Marine litter on the floor of deep submarine canyons of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea: The role of hydrodynamic processes

Tubau, Xavier; Canals, Miquel; Lastras, Galderic; Rayo, Xavier; Rivera, Jesús; Amblàs, David

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2015.03.013

Cited by 186 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 113 publications

(198 reference statements)

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“…Bottles, plastic bags and abandoned fishing nets are abundant (Watters et al, 2010;Richards and Beger, 2011;Tubau et al, 2015;Corcoran, 2015 and references therein), and are often concentrated by topography or currents into submarine lows, such as the bottoms of submarine canyons (Schlining et al, 2013;Tubau et al, 2015). The study by Tubau et al (2015) of the seabed at 24 of 26 ROV dive sites in the submarine canyons of the NW Mediterranean at depths of 140−1731 m, showed that plastics were the dominant component of litter (72%). Most of the litter was observed on canyon floors at depths over 1000 m, and may have been carried there by down-slope flows originating near shore.…”

Section: Fig 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the litter was observed on canyon floors at depths over 1000 m, and may have been carried there by down-slope flows originating near shore. Litter density ranged up to 11.8 items per 100 m survey line, and averaged between 8,000-15,000 items/km 2 , reaching a maximum of 167,540 litter items /km 2 at one site (Tubau et al, 2015). Pham et al (2014) considered that the relative scarcity of macroplastic objects on shelves was because they were being current-swept into deep water, particularly via submarine canyons.…”

Section: Fig 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene

Zalasiewicz

Waters

Sul³

et al. 2016

Anthropocene

731

286

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The rise of plastics since the mid-20 th century, both as a material element of modern life and as a growing environmental pollutant, has been widely described. Its distribution in both the terrestrial and marine realms suggests that it could be a key geological indicator of the Anthropocene, with potential to be a component of future geological strata. Most immediately evident in terrestrial deposits, it is clearly becoming a widespread component of marine sedimentary deposits in both shallow-and deep-water settings. It is abundant and widespread as macroscopic fragments and virtually ubiquitous as microplastic particles; these are dispersed by both physical and biological processes, not least via the food chain and the 'faecal express' route from surface to sea floor. Already a widespread and distinctive lithological component of strata, the amount of plastics seems likely to grow several-fold over the next few decades, and to continue to be input into the sedimentary cycle over coming millennia as temporary stores -landfill sites -are eroded. Plastics already enable fine time resolution within Anthropocene deposits via the development of its different types and via the artefacts ('technofossils') it is moulded into, and many of these may have long-term preservation potential if buried in strata.

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Section: Fig 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fig 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene

Zalasiewicz

Waters

Sul³

et al. 2016

Anthropocene

731

286

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…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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“…Vlachogianni et al [9] classified these beaches according to their cleanliness (clean coast index) as follows: (i) very dirty semi-rural (Zaglav, Croatia), (ii) dirty semi-rural (Greece, Slovenia) or semi-urban (Montenegro), (iii) moderate, mainly urban and semi-urban types, (iv) clean, mostly semi-urban and (v) very clean, remote/natural (Greece) and semi-rural (Mega Ammos, Greece). River floods, strong persistent winds and summer population peaks along the coast due to the tourism industry mediate the transfer of litter from inland and coastal sources into the northwestern Mediterranean Sea [60]. Such studies must be further developed in various geographical areas to understand and quantify the magnitude of marine and river plastic pollution.…”

Section: The Impact Of Plastic Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rural plastic emissions into the largestmountain lake of the Eastern Carpathians

Mihai

2018

Preprint

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The lack of proper waste collection systems leads to plastic pollution in rivers in proximity to rural communities. This environmental threat is more widespread among mountain communities which are prone to frequent flash floods during the warm season. This paper estimates the amounts of plastic bottles dumped into the Izvoru Muntelui lake by upstream rural communities. The plastic pollution dimension between seasonal floods which affected the Bistrita catchment area during 2005-2012 is examined. The floods dumped over 290 tonnes of plastic bottles into the lake. Various scenarios are tested in order to explain each amount of plastic waste collected by local authorities during sanitation activities. The results show that rural municipalities are responsible for 85.51% of total plastic bottles collected during 2005-2010. The source of plastic pollution is mainly local. The major floods of July 2008 and June 2010 collected most of the plastic bottles scattered across the Bistrita river catchment (56 villages) and dumped them into the lake. These comparisons validate the proposed method as a reliable tool in the assessment process of river plastic pollution, which may also be applied in other geographical areas. Tourism and leisure activities are also found to be responsible for plastic pollution in the study area. A new regional integrated waste management system should improve the waste collection services across rural municipalities at the county level when it is fully operational. This paper demonstrates that rural communities are significant contributors of plastics into water bodies.

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Marine litter on the floor of deep submarine canyons of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea: The role of hydrodynamic processes

Cited by 186 publications

References 113 publications

The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene

The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene

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

Rural plastic emissions into the largestmountain lake of the Eastern Carpathians

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