the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 18 Dec 2023
Demersal fishery Impacts on Sedimentary Organic Matter (DISOM): A global harmonized database of studies assessing the impacts of demersal fisheries on sediment biogeochemistry
Abstract. Marine sediments are one of the largest carbon reservoirs on the planet and play a key role in the global cycling of organic matter. Bottom fisheries constitute the most widespread anthropogenic physical disturbance to seabed habitats, and this has prompted NGOs and governments to act on regulating mobile bottom contacting fishing gear. However, the scientific evidence of the effects of bottom trawling on sediment biogeochemistry are highly diverse and present contrasting results. Here we present a global harmonized dataset of 71 independent studies that assess the effects of demersal fisheries on sedimentological (i.e. grain size, porosity) and biogeochemical (i.e. organic carbon, phytopigments, nutrient fluxes) properties: Demersal fishery Impacts on Sedimentary Organic Matter (DISOM) database (Paradis, 2023; https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000634336). We establish protocols to report metadata that will allow a better comparison of the results in order to improve our understanding of the effects of bottom trawling on the seafloor on a global scale. With this harmonized database, we aim to allow researchers to explore the effects of demersal fisheries in variable environmental settings to deconvolve the effects of this disturbance and provide efficient management strategies.
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Status: open (until 14 May 2024)
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RC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-412', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Feb 2024
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Paradis and co-workers have synthesized the data related to the impact of trawling on the sedimentological characteristics and organic carbon burial in the global marine sediments. As stated by the authors, bottom trawling severely impact the ocean community. Unfortunately, the methodology followed to assess the impact of trawling on marine community varies case-to-case basis. Therefore, a uniform comprehensive methodology to assess the harmful impacts of trawling on benthic community will help tremendously. However, it is difficult to suggest a common methodology for all regions, due to the huge diversity in sediments and environments. This assessment suffers from the lack of coherency in different studies.
Major Concerns
- Many previous studies have not included the details of fishing frequency properly. How does this lack of information about the fishing frequency in several studies affect the outcome of this synthesis?
- The fishing gear used in synthesized studies varies a lot, again hampering a proper assessment of the fishing impact of stated sediment variables.
- Given the incoherency in the synthesized studies, is it really possible to use the compiled data to model the fishing impacts with reasonable accuracy?
- It’s hard to assess the applicability of the compiled descriptors with huge variation from study to study. Isn’t it better to just put this work as a review article, rather than a data descriptor?
- I could not access the dataset, as it asked for certain details and login.
Minor Comments
- Line 28, ‘increasing in intensity’
- Line 33, replace ‘has been shown to change’ with ‘changes’
- Line 37, ‘increase’
- Line 39, ‘increase’, ‘decrease’
- Line 47, what is meant by ‘very hydrodynamic area’?
- Line 205, replace ‘for an understanding of fishing impacts’ with ‘to understand the fishing impacts’
- Line 213, replace ‘less then’ with ‘<’
Line 241, insert ‘of’ before ‘fishing’
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-412-RC1 -
RC2: 'Comment on essd-2023-412', Anonymous Referee #2, 30 Mar 2024
reply
Paradis aet al., has brought together data related to the impact of bottom trawling impact on a number of biogeochemical and sedimentological variable's from across the global oceans. Currently, the types of data collected and the way it was collected differs significantly, making global assessments of the impact on sediments. This new uniform dataset will lay the foundations for regional and global scale assessments of trawling impacts on the seabed. The manuscript itself will be of interest a wide audience and is of high quality with the exception of a few minor graphical components.
For review it would have been useful to see the dataset, but this should not hamper the publication of this work.
Figure 6 and 7 box C - the x-axis titles don't algin with the the ticks.
Figure 10 - this is very complex and hard to understand is there another way to present this data or do you need this plot
I have not had time to look through and list typos.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-412-RC2
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