also affect the viability of agriculture or fisheries to support human populations. Land use patterns for agriculture and ocean use patterns for fishing are affected not only by changes in population and needs but also by changes in climate or local conditions (such as desertification due to overuse or depletion of fish populations by overextraction).
Thus humans have become one of the most significant agents of change in the near-surface Earth system. And because all of Earth’s subsystems are interconnected, changes in one system can produce unforeseen changes in others.