Role of dense shelf water cascading in the transfer of organochlorine compounds to open marine waters

Settling particles were collected by an array of sediment trap moorings deployed along the Cap de Creus (CCC) and Lacaze-Duthiers (LDC) submarine canyons and on the adjacent southern open slope (SOS) between October 2005 and October 2006. This array collected particles during common settling processes and particles transferred to deep waters by dense shelf water cascading (DSWC). Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), chlorobenzenes (CBzs)--pentachlorobenzene and hexachlorobenzene--and hexachlorocyclohexanes were analyzed in all samples. The results show much higher settling fluxes of these compounds during DSWC than during common sedimentation processes. The area of highest deposition was located between 1000 and 1500 m depth and extended along the canyons and outside them showing their channelling effects but also overflows of dense shelf water from these canyons. Higher fluxes were observed near the bottom (30 m above bottom; mab) than at intermediate waters (500 mab) which is consistent with the formation and sinking of dense water close to the continental shelf and main displacement through the slope by the bottom. DSWC involved the highest settling fluxes of these compounds ever described in marine continental slopes and pelagic areas, e.g., peak values of PCBs (960 ng · m(-2) · d(-1)), DDTs (2900 ng · m(-2) · d(-1)), CBzs (340 ng · m(-2) · d(-1)) and lindane (180 ng · m(-2) · d(-1)).