Marine litter as habitat and dispersal vector

By Timothy Kiessling, L. Gutow, M. Thiel. 2015

214 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Floating anthropogenic litter provides habitat for a diverse community of marine organisms. A total of 387 taxa, including pro- and eukaryotic micro-organisms, seaweeds and invertebrates, have been found rafting on floating litter in all major oceanic regions. Among the invertebrates, species of bryozoans, crustaceans, molluscs and cnidarians are most frequently reported as rafters on marine litter. Micro-organisms are also ubiquitous on marine litter although the composition of the microbial community seems to depend on specific substratum characteristics such as the polymer type of floating plastic items. Sessile suspension feeders are particularly well-adapted to the limited autochthonous food resources on artificial floating substrata and an extended planktonic larval development seems to facilitate colonization of floating litter at sea. Properties of floating litter, such as size and surface rugosity, are crucial for colonization by marine organisms and the subsequent succession of the rafting community. The rafters themselves affect substratum characteristics such as floating stability, buoyancy, and degradation. Under the influence of currents and winds marine litter can transport associated organisms over extensive distances. Because of the great persistence (especially of plastics) and the vast quantities of litter in the world’s oceans, rafting dispersal has become more prevalent in the marine environment, potentially facilitating the spread of invasive species.

Subfields: Ocean Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bb7b249621d4835f6c92165a2fa3b8ce76162c62

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ocean Engineering

1. Diederik D’Hert
2. Melanie Bergmann
3. E. Rebolledo
4. A. Lusher
5. I. Schewe
6. Nadja Sandhop
7. J. V. van Franeker
8. S. Kühn

In Pollution

1. A. Lusher
2. J. V. van Franeker
3. S. Kühn
4. E. Rebolledo
5. Diederik D’Hert
6. Melanie Bergmann
7. I. Schewe
8. Nadja Sandhop

Citations in the corpus

• Microplastics in the Marine Environment: Distribution, Interactions and Effects (2015, background): “As a result, these organisms can be transported over large distances by ocean currents and/or through the water column (Kiessling et al. 2015).”
• Observations of floating anthropogenic litter in the Barents Sea and Fram Strait, Arctic (2016, background): “Natural floatsam comprises seaweeds, wood, other plant debris, animal carcasses and volcanic pumice (Kiessling et al. 2015).”
• Deleterious Effects of Litter on Marine Life (2015, background): “…synthetic materials represent a long-lived substrate that may present the possibility of transporting hitch-hiking ‘alien’ species horizontally to ecosystems elsewhere (for more details see Kiessling et al. 2015) or vertically from the sea surface through the water column to the seafloor.”