by simon
Why are the oceans important? The importance of wildlife.

The importance of the oceans, their wildlife and ecosystems

The land and oceans are part of one system: Earth. So when we ask, why are the oceans important? We’re asking about our own future. Life began in the ocean billions of years before the first plants or animals colonised land. Oceans regulate the state of our atmosphere because they are 99 per cent of the volume of living space for animals and wildlife is the mechanism that drives stability.

Climate change has always been the symptom of biodiversity loss … that’s to say, the breakdown of the complex connectivity between lifeforms that allows Earth to flex in response to changing conditions. Ocean wildlife has, for the large part, acted as a buffer against the most catastrophic effects and since about fifty million years ago, has kept our climate quite stable.

Industrial fishing only happened recently in our planet’s history and this reduction in the abundance of wildlife represents our greatest challenge for survival.

Below you will find a range of articles designed to inspire an understanding of the magnitude of animal impact on our oceans.

What’s more important, the ocean or the land?

The importance we bestow on the land is anthropocentric because we live there. It’s naturally important to us that we protect it. Nonetheless, if life in the ocean dies, we suffer irreversible changes to land-based ecosystems and climate.

In this article, we take a look at many of the ways that land and oceans are linked together.

The answer to the question, ‘why are the oceans important’, is that we live on the land but the oceans regulate Earth’s temperature. The oceans are equally vital to the land we live on.

Latest posts about why the oceans are important

Bryde's Whale, Coral Triangle. Drawing by Simon Mustoe.

It’s World Coral Triangle Day and I am going to take a different look at this vital region by examining the global scale and intensity of its Animal Impact. There is nowhere on Earth that comes close to its diversity and abundance of ocean wildlife but rather than looking simply at what lives there, we’ll discover the top five reasons to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife and why its animal communities are essential to maintaining a habitable world for all humanity. Because, we can easily get sidetracked into thinking conservation is only about saving its animals, when it’s actually what they do for us that matters most of all.

Coral Triangle wildlife conservation map
Location of the Coral Triangle. The area is on the boundary of four geologically-distinct tectonic plates that collided millions of years ago. Virtually uninhabited by humans, the heart of the Coral Triangle off West Papua has had about 25 million years of unbroken speciation. This has made it one of the most unique and diverse ecosystems on Earth. Image: The Coral Triangle. CC BY-SA 3.0 Created: 20 November 2020 [1].

#1 Coral Triangle wildlife captures carbon on a global scale

Blue Whale, among the top five reasons to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife
This 30-40 tonne Blue Whale, one of dozens feeding in a small area, physically mixes the boundary between the North Pacific Current and wind-driven upwelling during the southeast monsoon (Jun – Aug). It transports nutrients from the deep and scatters them at the surface where sunlight creates conditions for algal growth. It it wasn’t for whales in this region, there might be little surface nutrient to reach nearby coral reefs because the surface water is extremely nutrient-poor.

The critical role of wildlife in stabilising ocean ecosystems is often ignored or grossly underestimated. In the Coral Triangle it is particularly significant because of the enormous biomass of animals and the sheer scale and biological diversity of the habitats. In order to remain stable, four immensely diverse ecosystems: deep ocean, mangroves, seagrass and coral reefs, all have to work in unison. The only way this can work, is if abundant wildlife drives the process, because capture of carbon by the plants alone would only make things less stable.

I’ve summarised this in a bit more detail below (Box 1) and you can read my Marine Natural Values Atlas of Eastern Indonesia (below) if you want to know even more. Animals amplify carbon processes and this in turn, supports the Coral Triangle’s biodiversity richness by promoting massive algal growth. The consequence of having so much carbon capture by plants is that this excess also needs somewhere to go – which it does, into mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs, which in turn employ yet more animals to absorb the chaos-forming carbon and keep it safely locked away.

The Coral Triangle is abundant with wildlife because this is the mechanism that evolved to stabilise carbon capture, which this region does on a scale greater than anywhere else on Earth. It’s a significant proportion of the world’s uptake and this is exactly why we need to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife.

  • The Coral Triangle is the global epicentre of mangrove, coral and seagrass diversity. More than a quarter of mangroves; the most diverse seagrass beds in the world; and three quarters of the worlds corals are proof it is integral to global carbon cycles.
  • Left alone, these systems would collapse, as there would be no way for waste carbon to stabilise.
  • The region’s abundant and diverse wildlife is the only thing that stabilises these systems. Animals absorb excess carbon back into food chains but the intensity of that effect is also what creates food security and global cooling outcomes.

BOX 1: the role of marine wildlife in carbon cycling The annual activity of abundant marine megafauna (Oceanic Manta Rays, Blue Whales, Hammerhead Sharks etc.) amplify algal growth through the daily recycling of iron and other limiting nutrients into the food chain [2]. This then supports a whole range of animals that seasonally migrate to the Coral Triangle and congregate together. This community-level amplification allows even more algae to grow but when they die, that carbon is reintroduced in even greater abundance and risks the stability of the system. This creates a paradox. Where does the excess go? Some of it settles onto the seabed but much of it gets whipped up by strong currents that swirl around the region’s 20,000 islands where it could become pollution if it wasn’t for the action of other animals in neighbouring ecosystems. Mangrove soils can be three metres deep and store more carbon than tropical forests [4]. Like the ocean, mangroves and seagrass depend on animals to maximise efficiency and minimise waste carbon. Dugongs and Green Turtles increase seagrass density through grazing – meaning even more animals can survive there, meaning even more carbon is processed. Similarly, studies on mangroves have found between 66 – 128 leaf-eating species and in one study, from the Andaman Islands and Nicobar, an overall total of 276 insects [5]. Almost all the sediment locked below mangroves has to pass through ship worms and crustaceans first.


#2 It cools the global oceans and atmosphere

Ocean wildlife is critical to the process of atmospheric cooling and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Banda Sea, situated in the Coral Triangle’s south. The entire planet’s ocean circulation flows through here, equivalent to the volume of all the world’s rivers combined. The Banda Sea has a maximum depth of 7,440m and traps water for a year, where it is mixed, especially during the southeast monsoon. By the time it reaches the Indian Ocean it is richer in nutrients, less saline and cooler by about 0.5°C. During upwelling events, the Banda Sea’s surface temperature can be a remarkable three degrees cooler!

Just the physical effects of mixing by all vertebrates swimming vertically up and down through the water column can provide up to a third of all ocean mixing, equivalent to tides and wind combined (Box 2). Coral Triangle animals are significant components of processes that regulate planetary warming and the effects can be felt across most of the Earth, at least from the Pacific in the west, as far as Africa and the Middle East. The activity of wildlife is the difference between catastrophic bushfires in Australia and rainfall in China, India, East Africa and even as far as South America.

  • The Coral Triangle’s wildlife is responsible for up to a third of ocean mixing in a system that cools the global atmosphere, minimising risk of bushfires, drought and flooding.
  • The significant role of animals in climate regulation is missing from any ocean-climate models for the region and does not feature in conservation narratives for the Coral Triangle.

BOX 2: the role of marine wildlife in ocean cooling Just the physical effects of mixing by all vertebrates swimming vertically up and down through the water column can provide up to a third of all ocean mixing, equivalent to tides and wind combined [6]. Turbulence from fish swimming has been compared to the effect of major storms[7]. Large marine vertebrates like tuna and whales have a disproportionate impact on mixing, because their activity is concentrated at predictable and reliable locations. This animal impact affects two global climatic processes: the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the Southern Ocean Oscillation (usually referred to as El Niño and La Niña). In 2019, there was a strong positive IOD which led to a drying of the Australian continent and catastrophic bushfires. Ironically, the activity of Blue Whales and Hammerhead Sharks in the Banda Sea that year was intense and prolonged, which would have made the bushfires worse. Again, there is the paradox. If more animals make things worse, why do stable ecosystems need abundant wildlife? The systems are self-correcting. The whales are part of a process that goes into over-drive to reduce planetary warming but like any refrigeration process, there has to be somewhere for the heat to dissipate and in this case, it was spread out across the Australian continent. The impact of the IOD influences climate across most of the Earth, at least from the Pacific in the west, as far as Africa and the Middle East. As we lose abundant wildlife from places like the Coral Sea, it creates wilder fluctuations in climate and remaining animals have to work harder. We are losing the animal-driven systems that we depend on … because we are animals and originally evolved as part of the same stabilisation processes.


#3 Wildlife conservation in the Coral Triangle creates global food security

A Bryde’s Whale feeds alongside seabirds and tuna. In February 2020, productivity in Raja Ampat was exceptionally high due to a strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole (see Box 2).
In February 2020, activity of filter-feeders including Oceanic Manta Rays and baleen whales was greater than normal, and there were huge densities of Arctic migrants such as Red-necked Phalaropes.

Carbon cycling and ocean cooling are both directly linked to food security because (as described in #1 and #2, above) climate change causes global weather patterns to change, which affects farming all over the world. Seabird colonies as well as surface-feeding fish, whales and dolphins, also create chemistry that influences rainfall on a continental scale. Predictable and stable rainfall patterns are essential for our agriculture. If we conserve Coral Triangle wildlife, we will have a better chance of knowing when and where to grow food, which is central to all our economies.

The Coral Triangle has a density and diversity of wildlife greater than anywhere else on the planet and this means it also directly creates conditions for food production. Wildlife transfers, amplifies and concentrates resources on every possible scale, creating a precision and intensity of effect that we can never hope to replicate artificially. In the case of fisheries, the region is of huge significance.

Marine ecosystems stabilise where there is a natural abundance and diversity of wildlife, which is proportional to the physical power of the system. Big, common Coral Triangle animals like tuna, whales, whale sharks, manta rays and seabirds hold together the infrastructure (the biodiversity) that maintains all other ecosystem services. The remarkable richness of the Coral Triangle’s wildlife tells us that this is a critical epicentre for global food security.

  • Marine vertebrates are vital for healthy functioning coral reefs, fisheries and marine ecosystems, driving surface nutrient processes and generating conditions for seasonal development of pelagic fisheries.
  • Transportation of nutrients by seabirds back to land is vital for coastal ecosystems, coral reef and fish.
  • Marine animals transfer, amplify and concentrate nutrients on a local and global scale, at the right time and place, creating enriched ocean life.
  • The Coral Triangle sustains Indian Ocean ecosystems through export of cooler, nutrient-rich water, which is the result of nutrient amplification and ocean mixing by wildlife.
  • Tropical seabirds influence continental rainfall via cloud seeding mechanisms.

#4 It supports global economies and poverty alleviation

Top FIVE reasons to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife
A local fisherman works the reef edge alongside a volcano in the Banda Sea. There are no villages nearby and these fishermen often make the treacherous journey a hundred miles across open ocean. It is their only means of survival. Some of the most important seabird islands are rat-infested and without seabirds, the nutrient processes are broken, leading to a decline in local fish stocks.

The region’s animal impact on climate and food security is globally significant and this translates into international economic empowerment, if we conserve Coral Triangle wildlife. This benefits farmers in Australia and South America, fishers in Central Asia and the Solomon Islands and tourism operators over half of the world. We know this because the impact of wildlife decline is already having marked effect on our lives by gnawing away at the stability of our economies.

In order to protect ourselves from ecosystem collapse, we need to conserve ocean wildlife everywhere but the Coral Triangle is particularly important. But that also means alleviating poverty in the Coral Triangle – because people who can’t feed themselves, cannot be expected to spend time and money conserving wildlife for us. A disproportionate number of people who are custodians for this critical ocean landscape are living below the poverty line. There are 2.25 million local fishers who depend on healthy seas to make a living but are losing out to industrial fisheries … fifty times more local people are dependent on those ecosystems as their home. 

  • Wildlife conservation, food security and poverty alleviation are integrally linked.
  • Stable animal-driven ecosystems are essential for supporting global ecosystem services, as well as economic viability through fisheries and agriculture.
  • The carrying capacity for people globally and locally, depends on maintaining wildlife in the right abundance and proportions.
  • Millions of people who are custodians of some of the most important places are already living well below the poverty line.

#5 Coral Triangle wildlife builds global ecosystem resilience

The ecosystem is as structurally complex as you will see anywhere on Earth. The Coral Triangle is a region that’s had almost unbroken speciation for 25 million years and where three-quarters of the world’s hard corals grow. Everywhere else in the world it’s easy to become focused on details here and there, but miss the bigger picture. There isn’t a square centimetre that isn’t occupied by something living. The turtle here is obviously part of the ecosystem.

Ecosystems are dynamic by nature, so there have to be areas that act as sources of life and others as sinks – you can’t have a system producing all the time, unless there is somewhere for it to end up.

We’ve have established that the Coral Triangle has overwhelming and globally-significant importance for climate, food and our economy … and that’s why we need to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife. We know other oceans benefit from the export of wildlife from the Coral Triangle because offspring of species like Leatherback Turtles travel the entire Pacific. Abundant seabirds migrate from the Arctic and vast herds of whales and dolphins migrate between the Pacific and Indian Ocean. The quantity of species and connectivity with other reef systems in the Indian Ocean and Pacific places the Coral Triangle as the source from which most other ecosystems renew. The region acts as the greatest safeguard against ocean ecosystem collapse.

  • The region has almost three quarters of all the world’s hard coral species
  • In an area only 10% of the size of the Great Barrier Reef you can find twenty species of marine mammal (Dugong, whales and dolphins).
  • A third of all the world’s reef fish species occur here. In 2012, fish scientist Gerald Allen counted 374 species at one location in about an hour.
  • It has a quarter of all mangrove forests on Earth and the world’s most diverse mangrove and seagrass communities.
  • The region is connected to other parts of the world by enormous annual and seasonal migrations of wildlife.

Why we need to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife

We tend to imagine that spectacular ocean currents, mountains, winds and weather formations are all-powerful ecosystem drivers but they’re not. They only kick-start processes. As humans, we live among the animal-led mechanism that sits above that. It’s the tendency of animals to congregate and amplify living conditions that made it possible for humans to derive enough sustenance to exist. It’s why we exist. Our dependence on the food security and climate of the Coral Triangle is a byproduct of the role all animals play in stabilising ecosystems.

The scale and intensity of animal impact in the Coral Triangle wilderness is like nothing else on Earth. The effect is to cool the planet, influence the weather globally and contribute to the stability and security of our food industries. We cannot survive without the Coral Triangle.

We might view the Coral Triangle as a place where animals live and try to conserve the environment for their sake. That’s fine but it belies a far greater importance. We actually need to conserve Coral Triangle wildlife because it’s animals that protect the environment for all our sakes. Their impact translates into stronger and more resilient economies.

At least as far as human survival is concerned, everything we need, is driven by animals!

The Coral Triangle is a part of the world that none of us can afford to lose but we can do more to explain the critical importance and integral connection we all have to its wildlife.

Read the trip reports

Here are some trip reports from recent expeditions I’ve led.

Marine Natural Values of Eastern Indonesia

Here is a technical report I wrote about Marine Natural Values of Eastern Indonesia, which is a more detailed and fully referenced scientific overview of the role of marine biodiversity in the heart of the Coral Triangle.

  1. Coral Triangle and countries participating in the Coral Triangle Initiative, based on (4 March 2014). “Developing Marine Protected Area Networks in the Coral Triangle: Good Practices for Expanding the Coral Triangle Marine Protected Area System”. Coastal Management 42 (2): 183–205. DOI:10.1080/08920753.2014.877768.
  2. Martin, J.H. and S.E. Fitzwater, Iron deficiency limits phytoplankton growth in the north-east Pacific subarctic. Nature, 1988. 331(6154): p. 341-343.
  3. Jennerjahn, T., Biogeochemical response of tropical coastal systems to present and past environmental change. Earth-Science Reviews, 2012. 114: p. 19–41.
  4. Donato, D., et al., Mangroves among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics. Nature Geoscience, 2011. 4: p. 293-297.
  5. Burrows, D., The role of insect leaf herbivory on the mangroves Avicennia marina and Rhizophora stylosa. 2003.
  6. Dewar, W., et al., Does the marine biosphere mix the ocean? Journal of Marine Research, 2006. 64.
  7. Huntley, M. and M. Zhou, Influence of animals on turbulence in the sea. Marine Ecology-progress Series – MAR ECOL-PROGR SER, 2004. 273: p. 65-79.

0 FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinRedditWhatsappEmail

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More