Mapping Global Risks of Anthropogenic Impacts on Marine mammals

Given their diversity and cosmopolitan presence in marine ecosystems, marine mammals are impacted by many anthropogenic activities, including incidental entanglement in fishing gear, marine debris, boat traffic, acoustic pollution and oceanographic changes in marine environments related to ocean acidification and global warming. However, available data about the range of different and potentially cumulative anthropogenic impacts that marine mammal species are exposed to in different geographic areas have not been compiled into a globally comprehensive framework. Based on a literature review, we geo-referenced and encoded available information on marine mammal threats in a geo-spatial database. In a Geographic Information System framework, I developed a series of maps linking information about species-specific vulnerabilities to large-scale species distributions, thus providing an assessment of how threat levels for different marine mammal taxa vary in space and time. I then will compare my analyses outputs with existing maps of human impacts, and obtain a series of risk maps. The resulting maps will identify and quantify areas of high conservation concern and contribute to the development of a globally-coherent strategy for marine mammal conservation.

Projektbeginn: 01.10.2013
Projektende: 01.08.2018

Dormann C.F., Kaschner K., Glaser R.

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

• Avila I.C.

• University of Freiburg, Germany (https://www.uni-freiburg.de)
• Colciencias, Colombia (http://www.colciencias.gov.co/)