Biologists record increasing
amounts of plastic litter in the Arctic deep sea: studies confirm that twice as
much marine debris is lying on the seabed today compared to ten years ago
October 2012. The sea bed in
the Arctic deep sea is increasingly strewn with litter and plastic waste. As
reported in the advance online publication of the scientific journal Marine
Pollution Bulletin by Dr. Melanie Bergmann, biologist and deep-sea expert at
the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz
Association. The quantities of waste observed at the AWI deep-sea observatory
HAUSGARTEN are even higher than those found in a deep-sea canyon near the
Portuguese capital Lisbon.
For this study Dr. Melanie
Bergmann examined some 2100 seafloor photographs taken near HAUSGARTEN, the
deep-sea observatory of the Alfred Wegener Institute in the eastern Fram
Strait. This is the sea route between Greenland and the Norwegian island
Spitsbergen. "The study was prompted by a gut feeling. When looking
through our images I got the impression that plastic bags and other litter on
the seafloor were seen more frequently in photos from 2011 than in those dating
back to earlier years. For this reason I decided to go systematically through
all photos from 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2011," Melanie Bergmann
explains.
Photographs from 2500 metres
The deep-sea scientists from the HGF-MPG Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology of the Alfred Wegener Institute regularly deploy their towed camera system OFOS (Ocean Floor Observation System) during Polarstern expeditions to the HAUSGARTEN. At the central HAUSGARTEN station it is towed at a water depth of 2500 metres, 1.5 metres above the sea bed, and takes a photograph every 30 seconds. Deep-sea biologists principally use these photographs to document changes in biodiversity with respect to larger inhabitants such as sea cucumbers, sea lilies, sponges, fish and shrimps. However, for Melanie Bergmann they also provided evidence of increasing deep-sea pollution: "Waste can be seen in around one percent of the images from 2002, primarily plastic. In the images from 2011 we made the same discovery on around two percent of the footage. The quantity of waste on the sea bed has therefore doubled", the scientist says. If we consider the time span between 2007 and 2011 the amount has even risen by an order of magnitude.
The deep-sea scientists from the HGF-MPG Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology of the Alfred Wegener Institute regularly deploy their towed camera system OFOS (Ocean Floor Observation System) during Polarstern expeditions to the HAUSGARTEN. At the central HAUSGARTEN station it is towed at a water depth of 2500 metres, 1.5 metres above the sea bed, and takes a photograph every 30 seconds. Deep-sea biologists principally use these photographs to document changes in biodiversity with respect to larger inhabitants such as sea cucumbers, sea lilies, sponges, fish and shrimps. However, for Melanie Bergmann they also provided evidence of increasing deep-sea pollution: "Waste can be seen in around one percent of the images from 2002, primarily plastic. In the images from 2011 we made the same discovery on around two percent of the footage. The quantity of waste on the sea bed has therefore doubled", the scientist says. If we consider the time span between 2007 and 2011 the amount has even risen by an order of magnitude.
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