Plastic debris in the open ocean
Andrés Cózar,Fidel Echevarría,J. Ignacio González-Gordillo,Xabier Irigoien,Bárbara Úbeda,Santiago Hernández-León,Alvaro T. Palma,Sandra Navarro,Juan García-de-Lomas,Andrea Ruiz,María L. Fernández-de-Puelles,Carlos M. Duarte +11 more
TLDR
Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, this work shows a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density.Abstract:
There is a rising concern regarding the accumulation of floating plastic debris in the open ocean. However, the magnitude and the fate of this pollution are still open questions. Using data from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation, regional surveys, and previously published reports, we show a worldwide distribution of plastic on the surface of the open ocean, mostly accumulating in the convergence zones of each of the five subtropical gyres with comparable density. However, the global load of plastic on the open ocean surface was estimated to be on the order of tens of thousands of tons, far less than expected. Our observations of the size distribution of floating plastic debris point at important size-selective sinks removing millimeter-sized fragments of floating plastic on a large scale. This sink may involve a combination of fast nano-fragmentation of the microplastic into particles of microns or smaller, their transference to the ocean interior by food webs and ballasting processes, and processes yet to be discovered. Resolving the fate of the missing plastic debris is of fundamental importance to determine the nature and significance of the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean.read more
Citations
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Microplastics cause neurotoxicity, oxidative damage and energy-related changes and interact with the bioaccumulation of mercury in the European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus, 1758).
Luís Gabriel Antão Barboza,Luís Gabriel Antão Barboza,Luis R. Vieira,Vasco Branco,Neusa Figueiredo,Félix Carvalho,Cristina Carvalho,Lúcia Guilhermino +7 more
TL;DR: Toxic effects of microplastics and mercury in the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a marine fish widely used as food for humans, cause neurotoxicity, oxidative stress and damage, and changes in the activities of energy-related enzymes in juveniles of this species are investigated.
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Microplastic in marine organism: Environmental and toxicological effects
TL;DR: The main effects of plastics and microplastics on some marine organisms and ecosystem are summarized.
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Presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in food, with particular focus on seafood
TL;DR: In this article, the members of the Working Group on the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in food, with particular focus on seafood, thank the EFSA staff member Karen Mackay for the support provided to this statement.
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Quantitative investigation of the mechanisms of microplastics and nanoplastics toward zebrafish larvae locomotor activity.
TL;DR: New insights are provided into plastic particles' effects on zebrafish larvae, improving the understanding of their environmental risks to the aquatic environment and changing the larvae swimming behavior when co-exposed with EE2.
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Microplastics Alter the Properties and Sinking Rates of Zooplankton Faecal Pellets
Matthew Cole,Penelope K. Lindeque,Elaine S. Fileman,James R. Clark,James R. Clark,Ceri Lewis,Claudia Halsband,Tamara S. Galloway +7 more
TL;DR: The results support the proposal that sinking faecal matter represents a mechanism by which floating plastics can be vertically transported away from surface waters and facilitate the transfer of plastics to coprophagous biota.
References
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Microplastics in the marine environment
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Lost at sea: where is all the plastic?
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Journal ArticleDOI
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TL;DR: Model calculations and experimental observations consistently show that polyethylene accumulates more organic contaminants than other plastics such as polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride, and PCBs could transfer from contaminated plastics to streaked shearwater chicks.