TY - JOUR
T1 - The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris
AU - van Sebille, Erik
AU - Aliani, Stefano
AU - Law, Kara Lavender
AU - Maximenko, Nikolai
AU - Alsina, Jose
AU - Bagaev, Andrei
AU - Bergmann, M.
AU - Chapron, Bertrand
AU - Chubarenko, Irina
AU - Cozar, Andres
AU - Delandmeter, Philippe
AU - Egger, Matthias
AU - Fox-Kemper, Baylor
AU - Pascal Garaba, Shungudzemwoyo
AU - Goddijn-Murphy, Lonneke
AU - Hardesty, Britta Denise
AU - Hoffman, M.
AU - Isobe, Atsuhiko
AU - Jongedijk, Cleo
AU - Kaandorp, Mikael
AU - Khatmullina, Liliya
AU - Koelmans, A.A.
PY - 2020/2/17
Y1 - 2020/2/17
N2 - Marine plastic debris floating on the ocean surface is a major environmental problem. However, its distribution in the ocean is poorly mapped, and most of the plastic waste estimated to have entered the ocean from land is unaccounted for. Better understanding of how plastic debris is transported from coastal and marine sources is crucial to quantify and close the global inventory of marine plastics, which in turn represents critical information for mitigation or policy strategies. At the same time, plastic is a unique tracer that provides an opportunity to learn more about the physics and dynamics of our ocean across multiple scales, from the Ekman convergence in basin-scale gyres to individual waves in the surfzone. In this review, we comprehensively discuss what is known about the different processes that govern the transport of floating marine plastic debris in both the open ocean and the coastal zones, based on the published literature and referring to insights from neighbouring fields such as oil spill dispersion, marine safety recovery, plankton connectivity, and others. We discuss how measurements of marine plastics (both in situ and in the laboratory), remote sensing, and numerical simulations can elucidate these processes and their interactions across spatio-temporal scales.
AB - Marine plastic debris floating on the ocean surface is a major environmental problem. However, its distribution in the ocean is poorly mapped, and most of the plastic waste estimated to have entered the ocean from land is unaccounted for. Better understanding of how plastic debris is transported from coastal and marine sources is crucial to quantify and close the global inventory of marine plastics, which in turn represents critical information for mitigation or policy strategies. At the same time, plastic is a unique tracer that provides an opportunity to learn more about the physics and dynamics of our ocean across multiple scales, from the Ekman convergence in basin-scale gyres to individual waves in the surfzone. In this review, we comprehensively discuss what is known about the different processes that govern the transport of floating marine plastic debris in both the open ocean and the coastal zones, based on the published literature and referring to insights from neighbouring fields such as oil spill dispersion, marine safety recovery, plankton connectivity, and others. We discuss how measurements of marine plastics (both in situ and in the laboratory), remote sensing, and numerical simulations can elucidate these processes and their interactions across spatio-temporal scales.
U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab6d7d
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab6d7d
M3 - Article
VL - 15
JO - Environmental Research Letters
JF - Environmental Research Letters
SN - 1748-9318
IS - 2
M1 - 023003
ER -