Assessing marine debris in deep seafloor habitats off California

Watters, Diana L.; Yoklavich, Mary M.; Love, Milton S.; Schroeder, Donna M.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2009.08.019

Cited by 214 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Accordingly, several authors (Galgani et al 1996;Mordecai et al 2011;Pham et al 2014) concluded that submarine canyons may act as a conduit for the transport of marine debris into the deep sea. Recent studies conducted in coastal deep-sea areas along California and the Gulf of Mexico (Watters et al 2010;Schlining et al 2013;Wei et al 2012) confirmed this pattern. Also, an analysis of the composition and abundance of man-made, benthic marine debris collected in bottom trawl surveys at 1,347 randomly-selected stations along the US west coast in 2007 and 2008 indicated that densities increased significantly with depth, ranging from 30 items km −2 in shallow (55-183 m) to 128 items km −2 in the deepest waters surveyed (550-1,280 m) (Keller et al 2010).…”

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 72%

“…In the North Sea, this percentage has been temporally stable (Galgani et al 2011a) but litter may be supplemented by coastal recreational activities and riverine input (Lechner et al 2014;Morritt et al 2014). Studies along the US west coast, specifically off the coast of the southern California Bight (Moore and Allen 2000;Watters et al 2010;Keller et al 2010;Schlining et al 2013) have shown that ocean-based sources are the major contributors to marine debris in the eastern North Pacific with, for example, fishing gear being the most abundant debris off Oregon (June 1990). Investigations in coastal waters and beaches around the northern South China Sea in 2009 and 2010 indicated that plastics (45 %) and Styrofoam (23 %) accounted for more than 90 % of floating debris and 95 % of beached debris.…”

Section: Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, trawls cannot be used in rocky habitats or on hard substrates and they do not allow for a precise localization of individual items. Samples from trawls are likely to underestimate debris abundance and may miss some types of debris altogether such as monofilaments because of variability in the sampling efficiency for different debris items (Watters et al 2010). Fibres from the trawl nets themselves (Murray and Cowie 2011) may contaminate samples.…”

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A great variety of human activities such as fishing, urban development and tourism contribute to the distribution pattern of debris on the seabed. Debris from the fishing industry is prevalent in fishing areas (Watters et al 2010;Schlining et al 2013;Vieira et al 2014). This type of material may account for a high proportion of debris.…”

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global Distribution, Composition and Abundance of Marine Litter

Galgani

Hanke

Maes

2015

Marine Anthropogenic Litter

442

338

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Marine debris is commonly observed everywhere in the oceans. Litter enters the seas from both land-based sources, from ships and other installations at sea, from point and diffuse sources, and can travel long distances before being stranded. Plastics typically constitute the most important part of marine litter sometimes accounting for up to 100 % of floating litter. On beaches, most studies have demonstrated densities in the 1 item m −2 range except for very high concentrations because of local conditions, after typhoons or flooding events. Floating marine debris ranges from 0 to beyond 600 items km −2 . On the sea bed, the abundance of plastic debris is very dependent on location, with densities ranging from 0 to >7700 items km −2 , mainly in coastal areas. Recent studies have demonstrated that pollution of microplastics, particles <5 mm, has spread at the surface of oceans, in the water column and in sediments, even in the deep sea. Concentrations at the water surface ranged from thousands to hundred thousands of particles km −2 . Fluxes vary widely with factors such as proximity of urban activities, shore and coastal uses, wind and ocean currents. These enable the presence of accumulation areas in oceanic convergence zones and on the seafloor, notably in coastal canyons. Temporal trends are not clear with evidences for increases, decreases or without changes, depending on locations and environmental conditions. In terms of distribution and quantities, proper global estimations based on standardized approaches are still needed before considering efficient management and reduction measures.

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Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Global Distribution, Composition and Abundance of Marine Litter

Galgani

Hanke

Maes

2015

Marine Anthropogenic Litter

442

338

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…From these, ∼27% are related to fishes (Dantas et al, 2012;Ramos et al, 2012;Lusher, 2015;Neves et al, 2015;Sá et al, 2015;Ferreira et al, 2016;Rummel et al, 2016) and ∼2% to invertebrates (Besseling et al, 2014;Chua et al, 2014;Setälä et al, 2014Setälä et al, , 2016Lusher, 2015). Plastic debris that reach the sea originate mainly on land, through poor disposal practices such as accidental release, natural disasters and inadequate disposal habits Watters et al, 2010). Transport by rivers and winds permits entire plastic items and debris to enter the marine environment and travel over long distances along which they transform both physical and chemically (Wright et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal-Dial Shifts of Ichthyoplankton Assemblages and Plastic Debris around an Equatorial Atlantic Archipelago

Lima

Barletta

Costa

2016

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Seasonality was a stronger influence in the ichthyoplankton assemblages around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago (SPSPA) than distance from the islands. Plastic debris were ubiquitous and although it presented diel trends, no other spatiotemporal patterns was showed. Larval Oxyporhamphus micropterus was the most important taxa (29.37% of the total catch), followed by Ceratoscopelus warmingii and Entomacrodus vomerianus. Exocoetidae eggs represented 41.01%. Mesopelagic fish larvae dominated the community. Myctophidae had the highest species richness (15). Four larval fish assemblages occurred: (1) night-time demersal/bathydemersal (Anguillidae, Congridae); (2) daytime mesopelagic/bathypelagic/epipelagic (Myctophidae, Cyclothone acclinidens); (3) daytime epipelagic (Exocoetidae, Coryphaena hippurus, Thunnus albacares); and (4) night-time reef and demersal (Blennidae, Pomacentridae, Lutjanidae). The dry season (lower temperature, higher chlorophyll a and higher SW wind velocity) influenced the first two assemblages. The rainy season (higher temperatures and lower NW wind velocity) influenced the last two. Nighttime abundance of dominant species in the rainy season suggests diel vertical migration nearshore. Plastics were 2.12 times more abundant than the most abundant fish larvae. Comparable amounts of larvae and plastics in the water column increase the chances of interaction between these two compartments and might disturb the local marine food web and promote the transfer of microplastic from one habitat to another, especially when smaller taxa contaminated by ingested fragments are preyed by migratory animals such as marine birds and tuna. A study around the area concluded that at least a part of the plastic debris can have local source due to fishing activities. Small-scale oceanographic mechanisms such as the interaction between the topography and currents (SEC and EUC) seem to be responsible for the retention of fish eggs, fish larvae and plastics around SPSPA.

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Plastics in the Oceans

2015

Plastics and Environmental Sustainability

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Assessing marine debris in deep seafloor habitats off California

Cited by 214 publications

References 20 publications

Global Distribution, Composition and Abundance of Marine Litter

Global Distribution, Composition and Abundance of Marine Litter

Seasonal-Dial Shifts of Ichthyoplankton Assemblages and Plastic Debris around an Equatorial Atlantic Archipelago

Plastics in the Oceans

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