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Quantifying the carbon benefits of ending bottom trawling

Nature volume 617, pages E1–E2 (2023)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 10 May 2023

The Original Article was published on 17 March 2021

arising from E. Sala et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03371-z (2021)

Bottom trawling disrupts natural carbon flows in seabed ecosystems owing to sediment mixing, resuspension and changes in the biological community. Sala et al.1 suggest that seafloor disturbance by industrial trawlers and dredgers results in 0.58–1.47 petagrams (Pg) of aqueous CO2 release annually (equivalent to 0.16–0.4 Pg carbon (C) per year), owing to increased organic carbon (OC) mineralization, which occurs after trawling. We are concerned, however, that Sala et al.1 overestimate trawl-induced CO2 release, because their model uses a reactivity value (k, the first-order decay rate) estimated for highly reactive OC delivered recently to the sediment surface, and apply it to bulk sediment (typically composed of labile, recalcitrant and refractory C), which is known to have a much lower reactivity2. These assumptions result in an upward bias in the estimated CO2 release by several orders of magnitude, overestimating the impact of trawling on global OC mineralization rates.

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Fig. 1: Decrease in modelled OC degradation-rate constants with sediment depth for 11 sites in the North Sea, with varying OC contents at the sediment surface.

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Acknowledgements

J. Middelburg provided insightful comments during the review of an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK

    Jan Geert Hiddink

  2. Department of Geosciences, Environment & Society, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Sebastiaan J. van de Velde

  3. Operational Directorate Natural Environment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium

    Sebastiaan J. van de Velde

  4. Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Seattle, WA, USA

    Robert A. McConnaughey

  5. Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research, Yerseke, The Netherlands

    Emil De Borger & Justin Tiano

  6. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Justin Tiano

  7. Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, IJmuiden, The Netherlands

    Justin Tiano

  8. Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Michel J. Kaiser & Marija Sciberras

  9. Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, UK

    Andrew K. Sweetman

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Contributions

J.G.H., S.J.v.d.V., R.A.M., E.D.B., J.T., M.J.K., A.K.S. and M.S. all contributed to the ideas and writing of the paper. J.G.H. wrote the initial draft and S.J.v.d.V., R.A.M., E.D.B., J.T., M.J.K., A.K.S. and M.S. contributed to refining and editing the text.

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Correspondence to Jan Geert Hiddink.

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Competing interests

M.J.K. is currently funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (UKRI-GCRF), EDP Renewables, Fishmongers Company, Macduff Shellfish, Scottish Whitefish Producers Organisation, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, The Cooperative, CISCO and the Defra Seafood Innovation Fund. Less than 1% of his current funding is from fishing organizations. M.S. has received funding from the Seafood Innovation Fund, which funds collaborative industry–science projects, although no funding is received directly from the fishing industry. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Hiddink, J.G., van de Velde, S.J., McConnaughey, R.A. et al. Quantifying the carbon benefits of ending bottom trawling. Nature 617, E1–E2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06014-7

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