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
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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
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Sinking rates of microplastics and potential implications of their alteration by physical, biological, and chemical factors.
TL;DR: Experimental studies are conducted with diverse polymer particles using fluids with different salinity to gain representative datasets for model approaches estimating the distribution of microplastics in aquatic systems and to get basic knowledge about the sinking behaviour.
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Understanding the Fragmentation Pattern of Marine Plastic Debris
Alexandra Ter Halle,Lucie Ladirat,Xavier Gendre,Dominique Goudounèche,Claire Pusineri,Corinne Routaboul,Christophe Tenailleau,Benjamin Duployer,Emile Perez +8 more
TL;DR: A thorough physicochemical characterization of samples collected from the North Artlantic subtropical gyre during the sea campaign Expedition seventh Continent found that the smaller microplastics, the cubic ones mostly, are fragmented much faster than the parallelepipeds.
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Review of recent advances in the biodegradability of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) bioplastics and their composites
TL;DR: Poly(hydroxyalkanoate)s (PHAs) represent a promising solution to allay climate change and plastic waste pollution and can approach a carbon neutral platform whereas petroleum-based plastics cannot.
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Microplastics in aquatic environments: Occurrence, accumulation, and biological effects.
TL;DR: The accumulation (uptake, distribution, and elimination) of microplastics in aquatic organisms and the important factors that lead to bioaccumulation are considered and future lines of research are suggested based on the remaining knowledge gaps in microplastic research.
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Microbes on a Bottle: Substrate, Season and Geography Influence Community Composition of Microbes Colonizing Marine Plastic Debris
Sonja Oberbeckmann,Sonja Oberbeckmann,Sonja Oberbeckmann,A. Mark Osborn,A. Mark Osborn,A. Mark Osborn,Melissa B. Duhaime +6 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a substrate recruitment experiment was established in which PET bottles were deployed for 5-6 weeks at three stations in the North Sea in three different seasons and the structure and composition of the PET-colonizing bacterial/archaeal and eukaryotic communities varied with season and station.
References
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Microplastics in the marine environment
TL;DR: The mechanisms of generation and potential impacts of microplastics in the ocean environment are discussed, and the increasing levels of plastic pollution of the oceans are understood, it is important to better understand the impact of microPlastic in the Ocean food web.
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Lost at sea: where is all the plastic?
Richard C. Thompson,Ylva S. Olsen,Richard P. Mitchell,Anthony Davis,Steven J. Rowland,Anthony W. G. John,Daniel F. McGonigle,Andrea E. Russell +7 more
TL;DR: It is shown that microscopic plastic fragments and fibers are also widespread in the marine environment and may persist for centuries.
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TL;DR: Global plastics production and the accumulation of plastic waste are documented, showing that trends in mega- and macro-plastic accumulation rates are no longer uniformly increasing and that the average size of plastic particles in the environment seems to be decreasing.
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Microplastics in the Marine Environment: A Review of the Methods Used for Identification and Quantification
TL;DR: This review of 68 studies compares the methodologies used for the identification and quantification of microplastics from the marine environment and suggests standardized sampling procedures which allow the spatiotemporal comparison ofmicroplastic abundance across marine environments.
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Transport and release of chemicals from plastics to the environment and to wildlife
Emma L. Teuten,Jovita M. Saquing,Detlef R.U. Knappe,Morton A. Barlaz,Susanne Jonsson,Annika Björn,Steven J. Rowland,Richard C. Thompson,Tamara S. Galloway,Rei Yamashita,Daisuke Ochi,Yutaka Watanuki,Charles J. Moore,Pham Hung Viet,Touch Seang Tana,Maricar S. Prudente,Ruchaya Boonyatumanond,Mohamad Pauzi Zakaria,Kongsap Akkhavong,Yuko Ogata,Hisashi Hirai,Satoru Iwasa,Kaoruko Mizukawa,Yuki Hagino,Ayako Imamura,Mahua Saha,Hideshige Takada +26 more
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.