Human dependence on marine ecosystems for coastal protection

Marine ecosystems are critical for human society. Coastland communities are highly dependent for many benefits from marine ecosystems such as economic, nutritional and for providing coastal protection. In the study ‘’ Mapping global human dependence on marine ecosystems”, researcher created a model to map the degree of human dependence on marine ecosystems. They focused three different types of dependence on marine resources such as nutritional, economic (fisheries), and coastal protection, using global, publicly available indicators. The study shows that Pacific and Indian Ocean island countries are the most dependent on marine ecosystems. Researcher provided scores for integrated, nutritional, economic (aggregated, jobs, and revenues), and coastal protection by country. Here we show the degree of humane dependence on marine environment for coastal protection. In this study the coastal protection dependence was quantified based on their degree of exposure in areas where the presence of coral reefs and mangroves likely provides some degree of coastal protection function. Learn more: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12617 source: Selig ER, Hole DG,Allison EH, et al. Mapping global human dependence on marine ecosystems.Conservation Letters.2019;12:e12617