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Stephen Macko Department of Environmental Sciences University of Virginia [email protected] A Perspective on Coastal Marine Pollution
May 17, 2017
“Charleston Flooded” BATIK by Mary Edna Fraser, Charleston, SC, USA
Facts on Ocean Pollution Over 80% of the pollution in the ocean is runoff from the Land Almost 90% of all floating materials in the ocean is plastic Marine debris, especially plastic, kills more than one million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles every year Dead Zones which are areas of oxygen deficient water were life ceases to exist, have increased drastically over the past decade Most of the oil entering the ocean does not originate from ajor accide ts or spills
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Difficulties in Identifying the Sources of Coastal Marine Contamination
Point Source Non-point Source
Types of Coastal Marine Pollution
Metals, Chemicals, Oil, Nutrients, Plastic (garbage), Noise, Sewage, Carbon Dioxide
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Shipping Routes: 20%
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The usual suspects
Methane has >10-20 times the effect of carbon dioxide, but does not reside in the atmosphere as long
Most of the emissions come from the developed world, and chiefly a few countries. This will change with higher and warmer seas.
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The ocean is now > 0.1 pH units lower than pre- industrial times and contains about 400 billion
tonnes of fossil fuel CO2.
The “other “ Carbon Dioxide problem
Photo Stephen Macko
Metal Sulfide Deposits
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Slide courtesy: Se-Jon Ju, KIOST
Slide courtesy: Se-Jon Ju, KIOST
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Impacts: Manganese Nodules “Harvesting” • contain concentrations of valuable minerals • iron, manganese, copper, nickel, cobalt
http://teachers.sduhsd.net/hherms/herms/ocean/sedimentation/nodules.gif http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/McGrawHill/Encyclopedia/images/CE403150FG0010.gif
Fertilizers Fertilizers that runoff from farms and lawns is a huge problem for coastal areas. The extra nutrients cause Eutrophication. The run off encourages algal growth which decomposes and depletes the water's dissolved oxygen and suffocates other marine life. Eutrophication is caused by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system. Eutrophication has created enormous dead zones in several parts of the world, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Baltic Sea
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Sewage In many parts of the world, sewage flows untreated, or under- treated, into the ocean. For example, 80% of urban sewage discharged into the Mediterranean Sea is untreated.
This sewage can also lead to eutrophication. In addition, it can cause human disease and lead to beach closures.
Dead Zones in the Gulf of Mexico
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Chemicals: Pesticides, Herbicides, Endocrine Disrupting Compounds
Chemicals accumulate in organisms, becoming concentrated in their bodies and in the surrounding water s and sediments. These animals are in turn eaten by larger animals, which can travel large distances with an increased chemical load.
People become contaminated by eating contaminated seafood.
Evidence is mounting that a number of man-made chemicals can cause serious health problems - including cancer, damage to the immune system, behavioral problems, and reduced fertility.
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Metals
Mercury Minamata Disease About 3000 victims
At Fukushima in 2014, a peer review estimated that 80% escaped into the Pacific Ocean. Radioactive materials continue to be released into the Pacific via groundwater.
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Plastic
Unlike most other trash, plastic isn't biodegradable Sunlight does eventually break down the plastic, reducing it to smaller and smaller pieces, but that just makes matters worse. The plastic still never goes away, it just becomes microscopic and may be eaten by tiny marine organisms, entering the food chain. The world produced 300 million tonnes of plastic each year, about 5-10% ends up in the ocean, 70% of which eventually sinks
8 MT/year;10,000 piece/ sq Km
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Oceans to have more plastic than fish by 2050 Plastic packaging is usually used only once then discarded World Economic Forum
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Demand for fossil fuels will remain high as population grows
Source: IEA
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Oil Spills
Oil spills have huge and immediate economic, social, and environmental impacts.
Local people lose their livelihoods as fisheries and tourism areas are temporarily closed; the clean up costs are enormous; and tens of thousands of marine animals and plants are killed or harmed.
And the damage goes on. The chemicals used to break up the oil can be toxic, and it's impossible to remove all the spilled oil. Even after an area has been cleaned up, it can take decades or more to fully recover: Exxon Valdez.
There's also the problem of the oil that sink, which can contaminate the seabed and smother marine organisms.
This oil can also resurface. In 2001, a cyclone off the island of Yap in Micronesia disturbed the oil tanker USS Mississinewa, which was sunk during World War II. For two months, thousands of liters of oil and gasoline leaked out of the rusted ship wreck onto the beaches of the atoll, stopping the 700 islanders from fishing. There are hundreds of other shipwrecked tankers around the world.
Oil Transport
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1967 Torrey Canyon 119,000 tonnes
Amoco Cadiz 1978; 227 tonnes
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Amoco Cadiz 1978;; 227 tonnes
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0.5 million Tonnes spilled, 1980-1981
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2M gallons of Corexit sprayed
Deepwater Horizon BP / Transocean registered out of Marshall Islands 20 April – 19 September 2010
210M gallons= 660,000 tonnes Ixtoc 1 PEMEX 68,000 square miles June 1979- March 1980 130M gallons; 30,000 Failed blowout preventer gallons/day; 11,000 sq miles
Lowest end of winter ice 2017
Lowest end of summer ice 2012
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Arctic Resources 25 geologic regions
USGS Perhaps 100 billion barrels of oil 13% of world’s undiscovered oil 30% of world’s undiscovered gas 84% is offshore, shallow deposits
US EEZ: 30 billion barrels of oil
74 billion barrels gas(eq) Closest Coast Guard 1000mi
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Impacts: Shipping route 40% shorter across the Arctic
Source: UPEP GRID Arendal
1969 Manhattan transits NW passage with 1 barrel of oil
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Photo credit: Stephen Macko Figure 17_07
While the path forward looks complex and risky
We depend on you
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There is no other option Winston Churchill
Terima kasih Thank you
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The ocean is now > 0.1 pH units lower than pre-industrial times and contains about 400
billion tons of fossil fuel CO2.
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Declining pH of the Ocean: increasing acidity, declining carbonate
Year 1750 2000 2100?
CO2 ppm 275 375 (1.36x) 750 (2.73x) pH of the 8.13 7.87 8.24 Ocean (1.29x H+) (2.35x H+)
Lowest pH in millions of years
Effect is highly predictable
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Coccolithophores and Ocean Acidification
A bloom of coccolithophore plankton recorded near Newfoundland in 1999 by NASA’s SeaWiFs satellite Acidification of the ocean waters means difficulty in calcification by phytoplankton
Graphic courtesy Introduction to Recognize change Oceanography, Sverdrup et al. Prentice Hall cascades with trophic level
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Zooplankton also. Foraminifera: composed of calcium carbonate
a–d, Live pteropod, Clio pyramidata, collected from the subarctic Pacific exposed to undersaturated (aragonite) for 48 h. The whole shell (a) : the shell surface (b) etch pits and exposure of aragonitic rods; the prismatic layer (c), peeling (d) advanced dissolution.
No exposure
pteropod Limacina helicina helicina.
Arctic pteropod (pelagic sea mollusk) Limacina helicina (Spitzberg)
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Lower pH negatively affects larval stages of planktonic stages: increased mortality, affects hardening of chitin with calcite formation
Blue king crab zoea Juvenile blue king crab
Coral Reefs
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Potential economic impact of ocean acidification on US fisheries (Cooley and Doney, 2009)
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