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8.11D Human Effect on Resources
Background Information
Humans depend on the ocean for many reasons including food, transportation, energy sources, and
recreation. The use of resources from the world’s oceans has had a major impact on the biodiversity in
these ecosystems. Human activities play an important role in changing the environment of the oceans.
Runoff is the flow of water that occurs when the soil is saturated and excess water from rain, or other
sources, flows over the land and can accumulate in larger reservoirs of water including oceans. When runoff
flows along the ground, it can pick up contaminants, such as toxic chemicals or pollutants.
Human urbanization increases surface runoff by creating more impermeable surfaces, such as concrete and
pavement, which does not allow percolation of water down through the soil and into the aquifer. Instead,
water is forced directly into the water source such as a river, lake, or ocean. When contaminants are
dissolved in runoff, the human impact creates water pollution that can have a detrimental effect on water
quality and the living organisms dependent on that water source.
Artificial reefs are man-made underwater structures built to promote marine life in areas that typically have a
flat, featureless bottom. They can be intentional by placing unused or non-working structures that were once
used for other purposes, such as old automobiles, buses, train cars, and oil rigs, down on the ocean floor.
Artificial reefs can also occur unintentionally such as a ship that sinks during a shipwreck. These artificial
reefs provide hard surfaces where algae and invertebrates, such as coral, oysters, and barnacles, can
attach.
As they grow and accumulate, these reefs then provide a structure for habitats and food for other marine life
including many types of fish. Although they may be first used as benefits for marine life, artificial reefs may
have some environmental concerns. These concerns include toxicity of some man-made structures, damage
to natural ecosystems, and even worsening the effects of overfishing by accumulating fish into one area.
Current research shows the impacts of human activity on ocean ecosystems can be seen worldwide and in
every type of ecosystem found in the oceans. As humans depend on resources from oceans on an
increasing basis, the effects raise environmental concerns.
Activities such as overfishing, pollution from dumping, pollution from shipping transportation, recreation use,
runoff, and coastal development all have had a major impact on parts of the world’s oceans. These impacts
affect most marine life, coral and rocky reefs, seamounts, estuaries, and open waters, as well as shallow
and deep ocean ecosystems. Most human activities, including using resources from the oceans, have a
major impact on fragile marine ecosystems.
Part I: Our Ocean Rummy
Student Guide
The oceans are Earth’s largest ecosystem, and the interdependent relationships humans have with the
oceans are rich and complex. Even if we do not live near the ocean, we affect and are affected by its
systems every day. Humans depend on ocean systems for many things including climate and weather
patterns, production of oxygen, storage and exchange of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, transportation of heat
around the globe, and ecosystems supporting marine life. Human impacts on ocean systems include
commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture, introduction of invasive species, coastal development,
pollution from sewage, urban and agricultural runoff, trash and medical waste, oil spills, and ocean warming
and acidification due to climate change. The consequences of our impact includes loss of fisheries, species
endangerment or extinction, habitat degradation, spread of disease, loss of biodiversity, dead zones, trash
islands, sea level rise, storm surges and flooding, and human displacement.
In this activity. you will play a game to identify ocean systems and the human impact and
consequences of that impact on the systems.
How to play the game:
1. This game can be played with 3-4 people. One person in your group starts as a dealer. The dealer
passes out seven cards to each member of your group. The rest of the deck remains in the middle as
the stockpile. The person sitting to the left of the dealer starts the game.
2. Look at your hand of cards. The object of the game is to play all of your cards. When you have no
more cards, you win. To play your cards, you must collect a set of three cards, one from each suit.
Any card from the suit works. There are three suits in the deck: Ocean Systems, Human Impacts,
and Consequences. When you collect a set, place the three cards face up on the table in front of
you. When you are left with only one card, you can finish playing by placing it face up on the table
with a card from a matching suit, to make a pair.
3. The cards are not labeled by suit. You must decide which suit they belong to as you play. You’ll
review the provided Answer Key at the end of the game.
4. The player on the left of the dealer begins the game by drawing a card from the stockpile. If the player
has a set, it is placed face up on the table. Only one set may be played during a turn. Then, that
player must discard a card, face down, creating the discard pile. The next player draws a card from
the stockpile, places down a set if they have one, and discards a card. Each player repeats this
process in turn.
5. If the stockpile runs out, shuffle the discard pile, and turn it face down. It becomes the new stockpile.
6. When a player is out of cards, the player may check the Answer Key. If the student’s sets are correct,
this player has won the game. If the player made a mistake, the player is out. The player can add
his/her cards to the discard pile for other players to use.
7. Play can continue until only one person is left.
8. Play the game until directed by your teacher.
9. Using the cards for guidance, complete Part I in your Explore Student Journal.
Complete Part I in your Explore Student Journal