World map of ocean productivity

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The World Ocean represents an integral part of the system that is planet Earth. For humanity, the resources we obtain from the sea have always been a key piece of the puzzle. The most productive sea areas, presented in this map, are those with the highest biodiversity and biomass. These are also, in most cases, the areas with the highest harvesting pressure.
The unit used in this global map is the annual Net Primary Productivity (NPP).

Map prepared for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) publication Poverty & Environment Times #5, published in 2008, and included in the 2008 UNEP report In dead water - climate change, pollution, over-harvest, and invasive species in the world's fishing grounds.

Prepared from global scientific data acquired from Oregon State University and derived from SeaWIFS. The data were reclassed and summmarized and projected to Wagner VII projection, providing an equal-area view of the world.

ESRI ArcGIS, Saga GIS and Adobe Illustrator were used to prepare the map.

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