Record of anthropogenic impact on the Western Irish Sea mud belt

Abstract

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Record of Anthropogenic Impact on the Western Irish Sea Mud Belt Highlights We investigate 5 cores from the Irish Sea using a multi-proxy approach  We assess multibeam echosounder and backscatter data from the same area  We analyse these cores for anthropogenic radionuclides using gamma spectrometry  Downcore radionuclide activity was related to known output levels from Sellafield  The impact of trawling was found to result in significant amounts of sediment loss

The Deposition and Accumulation of Microplastics in Marine Sediments and Bottom Water from the Irish Continental Shelf

“…Following, none of the stations examined here showed signs of large-scale disturbance and bioturbation events as observed in other regions of the Irish Shelf 24 . If large-scale disturbances occurred they did not appear to significantly influence either microplastic or carbonate shelled epifauna distributions.…”

“…While significant attention has been paid to the spatial variability of microplastic deposition between sites, the dynamics of microplastic distribution vertically within the sediment column remain largely unknown 13 , 17 – 21 . Trawling, bioturbation, tidal forcing, and weather events can all influence the distribution of particles and litter within marine sediments and within the overlaying water column 22 – 24 . The fraction of microplastics readily suspended within the benthic section of the water column remains to be quantified.…”

Geological seabed stability model for informing Irish offshore renewable energy opportunities

“…2), covering ∼ 63 400 km 2 of the study area (∼ 48 %; Table 4). Rock and muddy sediments are shown to be rare on the shallow (< 200 m depth) Irish continental shelf (Table 4) and mud is mainly found in the Irish Sea "mud belt" (Belderson, 1964;Coughlan et al, 2015). Some outcrops of subglacial diamiction are discernible in the interpolated raster, at least in western Ireland, where bands of mixed sediment (ostensibly from sampled diamictic facies) can be identified roughly aligning with mapped moraines and grounding-zone wedges associated with the last British-Irish Ice Sheet (Peters et al, 2015(Peters et al, , 2016Fig.…”

“…Several lines of evidence corroborate these results. Firstly, sediment mobilisation and subsequent removal of muddy sediments in the Irish Sea has been shown to occur relatively quickly and to be exacerbated by anthropogenic activities (Coughlan et al, 2015). And secondly, dredging reports from Ireland's first (and currently only) offshore wind farm, Arklow Bank (Fig.…”

Marking the boundaries of stratigraphy: Is stratigraphy able and willing to define, describe and explain the Anthropocene?

“…Consequently, defining an upper stratigraphic boundary, conventionally called for to reliably characterise the full stratigraphic content of geological units, is not yet possible for the Anthropocene (Autin & Holbrook, 2012a;Barnosky, 2014;Rull, 2016a;Wolfe et al, 2013). Third, and closely related to the last point, the continuing human "bioturbation", or reworking of the developing rock record, means that stratigraphers assessing this record in the future may reach different conclusions about its content and boundaries than those working today (Coughlan et al, 2015;Zalasiewicz et al, 2016a). This raised the concern that today's stratigraphic evidence may not be obtainable in the distant future; such concerns are aggravated by the often limited preservability of anthropogenic deposits used to characterise Anthropocene sediments (Ferreira et al, 2016;Gale & Hoare, 2012;Oldfield et al, 2015;Waters et al, 2014a;Wolfe et al, 2013;Zalasiewicz et al, 2014a).…”