The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent the world’s plan of action for social inclusion, environmental sustainability and economic development. The mining industry has an unprecedented opportunity to mobilize significant human, physical, technological and financial resources to advance the SDGs.
Human impacts on sand-producing, large benthic foraminifers were investigated on ocean reef flats at the northeast Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, along a human population gradient. The densities of dominant foraminifers Calcarina and Amphistegina declined with distance from densely populated islands. Macrophyte composition on ocean reef flats differed between locations near sparsely or densely populated islands. Nutrient concentrations in reef-flat seawater and groundwater were high near or on densely populated islands.