It provides an outstanding example of the interaction of marine and terrestrialecosystems as well as extraordinary ecosystem productivity, largely influenced by the formation of seasonal sea ice at the lowest latitude in the northern hemisphere.
Such places are terrestrial and coastal ecosystems of value and where biodiversity conservation is combined with sustainable uses of natural resources.
The subsequent industrial production of billions of tonnes of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers - particular after the 1950s - have flooded terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems with reactive nitrogen, and supported the century's human population explosion.