Benthic conditions around a historic shipwreck: Vrouw Maria (1771) in the northern Baltic proper

Ruuskanen, Ari; Kraufvelin, Patrik; Alvik, Riikka; Díaz, Eliecer; Honkonen, Juha; Kanerva, Jukka; Karell, K.; Kekäläinen, Pekka; Lappalainen, Jani; Mikkola, R.; Mustasaari, T.; Nappu, Niko; Nieminen, Anja; Roininen, Jonas; Svahnbäck, K.

doi:10.1016/j.csr.2015.02.006

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Research viewing shipwrecks as features of the seabed has been effective in documenting the local marine environment and as platforms for time-series type work (e.g., Brennan et al, 2011;Damour et al, 2015;Ruuskanen et al, 2015). Such research potential is destroyed by trawling, as any natural physical or chemical environmental parameters of wrecks are destroyed as trawls scrape the sites away.…”

Section: Damage To the Seabedmentioning

confidence: 98%

Quantification of bottom trawl fishing damage to ancient shipwreck sites

et al. 2016

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Bottom trawl fishing presents a severe yet largely unquantified threat to shipwreck sites. Here we present a quantification of damage to sites from the Aegean and Black seas through high resolution imaging of 45 shipwrecks discovered by the E/V Nautilus expeditions, 2009-2012. These shipwrecks are part of a modern submarine landscape that is heavily damaged by trawls, which also remove sediment and smooth out natural features of the seabed. We quantify the severity of this threat to archaeological sites through repeat visits to one ancient shipwreck and quantify the change to the seabed over a period of eleven months. The results illustrate the benefits of enforced areas of restricted bottom trawling (Marine Protected Areas) to the in situ preservation of shipwreck sites and to natural seabed features and benthic habitats. Careful marine spatial planning and coordinated management of fishing activity can mitigate this destructive activity. In addition, we counter the claim made by some commercial salvors who use trawl damage as an excuse to salvage artifacts from wrecks, further destroying historically significant sites for profit.

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Section: Damage To the Seabedmentioning

confidence: 98%

Quantification of bottom trawl fishing damage to ancient shipwreck sites

et al. 2016

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“…Changes in energetic (e.g., seasonal) conditions can generate the successive burial and exposure of UCH sites (Gregory et al, 2012;Fernańdez-Montblanc et al, 2016;Fernańdez-Montblanc et al, 2018), affecting the stability and degradation of UCH materials (Bethencourt et al, 2018;Gregory, 2020). These agents can control the proliferation of harmful organisms for the materials (Ruuskanen et al, 2015;Caḿara et al, 2017;Gonzaĺez-Duarte et al, 2018), sediment transport, and elimination of concretion layers that act as protective covers of certain archaeological objects (Bethencourt et al, 2018). Therefore, the degradation of UCH sites (Pournou, 2018;Gregory, 2020) may be aggravated in shallow water areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Underwater Cultural heritage risk assessment methodology for wave-induced hazards: The showcase of the Bay of Cadiz

Fernández-Montblanc¹,

Bethencourt²,

Izquierdo³

2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Coastal areas are characterized by high energetic conditions associated to the wave transformation process and by numerous underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites whose preservation is crucial given their cultural and economic value. UCH management requires a decision support system to prioritize UCH interventions and actions for long-term preservation. This paper presents a novel UCH risk assessment methodology to quantitatively assess the impact of wave-induced hazards on UCH in coastal environments at a local level and the screening of UCH sites at risk. The UCH risk is calculated as a function of vulnerability (depending on archaeological materials, slope, and seabed type), hazard (decontextualization, scouring, and erosive wear), and exposure computed for the UCH sites registered in an archaeological database. The procedure was validated at two shipwreck sites, Bucentaure and Fougueux, in the Bay of Cadiz. An agreement between the risk index value and the in situ measurements of the rates of scouring and corrosion (used as a proxy of erosive wear) was observed. The methodology was tested in the Bay of Cadiz using an archaeological database containing 56 UCH sites. It allowed identifying the UCH sites at high risk: six are at risk of decontextualization, four are in peril of scouring erosion, and two are at risk of erosive wear. Two UCH sites at high risk of at least two hazards were also identified. This UCH risk assessment methodology is a stepping stone towards a decision support system that will give priority to research, prospection, management, and protection measures in the UCH sites analyzed to ensure their preservation in a context of climate change in the era of a sustainable blue economy.

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“…The hydrodynamic forcing, which is lateral bottom currents, may cause scouring and high degradation process around the wreck site (Quinn, 2006). This event leads to the change of sediment topography, morphology, and distribution of sediment grain size through sediment resuspension in that area (Ambrose et al, 1990;Quinn, 2006;Ruuskanen et al, 2015;Balazy et al, 2019). The scouring process wFill continue until the shipwreck settles into the hole, and degradation around the wreck reduces and becomes the same level as the seabed surroundings (Gregory, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generally, the benthic communities around the shipwrecks were influenced by the impacts of scouring formation that enriched the water column's organic concentration and oxygen level (Quinn, 2006;Ruuskanen et al, 2015). The magnitude of the impact is higher for the benthic community due to their restricted mobility and are more sensitive to local disturbance (Salas et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benthic Community Diversity at Marine Archaeological Site, Pulau Bidong, South China Sea

ISMAILLUDDIN¹,

Abdullah²,

Ibrahim³

et al. 2021

UMT JUR

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An artificial structure on the seafloor will affect the structure of the benthic community. This structure may include a sunken ship or a century-old building that becomes an underwater heritage site. Benthic communities at underwater archaeological sites have been studied around the world, though it is lacking in Malaysia. This study aimed to determine the benthic community composition and diversity in sediment and on an artifact (small ceramic pot) at the marine "Bidong shipwreck" archaeological site. SCUBA divers collected samples (sediment and artifact) from an 18 m depth archaeological site in October 2017. Then, all samples were fixed with 10% buffered formalin and preserved in 80% ethanol prior to identification analysis. Most benthic organisms were identified until class taxon, except for class Polychaeta until family. A total of 2711 benthic organisms which belonged to eight phyla, and 17 classes were recorded, of which 638 are polychaetes. In the archaeological site, Syllidae was the most abundant family in the sediment, and the family Nereididae dominated in artifact while Capitellidae was dominant at the control site. Shannon-Weiner diversity index showed variation and ranged from 1.5 to 2.1, while the evenness index value ranged from 0.56 to 0.77. The benthic community in sediment on both sites were more diverse and even compared to the artifact. Simultaneously, Jaccard's similarity test discovered that the benthic community's composition in sediment at the control site was highly similar to the archaeological site (0.80) comparatively to the artifact (0.65). It is suggested that the benthic community at the archaeological site has reached an equilibrium state similar to the control site. The scouring process may influence the lower benthic community composition on the artifact than sediments in its surroundings. These findings provide an overview of benthic community's post-disturbance resilience and reveal a marine archaeological site's ecological status.

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Benthic conditions around a historic shipwreck: Vrouw Maria (1771) in the northern Baltic proper

Cited by 11 publications

References 67 publications

Quantification of bottom trawl fishing damage to ancient shipwreck sites

Quantification of bottom trawl fishing damage to ancient shipwreck sites

Underwater Cultural heritage risk assessment methodology for wave-induced hazards: The showcase of the Bay of Cadiz

Benthic Community Diversity at Marine Archaeological Site, Pulau Bidong, South China Sea

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