A global inventory of small floating plastic debris
Microplastic debris floating at the ocean surface can harm marine life. Understanding the severity of this harm requires knowledge of plastic abundance and distributions. Dozens of expeditions measuring microplastics have been carried out since the 1970s, but they have primarily focused on the North...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
IOP Publishing
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 https://doaj.org/article/a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 2023-09-05T13:21:36+02:00 A global inventory of small floating plastic debris Erik van Sebille Chris Wilcox Laurent Lebreton Nikolai Maximenko Britta Denise Hardesty Jan A van Franeker Marcus Eriksen David Siegel Francois Galgani Kara Lavender Law 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 https://doaj.org/article/a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 10, Iss 12, p 124006 (2015) marine debris ocean circulation model comparison Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 2023-08-13T00:37:50Z Microplastic debris floating at the ocean surface can harm marine life. Understanding the severity of this harm requires knowledge of plastic abundance and distributions. Dozens of expeditions measuring microplastics have been carried out since the 1970s, but they have primarily focused on the North Atlantic and North Pacific accumulation zones, with much sparser coverage elsewhere. Here, we use the largest dataset of microplastic measurements assembled to date to assess the confidence we can have in global estimates of microplastic abundance and mass. We use a rigorous statistical framework to standardize a global dataset of plastic marine debris measured using surface-trawling plankton nets and coupled this with three different ocean circulation models to spatially interpolate the observations. Our estimates show that the accumulated number of microplastic particles in 2014 ranges from 15 to 51 trillion particles, weighing between 93 and 236 thousand metric tons, which is only approximately 1% of global plastic waste estimated to enter the ocean in the year 2010. These estimates are larger than previous global estimates, but vary widely because the scarcity of data in most of the world ocean, differences in model formulations, and fundamental knowledge gaps in the sources, transformations and fates of microplastics in the ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Pacific Environmental Research Letters 10 12 124006 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
marine debris ocean circulation model comparison Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
marine debris ocean circulation model comparison Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Erik van Sebille Chris Wilcox Laurent Lebreton Nikolai Maximenko Britta Denise Hardesty Jan A van Franeker Marcus Eriksen David Siegel Francois Galgani Kara Lavender Law A global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
topic_facet |
marine debris ocean circulation model comparison Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Microplastic debris floating at the ocean surface can harm marine life. Understanding the severity of this harm requires knowledge of plastic abundance and distributions. Dozens of expeditions measuring microplastics have been carried out since the 1970s, but they have primarily focused on the North Atlantic and North Pacific accumulation zones, with much sparser coverage elsewhere. Here, we use the largest dataset of microplastic measurements assembled to date to assess the confidence we can have in global estimates of microplastic abundance and mass. We use a rigorous statistical framework to standardize a global dataset of plastic marine debris measured using surface-trawling plankton nets and coupled this with three different ocean circulation models to spatially interpolate the observations. Our estimates show that the accumulated number of microplastic particles in 2014 ranges from 15 to 51 trillion particles, weighing between 93 and 236 thousand metric tons, which is only approximately 1% of global plastic waste estimated to enter the ocean in the year 2010. These estimates are larger than previous global estimates, but vary widely because the scarcity of data in most of the world ocean, differences in model formulations, and fundamental knowledge gaps in the sources, transformations and fates of microplastics in the ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Erik van Sebille Chris Wilcox Laurent Lebreton Nikolai Maximenko Britta Denise Hardesty Jan A van Franeker Marcus Eriksen David Siegel Francois Galgani Kara Lavender Law |
author_facet |
Erik van Sebille Chris Wilcox Laurent Lebreton Nikolai Maximenko Britta Denise Hardesty Jan A van Franeker Marcus Eriksen David Siegel Francois Galgani Kara Lavender Law |
author_sort |
Erik van Sebille |
title |
A global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
title_short |
A global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
title_full |
A global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
title_fullStr |
A global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
title_full_unstemmed |
A global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
title_sort |
global inventory of small floating plastic debris |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 https://doaj.org/article/a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 10, Iss 12, p 124006 (2015) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/a5bde09bcf914586b9bed4a008779f81 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
124006 |
_version_ |
1776202192482467840 |