Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists
Plastic debris is ubiquitous in all ecosystems and has even reached locations that humans will hardly reach such as the deep ocean floor and the atmosphere. Research has highlighted that plastic debris is now pervasive even in remote Arctic regions. While modeling projections indicated local sources...
Published in: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 https://doaj.org/article/c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 2023-05-15T14:48:42+02:00 Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists Anna Natalie Meyer Birgit Lutz Melanie Bergmann 2023-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 https://doaj.org/article/c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-7745 2296-7745 doi:10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 https://doaj.org/article/c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 10 (2023) abandoned lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear Arctic beach debris citizen science derelict fishing gear marine litter Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 2023-02-12T01:31:21Z Plastic debris is ubiquitous in all ecosystems and has even reached locations that humans will hardly reach such as the deep ocean floor and the atmosphere. Research has highlighted that plastic debris is now pervasive even in remote Arctic regions. While modeling projections indicated local sources and long-distance transport as causes, empirical data about its origin and sources are scarce. Data collected by citizen scientists can increase the scale of observations, especially in such remote regions. Here, we report abundance and composition data of marine debris collected by citizen scientists on 14 remote Arctic beaches on the Spitsbergen archipelago. In addition, citizen scientists collected three large, industrial sized canvas bags (hereafter: big packs), filled with beached debris, of which composition, sources and origin were determined. A total debris mass of 1,620 kg was collected on about 38,000 m2 (total mean = 41.83 g m-2, SEM = ± 31.62). In terms of abundance, 23,000 pieces of debris were collected on 25,500 m2 (total mean = 0.37 items of debris m-2, SEM = ± 0.17). Although most items were plastic in both abundance and mass, fisheries waste, such as nets, rope, and large containers, dominated in mass (87%), and general plastics, such as packaging and plastic articles, dominated in abundance (80%). Fisheries-related debris points to local sea-based sources from vessels operating in the Arctic and nearby. General plastics could point to both land- and ship based sources, as household items are also used on ships and debris can be transported to the north via the oceans current. Overall, 1% of the items (206 out of 14,707 pieces) collected in two big packs (2017 and 2021), bore imprints or labels allowing an analysis of their origin. If the categories ‘global’ and ‘English language’ were excluded, most of identifiable items originated from Arctic states (65%), especially from Russia (32%) and Norway (16%). But almost a third of the items (30%) was of European provenance, especially from Germany (8%). ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Svalbard Spitsbergen Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Svalbard Norway Frontiers in Marine Science 10 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
abandoned lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear Arctic beach debris citizen science derelict fishing gear marine litter Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
spellingShingle |
abandoned lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear Arctic beach debris citizen science derelict fishing gear marine litter Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Anna Natalie Meyer Birgit Lutz Melanie Bergmann Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
topic_facet |
abandoned lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear Arctic beach debris citizen science derelict fishing gear marine litter Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
description |
Plastic debris is ubiquitous in all ecosystems and has even reached locations that humans will hardly reach such as the deep ocean floor and the atmosphere. Research has highlighted that plastic debris is now pervasive even in remote Arctic regions. While modeling projections indicated local sources and long-distance transport as causes, empirical data about its origin and sources are scarce. Data collected by citizen scientists can increase the scale of observations, especially in such remote regions. Here, we report abundance and composition data of marine debris collected by citizen scientists on 14 remote Arctic beaches on the Spitsbergen archipelago. In addition, citizen scientists collected three large, industrial sized canvas bags (hereafter: big packs), filled with beached debris, of which composition, sources and origin were determined. A total debris mass of 1,620 kg was collected on about 38,000 m2 (total mean = 41.83 g m-2, SEM = ± 31.62). In terms of abundance, 23,000 pieces of debris were collected on 25,500 m2 (total mean = 0.37 items of debris m-2, SEM = ± 0.17). Although most items were plastic in both abundance and mass, fisheries waste, such as nets, rope, and large containers, dominated in mass (87%), and general plastics, such as packaging and plastic articles, dominated in abundance (80%). Fisheries-related debris points to local sea-based sources from vessels operating in the Arctic and nearby. General plastics could point to both land- and ship based sources, as household items are also used on ships and debris can be transported to the north via the oceans current. Overall, 1% of the items (206 out of 14,707 pieces) collected in two big packs (2017 and 2021), bore imprints or labels allowing an analysis of their origin. If the categories ‘global’ and ‘English language’ were excluded, most of identifiable items originated from Arctic states (65%), especially from Russia (32%) and Norway (16%). But almost a third of the items (30%) was of European provenance, especially from Germany (8%). ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anna Natalie Meyer Birgit Lutz Melanie Bergmann |
author_facet |
Anna Natalie Meyer Birgit Lutz Melanie Bergmann |
author_sort |
Anna Natalie Meyer |
title |
Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
title_short |
Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
title_full |
Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
title_fullStr |
Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
title_full_unstemmed |
Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
title_sort |
where does arctic beach debris come from? analyzing debris composition and provenance on svalbard aided by citizen scientists |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 https://doaj.org/article/c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Norway |
genre |
Arctic Svalbard Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Spitsbergen |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 10 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-7745 2296-7745 doi:10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 https://doaj.org/article/c5f8641907c148e1beeb0f12d39e83f2 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1092939 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
10 |
_version_ |
1766319796762181632 |