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| Manatees are long-lived marine mammals whose diet consists of sea grass (Photo: S. Lutz) |
Benjamin S. Halpern et al. have published an article in the nature journal unveiling the "Ocean Health Index", a tool to measure the condition of the world's oceans and coastal ecosystems. The Ocean Health Index also includes a map of global Blue Carbon storage.
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An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean
Abstract: The ocean plays a critical role in supporting human well-being, from providing food, livelihoods and recreational opportunities to regulating the global climate. Sustainable management aimed at maintaining the flow of a broad range of benefits from the ocean requires a comprehensive and quantitative method to measure and monitor the health of coupled human–ocean systems. We created an index comprising ten diverse public goals for a healthy coupled human–ocean system and calculated the index for every coastal country. Globally, the overall index score was 60 out of 100 (range 36–86), with developed countries generally performing better than developing countries, but with notable exceptions. Only 5% of countries scored higher than 70, whereas 32% scored lower than 50. The index provides a powerful tool to raise public awareness, direct resource management, improve policy and prioritize scientific research.
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Reference: Halpern, B. S. et al. (2012): An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean. Nature advance online publication: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11397.
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- Posted by Sven Stadtmann, GRID-Arendal
