Marine litter is now a well-documented threat to marine ecosystems and has been found even in the deepest habitats. Submarine canyons act as conduits transporting sediment and nutrients from shallow water to the deep. As this transport system is not discriminative of what it transports, litter is also increasingly being funnelled through canyons. Many canyons are close to the continental shelf, and thus maybe subject to higher densities of domestic litter. To further our understanding of the impact of litter on canyons and wider deep-sea habitats, we first need to a greater understanding of the source of litter in canyons, but also how litter is being transported within them and ultimately how much litter remains in the canyon system. This interactive workshop aims to shed light on this topic and stimulate future research.
Submarine canyons are important topographical features which are vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. To date, concerns have focused on impacts from fisheries, but it is now becoming apparent, that marine litter is also a great threat to canyon ecosystems.
The online workshop, which will be spread across two days, will cover many aspects of litter in submarine canyons, including relevance for both macro- and micro-litter. The workshop will cover:
- Types of litter found in canyons (macro and micro) and their distribution
- Sources of litter
- Identification and sampling methods
- Source to sink transport mechanisms, including highlights from observed seafloor and sediment distributions, physical and numerical modelling studies
In particular, the workshop will highlight the current state of the art (i.e. what we currently know) and will highlight knowledge and data gaps to stimulate discussions on how the INCISE community can assist in filling them.
The workshop will be hosted on Zoom and will include a series of expert talks, illustrated with findings from recent studies in canyons and other relevant deep-sea systems, to address important questions over litter source and transport mechanism in submarine canyons. Each of the thematic sessions will be followed by interactive break-out sub-group discussions to share ideas and experiences from attendees and develop future ideas for research projects and collaboration.