Investigating the effects of mobile bottom fishing on benthic carbon processing and storage: a systematic review protocol.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Marine sediments represent one of the planet's largest carbon stores. Bottom trawl fisheries constitute the most widespread physical disturbance to seabed habitats, which exert a large influence over the oceanic carbon dioxide (CO₂) sink. Recent research has sparked concern that seabed disturbance from trawling can therefore turn marine sediments into a large source of CO₂, but the calculations involved carry a high degree of uncertainty. This is primarily due to a lack of quantitative understanding of how trawling mixes and resuspends sediments, how it alters bioturbation, bioirrigation, and oxygenation rates, and how these processes translate into carbon fluxes into or out of sediments.

Methods

The primary question addressed by this review

SUBMITTER: Felgate SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11476316 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature