Cumulative impacts to global marine ecosystems projected to more than double by midcentury.

Pressures from human activities are expected to increase significantly, impacting marine ecosystems globally. To plan for a sustainable future, we need to forecast distributions of cumulative impacts from multiple pressures. Here we mapped (10km resolution) future cumulative impacts of ten climate, land-based, fishing and other pressures on twenty marine habitats under two climate scenarios at midcentury (~2050). We found cumulative impacts are projected to increase 2.2 to 2.6 times globally, with coastal habitats facing higher impacts but offshore regions facing faster increases, especially in equatorial regions. Furthermore, many countries dependent on marine resources will have large increases in impacts. Incorporating these results into strategic policy and management will support more sustainable use and protection of marine ecosystems and the services provided to people.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Science

• Publication date

  2025-09-04

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1126/science.adv2906PMID 40906781
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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