Éditeur(s) : The Royal Society
Résumé : One of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting recent changes to the surface of our planet is the accumulation and fragmentation of plastics. Within just a few decades since mass production of plastic products commenced in the 1950s, plastic debris has accumulated in terrestrial environments, in the open ocean, on shorelines of even the most remote islands and in the deep sea. Annual clean-up operations, costing millions of pounds sterling, are now organized in many countries and on every continent. Here we document global plastics production and the accumulation of plastic waste. While plastics typically constitute approximately 10 per cent of discarded waste, they represent a much greater proportion of the debris accumulating on shorelines. Mega- and macro-plastics have accumulated in the highest densities in the Northern Hemisphere, adjacent to urban centres, in enclosed seas and at water convergences ( fronts). We report lower densities on remote island shores, on the continental shelf seabed and the lowest densities (but still a documented presence) in the deep sea and Southern Ocean. The longevity of plastic is estimated to be hundreds to thousands of years, but is likely to be far longer in deep sea and non-surface polar environments. Plastic debris poses considerable threat by choking and starving wildlife, distributing non-native and potentially harmful organisms, absorbing toxic chemicals and degrading to micro-plastics that may subsequently be ingested. Well-established annual surveys on coasts and at sea have shown that trends in mega- and macro-plastic accumulation rates are no longer uniformly increasing: rather stable, increasing and decreasing trends have all been reported. The average size of plastic particles in the environment seems to be decreasing, and the abundance and global distribution of micro-plastic fragments have increased over the last few decades. However, the environmental consequences of such microscopic debris are still poorly understood.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (0962-8436) (The Royal Society), 2009-07 , Vol. 364 , N. 1526 , P. 1985-1998

Droits : The Royal Society 2009
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6952.pdf
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2008.0205
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6952/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union (EGU)
Résumé : International audience
Storms and tsunamis, which may seriously endanger human society, are amongst the most devastating marine catastrophes that can occur in coastal areas. Many such events are known and have been reported for the Mediterranean, a region where high-frequency occurrences of these extreme events coincides with some of the most densely populated coastal areas in the world. In a sediment core from the Mar Menor (SE Spain), we discovered eight coarse-grained layers which document marine incursions during periods of intense storm activity or tsunami events. Based on radiocarbon dating, these extreme events occurred around 5250, 4000, 3600, 3010, 2300, 1350, 650, and 80 years cal BP. No comparable events have been observed during the 20th and 21st centuries. The results indicate little likelihood of a tsunami origin for these coarse-grained layers, although historical tsunami events are recorded in this region. These periods of surge events seem to coincide with the coldest periods in Europe during the late Holocene, suggesting a control by a climatic mechanism for periods of increased storm activity. Spectral analyses performed on the sand percentage revealed four major periodicities of 1228 ± 327, 732 ± 80, 562 ± 58, and 319 ± 16 years. Amongst the well-known proxies that have revealed a millennial-scale climate variability during the Holocene, the ice-rafted debris (IRD) indices in the North Atlantic developed by Bond et al. (1997, 2001) present a cyclicity of 1470 ± 500 years, which matches the 1228 ± 327-year periodicity evidenced in the Mar Menor, considering the respective uncertainties in the periodicities. Thus, an in-phase storm activity in the western Mediterranean is found with the coldest periods in Europe and with the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation. However, further investigations, such as additional coring and high-resolution coastal imagery, are needed to better constrain the main cause of these multiple events.
ISSN: 1814-9324

hal-01357199
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01357199
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01357199v2/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01357199/file/cp-12-1389-2016.pdf
DOI : 10.5194/cp-12-1389-2016

Éditeur(s) : Pêche thonière et dispositifs de concentration de poissons, Caribbean-Martinique, 15-19 Oct 1999
Résumé : Tuna world fisheries yield 3 million tons per year; the increase rate of whole production is constant and sustained since 30 years. This original figure for marine fisheries is due to enlargement of tuna fleets and fishing grounds over all the world ocean, the continuous increase of tuna fishing power by in board equipment and remote sensing equipment for searching and scouting (on board, aircraft, satellite, telecommunication_). During the last 20 years, the log-associated tuna fishing has contributed to the local individual and tuna fleets efficiency and fishing power either for large industrial tuna seiners by radio-equipped buoys on natural (debris) or artificial man-made logs. The same trend is noted for numerous artisanal tuna and large pelagic coastal fisheries on moored fishing aggregating devices and networks. The first part of the paper is a review of data and results to assess and rank the "Surfaces prospected by in board tuna seiners and associated aircraft and satellite technics" (visual, radar, sar-radar and satellite altimetry sensors). The final objective is the comparison with the surfaces and volumes associated to fads. Since 20 years, tuna ecology and behaviour data from ultrasonic tagging (short-term depth/distance/time migration around logs and fads) are used for fishing of tuna associated with floating objects, namely fads. The second part of this paper is an "Assessment of fad's aggregating associated surface and volume" linked with oceanographic data: large oceanic geostrophic current and observed drift speed of radio-equipped fads in the Indian Ocean. Using the available data on fads, tuna fishing technology linked with oceanographic and biological data results from ultrasonic tuna tracking experiments, the paper is an attempt to identify and place the fads technology in the scale of tuna fishing devices as a contribution to the increase of tuna fishing power either individual tuna boat or tuna fleets.Original Abstract: La production mondiale des pecheries thonieres est actuellement de l'ordre de 3 millions de tonnes par an et conserve depuis pres de 50 ans un taux de croissance annuel soutenu. Cette croissance, exceptionnelle pour un secteur des peches maritimes, est due a plusieurs causes: accroissement des effectifs et des puissances de peche des grandes flottes thonieres industrielles oceaniques qui exploitent les ressources thonieres de l'ocean mondial et le developpement conjoint de nouvelles techniques de peche et de nouvelles technologies d'aide a la peche, telles que les dispositifs de concentration de poissons (DCP). L'accroissement de la puissance individuelle des navires est du au developpement de la construction navale (mecanisation, propulsion, hydraulique, conservation et traitement a borda) et a l'utilisation d'une gamme diversifiee d'aides a la peche : navigation, telecommunication, localisation des zones favorables, detection visuelle ou radiometrique assistee par equipement a bord, en helicoptere et avion, detection acoustique, detection par radar de bord, radar-avion ou, a terme, antenne SAR sur satellite. Plus recemment, soit depuis 20 ans, les caracteristiques du comportement, migration de court terme, agregation et concentration des poissons pelagiques, fixation et retention des bancs de thons, sont utilisees, par les dispositifs de concentration de poissons (DCP) ancres ou derivants. Cette contribution a pour objectif de situer et placer les DCP fixes ou derivants sur cet ensemble de techniques d'aide a la peche thoniere. Les donnees pour cet essai de classement sont d'ordres biologique, ethologique et comportementaux (amplitude de deplacement des thons et dimension de la sphere d'attraction d'un DCP) et d'ordres environnemental et oceanographique : masse d'eau concernee par un DCP dans une large veine de courant oceanique ou cotier. On tente de quantifier et d'ordonner les surfaces et les volumes prospectes par les thoniers et particulierement les volumes et masses d'eau exploites par les thoniers utilisant des DCP. Ce classement des DCP dans la serie des dispositifs d'aide a la peche thoniere facilitera l'appreciation de leur contribution a l'augmentation des puissances de peche des thoniers.

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00042/15297/12656.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00042/15297/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We have discovered in a marine core, located 20 km east of the Coastal Range of Taiwan at the top of a 1200 m deep submarine high, sheltered from rivers discharges and gravitational flows, a 23 cm-thick anomalous sequence topped with broken bivalves and wood fragments. Based on radiocarbon dating, we distinguish five sub-events within ∼ 100 yrs, about 3000 years ago. The oldest four sub-events are interpreted as the record of local submarine landslides, likely triggered by clustered earthquakes that are common in this tectonically active area. The last event including shells and wood has a different origin. Despite the high level of climatic and tectonic recent activity, no comparable event has been observed at the same site since that time, making it unique during the last 3.75 ka. Hydrodynamical modeling stimulated with a set of submarine landslide-triggered tsunami sources and combined with the regional oceanic circulation dominated by the Kuroshio Current, allow us to better constrain the transport paths of the suspended material, the expected run-up at the coast, and ultimately the trigger and source that best fit our observations. The Kuroshio Current appears as a strong constraint that generally prevents cross-shore transport of suspended material even during a major tsunami. Since the largest aerial debris flow observed along the east coast of Taiwan during the last 4 ka was synchronous with the marine deposit, our preferred scenario starts with the occurrence of four distinct large earthquakes within less than a century, triggering both submarine and aerial landslides in the study area. Then, a giant typhoon reworked the nearshore material as well as the slided material stored upstream resulting in a debris flow. It deeply modified the surface current, allowing the wood debris and shells to fastly reach the core site.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-01467640
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01467640
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2015.11.001

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Wood debris are an important component of mangrove marine environments. Current knowledge of the ecological role of wood falls is limited by the absence of information on metazoan colonization processes over time. The aim of this study was to provide insights to their temporal dynamics of wood eukaryotic colonization from a shallow water experiment in a mangrove swamp. Combined in situ chemical monitoring and biological surveys revealed that the succession of colonizers in the mangrove swamp relates with the rapid evolution of sulfide concentration on the wood surface. Sulfide-tolerant species are among the first colonizers and dominate over several weeks when the sulfide content is at its maximum, followed by less tolerant opportunistic species when sulfide decreases. This study supports the idea that woody debris can sustain chemosynthetic symbioses over short time-scale in tropical shallow waters.
ISSN: 0141-1136

hal-01545913
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01545913
DOI : 10.1016/j.marenvres.2013.03.007

Éditeur(s) : Gauthier-Villars
Résumé : Mud fields located In the inner part of shelves in front of large estuaries are preferential environments for the investigation of the mechanisms and evolution in time of the supply of such sedimentary bodies. The study of different constituents of the particulate organic matter trapped in the sediments of the West Gironde mud patch contributes to the knowledge of the input origins. This study was carried out with different techniques, including pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and high performance liquid chromatography, on samples from a core collected in the centre of the mud field. At the bottom of the core, the increase of sugars, amino-sugars and some aromatic hydrocarbons may indicate a more marine character of organic components. The same appears to be the case at the top of the core, where, despite a finer sedimentation, biochemical characteristics could show a more pronounced marine influence than in the middle part. In the middle part of the core, on the other hand, the increase in phenols could result from an increase in lignin-derived. terrestrial inputs. The increase in pyrolysis-derived cyclopentenone may indicate the same terrestrial influence, because this component has its origin in aliphatic polycarboxylic acids resulting from sail leaching. The continental character of the sedimentation is also reflected in the increase of the silt-clay fractions representative of suspended matter originating in the Gironde estuary, associated with a slight carbonate decrease. The taxonomic significance of some phenols is noteworthy: this is especially the case of the cinnamyls which, in the middle part of the core, emphasize the input of herbaceous debris and of the hydroxybenzyls which, at the bottom, provide evidence of the algal origin of part of the organic material. Thus, by means of pyrolysis results and HPLC phenol analysis, it is possible to establish the more or less continental signature of organic components trapped in the ''Ouest-Gironde'' mud patch. This study of organic matter, which confirms earlier sedimentological and micropaleontological data, constitutes a new approach, adapted to the identification of the origin of carbon sources.
Oceanolica Acta (0399-1784) (Gauthier-Villars), 1997 , Vol. 20 , N. 5 , P. 687-695

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00093/20426/18093.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00093/20426/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD IODP
Résumé : Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 335 (14 April–4 June 2011) will be the fourth ocean cruise of the "Superfast" campaign to drill a deep hole into intact oceanic basement and will return to Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Hole 1256D to deepen this scientific reference penetration a significant distance into cumulate gabbros. Cores and data recovered during the Superfast 4 expedition will provide hitherto unavailable observations that will test models of the accretion and evolution of the oceanic crust. Site 1256 was specifically located on oceanic crust that formed at a superfast spreading rate (>200 mm/y) to exploit the observed relationship between spreading rate and depth to axial low velocity zones, thought to be magma chambers, seismically imaged at active mid-ocean ridges. This was a deliberate strategy to reduce the drilling distance to gabbroic rocks because thick sequences of lavas and dikes have proved difficult to penetrate in past. ODP Leg 206 (2002) initiated operations at Site 1256, including the installation in Hole 1256D of a reentry cone with 16 inch casing inserted through the 250 m thick sedimentary cover and cemented into basement to facilitate deep drilling. The hole was then cored ~500 m into basement. IODP Expeditions 309 and 312 (2005) successfully completed the first sampling of an intact section of upper oceanic crust from lavas, through the sheeted dikes, and into the upper gabbros. Hole 1256D now penetrates >1500 meters below seafloor (mbsf) and >1250 m subbasement and currently resides in the dike–gabbro transition zone. The first gabbroic rocks were encountered at 1407 mbsf. Below this lies a ~100 m complex zone of fractionated gabbros intruded into contact metamorphosed dikes. Although previous cruises achieved the benchmark objective of reaching gabbro in intact ocean crust, critical scientific questions remain. These include the following: 1. Does the lower crust form by the recrystallization and subsidence of a high-level magma chamber (gabbro glacier), crustal accretion by intrusion of sills throughout the lower crust, or some other mechanism? 2. Is the plutonic crust cooled by conduction or hydrothermal circulation? 3. What is the geological nature of Layer 3 and the Layer 2/3 boundary at Site 1256? 4. What is the magnetic contribution of the lower crust to marine magnetic anomalies? Hole 1256D is poised at a depth where samples that should conclusively address these questions can be obtained, possibly with only a few hundred meters of drilling. Importantly, as of the end of Expedition 312, the hole was clear of debris and open to its full depth. Increased rates of penetration (1.2 m/h) and enhanced core recovery (>35%) in the gabbros indicate that this return to Hole 1256D could deepen the hole >300 m into plutonic rocks, past the transition from dikes to gabbro, and into a region of solely cumulate gabbroic rocks.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00564953

hal-00564953
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00564953
DOI : 10.2204/iodp.sp.335.2010

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier Sci Ltd
Résumé : The quantity and the source of organic matter preserved in the Recent turbiditic channel-levees systems around 4000 m-depth off the Congo River were determined using bulk geochemical approaches (Rock-Eval, elemental and isotopic analyses) as well as molecular and optical analyses on selected samples. These mud-rich sediments contain high amount of organic matter (3% Corg on average), the origin of which is a mixture of terrestrial higher-plant debris and deeply oxidized phytoplanktonic material. Although the relative contribution of continental source versus marine source of the organic matter cannot be precisely quantified, the continental fraction appears significant (at least 70-80%) especially for such depths and distances from the coast. The organic matter distribution appears very homogeneous at different scales, from the single turbiditic event to the entire levee, and changes in accumulation rates have a little impact on the quantity and quality of preserved organic matter. With a petroleum potential around 4.5 kg HC per t rock, the fine-grained turbiditic sediments in the Congo deep-sea system could be regarded as an analog of gas-prone source rocks for the deep offshore of the Atlantic margins. Finally, the Congo deep-sea turbiditic system is a major conveyor of organic carbon to the deep ocean. Further studies are needed to evaluate the efficiency of such systems for the storage of continental organic matter into the deep ocean in relation to sea-level and climatic changes. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Marine And Petroleum Geology (0264-8172) (Elsevier Sci Ltd), 2010-05 , Vol. 27 , N. 5 , P. 995-1010

Droits : 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00006/11700/9285.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2010.02.006
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00006/11700/