AUTHOR=Atwood Trisha B. , Romanou Anastasia , DeVries Tim , Lerner Paul E. , Mayorga Juan S. , Bradley Darcy , Cabral Reniel B. , Schmidt Gavin A. , Sala Enric TITLE=Atmospheric CO2 emissions and ocean acidification from bottom-trawling JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=10 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1125137 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2023.1125137 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=

Trawling the seafloor can disturb carbon that took millennia to accumulate, but the fate of that carbon and its impact on climate and ecosystems remains unknown. Using satellite-inferred fishing events and carbon cycle models, we find that 55-60% of trawling-induced aqueous CO2 is released to the atmosphere over 7-9 years. Using recent estimates of bottom trawling’s impact on sedimentary carbon, we found that between 1996-2020 trawling could have released, at the global scale, up to 0.34-0.37 Pg CO2 yr-1 to the atmosphere, and locally altered water pH in some semi-enclosed and heavy trawled seas. Our results suggest that the management of bottom-trawling efforts could be an important climate solution.