Marine Litter-Fauna Interactions project

Research Project Overview

a standardised reporting framework and critical review of the current state of research with a focus on submarine canyons.

AIM:

Towards standardising reporting of macro-litter (and interactions) in Submarine Canyons to better understand the effects of litter on habitats and fauna to aid conservation efforts.

Background

Submarine canyons act as conduits, transporting sediment and organic matter from the continental shelf to the abyssal plain; and can act as passive accumulation areas for marine litter. It is well documented that the deep sea is the ultimate sink for litter such as microplastics, and submarine canyons harbour large amounts of litter; but to date little is known about the impact of marine litter on deep-sea environments, especially submarine canyons beyond simple recording and/or enumeration of litter types.

Monitoring and quantification of marine litter often do not consider interactions between fauna and litter, meaning impacts are largely unconsidered and unknown. Among publications that have reported litter-fauna (L-F) interactions in canyons, the large majority occur in the Mediterranean Sea, and the most reported interaction is of corals entangled in fishing gear. When it occurs, the reporting of L-F interactions is unstandardised, resulting in a lack of global comparison and trend analysis.