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Ocean deserts and ocean oases

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Abstract

Desertification can be a particularly visible consequence of climatic change. While considerable research has been devoted to terrestrial desertification in recent years, it is in the sea that biological deserts comprise 90% of the total area. Productive ocean ‘oases’ or coastal upwelling areas comprise less than .1% of the total ocean area but yield up to half the world's fish catch. Since these high productivity zones occur near coastal margins they are closest to man's pollution and his tools for species decimation.

In this paper we examine the notion of biological deserts in the sea and assess the limitation of the ocean as a biological resource. Since climatic conditions favorable for above average ocean productivity are often conducive to the creation of coastal deserts, the connections between ocean and atmosphere in these regions are examined. Finally, the impacts of natural climatic and biological variability, marine pollution, and over-fishing on the process of biological desertification in the sea are explored.

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  1. JAYCOR, 22304, Alexandria, VA, U.S.A.

    J. Dana Thompson

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Editor's Note: This article was expanded from Chapter 6 in Desertification: Environmental degradation in and around arid lands, edited by M. H. Glantz, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1977, to whom permission for reprinted material is gratefully acknowledged.

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Thompson, J.D. Ocean deserts and ocean oases. Climatic Change 1, 205–230 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166175

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