Julia S. Stewart Lowndes

TL;DR: This work calculates and map recent change over 5 years in cumulative impacts to marine ecosystems globally from fishing, climate change, and ocean- and land-based stressors and affirm the importance of addressing climate change to maintain and improve the condition of marine ecosystems.

TL;DR: It is found that most of the ocean is experiencing significantly increasing cumulative impact, in particular due to climate change but also from fishing, land-based pollution and shipping.

TL;DR: Five existing methods that address the needs of monitoring and assessment of marine ecosystems are reviewed, highlighting their main characteristics and analyzing their commonalities and differences.

TL;DR: Several free software tools have fundamentally upgraded the authors' approach to collaborative research, making their entire workflow more transparent and streamlined, and it is hoped this will encourage others in the scientific community to do the same so they can all produce better science in less time.

TL;DR: The second annual global assessment of the Ocean Health Index is presented, reporting current scores and annual changes since 2012, recalculated using updated methods and data based on the best available science, for 221 coastal countries and territories.