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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The rise in ocean plastics evidenced from a 60-year time series
Clare Ostle,Richard C. Thompson,Derek Broughton,Lance Gregory,Marianne Wootton,David G. Johns +5 more
TL;DR: A 60 year time series, from 1957 to 2016 and covering over 6.5 million nautical miles, provides some of the earliest records of plastic entanglement, and is the first to confirm a significant increase in open ocean plastics in recent decades.
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Nano-sized polystyrene affects feeding, behavior and physiology of brine shrimp Artemia franciscana larvae
Elisa Bergami,Elena Bocci,Maria Luisa Vannuccini,Marco P. Monopoli,Anna Salvati,Kenneth A. Dawson,Ilaria Corsi +6 more
TL;DR: The general observed accumulation of PS NPs within the gut during the 48h of exposure indicates a continuous bioavailability of nano-sized PS for planktonic species as well as a potential transfer along the trophic web.
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Simplifying microplastic via continuous probability distributions for size, shape and density
Merel Kooi,Albert A. Koelmans +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a 3D probability distribution of environmental versus ingested microplastic is proposed to simplify microplastics by fully defining them through a three-dimensional probability distribution, with size, shape and density as dimensions.
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Interaction between microplastics and microorganism as well as gut microbiota: A consideration on environmental animal and human health.
TL;DR: This review summarized the interactions between MPs and microorganisms as well as gut microbiota, and considered the possible impacts of MPs on environmental animal and human health, suggesting that the environmental microorganisms and the gut microbiota of animals were also the very important target for MPs.
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High levels of microplastic pollution in the sediments and benthic organisms of the South Yellow Sea, China.
TL;DR: The results demonstrate that a comprehensive investigation of microplastics in sediments and benthic communities will help to fully understand the ecological risk of microPlastic pollution.
References
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Microplastics in the marine environment
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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
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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.