Abstract
Whilst harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a natural phenomenon, the impacts of these events can have devastating impacts on human societies. To date, these have largely been studied with reference to economic and health impacts, which can be significant and have impact at both individual and community levels. This paper builds on previous work and addresses recent calls to more fully understand the nuanced human impacts of HABs. Using a framework of cultural ecosystem services, the paper explores how HABs can impact human well-being through disruptions to therapeutic and inspirational opportunities in the natural environment, opportunities for recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and losses to traditional ways of life, sense of place and collective identity. A snapshot is gleaned into the lived realities of six local residents of St Austell bay, Cornwall, UK, an area frequently affected by HABs via interviews which illustrate how the impacts of HABs can be felt at a much deeper level than are revealed through economic and health analysis. Whilst it is acknowledged the sample size here is limited, the findings nonetheless point to some of the key impacts of HABs in this specific setting and indicate a need for continued research to incorporate local experiences into decisions about how to respond to environmental shocks and what safeguards could help to buffer against the worst of these. It is argued that locally-directed management policies can be developed at scales more appropriate to coastal communities to better respond to their specific needs when considering HAB impacts.
Highlights
The marine environment provides a range of ecosystem services, or benefits for people as defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA [33]), which are important, if not essential, for human wellbeing
Rather than drawing overarching conclusions based on this limited number of interviews, the aim here is to understand some of the key impacts on people in a discrete area who had experienced Harmful algal blooms (HABs) and to uncover some of the more nuanced impacts including psychological and emotional impacts which have implications for human well-being
Findings are analysed through the lens of cultural ecosystem services and how impacts ranged from physical impediments to undertaking specific coastal/marine activities to more psychological and emotional impacts which affected individuals’ well-being
Summary
The marine environment provides a range of ecosystem services, or benefits for people as defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA [33]), which are important, if not essential, for human wellbeing. HABs occur when certain species of phytoplankton increase in abundance and cause negative impacts on human uses of marine ecosystem services [27]. These HABs can have direct negative impacts on human well-being, mainly through their impact on fisheries, tourism and recreation, as well as on human health through exposure to biotoxins through inhalation, direct contact or through ingestion through the food chain [6]. Economic and health impacts typically provide the focus for the HAB literature [14,23,35] it is argued here that disruptions to the wider range of benefits to human well-being can be significant for both individuals and for communities and deserve more focussed attention
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