data/datasets/onu/Chapter_01.txt

Part Il
The Context of the Assessment
Chapter 1. Introduction — Planet, Oceans and Life
Contributors: Peter Harris (Lead member and Convenor), Joshua Tuhumwire (Co Lead member)
1. Why the ocean matters
Consider how dependent upon the ocean we are. The ocean is vast — it cover seven-tenths of the planet. On average, it is about 4,000 metres deep. It contain 1.3 billion cubic kilometres of water (97 per cent of all water on Earth). But there ar now about seven billion people on Earth. So we each have just one-fifth of a cubi kilometre of ocean to provide us with all the services that we get from the ocean That small, one-fifth of a cubic kilometre share produces half of the oxygen each o us breathes, all of the sea fish and other seafood that each of us eats. It is th ultimate source of all the freshwater that each of us will drink in our lifetimes. Th ocean is a highway for ships that carry across the globe the exports and imports tha we produce and consume. It contains the oil and gas deposits and minerals on an beneath the seafloor that we increasingly need to use. The submarine cables acros the ocean floor carry 90 per cent of the electronic traffic on which ou communications rely. Our energy supply will increasingly rely on wind, wave and tid power from the ocean. Large numbers of us take our holidays by the sea. That one fifth of a cubic kilometre will also suffer from the share of the sewage, garbage spilled oil and industrial waste which we produce and which is put into the ocea every day. Demands on the ocean continue to rise: by the year 2050 it is estimate that there will be 10 billion people on Earth. So our share (or our children’s share) o the ocean will have shrunk to one-eighth of a cubic kilometre. That reduced shar will still have to provide each of us with sufficient amounts of oxygen, food an water, while still receiving the pollution and waste for which we are all responsible.
The ocean is also home to a rich diversity of plants and animals of all sizes — from th largest animals on the planet (the blue whales) to plankton that can only be see with powerful microscopes. We use some of these directly, and many mor contribute indirectly to our benefits from the ocean. Even those which have n connection whatever with us humans are part of the biodiversity whose value w have belatedly recognized. However, the relationships are reciprocal. W intentionally exploit many components of this biodiverse richness. Carelessly (fo example, through inputs of waste) or unknowingly (for example, through ocea acidification from increased emissions of carbon dioxide), we are altering th circumstances in which these plants and animals live. All this is affecting their abilit to thrive and, sometimes, even to survive. These impacts of humanity on the oceans
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are part of our legacy and our future. They will shape the future of the ocean and it biodiversity as an integral physical-biological system, and the ability of the ocean t provide the services which we use now and will increasingly need to use in th future. The ocean is vital to each of us and to human well-being overall.
Looking in more detail at the services that the ocean provides, we can break the down into three main categories. First, there are the economic activities in providin goods and services which are often marketed (fisheries, shipping, communications tourism and recreation, and so on). Secondly, there are the other tangibl ecosystem services which are not part of a market, but which are vital to human life For example, marine plants (mainly tiny floating diatoms) produce about 50 per cen of atmospheric oxygen. Mangroves, salt marshes and sea grasses are also natura carbon sinks. Coastal habitats, including coral reefs, protect homes, communitie and businesses from storm surges and wave attack. Thirdly, there are the intangibl ecosystem services. We know that the ocean means far more to us than just merel the functional or practical services that it provides. Humans value the ocean in man other ways: for aesthetic, cultural or religious reasons, and for just being there in al its diversity — giving us a “sense of place” (Halpern et al., 2012). Not surprisingly given the resources that the ocean provides, human settlements have grown up ver much near the shore: 38 per cent of the world’s population live within 100 km of th shore, 44 per cent within 150 km, 50 per cent within 200 km, and 67 per cent withi 400 km (Small et al 2004).
All these marine ecosystem services have substantial economic value. While there i much debate about valuation methods (and whether some ecosystem services ca be valued) and about exact figures, attempts to estimate the value of marin ecosystem services have found such values to be on the order of trillions of U dollars annually (Costanza, et al., 1997). Nearly three-quarters of this value resides i coastal zones (Martinez, et al., 2007). The point is not so much the monetary figur that can be estimated for non-marketed ecosystem services, but rather the fact tha people do not need to pay anything for them — these services are nature’s gift t humanity. But we take these services for granted at our peril, because the cost o replacing them, if it were possible to do so, would be immense and in many cases incalculable.
There are therefore very many good reasons why we each need to take very goo care of our-fifth of a cubic kilometre share of the ocean!
2. Structure of this Assessment
It is this significance of the ocean as a whole, and the relatively fragmented way i which it is studied and in which human activities impacting upon it are managed that led in 2002 the World Summit on Sustainable Development to recommen (WSSD 2002), and the United Nations General Assembly to agree (UNGA 2002), tha there should be a regular process for the global reporting and assessment of th marine environment, including socioeconomic aspects. Under the arrangements
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developed for this purpose, this Assessment is the first global integrated assessmen of the marine environment (see further in Chapter 2).
Three possible focuses exist for structuring this Assessment: the ecosystem service (market and non-marketed, tangible and intangible) that the marine environmen provides; the habitats that exist within the marine environment, and the pressure that human activities exert on the marine environment. All three have advantage and disadvantages.
Using ecosystem services as the basis for structuring the Assessment would follo the approach of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). This has th advantage of broad acceptance in environmental reporting. It would cove provisioning services (food, construction materials, renewable energy, coasta protection), while highlighting regulating services and quality-of-life services that ar not captured using a pressures or habitats approach to structuring the Assessment It would have the disadvantage that some important human activities using th ocean (for example, shipping, ports and minerals extraction) would be covered onl incidentally.
Using marine habitats as the basis for structuring the Assessment would have th advantage that habitats are the property that inherently integrates many ecosyste features, including species at higher and lower trophic levels, water quality oceanographic conditions and many types of anthropogenic pressures (AoA, 2009) The cumulative aspect of multiple pressures affecting the same habitat, that is ofte lost in sector-based environmental reporting (Halpern et al., 2008), is captured b using habitats as reporting units. It would have the disadvantage that consideratio of human activities would be fragmented between the many different types o habitats.
Using pressures as the basis for structuring the Assessment would have th advantage that the associated human activities are commonly linked with dat collection and reporting structures for regulatory compliance purposes. Fo instance, permits that are issued for offshore oil and gas development requir specific monitoring and reporting obligations to be met by operators. It would hav the disadvantage that many important ecosystem services would only be covered i relation to the impacts of the human activities.
Given that all three approaches have their own particular advantages an disadvantages, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a structure for thi Assessment that combined all three approaches, thereby structuring the Worl Ocean Assessment into seven main Parts, as follows.
Part I. Summary
The Summary is intended to bring out the way in which the assessment has bee carried out, the overall assessment of the scale of human impact on the oceans an the overall value of the oceans to humans, and the main threats to the marin environment and human economic and social well-being. As guides for future actio it also describes the gaps in capacity-building and in knowledge.
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Part Il. The context of the Assessment
This chapter is intended as a broad, introductory survey of the role played by th ocean in the life of the planet, the way in which they function, and humans relationships to them. Chapter 2 explains in more detail the rationale for th Assessment and how it has been produced.
Part Ill. Assessment of major ecosystem services from the marine environmen (other than provisioning services)
Part III looks at the non-marketed ecosystem services provided to the planet by th ocean. It considers, first, the scientific understanding of such ecosystem service and then looks at the earth’s hydrological cycle, air/sea interactions, primar production and ocean-based carbonate production. Finally it looks at aesthetic cultural, religious and spiritual ecosystem services (including some cultural object which are traded). Where relevant, it draws heavily on the work o Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the aim is to use the work o the IPCC, not to duplicate or challenge it.
Part IV. Assessment of the cross-cutting issues: food security and food safety
The aim of Part IV is to look at all aspects of the vital function of the ocean i providing food for humans. It draws substantially on information collected by th Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The economi significance of employment in fisheries and aquaculture and the relationship thes industries have with coastal communities are addressed, including gaps in capacity building for developing countries.
Part V. Assessment of other human activities and the marine environment
All human activities that can impact on the oceans (other than those relating t food) are covered in Part V of the assessment. Each chapter describes the locatio and scale of activity, the economic benefits, employment and social role environmental consequences, links to other activities and capacity-building gaps.
Part VI. Assessment of marine biological diversity and habitats
The aim of Part VI is: (a) to give an overview of marine biological diversity and wha is known about it; (b) to review the status and trends of, and threats to, marin ecosystems, species and habitats that have been scientifically identified a threatened, declining or otherwise in need of special attention or protection; (c) t review the significant environmental, economic and/or social aspects in relation t the conservation of marine species and habitats; and (d) to find gaps in capacity t identify marine species and habitats that are viewed as threatened, declining o otherwise in need of special attention or protection and to assess the
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environmental, social and economic aspects of the conservation of marine specie and habitats.
Part VII. Overall assessment
Part VII finally looks at the overall impact of humans on the ocean, and the overal benefit of the ocean for humans.
3. The physical structure of the ocean
Looking at a globe of the earth one thing that can be easily seen is that, althoug different names appear in different places for different ocean areas, these areas ar all linked together: there is really only one world ocean. The seafloor beneath th ocean has long remained a mystery, but in recent decades our understanding of th ocean floor has improved. The publication of the first comprehensive, global map o seafloor physiography by Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp in 1977 provided a pseudo three-dimensional image of the ocean that has influenced a long line of scholars That image has been refined in recent years by new bathymetric maps (Smith an Sandwell, 1997) which are used to illustrate globes, web sites and the maps on man in-flight TV screens when flying over the ocean.
A new digital, global seafloor geomorphic features map has been built (especially t assist the World Ocean Assessment) using a combination of manual and ArcGI methods based on the analysis and interpretation of the latest global bathymetr grid (Harris et al., 2014; Figure 1). The new map includes global spatial data layer for 29 categories of geomorphic features, defined by the International Hydrographi Organization and other authoritative sources.
The new map shows the way in which the ocean consists of four main basins (th Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean) betwee the tectonic plates that form the continents. The tectonic plates have differin forms at their edges, giving broad or narrow continental shelves and varying profile of the continental rises and continental slopes leading from the abyssal plain to th continental shelf. Geomorphic activity in the abyssal plains between the continent gives rise to abyssal ridges, volcanic islands, seamounts, guyots (plateau-lik seamounts), rift valley segments and trenches. Erosion and sedimentation (eithe submarine or riverine when the sea level was lower during the ice ages) has create submarine canyons, glacial troughs, sills, fans and escarpments. Around the ocea basins there are marginal seas, partially separated by islands, archipelagos o peninsulas, or bounded by submarine ridges. These marginal seas have sometime been formed in many ways: for example, some result from the interaction betwee tectonic plates (for example the Mediterranean), others from the sinking of forme dry land as a result of isostatic changes from the removal of the weight of the ic cover in the ice ages (for example, the North Sea).
The water of the ocean circulates within these geological structures. This water i not uniform: there are very important physical and chemical variations within the
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sea water. Salinity varies according to the relativity between inputs of freshwate and evaporation. Sea areas such as the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, with larg amounts of freshwater coming from rivers and relatively low evaporation have lo salinity — 8 parts per thousand and 16 parts per thousand, respectively, as compare with the global average of 35 parts per thousand (HELCOM 2010, Black Se Commission 2008). The Red Sea, in contrast, with low riverine input and hig insolation, and therefore high evaporation, has a mean surface salinity as high a 42.5 parts per thousand (Heilman et al 2009). Seawater can also be stratified int separate layers, with different salinities and different temperatures. Suc stratification can lead to variations in both the oxygen content and nutrient content with critical consequences in both cases for the biota dependent on them. A furthe variation is in the penetration of light. Sunlight is essential for photosynthesis o inorganic carbon (mainly CO2) into the organic carbon of plants and mixotrophi species’. Even clear water reduces the level of light that can penetrate by about 9 per cent for every 75 metres of depth. Below 200 metres depth, there is not enoug light for photosynthesis (Widder 2014). The upper 200 metres of the ocean ar therefore where most photosynthesis takes place (the euphotic zone). Variations i light level in the water column and on the sea bed are caused by seasonal fluctuatio in sunlight, cloud cover, tidal variations in water depth and (most significantly, wher it occurs) turbidity in the water, caused, for example, by resuspension of sedimen by tides or storms or by coastal erosion. Where turbidity occurs, it can reduce th penetration of light by up to 95 per cent, and thus reduce the level of photosynthesi which can take place (Anthony 2004).
@® Shelf - high profile @®  Hadal shelf valley ©) tis @ Shelf - medium profile @® canyon @® iift valley terrac Shelf - low profile @®  guyot @® glacial trough @® trenc Slope @ seamount @® trough @ platea @® Abyss - mountains ™) bridge @® ridge “- @cean boundarie @® Abyss - hills @ sil @ spreading ridge ques Kilometer Abyss - plains @® escarpment @®) fan/apron 0 2,000 4,000 6,000
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
* That is, plankton species that both photosynthesize and consume other biota.
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Figure 1. Geomorphic features map of the world’s oceans (after Harris et al., 2014). Dotted blac lines mark boundaries between major ocean regions. Basins are not shown.
The new map provides the basis for global estimates of physiographic statistic (area, number, mean size, etc.): for example, it can be estimated that the globa ocean covers 362 million square kilometres and the ocean floor contains: 9,95 seamounts covering 8.1 million square kilometres; 9,477 submarine canyon covering 4.4 million square kilometres; and the mid-ocean spreading ridges cover 6. million square kilometres with an additional 710,000 square kilometres of rift valley where hydrothermal vent communities occur (Harris et al., 2014).
There is an important distinction to be made between the terminology used i scientific description of the ocean and the legal terminology used to describe States rights and obligations in the ocean. Some important terms that will be use throughout this Assessment include the “continental shelf”, “open ocean” and “deep
”
sea.
Unless stated otherwise, “continental shelf” in this Assessment refers to th geomorphic continental shelf (as shown in Figure 1) and not to the continental shel as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The geomorphi continental shelf is usually defined in terms of the submarine extension of  continent or island as far as the point where there is a marked discontinuity in th slope and the continental slope begins its fall down to the continental rise or th abyssal plain (Hobbs 2003). In total, continental shelves cover an area of 32 millio square kilometres (out of a total ocean area of 362 million square kilometres).
The term “open ocean” in this Assessment refers to the water column of deep-wate areas that are beyond (that is, seawards of) the geomorphic continental shelf. It i the pelagic zone that lies in deep water (generally >200 m water depth).
The term “deep sea” in this Assessment refers to the sea floor of deep-water area that are beyond (that is, seawards of) the geomorphic continental shelf. It is th benthic zone that lies in deep water (generally >200 m water depth).
4. Seawater and the ocean/climate interaction
The Earth’s ocean and atmosphere are parts of a single, interactive system tha controls the global climate. The ocean plays a major role in this control, particularl in the dispersal of heat from the equator towards the poles through ocean currents The heat transfer through the ocean is possible because of the larger heat-capacit of water compared with that of air: there is more heat stored in the upper 3 metre of the global ocean than in the entire atmosphere of the Earth. Put another way, th oceans hold more than 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere. Hea transported by the major ocean currents dramatically affects regional climate: fo example, Europe would be much colder than it is without the warmth brought by th Gulf Stream current. The great ocean boundary currents transport heat from th equator to the polar seas (and cold from the polar seas towards the equator), along
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the margins of the continents. Examples include: the Kuroshio Current in th northwest Pacific, the Humboldt (Peru) Current in the southeast Pacific, th Benguela Current in the southeast Atlantic and the Agulhas Current in the wester Indian Ocean. The mightiest ocean current of all is the Circumpolar Current whic flows from west to east encircling the continent of Antarctica and transporting mor than 100 Sverdrups (100 million cubic meters per second) of ocean water (Rintou and Sokolov, 2001). As well as the boundary currents, there are five major gyres o rotating currents: two in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific (in each case one nort and one south of the equator) and one in the Indian Ocean.
The winds in the atmosphere are the main drivers of these ocean surface currents The interface between the ocean and the atmosphere and the effect of the wind also allows for the ocean to absorb oxygen and, more importantly, carbon dioxid from the air. Annually, the ocean absorbs 2,300 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (IPCC 2005; see Chapter 5).
In addition to this vast surface ocean current system, there is the ocea thermohaline circulation (ocean conveyor) system (Figure 3). Instead of being drive by winds and the temperature difference between the equator and the poles (as ar the surface ocean currents), this current system is driven by differences in wate density. The most dense ocean water is cold and salty which sinks beneath war and fresh seawater that stays near the surface. Cold-salty water is produced in se ice “factories” of the polar seas: when seawater freezes, the salt is rejected (the ic is mostly fresh water), which makes the remaining liquid seawater saltier. This col saltier water sinks into the deepest ocean basins, bringing oxygen into the dee ocean and thus enabling aerobic life to exist.
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
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Figure 2. The global ocean “conveyor” thermohaline circulation (Broecker, 1991). Bottom water i formed in the polar seas via sea-ice formation in winter, which rejects cold, salty (dense) water. Thi sinks to the ocean floor and flows into the Indian and North Pacific Oceans before returning t complete the loop in the North Atlantic. Numbers indicate estimated volumes of bottom wate production in “Sverdrups” (1 Sverdrup = 1 million m?/s), which may be reduced by global warmin because less sea ice will be formed during winter. Blue indicates cold currents and red indicates war currents. The black question marks indicate sites long the Antarctic margin where bottom water ma be formed but of unknown volumes. The question mark after the “S” indicates that this value i certain.
Wind-driven mixing affects only the surface of the ocean, mainly the upper 20 metres or so, and rarely deeper than about 1,000 metres. Without the ocean’ thermohaline circulation system, the bottom waters of the ocean would soon b depleted of oxygen, and aerobic life there would cease to exist.
Superimposed on all these processes, there is the twice-daily ebb and flow of th tide. This is, of course, most significant in coastal seas. The tidal range varie according to local geography: the largest mean tidal ranges (around 11.7 metres) ar found in the Bay of Fundy, on the Atlantic coast of Canada, but ranges only slightl less are also found in the Bristol Channel in the United Kingdom, on the norther coast of France, and on the coasts of Alaska, Argentina and Chile (NOAA 2014).
Global warming is likely to affect many aspects of ocean processes. Changes in sea surface temperature, sea level and other primary impacts will lead, among othe things, to increases in the frequency of major tropical storms (cyclones, hurricane and typhoons) bigger ocean swell waves and reduced polar ice formation. Each o these consequences has its own consequences, and so on (Harley et al., 2006 Occhipinti-Ambrogi, 2007). For example, reduced sea ice production in the pola seas will mean less bottom water is produced (Broecker, 1997) and hence les oxygen delivered to the deep ocean (Shaffer et al., 2009).
5. The ocean and life
The complex system of the atmosphere and ocean currents is also crucial to th distribution of life in the ocean, since it regulates, among other factors, (as sai above) temperature, salinity, oxygen content, absorption of carbon dioxide and th penetration of light and (in addition to these) the distribution of nutrients.
The distribution of nutrients throughout the ocean is the result of the interaction o a number of different processes. Nutrients are introduced to the ocean from th land through riverine discharges, through inputs direct from pipelines and throug airborne inputs (see Chapter 20). Within the ocean, these external inputs o nutrients suffer various fates and are cycled. Nutrients that are adsorbed onto th surface of particles are likely to fall into sediments, from where they may either b remobilised by water movement or settle permanently. Nutrients that are taken u by plants and mixotrophic biota for photosynthesis will also eventually sink toward the seabed as the plants or biota die; en route or when they reach the seabed, they
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will be broken up by bacteria and the nutrients released. As a result of thes processes, the water in lower levels of the ocean is richer in nutrients.
Upwelling of these nutrient-rich waters is caused by the interaction of currents an wind stress. In simple terms, along coasts (especially west-facing coasts with narro continental shelves), coastal, longshore wind stress results in rapid upwelling further out to sea, wind-stress produces a slower, but still significant, upwellin (Rykaczewski et al., 2008). Upwelled, nutrient-rich water is brought up to th euphotic zone (see previous section), where most photosynthesis takes place (se Chapter 6). The reality is far more complex, and upwelling is influenced by numerou other factors such as stratification of the water column and the influence of coasta and seafloor geomorphology, such as shelf-incising submarine canyons (Sobarzo e al., 2001). Other important factors are river plumes and whether the upwellin delivers the nutrient that is the local limiting factor for primary productivity (fo example, nitrogen or iron; Kudela et al., 2008). Ocean upwelling zones commonl control primary productivity hotspots and their associated, highly productiv fisheries, such as the anchoveta fishery off the coast of Peru. The Peruvian upwellin varies from year to year, resulting in significant fluctuations in productivity an fisheries yields. The major factor producing these variations is the El Nifio Souther Oscillation, which is the best studied of the recurring variations in large-scal circulation, and its disruptive effects on coastal weather and fisheries are well known (Barber and Chavez, 1983).
The major ocean currents connect geographic regions and also exert control o ocean life in other ways. Currents form natural boundaries that help define distinc habitats. Such boundaries may isolate different genetic strains of the same specie as well as different species. Many marine animals (for example, salmon and squid have migration patterns that rely upon transport in major ocean current systems and other species rely on currents to distribute their larvae to new habitats Populations of ocean species naturally fluctuate from year to year, and ocea currents often play a significant role. The survival of plankton, for example, i affected by where the currents carry them. Food supply varies as changin circulation and upwelling patterns lead to higher or lower nutrient concentrations.
The heterogeneity of the oceans, its water masses, currents, ecological processes geological history and seafloor morphology, have resulted in great variations in th spatial distribution of life. In short, biodiversity is not uniformly distributed acros the oceans: there are local and regional biodiversity “hotspots” (see Chapters 33 an 35). Figure 3 shows a way in which the diversity of species is consequentl distributed around the world. Various classification systems have been devised t systematize this variety, including the European Nature Information System (EUNIS (Davies and Moss, 1999; Connor et al., 2004) and the Global Open Ocean and Dee Sea-habitats (GOODS) classification and its refinements (Agnostini 2008; Rice et a 2011)).
Part VI (Assessment of marine biodiversity and habitats) describes in more detail th diversity that is found across the ocean, and the way in which it is being affected b human activities.
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BIODIVERSIT +—More diverse Less diverse —
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
Figure 3. Distribution of biodiversity in the oceans. Biodiversity data: Tittensor et al., 2010. Huma impact data: Halpern et al., 2008, Map: Census of Marine Life, 2010; Ausubel et al., 2010; Nationa Geographic Society, 2010).
6. Human uses of the ocean
Humans depend upon the ocean in many ways and our ocean-based industries hav had impacts on ocean ecosystems from local to global spatial scales. In the larg majority of ocean ecosystems, humans play a major role in determining crucia features of the way in which the ecosystems are developing.
The impacts of climate change and acidification are pervasive through most ocea ecosystems. These, and related impacts, are discussed in Part Ill (Assessment o major ecosystem services from the marine environment (other than provisionin services)), together with the non-marketed ecosystem services that we enjoy fro the ocean and the ways in which these may be affected by the pervasive impacts o human activities.
For wide swathes of the Earth’s population, fish and other sea-derived food is  provisioning ecosystem of the highest importance. Part IV (Assessment of the cross cutting issues: food security and food safety) examines the extent to which human rely on the ocean for their food, the ways in which capturing, growing and marketin that food is impacting on ecosystems and the social and economic position of thos engaged in these activities and the health risks to everyone who enjoys this food.
The wide range of other human activities is examined in Part V (Assessment o human activities and the marine environment): these activities include the growin importance of worldwide transport in the world economy; the major role of the
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seabed in providing oil and gas and other minerals; the non-consumptive uses of th ocean to provide renewable energy; the potential for non-consumptive use o marine genetic resources; the uses of seawater to supplement freshwater resources and the vital role of the ocean in tourism and recreation. In addition, it is necessar to consider the way in which human activities that produce waste can affect th marine environment as the wastes are discharged, emitted or dumped into th marine environment, and the effects of reclaiming land from the sea and seeking t change the natural processes of erosion and sedimentation. Finally, we need t consider the marine scientific research that is the foundation of all our attempts t understand the ocean and to manage the human activities that affect it.
7. Conclusion
Our planet is seven-tenths ocean. From space, the blue of the ocean is th predominant colour. This Assessment is an attempt to produce a 3602 review o where the ocean stands, what the range of natural variability underlies its futur development and what are the pressures (and their drivers) that are likely t influence that development. As the description of the task set out in Chapter  (Mandate, information sources and method of work) shows, the Assessment doe not attempt to make recommendations or analyse the success (or otherwise) o current policies. Its task is to provide a factual basis for the relevant authorities i reaching their decisions. The aim is that a comprehensive, consistent Assessmen will provide a better basis for those decisions.
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