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- Title
The vertical distribution of buoyant plastics at sea.
- Authors
Reisser, J.; Slat, B.; Noble, K.; du Plessis, K.; Epp, M.; Proietti, M.; de Sonneville, J.; Becker, T.; Pattiaratchi, C.
- Abstract
Millimeter-sized plastics are numerically abundant and widespread across the world's ocean surface. These buoyant macroscopic particles can be mixed within the upper water column due to turbulent transport. Models indicate that the largest decrease in their concentration occurs within the first few meters of water, where subsurface observations are very scarce. By using a new type of multi-level trawl at 12 sites within the North Atlantic accumulation zone, we measured concentrations and physical properties of plastics from the air-seawater interface to a depth of 5m, at 0.5m intervals. Our results show that plastic concentrations drop exponentially with water depth, but decay rates decrease with increasing Beaufort scale. Furthermore, smaller pieces presented lower rise velocities and were more susceptible to vertical transport. This resulted in higher depth decays of plastic mass concentration (mgm-3) than numerical concentration (piecesm-3). Further multi-level sampling of plastics will improve our ability to predict at-sea plastic load, size distribution, drifting pattern, and impact on marine species and habitats.
- Subjects
BUOYANCY; NUMERICAL analysis; OCEAN surface topography; WATER analysis; TURBULENCE; MARINE ecology
- Publication
Biogeosciences Discussions, 2014, Vol 11, Issue 11, p16207
- ISSN
1810-6277
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/bgd-11-16207-2014