Jump to main content or area navigation.

Contact Us

ReefLink Database

Agriculture

Agriculture

The Agriculture Sector includes both animal and crop production. Establishments primarily include farms, ranches, feedlots, orchards, and greenhouses (NAICS 2007).

CMap

The Agriculture Sector includes both animal and crop production. Agriculture, aquaculture and forestry policies regulate and control agriculture, aquaculture and forestry. Applied chemicals are chemicals applied to lands, vehicles, buildings, or during manufacturing for a variety of purposes, including maintaining pests, improving soil quality, or cleaning surfaces. Contact Uses, such as biological additions, physical damage, and biological harvesting, are activities in which humans create pressures through direct contact with the ecosystem. Deforestation and Devegetation are the removal of trees and plants, including clear-cutting, to provide clear land for farms, roads, homes, buildings, and other infrastructure. Discharge limitations are responses to regulate and control the discharge of pollutants and the use of chemicals. Discharges are the intentional or unintentional distribution of chemicals, debris, or other pollution, into the environment as a consequence of human activities. Ditching & Soil Disturbance pertains to large-scale changes to the terrestrial landscape through channeling for irrigation, grading for roads & construction, and mining which disrupt and dislodge soil and can lead to sediment runoff into the watershed. Dredging is the process of excavating material from an area to maintain ship channels and harbors for safe navigation. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems . Food & energy policies are legislation, restrictions, and guidelines that pertain to sectors that harvest or extract natural resources. The Food and Raw Materials sector includes groups that harvest natural resources from the earth, including agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, forestry, mining, and the oil and gas industry. Landscape Changes are alterations of the natural landscape through human activities, including coastal development, shoreline armoring, impervious surfaces, deforestation, or soil disturbance, which can alter water flow patterns and lead to pollutant runoff into coastal systems. Landuse management pertains to responses that determine the use of land for development and construction. Non-point source pollution is runoff from diffuse sources that is caused by rainwater moving over and through the ground, carrying pollutants with it and depositing them in coastal waters. The Reef Ecosystem includes a suite of abiotic variables that form the physical and chemical environment. Physical Damage to reef habitat and wetlands can occur from vessel groundings, dredging, trampling, boat movement, anchor drops, trawling, and fishing gear. Pressures are human activities that create stress on the environment. The state of the Reef Ecosystem is the condition, in terms of quantity and quality, of the abiotic and biotic components including physical, chemical, and biological variables. Reef Life is the abundance, distribution, and condition of the biological components of the coral reef ecosystem. Regulating Services are benefits obtained from ecosystem processes that regulate the environment, including erosion regulation, natural hazard regulation, and climate regulation. Responses are actions taken by groups or individuals in society and government to prevent, compensate, ameliorate or adapt to changes in Ecosystem Services or their perceived value. Shoreline Protection is the attenuation of wave energy by reefs that protects coastal communities against shoreline erosion and flooding during storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis that can cause property damage and loss of life. Socio-Economic Drivers include the sectors that fulfill human needs for Food & Raw Materials, Water, Shelter, Health, Culture, and Security, and the Infrastructure that supports the sectors.

CMap Description

Development of lands for agriculture may require deforestation & devegetation, which can modify rates of non-point source runoff, or draining & filling of wetland vegetation in coastal areas. Irrigation systems can lead to ditching & soil disturbance that modify the landscape and also influence stormwater runoff. Applied chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, can wash into the coastal ecosystem and affect the survival & growth of reef life and the provision of ecosystem services. Agricultural sectors may benefit from shoreline protection, as well as indirectly from other ecosystem services that improve the well-being of sectors, such as tourism & recreation, which depend on crop and animal production. Agricultural policies can be enacted to modify irrigation practices or encourage Best Management Practices (BMPs).

Jump to main content.