Climate Change and Marine Ecosystem Health: Implications for Coastal Communities and Public Health

Abstract

The years 2010-2025 have been characterized by an increasing climate crisis resulting in widespread increasing impacts on marine ecosystems and the dependant coastal human communities. This review synthesises the literature of this period and discusses how climate change, marine ecosystems and public health are combined in the network of interlinked impacts reported in the scientific literature. This examination has followed a progression from the earliest studies of the climatic influences on ocean conditions to complex studies of cascading impacts on human communities and concerns for human well-being including physical and mental health and food security. Major climate driven processes e.g. ocean warming, acidification, de-oxygenation and sea-level rise are described, together with resultant changes in marine biodiversity, goods and services. Special emphasis is given to impacts on human health in coastal settings including increased exposure to infectious diseases, of nutritional deficit following loss of fisheries, and increasing impacts of community mental health disorders associated with climate stressors. There is evidence that these impacts are disproportionately distributed to vulnerable populations indicating the need for specific consideration in mitigation and adaptation. Serious gaps in knowledge are evident, together with suggested trajectories for study and implications for policy, which again emphasise the need for transdisciplinary approaches and One Health methodologies to address the complexity of the climate-ocean-human health nexus.