Natural Capital Degredation: Find Examples of Major Human Impacts in Marine Ecosystems Across the Globe Using GE

In this installment, you will be able to use Google Earth (GE) to "fly to" examples of how humans have degraded Marine ecosystems across the surface of the earth. The point of this exercise is to visually and spatially connect to the concept of how humans (terrestrial dwellers) have heavily altered 41% of the worlds oceans (leaving virtually no area completely untouched) decreasing the natural capital of the habitable space that covers 71% of the earth surface, thereby decreasing the planet's carrying capacity (k) for all the organisms that its supports.

The two divisions of our ocean's ecosystems used here are listed below (marine, which includes open sea and ocean bottom life zones, and coral reefs) along with the major human induced impacts common to each kind of ecosystem. After using GE to visit examples of each kind of impact, use the comments feature of this blog to either suggest additional examples of impacts that have been overlooked, the coordinates for additional example of the impacts already listed or, provide the coordinates for locations where humans have reversed or mitigated former impacts.

As always, lets start our trip in the AAE's backyard, the Mojave Desert, a temperate desert. Assuming that you have opened GE and made the changes addressed above, find the Search arrow in the upper left corner of the GE window and open it by clicking on it. Once open click on the "Fly To" option. To travel on GE to AAE's campus in the middle of the Mojave Desert of Southern California, copy and paste the following latitude and longitude (lat, long) of34°31'58.81"N, 117°16'44.16"W into the text box in GE's Fly To search engine (click on the magnifying glass/or tap the enter key to activate your search... hop). You will be "flown" to the middle of the our Mojave River Campus. Zoom out using the "-" minus key (zoom in using the "+" key) and explore around the campuses environs, getting close enough to see some of its surface features and plant life. The arrow keys will also help you navigate in any compass direction (ie. NEWS). Use some of the features of GE to "mess around" a bit and see what GE can add to your experience before leaving the campus and visiting examples of marine degradation.

Coral Reefs

• Study Sites

1. Virtual Stations (NOAA)

• Ocean warming

1. Sea Surface Temperatures (NOAA)

• Soil Erosion

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• Algae growth and fertilizer runoff

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• Bleaching

1. Satellite Coral Bleaching Monitoring Datasets  (Google Earth Format)
2. Bleaching Alert Areas (NOAA) 
3. Coral Bleaching Hotspots (NOAA) 

• Rising Sea Levels

1. Sea Level Rise Explorer

• Increased UV Exposure

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• Damage from anchors

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• Damage from Fishing and diving

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Marine Ecosystems

• Half of coastal wetlands lost to agriculture and urban development (2008)

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• Over 1/5 of mangrove forests lost to agriculture, development and shrimp farms since 1980 (2008)

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• Beaches eroding because of coastal development and rising sea levels

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• Ocean bottom habitats degraded by dredging and trawlers fishing

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• At least 20% of coral reefs severely damaged and 25-30% more threatened (2008)

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