The colours of the ocean plastics
Characterisation of the colour is often included in studies on plastic pollution. However, the comparability and relevance of this information is limited by methodology or observer subjectivity. Based on the analysis of thousands of floating plastic fragments from a global collection, here we propos...
Published in: | Environmental Science & Technology |
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American Chemical Society (ACS)
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662858 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 |
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ftkingabdullahun:oai:repository.kaust.edu.sa:10754/662858 2023-12-03T10:18:36+01:00 The colours of the ocean plastics Marti, Elisa Martin, Cecilia Galli, Matteo Echevarría, Fidel Duarte, Carlos M. Cozar, A. Marine Science Program Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) Departamento de Biología, Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Marinas (INMAR), Universidad de Cádiz, E11510 Puerto Real, Spain. Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100, Siena, Italy. 2020-05-11 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662858 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 unknown American Chemical Society (ACS) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 Marti, E., Martin, C., Galli, M., Echevarría, F., Duarte, C. M., & Cozar, A. (2020). The colours of the ocean plastics. Environmental Science & Technology. doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 0013-936X 1520-5851 Environmental Science & Technology http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662858 This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science & Technology, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400. 2021-05-11 Article 2020 ftkingabdullahun https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 2023-11-04T20:24:08Z Characterisation of the colour is often included in studies on plastic pollution. However, the comparability and relevance of this information is limited by methodology or observer subjectivity. Based on the analysis of thousands of floating plastic fragments from a global collection, here we propose a systematic semi-automatic method to analyse colours by using a reference palette of 120 Pantone colours. The most abundant colours were white and transparent/translucent (47 %), yellow and brown (26 %) and blue-like (9 %). The white colour increased in the smallest pieces (< 5 mm) and far from coastal sources (> 500 km). Both fragmentation and discolouration of ocean plastics may occur because of longer exposure time to sunlight in nature. In addition, yellow items peaked at around 1 cm and brown colours at around 1 mm, supporting the notion that yellowing precedes tanning in the aging process, which is paralleled by fragmentation. Apart from the effects of the weathering, our results suggest a second-order modulation of the colour distributions of marine plastic microplastics by the selective action of visual predators. The present work provides methodological tools and a wide empirical background to further the interpretation and applicability of the colour information on ocean plastics. This study is an outcome of Malaspina 2010 expedition (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077). E.M. was supported by the Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR) through a PhD Research Project Grant. We received additional support from PLASTREND (BBVA Foundation) and MIDaS (CTM2016- 77106-R,AEI/FEDER/UE) projects. We thank personnel from Malaspina 2010 expedition, MEDSea (EU contract number FP7-2010-265103), TARA Arctic Ocean, MAFIA (Migrants and Active Flux In the Atlantic Ocean), MEGAN (Mesoscale and submesoscale processes in the Strait of Gibraltar: The Trafalgar-Alborán connection), Seagrass and Mangrove Cruise through Red Sea and ETO y NST Cruise along Bay of Biscay, for the help with the sample ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean King Abdullah University of Science and Technology: KAUST Repository Arctic Arctic Ocean Environmental Science & Technology 54 11 6594 6601 |
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Open Polar |
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King Abdullah University of Science and Technology: KAUST Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftkingabdullahun |
language |
unknown |
description |
Characterisation of the colour is often included in studies on plastic pollution. However, the comparability and relevance of this information is limited by methodology or observer subjectivity. Based on the analysis of thousands of floating plastic fragments from a global collection, here we propose a systematic semi-automatic method to analyse colours by using a reference palette of 120 Pantone colours. The most abundant colours were white and transparent/translucent (47 %), yellow and brown (26 %) and blue-like (9 %). The white colour increased in the smallest pieces (< 5 mm) and far from coastal sources (> 500 km). Both fragmentation and discolouration of ocean plastics may occur because of longer exposure time to sunlight in nature. In addition, yellow items peaked at around 1 cm and brown colours at around 1 mm, supporting the notion that yellowing precedes tanning in the aging process, which is paralleled by fragmentation. Apart from the effects of the weathering, our results suggest a second-order modulation of the colour distributions of marine plastic microplastics by the selective action of visual predators. The present work provides methodological tools and a wide empirical background to further the interpretation and applicability of the colour information on ocean plastics. This study is an outcome of Malaspina 2010 expedition (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077). E.M. was supported by the Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR) through a PhD Research Project Grant. We received additional support from PLASTREND (BBVA Foundation) and MIDaS (CTM2016- 77106-R,AEI/FEDER/UE) projects. We thank personnel from Malaspina 2010 expedition, MEDSea (EU contract number FP7-2010-265103), TARA Arctic Ocean, MAFIA (Migrants and Active Flux In the Atlantic Ocean), MEGAN (Mesoscale and submesoscale processes in the Strait of Gibraltar: The Trafalgar-Alborán connection), Seagrass and Mangrove Cruise through Red Sea and ETO y NST Cruise along Bay of Biscay, for the help with the sample ... |
author2 |
Marine Science Program Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) Departamento de Biología, Campus de Excelencia Internacional del Mar (CEIMAR), Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Marinas (INMAR), Universidad de Cádiz, E11510 Puerto Real, Spain. Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100, Siena, Italy. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Marti, Elisa Martin, Cecilia Galli, Matteo Echevarría, Fidel Duarte, Carlos M. Cozar, A. |
spellingShingle |
Marti, Elisa Martin, Cecilia Galli, Matteo Echevarría, Fidel Duarte, Carlos M. Cozar, A. The colours of the ocean plastics |
author_facet |
Marti, Elisa Martin, Cecilia Galli, Matteo Echevarría, Fidel Duarte, Carlos M. Cozar, A. |
author_sort |
Marti, Elisa |
title |
The colours of the ocean plastics |
title_short |
The colours of the ocean plastics |
title_full |
The colours of the ocean plastics |
title_fullStr |
The colours of the ocean plastics |
title_full_unstemmed |
The colours of the ocean plastics |
title_sort |
colours of the ocean plastics |
publisher |
American Chemical Society (ACS) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662858 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 |
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Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
op_relation |
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 Marti, E., Martin, C., Galli, M., Echevarría, F., Duarte, C. M., & Cozar, A. (2020). The colours of the ocean plastics. Environmental Science & Technology. doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 0013-936X 1520-5851 Environmental Science & Technology http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662858 |
op_rights |
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science & Technology, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400. 2021-05-11 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b06400 |
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Environmental Science & Technology |
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54 |
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11 |
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6594 |
op_container_end_page |
6601 |
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