Increasing sediment accumulation rates in La Fonera (Palamós) submarine canyon axis and their relationship with bottom trawling activities

Puig, Pere; Martín, Jacobo; Masqué, Pere; Palanqués, Albert

doi:10.1002/2015gl065052

Cited by 36 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Martín et al (2008) through radionuclide dating of a sediment core collected at 1750 m depth in the axis of La Fonera Canyon (NW Mediterranean), documented a doubling of the sediment accumulation rate in the 1970s, coincident with the rapid industrialization of the local trawling fleet. Puig et al (2015) revisited the same canyon area a decade later and confirmed the two fold increase in the sedimentation rates during the 1970s, but also suggest that the accumulation rate during the last decade could be greater than expected, approaching ∼2.4 cm y −1 (compared to ∼0.25 cm y −1 pre-1970s). No submarine canyon in the world has been studied as intensively as La Fonera Canyon for the effects of bottom fishing gear, but given that canyons are often targeted by fisheries, it is likely that similar and other impacts have occurred and are occurring in other canyons elsewhere in the world.…”

Section: Direct and Indirect Effects Of Fishingmentioning

confidence: 84%

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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Section: Direct and Indirect Effects Of Fishingmentioning

confidence: 84%

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

et al. 2017

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“…This enhanced mineralization through self-priming can occur when fresh and degradable organic matter, such as fresh phytoplankton, arrives to areas with more refractory compounds (Canfield, 1994;van Nugteren et al, 2009), as was observed in a shallow trawling-disturbed area in the southern North Sea, off the Belgian coast (van de Velde et al, 2018). Similarly, bottom trawling in the shallow Thermaikos Gulf (Aegean Sea) intensified microbial activities, which enhanced nutrient cycling and organic carbon mineralization (Polymenakou et al, 2005;Pusceddu et al, 2005a). This could have been attributed to the combined effect of trawlinginduced mixing of superficial labile OM with more degraded subsurface OM, along with the continuous arrival of fresh OM to these shallow continental shelves (Buscail et al, 1990;Tselepides et al, 2000).…”

Section: Effects Of the Arrival Of Fresh Sedimentmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Contrary to the observed increases in total organic carbon on muddy continental shelf trawling grounds Polymenakou et al, 2005;Pusceddu et al, 2005a), the continuous removal of sediment by trawlers on continental slopes has significantly impoverished bulk organic carbon as well as its labile and fresh pools (Martín et al, 2014b;Pusceddu et al, 2014;Sañé et al, 2013). The loss of organic matter has also reduced organic carbon turnover rates on slope trawling grounds, severely impacting the meiofauna and, at the same time, promoting the abundance of taxa with opportunistic life strategies (Pusceddu et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The effects that these perturbations generate on sedimentary OM can vary in cohesive (i.e., muddy sediment with high clay content) and non-cohesive (i.e., sandy seafloor) sediment. For instance, trawling on cohesive sediments can increase superficial concentrations of sedimentary OM (Palanques et al, 2014;Pusceddu et al, 2005a;Sciberras et al, 2016;Polymenakou et al, 2005), whereas trawling on coarse non-cohesive sediments can exert null or minimal effects on OM contents and benthic community metabolism (Hale et al, 2017;Tiano et al, 2019;Trimmer et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Organic matter contents and degradation in a highly trawled area during fresh particle inputs (Gulf of Castellammare, southwestern Mediterranean)

Paradis¹,

Pusceddu

Masqué

et al. 2019

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Bottom trawling in the deep sea is one of the main drivers of sediment resuspension, eroding the seafloor and altering the content and composition of sedimentary organic matter (OM). The physical and biogeochemical impacts of bottom trawling were studied on the continental slope of the Gulf of Castellammare, Sicily (southwestern Mediterranean), through the analysis of two triplicate sediment cores collected at trawled and untrawled sites (∼550 m water depth) during the summer of 2016. Geochemical and sedimentological parameters (excess 210Pb, excess 234Th, 137Cs, dry bulk density, and grain size), elemental (organic carbon and nitrogen) and biochemical composition of sedimentary OM (proteins, carbohydrates, lipids), as well as its freshness (phytopigments) and degradation rates were determined in both coring locations. The untrawled site had a sedimentation rate of 0.15 cm yr−1 and presented a 6 cm thick surface mixed layer that contained siltier sediment with low excess 210Pb concentrations, possibly resulting from the resuspension, posterior advection, and eventual deposition of coarser and older sediment from adjacent trawling grounds. In contrast, the trawled site was eroded and presented compacted century-old sediment highly depleted in OM components, which were between 20 % and 60 % lower than those in the untrawled site. However, the upper 2 cm of the trawled site consisted of recently accumulated sediments enriched in excess 234Th, excess 210Pb, and phytopigments, while OM contents were similar to those from the untrawled core. This fresh sediment supported protein turnover rates of 0.025 d−1, which doubled those quantified in surface sediments of the untrawled site. The enhancement of remineralization rates in surface sediment of the trawled site was associated with the arrival of fresh particles on a chronically trawled deep-sea region that is generally deprived of OM. We conclude that the detrimental effects of bottom trawling can be temporarily and partially abated by the arrival of fresh and nutritionally rich OM, which stimulate the response of benthic communities. However, these ephemeral deposits are likely to be swiftly eroded due to the high trawling frequency over fishing grounds, highlighting the importance of establishing science-based management strategies to mitigate the impacts of bottom trawling.

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“…Particle transport through the canyon is event-dominated, with maximum downward fluxes being related with storms, winter river discharges, intensification of the Northern Current and DSWC (Zúñiga et al, 2009;López-Fernandez et al, 2013;Puig et al, 2015). An additional source of variability in particle fluxes that certainly cannot be discarded derives from anthropogenically-mediated resuspension processes linked to trawling activities, in a similar way as demonstrated in the nearby La Fonera submarine canyon (Puig et al, 2012;Martín et al, 2014;Puig et al, 2015). Blanes Canyon and its adjacent margins are indeed important trawling areas, and it has been suggested that the structure and composition of the canyon-axis benthic assemblages may also be affected by this anthropogenic resuspension through flooding along lateral canyon gullies (Román et al, 2016).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Canyon effect and seasonal variability of deep-sea organisms in the NW Mediterranean: Synchronous, year-long captures of “swimmers” from near-bottom sediment traps in a submarine canyon and its adjacent open slope

Romano

Flexas

Segura

et al. 2017

Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers

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Numerous organisms, including both passive sinkers and active migrators, are captured in sediment traps together with sediments. By capturing these "swimmers", the traps become an extraordinarily tool to obtain relevant information on the biodiversity and dynamics of deep-sea organisms. Here we analyze near-bottom swimmers larger than 500 µm and their fluxes collected from eight near-bottom sediment traps installed on instrumented moorings deployed nearby Blanes Canyon (BC). Our data, obtained from November 2008 to October 2009 with a sampling rate of 15 days, constitutes the first year-long, continuous time series of the whole swimmers' community collected at different traps and bottom depths (from 300 m to 1800 m) inside a submarine canyon and its adjacent open slope (OS). The traps captured 2155 specimens belonging to 58 taxa, with Crustacea (mainly Copepoda) and Annelida Polychaeta accounting for more than 90% of the total abundance. Almost half of the identified taxa (31) were only present in BC traps, where mean annual swimmer fluxes per trap were almost one order of magnitude higher than in the OS ones. Temporal variability in swimmer fluxes was more evident in BC than in OS. Fluxes dropped in winter (in coincidence with the stormy period in the region) and remained low until the following spring. In spring, there was a switch in taxa composition, including an increase of planktonic organisms. Additionally, we report drastic effects of extreme events, such as major storms, on deep-sea fauna. The impact of such extreme events along submarine canyon systems calls to rethink the influence of climate-driven phenomena on deep-sea ecosystems and, consequently, on their living resources.

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Increasing sediment accumulation rates in La Fonera (Palamós) submarine canyon axis and their relationship with bottom trawling activities

Cited by 36 publications

References 23 publications

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

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

Organic matter contents and degradation in a highly trawled area during fresh particle inputs (Gulf of Castellammare, southwestern Mediterranean)

Canyon effect and seasonal variability of deep-sea organisms in the NW Mediterranean: Synchronous, year-long captures of “swimmers” from near-bottom sediment traps in a submarine canyon and its adjacent open slope

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