What a drag: Quantifying the global impact of chronic bottom trawling on continental shelf sediment

• Published in: Journal of marine systems Vol. 159; pp. 109 - 119
• Main Authors: Oberle, Ferdinand K.J., Storlazzi, Curt D., Hanebuth, Till J.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.07.2016
• Subjects: Bottom trawling; Budgeting; Continental shelf; Continental shelves; Ecosystem; Estimates; Iberia; Marine; Sediment resuspension; Sediments; Shelves; Tracking; Trawling; ANE, Spain, Galicia; Iberia; Bottom trawling; Continental shelf; Sediment resuspension; Ecosystem
• ISSN: 0924-7963; 1879-1573
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2015.12.007

Continental shelves worldwide are subject to intense bottom trawling that causes sediment to be resuspended. The widely used traditional concepts of modern sedimentary transport systems on the shelf rely only on estimates for naturally driven sediment resuspension such as through storm waves, bottom currents, and gravity-driven flows but they overlook a critical anthropogenic factor. The strong influence of bottom trawling on a source-to-sink sediment budget is explored on the NW Iberian shelf. Use of Automated Information System vessel tracking data provides for a high-resolution vessel track reconstruction and the accurate calculation of the spatial distribution of bottom trawling intensity and associated resuspended sediment load. The mean bottom trawling-induced resuspended sediment mass for the NW Iberian shelf is 13.50Mtyr−1, which leads to a six-fold increase in off-shelf sediment transport when compared to natural resuspension mechanisms. The source-to-sink budget analysis provides evidence that bottom trawling causes a rapid erosion of the fine sediment on human time scales. Combining global soft sediment distribution data of the shelves with worldwide bottom trawling intensity estimates we show that the bottom trawling-induced resuspended sediment mass amounts to approximately the same mass of all sediment entering the shelves through rivers. Spatial delineations between natural and anthropogenic sediment resuspension areas are presented to aid in marine management questions. •Bottom trawling causes six-fold increase in off-shelf sediment flux in NW Iberia.•Universal approach to calculating bottom trawling-induced sediment resuspension•First global calculation of bottom trawling-induced sediment resuspension•New fleet-wide high-resolution vessel track reconstruction method