Human Impact and the Marine Environment

As human population grows, our collective influence is becoming an almost ubiquitous feature in the natural world, and the marine environment is no exception. Presently, more than fifty percent of the global human population lives within 120 miles of a coastline, exerting tremendous pressure on marine environments. Using approachable primary literature as our guide, this course addresses the vast and diverse ecosystems within the global ocean to develop an understanding of oceanic processes and how they are impacted by human activity. We address a variety of human-induced stressors with the goal of understanding their source, how their effects manifest themselves, and how society can work to remove these stressors and correct their impacts.