The Arctic Ocean as a dead end for floating plastics in the North Atlantic branch of the Thermohaline Circulation

• Published in: Science Advances
• Main Authors: Cózar, Andrés, Martí, Elisa, Duarte, Carlos, García-De-Lomas, Juan, Van Sebille, Erik, Ballatore, J, Eguíluz, Victor, Ignacio González-Gordillo, J, Pedrotti, Maria, Echevarría, Fidel, Troublè, Romain, Irigoien, Xabier
• Other Authors: Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Ambientales, Universidad de Cádiz (UCA), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University Aarhus, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University Utrecht, Harvard University Cambridge, Lake Basin Action Network, Instituto de Fisica Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos (IFISC), Universidad de las Islas Baleares (UIB)-CSIC-UIB, Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Observatoire océanologique de Villefranche-sur-mer (OOVM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Tara Expéditions, AZTI-Tecnalia (Marine Research Division), AZTI-Tecnalia, Basque Foundation for Science (IKERBASQUE), Basque Foundation for Science (Ikerbasque)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: geo; envir; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Greenland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600582; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01512920/file/e1600582.full.pdf; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-01512920

International audience The subtropical ocean gyres are recognized as great marine accummulation zones of floating plastic debris; however, the possibility of plastic accumulation at polar latitudes has been overlooked because of the lack of nearby pollution sources. In the present study, the Arctic Ocean was extensively sampled for floating plastic debris from the Tara Oceans circumpolar expedition. Although plastic debris was scarce or absent in most of the Arctic waters, it reached high concentrations (hundreds of thousands of pieces per square kilometer) in the northernmost and easternmost areas of the Greenland and Barents seas. The fragmentation and typology of the plastic suggested an abundant presence of aged debris that originated from distant sources. This hypothesis was corroborated by the relatively high ratios of marine surface plastic to local pollution sources. Surface circulation models and field data showed that the poleward branch of the Thermohaline Circulation transfers floating debris from the North Atlantic to the Greenland and Barents seas, which would be a dead end for this plastic conveyor belt. Given the limited surface transport of the plastic that accumulated here and the mechanisms acting for the downward transport, the seafloor beneath this Arctic sector is hypothesized as an important sink of plastic debris.