Biological effects of anthropogenic activities

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Biological effects of anthropogenic activities

• Eugeniusz Andrulewicz
• Department of Fisheries Oceanography
• and Marine Ecology
• Sea Fisheries Institute, Gdynia, Poland

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Land- based human activities influencing marine
environment

• Agriculture and forestry
• Industry
• Human settlements and coastal industries
• Waste discharging
• Recreation and tourism
• Coastal engineering and land reclamation
• Power generation
• Dumping operations
• Other

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Sea-based human activities influencing marine
environment

• Transport Shipping
• Extraction of living resources
• Extraction of mineral resources (oil and gas
  exploration and exploitation, sand and gravel,
  other)
• Mariculture
• Recreation
• Dumping of dredge spoils
• Wind energy production

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Main marine human induced environmental concerns

• Enhanced eutrophication
• Chemical contamination
• Overfishing
• Oil pollution
• Loss of biological diversity
• Introduction of alien species
• Sanitary pollution of coastal waters
• Physical disturbance of habitats
• Other (input of artificial radionuclides, dumped
  coventional and chemical weapon)

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Eutrophication and its ecosystem effects in the
Baltic Sea
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Main ecosystem effects due to eutrophication

• Change of trophic status of the southern Baltic
  Sea and its coastal lagoons
• Oxygen depletion in previousaly oxygenated areas
• Diminished water clarity and diminished depth
  range of macrophytes
• Blue-green algae prolonged blooms (HABs)
• Increased pelagic fish production
• Decreased demersal fish production

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Fish catchesin the Baltic Sea over the 20th
century
Nutrient loads in the Balic Sea over the 20th
c. P- 4-5 times higher N- 5-6 times higher
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Contamination of the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea
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Biological effects of contamination

• Documented long term toxicity cases within some
  top predators
• Contaminated fish food and human health aspects
• Contaminated marine organisms and their health
  aspects
• Need for costly monitoring and assessments
  programmes
• Contamination effects are difficult to assess
  and to prove, therefore they raise human
  awerness/fears mainly related to human immunity,
  cancirogenity, mutagenity and hormon disruptions

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Biological effects of fishing

• Removal of target fish species (hopefuly only to
  safe limits !?)
• Changes in structure of target populations
• Removal of non-target fish and other species
• (e.g.birds and mammals)
• Destruction of bottom habitats by heavy trawling
  (e.g. cold water corral reefs)
• Discard and offals contributing to oxygen
  depletion at the sea bottom
• Problem of drifting nets

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Effects of oil spills

• Immediate changes related to oil spills
• Oiled birds (sometimes other species)
• Oiled beaches
• Affected port installatins, etc
• Long term effects
• Leackage of oil products from wracks
• Source of PAHs
• Changes in difussion of gases and penetration of
  light into water column

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Oil spills in the Baltic Sea
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Marine transport and ballast waters

• Alien
• species-
• Xenodiversity !
• Examle Neogobius melanostomus

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Effects of large scale constructions

• Habitat loss and/or modification
• Changes of natural processes
• Direct effects of bottom installations
• Modifications of habitats and environmental
  conditions, e.g. change og magnetic earth field
  along HVPC
• Change of services of the sea

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Example High voltage power cables in the Baltic
Sea
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Human health and pollution

• Health issues related to coastal sanitary
  conditions
• Health events related to contaminatin/infestation
  of fish food ?
• Human health events related to toxic algal blooms
  ?
• Socio-economic effects related to invasion of
  alien species
• Loss of recreational amenities due to coastal
  degradation (loss of coastal wetlands, loss of
  underwater vegetation, loss of spawning grounds,
  loss of water clarity)

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Thank you for your attention