The goal of the research presented here was to estimate and visualize the cumulative human impact on the ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea. This interactive website allows for visualization of the distribution and relative magnitude of individual human activities and associated stressors to marine ecosystems, and for an examination of human pressures to focal regions and locations.

This analysis builds on a previous global analysis of cumulative human impacts to marine ecosystems (Halpern et al. 2008. Science 319: 948-952; see also http://globalmarine.nceas.ucsb.edu and http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/globalmarine). In the present Mediterranean analysis we used the same approach developed for the global analysis, but replaced some of the datalayers and included additional data to better reflect the specific pressures to the Mediterranean basin. A total of 18 spatial datasets of human activities and stressors and 17 ecosystem types were assembled and used in the analyses and maps.

This project was supported by the Oak Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts.

• Use the map controls in the upper-left to navigate. The mouse wheel also serves to zoom in/out. For a box zoom, hold shift, left-click and drag a box.
• Left-click the map to get further information about an area of interest; A detailed data summary popup will appear.
• Scroll down to the Legend to turn on/off available map layers.