Canada’s Oceans Now: Atlantic Ecosystems, 2022 - Human stressors are changing Atlantic ecosystems

Human stressors are changing Atlantic ecosystems

Blue to the left of the infographic:

Centuries of human activity have had direct and indirect impacts on the ocean environment and marine life. These wide-ranging consequences to species, communities, habitats, and food webs have changed the way marine ecosystems function in Atlantic Canada.

This infographic illustrates the direct and indirect impacts human activities have on the ocean environment and ocean life. There are three large circles to the right of the infographic. They decrease in size, overlapping towards their bottom. The orange outermost circle highlights human stressors. Each stressor is illustrated with black outline icons and text labels:

• Human Stressors
  • Invasive species (a ship with a drop of water that has small organisms within it)
  • Coastal erosion (a wave crashing against a coast)
  • Fishing (a net)
  • Pollution (a factory with a pipe emitting a liquid)
  • Vessel traffic (a ship with a star indicating a strike)

A small dark orange half-circle representing climate change is illustrated above the smaller second circle and overlapping the orange circle. Within this half-circle there is black text with an illustration of a thermometer.

The middle circle is blue and highlights the ocean environment and components which may be impacted by the human stressors. Black icons within circles with white text labels underneath illustrate the components:

• Ocean environment
  • Sea Ice (pans of sea ice)
  • Sea Level (coastline with three lines representing changing ocean levels)
  • Temperature (a thermometer)
  • Circulation (two wavey arrows)
  • Acidity (a shell with bubbles coming from the top)
  • Oxygen (bubbles with O2 written in the largest one)
  • Nitrate (bubbles with NO3- written in the largest one)

The smallest circle is a teal and represents ocean life and how it may be impacted by human stressors. This is illustrated by black outlines of marine organisms towards the outer edge of the circle interconnected by grey lines indicating food webs. There are black text labels around the inner circle representing types of changes occurring within ecosytems:

• Ocean life
  • Productivity
  • Behaviour
  • Food webs
  • Abundances
  • Communities
  • Habitats