Duke Marine Robotics e Remote Sensing Lab
Ships and deposits of ammunition were left abandoned in various corners of the world after World War II. But nature did its work, and repopulated these gray places.
Scientists at the Senckenberg AM Meer Marine Research Department in Germany and Duke University in the US revealed, for the first time, two places where nature recovered what we left to waste, explains the
And nature has made its “appropriation” of war material twice: first, in a ammunition deposit World War II in the Baltic Sea, and, secondly, in the “Ghost Fleet” in Mallows Bay, Maryland, where world war ships were sunk in the 1920s.
And the most surprising, denote the authors of those published in the Nature September 25, is that Marine life seemed to adapt to toxic potentials. The concentrations of explosive compounds (TNT and RDX) ranged from 30 nanograms and 2.7 milligrams per liter – but even in the highest values, animal life was abundant.
But why did these species look for this habitat? Scientists believe that living in a solid surface be more advantageous than in more temporary substrates.
“In general, the epifaunal community in the discarded ammunition in the study area reaches a high density, with the high metal structures to provide a suitable habitat for benthic organisms“The investigators say.
“Although the addition of new severe marine ecosystems can be questionable due to the alteration of the surrounding habitat and even the possible creation of refuge for non -native species, in the particular case of the German Baltic Sea, new hard substrates can be a conservation tool and lead to conditions closer to initial natural naturals.”
