Drivers behind human activities affecting benthic habitats
All social and economic drivers have the potential to influence the status of benthic species and habitats. Society’s need for food, materials, energy, global communications and trade drives human activities which, in turn, may exert physical and biological pressures on the seabed. The need for energy, health and wellbeing, materials and trade also drives various human activities which can input or spread chemical pollutants, non-indigenous species, heat, litter, and other stressors. In managing human activities, policy responses need to consider all these driving forces in order to meet society’s needs while reducing pressures and in turn reducing the risks associated with physical disturbance and habitat loss and facilitating mitigation and adaptation to climate change.