Foreword
The oceans are shrinking.
They're not literally shrinking; warming in the last century has actually
expanded the sea enough to threaten low-lying coastal lands that are vulnerable to storm surge. During the same interval, however, events on land
have increasingly affected the sea . Since in most ways the Earth is a closed
system-a zero-sum planet in today's parlance-as terrestrial influence on
the sea expands, the sea's influence on its own processes shrinks . Control
of many crucial marine processes no longer resides within the sea.
The evidence for this is abundant and, to anyone who is looking , unmistakable . In recent decades scientists have witnessed unprecedented perturbations and increases in previously uncommon events that demonstrate
growing terrestrial influences on the sea. Numerous marine species , from
sea urchins to monk seals, have experienced devastating epidemics . The
number of harmful algal blooms and jellyfish population explosions is rising
An hypoxic "dead zone " in the Gulf of Mexico off the mouth of the
Mississippi River now appears each year and grows to encompass an area as
large as New Jersey. Live coral cover in shallow reefs in Florida, Jamaica, the
Maldives and many other locations has severely declined. Deepwater reefbuilding corals, once widely distributed , have disappeared throughout much
of their ranges. Researchers have discovered high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in declining populations of beluga whales and polar
bears , both high trophic level predators in marine food webs. Populations of
once-abundant fishes, such as Atlantic cod in Newfoundland, Napoleon
wrasse in Indonesia and bluefin tunas throughout temperate seas, have
declined sharply. What is more , a new kind of disturbance occurring on a
continent-sized scale is converting the formerly tranquil seabed as deep as
2,000 meters into a biological wasteland.
The common thread in all these and countless other cases is the unprecedented expansion in the population, technology and economic activity of one terrestrial species. Humans are now so powerful that we are profoundly affecting the Earth's biogeochemical cycles and biological diversity.
As we have converted more and more of the terrestrial realm to suit our
v
The oceans are shrinking.
They're not literally shrinking; warming in the last century has actually
expanded the sea enough to threaten low-lying coastal lands that are vulnerable to storm surge. During the same interval, however, events on land
have increasingly affected the sea . Since in most ways the Earth is a closed
system-a zero-sum planet in today's parlance-as terrestrial influence on
the sea expands, the sea's influence on its own processes shrinks . Control
of many crucial marine processes no longer resides within the sea.
The evidence for this is abundant and, to anyone who is looking , unmistakable . In recent decades scientists have witnessed unprecedented perturbations and increases in previously uncommon events that demonstrate
growing terrestrial influences on the sea. Numerous marine species , from
sea urchins to monk seals, have experienced devastating epidemics . The
number of harmful algal blooms and jellyfish population explosions is rising
An hypoxic "dead zone " in the Gulf of Mexico off the mouth of the
Mississippi River now appears each year and grows to encompass an area as
large as New Jersey. Live coral cover in shallow reefs in Florida, Jamaica, the
Maldives and many other locations has severely declined. Deepwater reefbuilding corals, once widely distributed , have disappeared throughout much
of their ranges. Researchers have discovered high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in declining populations of beluga whales and polar
bears , both high trophic level predators in marine food webs. Populations of
once-abundant fishes, such as Atlantic cod in Newfoundland, Napoleon
wrasse in Indonesia and bluefin tunas throughout temperate seas, have
declined sharply. What is more , a new kind of disturbance occurring on a
continent-sized scale is converting the formerly tranquil seabed as deep as
2,000 meters into a biological wasteland.
The common thread in all these and countless other cases is the unprecedented expansion in the population, technology and economic activity of one terrestrial species. Humans are now so powerful that we are profoundly affecting the Earth's biogeochemical cycles and biological diversity.
As we have converted more and more of the terrestrial realm to suit our
v