Experimental bottom trawling finds resilience in large-bodied infauna but vulnerability for epifauna and juveniles in the Frisian Front

Tiano, Justin; Reijden, K.J. van der; O’Flynn, Sarah; Beauchard, Olivier; Ree, Sietse van der; Wees, J. van; Ysebaert, Tom; Soetaert, Karline

doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.104964

Cited by 37 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…BTE is known to induce spatially heterogeneous effects on benthic habitats even within experimentally heavily trawled areas [94], which led Smith et al [95] to recommend collecting a high number of SPIs (i.e., ca. 30, which is much more than achieved during the present study) at each station to infer the impact of bottom trawling (see also [86,96], for the interest of complementary approaches). BTE was not spatially homogeneous over each of the 1.77 km 2 cells considered during the present study, which may have hampered the detection of significant correlations between BTE and both surface sediment and SPI characteristics measured over much smaller spatial scales.…”

Section: Disentangling the Potential Effects Of Hydrodynamics And Botmentioning

confidence: 79%

Spatial Distributions of Surface Sedimentary Organics and Sediment Profile Image Characteristics in a High-Energy Temperate Marine RiOMar: The West Gironde Mud Patch

Lamarque

Deflandre

Dalto

et al. 2021

JMSE

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The spatial distributions of (1) surface sediment characteristics (D0.5, Sediment Surface Area (SSA), Particulate Organic Carbon (POC), Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), Phaeophytin-a (Phaeo-a), Total and Enzymatically Hydrolyzable Amino Acids (THAA, EHAA), δ13C) and (2) sediment profile image (apparent Redox Potential Discontinuity (aRPD), numbers and depths of biological traces) characteristics were quantified based on the sampling of 32 stations located within the West Gironde Mud Patch (Bay of Biscay, NE Atlantic) in view of (1) assessing the spatial structuration of a temperate river-dominated ocean margin located in a high-energy area, (2) disentangling the impacts of hydrodynamics and bottom trawling on this structuration, and (3) comparing the West Gironde Mud Patch with the Rhône River Prodelta (located in a low-energy area). Results support the subdivision of the West Gironde Mud Patch in a proximal and a distal part and show (1) the existence of depth gradients in surface sedimentary organics characteristics and bioturbation within the distal part; (2) no evidence for a significant effect of bottom trawling, as opposed to Bottom Shear Stress, on the West Gironde Mud Patch spatial structuration; and (3) major discrepancies between spatial structuration in the West Gironde Mud Patch and the Rhône River Prodelta, which were attributed to differences in tidal regimes, sedimentation processes, and local hydrodynamics, which is in agreement with current river-dominated ocean margin typologies.

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Section: Disentangling the Potential Effects Of Hydrodynamics And Botmentioning

confidence: 79%

Spatial Distributions of Surface Sedimentary Organics and Sediment Profile Image Characteristics in a High-Energy Temperate Marine RiOMar: The West Gironde Mud Patch

Lamarque

Deflandre

Dalto

et al. 2021

JMSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Scientific literature is rich in studies showing the physical and ecological alterations to the benthic environment caused by bottom trawling. Acute impacts of bottom trawling include the homogenization of surface sediment (Depestele et E. De Borger et al: Impact of bottom trawling on sediment biogeochemistry al., 2019; Ferguson et al, 2020) and the removal of significant proportions of benthic fauna (Bergman and Hup, 1992;Bergman and Van Santbrink, 2000;Tiano et al, 2020). Consistent fishing pressure favours organisms with shorter life spans and/or increasing resistance to trawling, while communities become depleted of species with key functional roles (Kaiser et al, 2006;Hiddink et al, 2017;Sciberras et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of bottom trawling on sediment biogeochemistry: a modelling approach

et al. 2021

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Abstract. Bottom trawling in shelf seas can occur more than 10 times per year for a given location. This affects the benthic metabolism, through a mortality of the macrofauna, resuspension of organic matter from the sediment, and alterations of the physical sediment structure. However, the trawling impacts on organic carbon mineralization and associated processes are not well known. Using a modelling approach, the effects of increasing trawling frequencies on early diagenesis were studied in five different sedimentary environments, simulating the effects of a deeper-penetrating gear (e.g. a tickler chain beam trawl) versus a shallower, more variable penetrating gear (e.g. an electric pulse trawl). Trawling events strongly increased oxygen and nitrate concentrations in surface sediment layers and led to significantly lower amounts of ammonium (43 %–99 % reduction) and organic carbon in the top 10 cm of the sediment (62 %–96 % reduction). As a result, total mineralization rates in the sediment were decreased by up to 28 %. The effect on different mineralization processes differed both between sediment types and between trawling frequencies. The shallow-penetrating gear had a slightly smaller effect on benthic denitrification than the deeper-penetrating gear, but there were no statistically different results between gear types for all other parameters. Denitrification was reduced by 69 % in a fine sandy sediment, whereas nitrogen removal nearly doubled in a highly eutrophic mud. This suggests that even relatively low penetration depths from bottom fishing gears generate significant biogeochemical alterations. Physical organic carbon removal through trawl-induced resuspension of sediments, exacerbated by a removal of bioturbating macrofauna, was identified as the main cause of the changes in the mineralization process.

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“…The results also demonstrated that it is necessary to apply multiple sampling methods that target different ecological components and different spatial scales. Only the combination of these techniques provides a comprehensive overview of, in this case, the ecological relevance of S. spinulosa reefs (Tiano et al, 2020). In addition, our multi-scale design of acoustics, video transects, and boxcores enabled the integration of prevailing habitat heterogeneity in the interpretation of local observations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Implications of Sabellaria spinulosa Reef Patches in a Dynamic Sandy-Bottom Environment

et al. 2021

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Biogenic reefs form biodiversity hotspots and are key components of marine ecosystems, making them priority habitats for nature conservation. However, the conservation status of biogenic reefs generally depends on their size and stability. Dynamic, patchy reefs may therefore be excluded from protection. Here, we studied epibenthos and epifauna density, richness, and community composition of patchy, dynamic Sabellaria spinulosa (ross worm) reefs in the North Sea. This study was conducted by comparing boxcore (endobenthos) and video transect (epifauna) data from two research campaigns in 2017 and 2019 to the Brown Bank area on the Dutch Continental Shelf, where S. spinulosa reefs were first discovered in 2017. The Brown Bank area is characterized by dynamic, migratory bedforms at multiple scales which potentially affect biogenic reef stability. We showed that S. spinulosa habitats had a patchy distribution and alternated with habitats comprised of plain sand. Average S. spinulosa habitat patch size was 5.57 ± 0.99 m and 3.94 ± 0.22 m in 2017 and 2019, respectively (mean ± SE), which especially in 2019 closely resembled the small-scale megaripple bedforms. Contrary to the endobenthos communities that were unaffected by S. spinulosa, epifauna density and species richness were at least two times higher in S. spinulosa habitats compared to sandy habitats, resulting in different community compositions between the two habitat types. We showed that S. spinulosa persisted in the area for almost 2 years. Although the stability of individual patches remained unclear, we demonstrated that even patchy biogenic reefs may promote density and local biodiversity of mobile, epibenthic species, very likely as a result of increased habitat heterogeneity provided by reef habitat patches. This indicates that patchy biogenic reefs that occur in dynamic environments may also have high ecological value and their conservation status should be (re)considered to ensure their protection.

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Experimental bottom trawling finds resilience in large-bodied infauna but vulnerability for epifauna and juveniles in the Frisian Front

Cited by 37 publications

References 52 publications

Spatial Distributions of Surface Sedimentary Organics and Sediment Profile Image Characteristics in a High-Energy Temperate Marine RiOMar: The West Gironde Mud Patch

Spatial Distributions of Surface Sedimentary Organics and Sediment Profile Image Characteristics in a High-Energy Temperate Marine RiOMar: The West Gironde Mud Patch

Impact of bottom trawling on sediment biogeochemistry: a modelling approach

Conservation Implications of Sabellaria spinulosa Reef Patches in a Dynamic Sandy-Bottom Environment

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