The Impacts of Multiple Stressors

The document argues that over 40 percent of the marine environment is already affected by a combination of global stressors, such as ocean warming and acidification, and local stressors, such as overfishing and pollution. It highlights that these stressors often interact synergistically, increasing the vulnerability of specific hotspots like the Arctic and ecosystems like coral reefs. The text emphasizes that while global stressors are driven by CO2 emissions, managing local stressors can buffer ecosystems and increase resilience, necessitating a cross-scale governance approach that integrates local action with global climate policy.

• Over 40 percent of the marine environment is currently impacted by a combination of stressors, yet most management strategies remain issue-specific and fail to consider the relationships or feedbacks between multiple stressors.
• Marine stressors are categorized into global drivers, primarily CO2 emissions leading to warming, acidification, and deoxygenation, and local/regional drivers related to human population growth, such as pollution, overfishing, and coastal hypoxia.
• Specific 'hotspots' of vulnerability include the Eastern Boundary Upwelling Regions, the Arctic, the Southern Ocean, and the high-latitude North Pacific. Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable, as local stressors like pollution and destructive fishing can undermine their resilience to global thermal stress and acidification.

APA

Noone, K., Sumaila, R., Díaz, R. J., Hall, J., Gruber, N., & Wilhelmsson, D. (n.d.). The Impacts of Multiple Stressors. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Preview-TheImpactsOfMultipleStressors-AComplexWebOfChallenges.pdf

Chicago

Noone, Kevin, Rashid Sumaila, Robert J Díaz, Julie Hall, Nicolas Gruber, and Dan Wilhelmsson. The Impacts of Multiple Stressors. Stockholm Environment Institute, n.d. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Preview-TheImpactsOfMultipleStressors-AComplexWebOfChallenges.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{noonendimpacts, author = {Noone, Kevin and Sumaila, Rashid and Díaz, Robert J and Hall, Julie and Gruber, Nicolas and Wilhelmsson, Dan}, title = {{The Impacts of Multiple Stressors}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-Preview-TheImpactsOfMultipleStressors-AComplexWebOfChallenges.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }