Human Activities and their Impact on Marine Habitat Destruction and Coastal Ecosystems

Abstract

Marine and coastal ecosystems are currently undergoing unprecedented degradation at all spatio-temporal scales under a highly interacting suite of anthropogenic activities. The combined effect of coastal artificialization, industrial pollution, and destructive fishing practices was investigated using data from thirty-eight marine sampling matrices over a time scale and compared against indices of physicochemical properties, benthic structure integrity, and local species diversity, mapped against local human population density and coastal artificial surface index. Empirical analysis shows non-linear declines in coral cover and seagrass density whenever there is an anthropogenic index exceeding 18.2% for the coastal artificial surface index within a 5 km zone, and commercial bottom-trawling strongly correlates with a total loss of benthic structural complexity and macrofaunal functional richness. Analysis by linear mixed-effects modeling shows that the implementation of continuous MPAs and active habitat rehabilitation initiatives significantly buffers marine species from terrestrial sources of pollution. This work provides the first empirically robust, quantitatively explicit decision-making framework for coastal ecosystem managers, suggesting severe local zoning rules to mitigate irreversible ecosystem decline.