 |  Conservation Biology: Foundations, Concepts, Applications Fred Van Dyke
The Conservation of Aquatic Systems
Chapter Synthesis| We know too little about aquatic habitats, especially the marine habitats that cover 71% of the earth's surface and fill more than 90% of the planet's livable volume. Yet we make extensive withdrawals of natural resources from these poorly understood systems. The more important problem is not that we know too little, but that we may know too little, too late.
Problems of degradation and destruction of aquatic habitats result from both unmanaged inputs and unconstrained exploitation. To restore aquatic habitats, we must control what we put in and reduce what we take out. In the next decade, the successful conservation of aquatic habitat will require (1) control of inputs to aquatic systems through management of land-use practices surrounding these systems; (2) the establishment of an extensive, well-defined, and properly enforced aquatic reserve system, consisting of designated lakes, rivers, and marine areas that preserve high levels of the global biodiversity of aquatic communities; (3) more aggressive, persistent, and comprehensive research efforts to understand the workings of aquatic systems, unfamiliar worlds in which we do not live and which, without great effort, we cannot even observe; (4) reduction and restriction of our use of aquatic resources; and (5) international cooperation, jurisdiction, and ownership of the problems of marine environments.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education