Litter in submarine canyons off the west coast of Portugal

Mordecai, Gideon; Tyler, Paul A.; Masson, Douglas G.; Huvenne, Veerle A.I.

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2011.08.009

Cited by 154 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Only few studies have assessed debris below 500 m depth (June 1990;Galil et al 1995;Galgani et al 1996Galgani et al , 2000Galgani and Lecornu 2004;Keller et al 2010;Miyake et al 2011;Mordecai et al 2011;Bergmann and Klages 2012;Wei et al 2012;Pham et al 2013Pham et al , 2014Ramirez-Llodra et al 2013, Schlining et al 2013Fischer et al 2015;Vieira et al 2014);Galgani et al (2000) observed trends in deep-sea pollution over time off the European coast with an extremely variable distribution and debris accumulating in submarine canyons. Miyake et al (2011) recorded debris down to 7,216 m depth in video surveys from the Ryukyu Trench.…”

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Litter was primarily composed of plastic and accumulated in deep-sea trenches and depressions. 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.…”

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Global Distribution, Composition and Abundance of Marine Litter

Galgani

Hanke

Maes

2015

Marine Anthropogenic Litter

444

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: 99%

Section: Seafloormentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Distribution, Composition and Abundance of Marine Litter

Galgani

Hanke

Maes

2015

Marine Anthropogenic Litter

444

338

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“…However, the data obtained to date from regional, as well as international, large-scale investigations, suggest that canyons are a major habitat for the accumulation of litter (Figure 5). The specific hydrographic patterns and increased downslope currents in submarine canyons result in canyons becoming hotspots of marine litter (Galgani et al, 1996(Galgani et al, , 2010Mordecai et al, 2011;Ramirez-Llodra et al, 2013;Schlining et al, 2013;Pham et al, 2014;Bergmann et al, 2015;Tubau et al, 2015; Van den Beld et al, in press). A study comparing the accumulation of marine litter in different deep-sea habitats across Europe showed that litter densities in canyons were higher than in other physiographic settings, such as continental shelves, seamounts, banks, and mounds (Pham et al, 2014).…”

Section: Canyons As Sinks For Marine Litter and Chemical Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, submarine canyons are increasingly subjected to different stressors, not only in relation to fishing (Company et al, 2008;Martín et al, 2008;Orejas et al, 2009;Puig et al, 2012), but also to oil and gas extraction (Harris et al, 2007). Moreover, the hydrodynamic processes of canyons enhance the transport of litter (Mordecai et al, 2011;RamirezLlodra et al, 2013;Tubau et al, 2015) and chemical pollutants from the shelf to deep-sea environments Koenig et al, 2013;Pham et al, 2014). Canyons have also been used as dumping areas for tailings of land-based mining (Hughes et al, 2015;Ramirez-Llodra et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Role of Submarine Canyons and Need for Canyon Conservation: A Review

et al. 2017

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Submarine canyons are major geomorphic features of continental margins around the world. Several recent multidisciplinary projects focused on the study of canyons have considerably increased our understanding of their ecological role, the goods, and services they provide to human populations, and the impacts that human activities have on their overall ecological condition. Pressures from human activities include fishing, dumping of land-based mine tailings, and oil and gas extraction. Moreover, hydrodynamic processes of canyons enhance the down-canyon transport of litter. The effects of climate change may modify the intensity of currents. This potential hydrographic change is predicted to impact the structure and functioning of canyon communities as well as affect nutrient supply to the deep-ocean ecosystem. This review not only identifies the ecological status of canyons, and current and future issues for canyon conservation, but also highlights the need for a better understanding of anthropogenic impacts on canyon ecosystems and proposes other research required to inform management measures to protect canyon ecosystems.

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“…For example, ghost fishing negatively impacts marine wildlife (Stelfox et al, 2016) and ALDFG can negatively impact benthic communities. Macroplastics can also lead to anoxic conditions within the sediment (Mordecai et al, 2011;Green et al, 2015) and can thereby affect the benthic community. Plastics can also provide habitats for many species, for example can floating plastic support diverse communities of marine biota including invertebrates and microbial communities (Barnes & Milner, 2005;Kiessling et al, 2015).…”

Section: Impact On the Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%