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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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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Observations of floating anthropogenic litter in the Barents Sea and Fram Strait, Arctic
TL;DR: Since anthropogenic activities in the Fram Strait are expanding because of sea ice shrinkage, and since currents from the North Atlantic carry a continuous supply of litter to the north, this problem is likely to worsen in years to come unless serious mitigating actions are taken to reduce the amounts of litter entering the oceans.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plastic litter in aquatic environments of Maremma Regional Park (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy): Contribution by the Ombrone river and levels in marine sediments.
Cristiana Guerranti,Susanna Cannas,Costanza Scopetani,Paolo Fastelli,Alessandra Cincinelli,Monia Renzi +5 more
TL;DR: Sediments samples were collected along the Ombrone river in particular at its mouth and in the marine area in front of it in order to quantify, identify and categorize plastic items and evaluate their potential sources.
Book ChapterDOI
Chapter 1 - Microplastics – Occurrence, Fate and Behaviour in the Environment
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodegradation of mixture of plastic films by tailored marine consortia
Evdokia Syranidou,Katerina Karkanorachaki,Filippo Amorotti,Apostolos Avgeropoulos,Boris A. Kolvenbach,Ning-Yi Zhou,Fabio Fava,Philippe F.-X. Corvini,Nicolas Kalogerakis,Nicolas Kalogerakis +9 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that tailored marine consortia have the ability to thrive in the presence of mixtures of plastics and participate in their degradation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Early Colonization of Weathered Polyethylene by Distinct Bacteria in Marine Coastal Seawater.
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that Plastispheres can vary in accordance with the weathering state of the material and that very early colonizing communities are enriched with taxa that can potentially degrade hydrocarbons.
References
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Microplastics in the marine environment
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Journal ArticleDOI
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.