Identifying marine stressors
Marine stressors can come from natural, unexpected events such as erosion from an earthquake or slip, but many stressors are linked to human activities.
Most marine ecosystems are resilient, but stressors can build up and lead to a tipping point – the point at which an ecosystem loses its capacity to cope with change. Tipping points are rapid transformations and generally result in an ecosystem moving from something of value to one less valued. At the moment, New Zealand is managing its marine resources at limits set by a single stressor in isolation such as sediment loading. This puts the resiliency of an ecosystem to cope with change at risk when affected by additional stressors such as harvesting or climate change.
In this activity, students use online or paper resources to identify potential human-induced marine stressors. Students can then use this information to consider steps they can take as individuals or as part of the school or community to help reduce the stress.
Marine stressors
Use this interactive to identify stressors in marine environments. Drag and drop the text labels onto the microscope diagram. Selecting or hovering over a box will highlight each area in the diagram. If you hover your mouse over the text labels there is more information.
If you want to redo an answer, click on the box and the answer will go back to the top so you can move it to another box. If you want to check your answers, use the Reset incorrect button. This will reset incorrect answers only. When you are happy with your selection, use the Check answers button to check them. Use Reset all to practise again from the start.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
identify marine stressors linked to human activities
use online resources to learn more about marine stressors
identify actions they can take to minimise stressors.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
background information for teachers
student instructions.
Related content
This activity supports our Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge resources.
The interactive Threats to marine habitats uses infographics to explain the impacts human activities are having on life in the sea.
