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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River Deltas as hotspots of microplastic accumulation: The case study of the Ebro River (NW Mediterranean)
TL;DR: The main contribution of this study is a new insight on the distribution of MPs across different environmental matrices in river estuaries, where estuarine benthic sediments were identified as a potential important sink for MPs.
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Trophic transference of microplastics under a low exposure scenario: Insights on the likelihood of particle cascading along marine food-webs.
TL;DR: A less extreme scenario of exposure than used previously, with microplastics present only in the hemolymph of prey (the mussel Perna perna) and absent in the gut cavity, suggests a reduced likelihood of trophic cascading of particles and, consequently, a reduced risk of direct impacts of microplastic impacts on higher troPHic levels.
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Accumulation of microplastics in typical commercial aquatic species: A case study at a productive aquaculture site in China
Fangzhu Wu,Youji Wang,Jonathan Y.S. Leung,Wei Huang,Jiangning Zeng,Yanbin Tang,Jianfang Chen,Aiqin Shi,Xiang Yu,Xiaoqun Xu,Huaguo Zhang,Liang Cao +11 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that microplastics may not increase the health risk of consuming seafood and their impacts on commercial species may be less deleterious than previously thought.
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Effects of inorganic ions and natural organic matter on the aggregation of nanoplastics
TL;DR: Investigation of the influences of inorganic ions and natural organic matter on polystyrene (PS) NPs aggregation in solutions found the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek force was a contributor governing PS Nps aggregation either in the absence or presence of NOM.
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Abundance and composition of near surface microplastics and plastic debris in the Stockholm Archipelago, Baltic Sea.
TL;DR: The abundance of plastic debris near Stockholm was similar to urban areas in California, USA, and the overall abundance in the Stockholm Archipelago wasSimilar to plastic abundance reported in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea.
References
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Microplastics in the marine environment
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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.