**6. Management of biodiversity and chemodiversity**

Global anthropic influence is articulated on the exploitation of natural resources and the generation of wastes. Here are a few examples of man's use of biogenic resources, mineral and organic, fossil or live.

#### **6.1. Urban development**

The use of biogenic sand and limestone concretions usually involves no direct utilization of live organisms. Indirectly, the overexploitation of sand beds from littoral zones represents a double problem: the eradication of the epibenthic wildlife and with time, erosive changes in coastal profiling. Sand particles offer extended surfaces that are essential for microorganisms to recycle decaying organic debris and avoid the accumulation of toxic nitrites and nitrates. The exploitation of sands from coral reef atolls, together with the silting of coastal bays and leeward zones due to mining activities spillage are major sources of biodiversity loss.

#### **6.2. Energy**

The use of fossil hydrocarbons extracted from the Mexican Gulf, the Northern Sea etc., as energy sources results in the volatilization of carbon in the atmosphere at rates up to one million times faster than it took for phytoplankton to fix and sequester it into sediments as oil beds [25]. Atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide, methane, sulphur dioxide and other combustion products, create an artificial greenhouse effect after only 150 years of exploitation (now largely marine), adding to natural volcanic activity. Global warming and ocean acidifi‐ cation are both regarded as major potential sources of marine biodiversity destruction [43].

a farmer and he is now turning towards artificially produced biomass that has food value,

Marine Biodiversity and Chemodiversity — The Treasure Troves of the Future

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/57394

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The management of natural sanctuaries that are subjected to minimal interference, with sizes large enough to have a self-regenerating biodiversity (and chemodiversity), and tightly

grown from cultured transgenic cells. What next?

**7. Pollution**

**7.1. Urban developments**

recyclable organic polymers.

**7.2. Energy**

the natural microbial diversity [47], [43].

controlled environmental connectivity, should be encouraged.

Man does not always recycle the wastes he generates, far from it.

There are two major issues to consider: one is structural and the other is biological.

Structural issues are linked to urban planning and the exploitation of natural zones, and to the fate of obsolete constructions and roads that cannot be recycled back into their original components - the net result being a shift from marine destructive exploitation (sand) to terrestrial pollution (discharges). Wherever possible, alternatives to marine sand must be sought for housing, to save the resource and perhaps use recycled wood-based products and

Biological issues emerge from the disposal of untreated sewage, of fertilizers, pesticides, drugs, household maintenance products and industrial by-products. Regarding sewage, local enrichment of waterways and coastal areas, especially in nitrogen and phosphorus, causes toxic phytoplankton blooms, and unwanted algal proliferations that tend to displace indige‐ nous species. This is especially true for complex oligotrophic ecosystems in which nutrients are efficiently used and recycled. In coral reefs, bacterial charges are introduced directly or via invasive algal proliferations [46], favoring the dominance of pathogenic strains and reducing

Regarding energy-related matters, losses due extraction and transport (ship degassing, black tides due to wreckages etc.) are the cause of episodic but massive biodiversity destructions in littoral zones, by asphyxiating wildlife and by destroying skin protection barrier. The exploi‐ tation of light hydrocarbons from shales is currently the subject of intense debates, especially regarding its consequences on water quality [48]. The exploitation of gas hydrates represents an attractive energy source, but its exploitation may prove difficult to control, and its release

The modern world is global and highly competitive. Being positioned on an economic niche requires achieving results and outcompeting contenders, no matter what the human and

from the thawing of the permafrost due to global warming difficult to evaluate [49].

**7.3. Synthetic drugs, artificial molecules, genetically modified organisms**

Biodiversity loss seems to be the inevitable toll to pay for a global economic expansion relying heavily on the use of biogenic productions. When such exploitations occur at the vicinity of marine biodiversity hotspots (coral reefs for example), which concentrate much of the useful and yet unexplored chemical diversity [26], we run into the risk of losing a lot of useful model molecules and end up with a hostile, impoverished microbial world instead [44].

#### **6.3. Drugs and ethics**

Drugs are basically dangerous when ingested, injected or applied externally without caution, and man has always made the difference between edibles and toxic or venomous substances, or foodstuff corrupted with microbes. Medicine men and witch doctors knew empirically how to use fresh plants and how to blend them to cure fevers, wounds and other ailments, and this knowledge was passed on exclusively to younger initiates who henceforth gained access to special social status and were highly respected. Today, bioactive substances are patented and the administration of prescription drugs is tightly controlled. As mentioned earlier, the drug industry is one of the very few primary sources of revenue in any country's economy. Explo‐ ration of novel sources of natural products in biodiversity hotspots, terrestrial or marine, is a touchy subject. Intellectual property should be shared in the benefit of local populations, eventually leading to their active participation in the cultivation and the preparation and purification of extracts, on a non-destructive and sustainable basis. This is especially true for developments that were guided by ethnopharmacological surveys, i.e. the participation of local medicine men. Marine bioexploration, however, is almost exclusively based on system‐ atic screening of marine plants, invertebrates and microbes, but it should be subjected to territorial laws like the exploitation of forests, fishing zones or mines in a participative manner. More specifically, endangered or rare species should be identified, and sampling procedures be conducted in accordance with internationally established practices [45].

#### **6.4. Food**

We have purposely ignored aspects directly related to food, i.e. the exploitation of marine resources through fisheries and the farming of selected fish and seafood species. The sustain‐ able management of natural stocks and the influence of global warming on natural biodiversity profiles is a major concern in the 21st century. Human population has almost trebled since WWII, and *Homo sapiens* dominates terrestrial vertebrate biomass (half a billion tons) to the point that meat protein supplies will be scarcer. After being a hunter-gatherer, man has become a farmer and he is now turning towards artificially produced biomass that has food value, grown from cultured transgenic cells. What next?

The management of natural sanctuaries that are subjected to minimal interference, with sizes large enough to have a self-regenerating biodiversity (and chemodiversity), and tightly controlled environmental connectivity, should be encouraged.
