Issue Ocean life and ocean integrity missing from the boundary framework

Summary

The planetary boundaries framework does not yet include a comprehensive assessment of marine life, and researchers are refining the genetic and functional control variables to cover both land and ocean. Extinction estimates rely mainly on vertebrates and a few terrestrial invertebrate groups, whereas the most species-rich marine groups are invertebrates such as polychaetes, crustaceans and echinoderms, and 91 percent of an expected 2.2 million marine species remain undescribed. With little historical data, exact marine extinction rates cannot be estimated, so broader taxonomic coverage and an alternative metric are needed. Marine functional integrity, such as the biological carbon pump that moves organic carbon to the deep ocean for long-term storage, is also absent. Ocean acidification is well established, but equally critical processes such as ocean warming and deoxygenation are still only being evaluated as candidates. The report sees coastal habitat loss and reduced exploited fish biomass as promising candidates, though global thresholds require further work.