Bottom trawling resuspends sediment and releases bioavailable contaminants in a polluted fjord

Sammanfattning

Sediments are sinks for contaminants in the world's oceans. At the same time, commercial bottom trawling is estimated to affect around 15 million km(2) of the world's seafloor every year. However, few studies have investigated whether this disturbance remobilises sediment-associated contaminants and, if so, whether these are bioavailable to aquatic organisms. This field study in a trawled contaminated Norwegian fjord showed that a single 1.8 km long trawl pass created a 3-5 million m(3) sediment plume containing around 9 t contaminated sediment; ie. 200 g dw m(-2) trawled, equivalent to c. 10% of the annual gross sedimentation rate. Substantial amounts of PCDD/Fs and non-ortho PCBs were released from the sediments, likely causing a semi-permanent contaminated sediment suspension in the bottom waters. PCDD/Fs from the sediments were also taken up by mussels which, during one month, accumulated them to levels above the EU maximum advised concentration for human consumption. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nyckelord

Sediment resuspension; Bottom trawling; Contaminant; Bioavailability; Blue mussel; SPMD

Publicerad i

Environmental Pollution
2012, volym: 170, sidor: 232-241
Utgivare: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU författare

• Sköld, Mattias

  • Institutionen för akvatiska resurser (SLU Aqua), Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Nilsson, Hans

  • Institutionen för akvatiska resurser (SLU Aqua), Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG3 God hälsa och välbefinnande
SDG6 Rent vatten och sanitet för alla
SDG14 Hav och marina resurser

UKÄ forskningsämne

Oceanografi, hydrologi, vattenresurser

Publikationens identifierare

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2012.06.019

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/42571