Discuss the importance of the goods and services that ocean ecosystems provide for humans
What will be an ideal response?
The oceans facilitate transportation and commerce, influence global climate, teem with biodiversity, and provide us with many resources. Oceans provide an affordable means of moving people and products over vast distances. The historical impacts of shipping on human culture and commerce are profound, accelerating the global reach of certain cultures and the interaction of long-isolated peoples. The thousands of ships plying the world's oceans today carry everything from cod to cargo containers to crude oil. Due to water's high heat capacity, oceans can moderate climate by absorbing heat from the atmosphere. They are a source of thermal energy, and they can also release heat into the atmosphere. Humans use oceans as sources of commercially valuable energy. Oil and methane hydrate sediments represent fossil fuel resources in the ocean. In recent decades, engineers have developed turbines that generate electricity using the ebb and flow of the tides for energy. There are thousands of species of fish in the oceans that provide us with food. People also extract minerals from the ocean floor. By using large vacuum cleaner-like hydraulic dredges, miners collect sediments and mineral deposits such as sand and gravel from deep beneath the sea. Sulfur is extracted from salt deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, and phosphorite is extracted from many offshore areas, including several near the California coast. Other valuable minerals found on or beneath the sea floor include calcium carbonate (used in making cement), silica (used as fire?resistant insulation and in manufacturing glass), and rich deposits of copper, zinc, silver, and gold ore. Many minerals are found concentrated in manganese nodules, small ball?shaped accretions that litter parts of the ocean floor.
Also, the sea has always been a primal symbol and experience for humans, representing vastness, the beyond, and the abode of higher beings. Oceans have a great value in their intangible ecosystem services, giving us a source of artistic inspiration, beauty, and peace of mind which are mainstays of the tourism industry worldwide.
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