absorbed by the oceans, monitoring long-term changes of its heat content, and over its full depth, is essential to quantify the planetary heat budget.</p><p>The Mediterranean Sea is a mid-latitude marginal sea, particularly responsive to climate change as reported by recent studies. Straits and channels divide it into several sub-basins and the continuous monitoring of these choke points allows to intercept different water masses, and thus to document how they changed over time. This monitoring, in many cases, is done under the umbrella of the CIESM Hydrochanges program (http://www.ciesm.org/marine/programs/hydrochanges.htm). Here we report the long-term time series of physical data collected in two of these choke points: the Sardinia Channel (1900 m) and the Sicily Channel (400 m).</p><p>The Sardinia Channel allows the Western Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW) to enter the Tyrrhenian Sea (depths > 3000 m), connecting it with the Algerian Sea (depths > 2500 m). This water mass has experienced a significant increase of heat and salt content over the past decades, due both to a gradual process and to and abrupt event, called Western Mediterranean Transition (WMT). The monitoring at the sill (1900 m) of the Sardinia Channel since 2003 shows this very clearly, and the interannual trends are significantly stronger than the global average trends.</p><p>The Sicily Channel (sill at 400 m) separates the Mediterranean in two main basins, the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Western Mediterranean Sea. Here the thermohaline properties of the Intermediate Water (IW) are monitored since 1993, showing increasing temperature and salinity trends at least one order of magnitude stronger than those observed at intermediate depths in the global ocean.</p><p>We investigate the causes of the observed trends and in particular discuss the role of a changing climate over the Mediterranean, especially in the eastern basin, where the IW is formed. The long-term records in two Mediterranean channels reveal how fast the response to climate change can be in a marginal sea compared to the global ocean, and demonstrates the essential role of long time series in the ocean.</p>

Space, the final resource

2020 ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
S. Kim Juniper ◽  
Kate Thornborough ◽  
Paul Tyler ◽  
Ylenia Randrianarisoa
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Industrial Waste ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Empty Space ◽  
Waste Streams ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Minimal Environmental Impact ◽  
Solid Liquid

The greater than 109 km3 volume of the deep-sea water column and greater than 300 × 106 km2 area of the deep-sea floor represent a major natural capital asset. Global society has been utilising space in the deep ocean as a reservoir for solid, liquid, and hazardous waste produced by terrestrial-based societies, as a buffer that absorbs nonsolid, nonliquid industrial waste streams, specifically CO2 from fossil fuel and biomass burning, heat from a warming atmosphere, and as freely available and convenient space. High-value uses such as the deployment of transoceanic telecommunications cables provide substantial, near-term economic and societal returns with minimal environmental impact. Low-value uses of this natural capital as empty space to absorb waste have arguably enabled industrialisation to continue further along an unsustainable trajectory than would have occurred had there been no such waste buffer available.

The exploitation of deep-sea biodiversity

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-140
Author(s):  
Harriet Harden-Davies
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
National Jurisdiction

Humans have been harnessing the natural properties of marine organisms for millennia—initially in their unprocessed form for sustenance, and more recently via extracted products as biomaterials, functional food ingredients, and medicines. As accelerating scientific and technological advances open up the deep ocean, potential avenues to exploit components and characteristics of marine biodiversity are revealed. To keep pace with such innovations and to promote equitable and sustainable activities, the international legal framework has evolved over recent decades to address the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, together with the sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources. Gaps remain, however, particularly for the deep, remote and technologically demanding ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) that account for more than 60 per cent of the global ocean. The question of how to share benefits from marine genetic resources is one of the most contentious issues in ongoing negotiations for the development of a new international legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in ABNJ under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In this chapter, the potential exploitation of deep-sea biodiversity is considered, and the governance challenges associated with the sharing of benefits are discussed. Associated opportunities and challenges for the conservation and sustainable use of deep-sea biodiversity are discussed. The development of a new legal instrument under UNCLOS provides a central focus for the discussion in this chapter.

Long-term changes in the diversity, abundance and size composition of deep sea demersal teleosts from the Azores assessed through surveys and commercial landings

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Régis V.S. Santos ◽  
Wendell M.M.L. Silva ◽  
Ana M. Novoa-Pabon ◽  
Hélder M. Silva ◽  
Mario R. Pinho
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Fork Length ◽  
Size Composition ◽  
Demersal Fish ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Marine Habitat ◽  
Important Species ◽  
Commercially Important

To obtain important baseline information about population dynamics and to provide valuable insights about the possible effects of artisanal fishing on the demersal fish community, this study had three specific objectives: (1) to update the annotated list of demersal teleost species occurring in the Azores (mid-North Atlantic); (2) to describe their depth distribution and related fishery information; and (3) to evaluate annual changes in their observed abundance and length composition. To do this, a time series with about 25 years of scientific data from the commercial fishery and surveys was analyzed. The demersal teleost community was represented by 213 species, predominantly deep-water species, reflecting the main marine habitat in the Azores region. Fishery takes place mainly in the intermediate strata (200–600 m), where the most commercially important species occur. No changing in the fork length (LF) distribution toward small individuals caused by size-selective fishing was detected in this study. The high variability observed in the LF data indicates the need for more accurate studies considering alternative statistical analyses (e.g., generalised linear models) to examine the possible factors (e.g. depth coverage, gear configuration, soak time, and fishing area) that cause this variability. On the other hand, the abundance indices of some commercially important species appear to have declined (Phycis phycis, Pontinus kuhlii, Conger conger, Beryx splendens and B. decadactylus), while others appear to be more stable (Helicolenus dactylopterus) or even increasing (Mora moro). Although the available data are insufficient for a formal assessment on the status of exploited populations, the long-term analysis of commercial landings and survey data was used as a basis to assess deep sea demersal teleost fisheries of the Azores, under a precautionary approach.

scholarly journals Contributions to Management Strategies in the NE Atlantic Regarding the Life History and Population Structure of a Key Deep-Sea Fish (Mora moro)

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Régis Santos ◽  
Wendell Medeiros-Leal ◽  
Osman Crespo ◽  
Ana Novoa-Pabon ◽  
Mário Pinho
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Life History ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Size Composition ◽  
Large Size ◽  
The Common ◽  
Fishing Impacts ◽  
Sea Fish

With the commercial fishery expansion to deeper waters, some vulnerable deep-sea species have been increasingly captured. To reduce the fishing impacts on these species, exploitation and management must be based on detailed and precise information about their biology. The common mora Mora moro has become the main deep-sea species caught by longliners in the Northeast Atlantic at depths between 600 and 1200 m. In the Azores, landings have more than doubled from the early 2000s to recent years. Despite its growing importance, its life history and population structure are poorly understood, and the current stock status has not been assessed. To better determine its distribution, biology, and long-term changes in abundance and size composition, this study analyzed a fishery-dependent and survey time series from the Azores. M. moro was found on mud and rock bottoms at depths below 300 m. A larger–deeper trend was observed, and females were larger and more abundant than males. The reproductive season took place from August to February. Abundance indices and mean sizes in the catch were marked by changes in fishing fleet operational behavior. M. moro is considered vulnerable to overfishing because it exhibits a long life span, a large size, slow growth, and a low natural mortality.

scholarly journals Primary Prevention of Dementia: An Ethical Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Dorothee Horstkötter ◽  
Kay Deckers ◽  
Sebastian Köhler
Keyword(s):  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Medical Risk ◽  
Medical Risk Factors ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Dementia Prevention ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Personal Level

Dementia poses important medical and societal challenges, and of all health risks people face in life, dementia is one of the most feared. Recent research indicates that up to about 40% of all cases of dementia might be preventable. A series of environmental, social, and medical risk-factors have been identified and that should be targeted from midlife onwards when people are still cognitively healthy. At first glance, this seems not merely advisable, but even imperative. However, these new developments trigger a series of new ethical questions and concerns which have hardly been addressed to date. Pro-active ethical reflection, however, is crucial to ensure that the interests and well-being of those affected, ultimately all of us, are adequately respected. This is the goal of the current contribution. Against the background of a concrete case in primary dementia prevention, it provides a systematic overview of the current ethical literature and sketches an ethical research agenda. First, possible benefits of increased well-being must be balanced with the burdens of being engaged in particularly long-term interventions for which it is unclear whether they will ever pay out on a personal level. Second, while knowledge about one’s options to maintain brain health might empower people, it might also undermine autonomy, put high social pressure on people, medicalize healthy adults, and stigmatize those who still develop dementia. Third, while synergistic effects might occur, the ideals of dementia prevention might also conflict with other health and non-health related values people hold in life.

scholarly journals Herbal Medicine for Pain Management: Efficacy and Drug Interactions

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Behdad Jahromi ◽  
Iulia Pirvulescu ◽  
Kenneth D. Candido ◽  
Nebojsa Nick Knezevic
Keyword(s):  
Pain Management ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Drug Interactions ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Herbal Medicines ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicines ◽  
Alternative Medicines ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Complementary and alternative medicines such as herbal medicines are not currently part of the conventional medical system. As the popularity of and global market for herbal medicine grows among all age groups, with supporting scientific data and clinical trials, specific alternative treatments such as herbal medicine can be reclassified as a practice of conventional medicine. One of the most common conditions for which adults use herbal medicine is pain. However, herbal medicines carry safety concerns and may impact the efficacy of conventional therapies. Unfortunately, mechanisms of action are poorly understood, and their use is unregulated and often underreported to medical professionals. This review aims to compile common and available herbal medicines which can be used as an alternative to or in combination with conventional pain management approaches. Efficacy and safety are assessed through clinical studies on pain relief. Ensuing herb–drug interactions such as cytochrome modulation, additive and synergistic effects, and contraindications are discussed. While self-management has been recognized as part of the overall treatment strategy for patients suffering from chronic pain, it is important for practitioners to be able to also optimize and integrate herbal medicine and, if warranted, other complementary and alternative medicines into their care.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document