Abstract
Humans have been sailing across seas and oceans for thousands of years. However, the story of large ships capable of affecting coastal ecology and shelf sedimentary processes is only about 100 years old. Modern large seagoing vessels with a draft of 10–20 m can cause resuspension of seabed sediment, erosion of the channel slope and shoal, enhancement of seafloor sediment activity and thickening of the active layer, thereby having a significant impact on seabed topography and sedimentation processes. However, little is known about the effects of this anthropogenic agent on shelf sedimentation due to limited observational data. Here, two sediment cores were collected from a shipping lane used by vessels of 5,000- to 50,000-ton off the coast of China to analyze their sedimentary properties, with focus on both the grain size and elements. It was found that ship disturbance selectively modified the sedimentary record, with the fine-grained sediment becoming increasingly unstable. In addition, there was a reduction in grain size of sediment finer than 6.25 Φ, which decreased by 11% after the disturbance by ship. Biogenic elements that were closely related to the ecological environment were significantly altered, with Br/Cl, Si/Ti, and Ca/Ti ratios all becoming significantly smaller. This indicated that frequent disturbance caused by ships had reduced the productivity in the waters near the shipping lane. In terms of sensitivity to the effects of ship navigation, the sedimentation response was relatively rapid and began to emerge from the commencement of ship navigation, whereas the ecological response became evident later than the sedimentation response and only appeared after a significant growth in the maritime transportation of China. Following the comparison of the two sediment cores, we propose that the constant rate of supply (CRS- with ship disturbance)–constant initial concentration (CIC- without ship disturbance) dual dating model be used to establish a dating framework in waters frequently disturbed by ship. This type of anthropogenic sedimentary dynamic process and its sedimentary–ecological effects deserve attention on this era where there is a surge in shipping globally. Shipping lanes present an excellent area for quantitative studies on the impacts of human activity and defining the Anthropocene in the context of shipping.
Highlights
Humans and the natural environment interact with each other (Ye et al, 2009; Syvitski and Kettner, 2011), and humans have been influencing the natural environment significantly for thousands of years (Ren, 1989; Debret et al, 2009; Jenny et al, 2019)
Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have become the main agents of environmental change, and the concept of the Anthropocene was born in 2000 (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000)
In combination with development of China’s offshore shipping lanes, we explore the possible linkage between ship traffic and the changes in sedimentation
Summary
Humans and the natural environment interact with each other (Ye et al, 2009; Syvitski and Kettner, 2011), and humans have been influencing the natural environment significantly for thousands of years (Ren, 1989; Debret et al, 2009; Jenny et al, 2019). Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have become the main agents of environmental change, and the concept of the Anthropocene was born in 2000 (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000). The fact that humans act as an important force in nature brings a new scientific challenge to earth scientists, that is, the impacts of various human activities should be quantified and integrated into the existing earth science system (Ye et al, 2009). Estuaries and offshore waters are places where the imprints of human activity are prominent. Coastal and ocean engineering can alter the original dynamic field, leading to changes in the morphological structure and ecological function of the modern delta and decreased sustainability of the modern delta (Powell et al, 2006; De Vriend et al, 2011; Day et al, 2016; Luan et al, 2016). The impact of shelf trawling on the resuspension of fine sediment on the seabed is comparable with that of large storms (Ferré et al, 2008)
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