The document discusses the critical relationship between biodiversity loss and the livelihoods of coastal communities, particularly highlighting the impact of declining marine ecosystems on food security, health, and economic stability. It emphasizes that habitat degradation, overexploitation, and climate change are major threats to biodiversity, which in turn jeopardizes sustainable livelihoods and ecological balance. Urgent conservation efforts, particularly for mangroves and coral reefs, are necessary to protect both ecosystems and the communities that rely on them.

1. BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND
LIVELIHOOD
G. KANTHARAJAN
ICAR-CIFE
Course No: AEM 511
Course Title : MARINE ECOLOGY AND COASTAL MANAGEMENT

2. "I understand there may be a biodiversity crisis, but how does
that affect me?”
Cystonect siphonophores eat
mainly larval fish 94 – 100% of the
diets (Purcell, 1984)
Before 2002, massive outbreaks of the giant
jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai occurred about every 40
years. Since 2002, outbreaks have occurred nearly every year,
crippling commercial fisheries (Yasuda, 2004).

3. LIVELIHOOD
• According to Chambers and Conway (DFID, 1998), a livelihood “comprises the capabilities,
assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of
living”.
• A livelihood is sustainable - recover from stresses and shocks and maintain - now and in the
future
• livelihoods of the coastal fishers
is it ???
Annual production – 0.82 mt TO 2.31 mt
Production per fisher – 3.5 mt TO 1.9 mt
(1962-64 TO 1996-97)

4. BIDIVERSITY – WEB OF LIFE
• It is the link between all organisms on earth - interdependent ecosystem - all species have
their role
• The Earth’s natural assets are made up of plants, animals, land, water, the atmosphere
AND humans!
Currently using 25% more natural resources than the planet can sustain
Result - pressure or direct threats
{Biodiversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all our lives}
Biodiversity
crisis
Human’s
health and
livelihoods

5. BIODIVERSITY AND LOSS
• “The variability among living organisms from all sources
• Diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems
No feature of Earth is more complex, dynamic - the layer of living organisms
No feature is experiencing more dramatic change at the hands of humans - Earth
Nature of these impacts, good or bad, is within the power of humans to influence

6. LINKS BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY AND
LIVELIHOOD
1. Food security
Reduce risk in the face of
increasing uncertainty
Adoption of farming practices -
make use of agricultural
biodiversity
2. Vulnerability
Life – Economic losses
Mangrove forests and coral reefs
Number
of
“great”
disasters
- factor
of four
Economic
losses -
factor of ten
Four decades
Aquatic biodiversity provides great potential to enable the fisheries and
aquaculture sector to further enhance its contribution to food security and
meet future challenges in feeding a growing human population (FAO,2011)
The world’s capture fisheries harvested an estimated 1 938
aquatic species or species groups in 2011
Over 360 species of fish, invertebrates
and plants are farmed around the world

7. 3. Health
 Balanced diet
 About 7,000 species of plants and several hundred species of animals -
human food consumption – traditional communities - 200 or more
species
 Overexploitation of marine fisheries - Animal protein???
 Greater wildlife diversity may decrease the spread of many wildlife
pathogens to humans - Lyme disease
4. Energy security
-Wood fuel provides more than half the energy used in developing countries
-Sweden and the United States, wood supplies 17% and 3% of total energy
5. Provision of clean water
Concern in dozens of the world’s largest cities
New York City took steps to protect the integrity of watersheds in the Catskills to ensure
continued provision of clean drinking water to 9 million people. Protecting the ecosystem -
more cost-effective than building and operating a water filtration plant - avoided $6–8 billion

8. 6. Social relations
Spiritual and religious values to ecosystems or their components such as a tree, hill, river, or grove
(Mangroves – pitchavaram – Thillaivanam – Natarajar Temple, Chidambaram, TN)
7. Freedom of choice and action
Loss of biodiversity often means a loss of choices
The loss of biodiversity - is irreversible, the option value—can be significant
8. Basic materials for a good life and sustainable livelihoods
Biodiversity offers directly the various goods—often plants, animals, and fungi—that individuals need in order to earn
an income and secure sustainable livelihoods
Livelihoods through the support it provides for ecosystem services
Nature-based tourism (“ecotourism”)—one of the fastest-growing segments of tourism worldwide
Southern Africa - $3.6 billion in 2000, In Tanzania, tourism contributed 30% of the total GDP of the country
Properly managed sustainable fisheries could provide global net
economic benefits of $50 billion more each year (World Bank
and Food and Agriculture Organization 2008)
Local fishers depend on
mangroves as breeding
grounds
loss in control over the
local fish stock
livelihood - value
The collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery in the early
1990s cost tens of thousands of jobs, as well as at least $2
billion in income support and retrained

9. CAUSES OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS
Habitat loss and degradation
Coastal development contributes to habitat loss in a number of ways
- urban, industrial, and recreational growth
- conversion of mangroves and other wetlands as a result of urbanization and agricultural expansion
- the building of shoreline stabilization structures such as breakwaters, mining, oil drilling, dredging
and filling
Degradation of coastal habitats can have long-term consequences for fish populations.
- Serve as buffer for the mainland against ocean storms – Coral reef
- Protect the coast from erosion – Salt marsh
- Habitat conversion and degradation are generally thought to be the most significant threats – Intertidal
organisms
About 90 per cent of the world’s marine fish catch (measured by weight) is produced in these wetland areas

10. Population pressure
& Industrialization
- 77 coastal cities, 197
major and minor ports,
308 large-scale industrial
units (ICMAM)
- Population of Indian
coastal districts(73) -
14.2%
- Estimated sewage load
of 38,254 MLD, treating
only 11,787 MLD (CPCB,
2010)
Climate Change
Sea-level rise and
increases in sea-surface
temperature
-Coral reefs may be able
to keep up with the rate
of sea-level rise but
suffer bleaching
-Landward migration of
mangroves and tidal
wetlands is constrained
–Vector-borne diseases
Pollution
-High population density - high
dependence upon natural
resources
-oil and sewage, garbage,
pesticides, toxic chemicals,
heavy metals, radioactive waste,
thermal pollution and nutrients
-sewage and management of
municipal wastewater,.
-Hotspots include Mumbai,
Kolkata, Chennai, Ankleshwar
(Gujarat), Kochi and Goa are the
places where human health and
the environment

11. Over - exploitation and unsustainable use
- leading to changes in species composition, loss of biodiversity, and shifts in dominance and
survivability
- Much of the global fishing effort is targeted at a few species, located primarily near the top of the food
chain.
- Poor management practices, subsidization of the fishing industry, uncontrolled harvests within
international waters, and destructive and wasteful capture methods are to blame for the over
exploitation of most marine species.
- The impacts of biodiversity loss - their after-effects on the ecobalance of this coastal system - matter
of great concern to ecologists to maintain security and sustainability.
Invasive alien species
• Growing problem for the world, both ecologically and economically. The impact of invasive species
on native species and ecosystems has been immense.
• To be an important driver of global change.
• The cost of impact which invasive species cause is now estimated to range from millions to billions of
dollars and eventually it would be severe for all ecosystem.

12. FISH BIODIVERSITY LOSS & LIVELIHOOD
• Rapid, large scale global extinction of species - 87 %
• Slow extinction - balancing mechanisms can develop
• Industrialized fishing has contributed importantly to mass extinction
• The loss of predatory fishes - imbalances in marine ecology
• Another cause - destruction of coral reefs, this is caused by combination of causes, including
warming of oceans, damage from fishing tools
• It will take hundreds of thousands of years to restore  what is now being destroyed in a few
decades
• According to the most comprehensive study done so far in this field, over a million species will be
lost in the coming 50 years
Fisher population in India – 3.99 million

13. MANGROVE BIODIVERSITY LOSS
AND LIVELIHOOD
More than one in six - danger of extinction - 11 out of 70 mangrove
Urgent protection is needed for two mangrove species that are listed
as Critically Endangered - Sonneratia griffithii and Bruguiera hainesii
Sonneratia griffithii is found in India and Southeast Asia, where 80
percent of all mangrove area has been lost over the past 60 years.
Bruguiera hainesii is an even rarer species - fewer than 250 mature
trees of the species remaining.
‘’Mangrove ecosystems are not only a vital component in efforts to
fight climate change, but they also protect some of the world’s
most vulnerable people from extreme weather and provide them
with a source of food and income’’
Support coastal livelihoods
Sequester carbon from the atmosphere
Source and repository for nutrients and sediments for other inshore
marine habitats, such as seagrass beds and coral reefs
US$1.6 billion each year in ecosystem services

14. INDIAN SCENARIO
About 3% of the global mangroves and 8% of Asian mangroves (SFR, 2009; FAO, 2007)
• About 60% - east coast along the Bay of Bengal, 27% on the west coast bordering the Arabian Sea, and 13% on
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
• Approximately 59 species in 41 genera and 29 families. Of these, 34 species belonging to 25 genera and 21 families are
present along west coast.
• Utilized for their wood construction, fuel, fodder, barks for tannin extraction, fruits and young shoots are used as
vegetable, medicinal use
• The long coastlines and their mangrove vegetation have immense role in protecting coastal biodiversity
• Deforestation - about 44% and 26% of mangroves along the west and east coast, respectively (Upadhyay, et. al., 2002).
During Tsunami in 2004 mangrove populated area in Tamil Nadu – Pitchavaram mangroves, Andhra
Pradesh – Coringa mangroves had negligible impact and people could also take shelter in the
mangroves present at the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary (MSSRF, 2005 & WWF, 2005) During the
tsunami, mangroves served as speed-breakers and saved people from the waves.
More than 40000 fisherfolk get an annual yield of about 540 million seeds of
Peanaus monodon for aquaculture from Sundarbans mangrove of West Bengal.

15. CORAL REEF BIDIVERSITY AND LIVELIHOOD
• 0.1% of the ocean floor – 25% of fish biodiver
• About 275 million people live within 30 km of a coral reef
• Many coastal and small island nations in the world’s tropical - Coral calcification and mortality
• 80% on many Caribbean reefs with a dramatic phase shift from corals to seaweeds occurring on Jamaican reefs (Hughes, 1994).
• Tropical cyclones, coral predators, and thermal stress-related coral bleaching and mortality have led to a decline in coral cover
on the Great Barrier Reef by about 51% between 1985 and 2012.
Resources:
Account for 10 to 12% of the fish caught in tropical countries
More than half (55%) of the 49 island countries considered are already exploiting their coral reef fisheries - production of coral
reef fish in the Pacific is projected to decrease 20% by 2050
Coastal protection:
Coral reefs contribute to protecting the shoreline from the destructive action of storm surges and cyclones sheltering
the only habitable land for several island nations, habitats suitable for the establishment and maintenance of mangroves and
wetlands, as well as areas for recreational activities.
Tourism:
More than 100 countries benefit from the recreational value provided by their coral reefs. For example, the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park attracts about 1.9 million visits each year and generates A$5.4 billion to the Australian economy and
54,000 jobs.

16. BLUE CARBON – for global warming
mitigation
Carbon Sequestration
• Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or
capturing anthropogenic CO2 from large-scale stationary sources –
captured - long-term storage
salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds
two main reasons:
1. Their plants usually grow a lot each year, and in the process,
capture (or sequester) large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2)
2. Their soils are largely anaerobic (without oxygen) so carbon that
gets incorporated into the soils decomposes very slowly and can
persist for hundreds or even thousands of years (carbon storage)
Mangroves Sequester approximately 25.5 million tonnes of carbon every year.
Estimated Carbon sequestration potential of Thane Creek Mangrove is 238417.9 t - 70 % dominance (Pachpande et. al., 2015)

18. SEAGRASS BIDIVERSITY AND LIVELIHOOD
• Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay of main land coast and Lakshadweep islands
• World – 58 sp – 13 genera
• India – 15 sp – (Potamogentonaceae, Hydrocharitaceae)
• Effect on sea grass ecosystem
• Withstand higher nutrient concentration when compare with coral reef,
but world most frequent seagrass disappearance was occurred due to
nutrient accumulation
• Higher nutrient accumulation/ silt deposition  destructionof corals 
seagrass  further addition leads to the change towards seaweed
ecosystem
• Increasing temp and nutrition - bloom formation - reduced
photosynthesis of zooxanthellae and coral reef skeletal formation -
induce the macrophyte growth - reduce the photosynthetic efficiency of
seagrass

19. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
• By absorbing nutrients it provide opportunity to flourish coral reef
• Play major role in maintaining local ecology by stabilizing the
sediment and produces POM
• Provide shelter for permanent resident sp like pipe fish, eel,
wrasses and sprats etc…
• Sea grass ecosystem, enhances the larval survival because they
provide food – Acanthuridae , low predation risk – snappers and
buffer fish and safety from unwanted weather condition.
• Sea cow, Green seaturtle - GOM
• Place for life cycle completion.
• Provide shelter for non- commercially important species, by the
way it form food chain linkage. Migratory fishes like
pomacentridae, lutjanidae and holocentridae individually feeds on
sea grass associated invertebrates throughout the night and
returns to coral reef envt on the same day itself

20. Conclusion

21. • THANK U
THANK U