Calibration of a marine floating litter transport model

Pereiro, Diego; Souto, C.; Gago, Jesús

doi:10.1080/1755876x.2018.1470892

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…All particles are deployed at the surface and are simulated to have a density of 950 kg m -3 , i.e ., floating particles. This density is in the lower range of the ‘heavy polymers’ according to Pereiro et al (2018) and it is close to the density of micro-plastics reported by Moret-Ferguson et al (2010).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…, plastic bottles with air inside, polystyrene boxes) are, thus, not accounted for in the present approach. In general, and according to the analysis of Pereiro et al (2018) and Yoon et al (2010), the wind drag for particles of a density comparable to that in our simulations should be always smaller than 1%, so our approach would likely introduce very limited bias.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 67%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Surface water circulation develops seasonally changing patterns of floating litter accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. A modelling approach

Macías

Cózar

García-Górriz

et al. 2019

Marine Pollution Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Marine litter and, particularly, plastics are a growing concern at global scale. The Mediterranean Sea is among the zones in the world with the highest concentration of floating plastic debris. However, our knowledge remains limited on the spatial distribution of litter across this basin. Here, a set of different numerical model simulations were conducted to examine the dynamic conditions of the surface layer of the Mediterranean and how this drives the circulation and accumulation of floating litter. Seasonal dynamics of surface water circulation led to contrasting distribution patterns of floating litter along the year. Multiple hot spots of litter zones appeared across the basin in summer, while litter disperses and moves towards the Eastern Mediterranean and nearshore waters in winter. Taking into account such seasonal variability in the spatial patterns of litter in the Mediterranean seems to be key in the design of further sampling surveys and management strategies.

show abstract

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Surface water circulation develops seasonally changing patterns of floating litter accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. A modelling approach

Macías

Cózar

García-Górriz

et al. 2019

Marine Pollution Bulletin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, global models also consistently predict litter accumulation zones in semi-enclosed seas as the Bay of Biscay, where the concentration of FML is higher in comparison to other European regions (Lebreton et al, 2012;van Sebille et al, 2012). Besides, regional models point to the importance of FML accumulation zones in the coastal waters of the south east Bay of Biscay (SE Bay of Biscay) caused by the combination of relatively long residence times ant the litter influx from both local and remote areas (Pereiro et al, 2018). Moreover, the predicted FML accumulations in this area seem to be significantly modulated at seasonal scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Litter Windrows in the South-East Coast of the Bay of Biscay: An Ocean Process Enabling Effective Active Fishing for Litter

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Large scale convergence regions of floating marine litter are commonly observed in semi-enclosed seas as the Bay of Biscay. However, clean-up activities on such accumulation regions are limited by the spread of the large-size floating litter on the sea surface. Data gathered by a small-scale fishing vessel devoted to active fishing for floating litter activities during the spring and summer of 2018 reveals that the linear streaks of high concentration of floating litter (so-called litter "windrows") are common accumulation structures in the south-east coast of the Bay of Biscay. The random search of litter windrows for their collection through surface tows of macro-nets was proved to be an effective action for floating litter mitigation. A total of 196 tows collected 16.2 tons of floating marine litter in 68 working days. Most of the litter windrows were around 1 km length and, on average, accumulated 77.75 kg of floating marine litter. Fishing, shipping and aquaculture sectors were the source of 35% of the 4,130 litter items analyzed (55% in weight of the sourced items), and plastic was the most common type of material (96% in terms of items). A better understanding of the phenomenon of the litter windrows, capable to guide clean-up efforts in space and time, would provide a considerable improvement in the efficiency of mitigation actions to reduce the marine litter pollution. The observations of litter windrows in the coastal area of the south-east of the Bay of Biscay demonstrate the key role of submesoscale processes in the distribution of FML. The present work provides a thorough description of floating litter windrows in nature, which it was non-existent to date. The results are the kind of proof necessary to boost the research addressed on the submesoscale aggregations of FML. Coupling litter windrows observations with remote-sensing technology and high-resolution modeling techniques offer great opportunities for the mitigation actions against marine litter.

show abstract

“…This aspect may be very relevant for floating marine debris, as it might be responsible for sorting plastics with different buoyancies and sizes. This affects their wind drag coefficient (Chubarenko et al 2016, Pereiro et al 2018 and hence their dispersion (Aliani and Molcard 2003), ultimately affecting both residence time and beaching characteristics of floating items (Yoon et al 2010). Model simulations of Maximenko et al (2018) of drifting debris generated by the 2011 tsunami in Japan have been validated using observational reports, and demonstrated that 'high-windage' objects crossed the North Pacific in less than a year and were relatively quickly pushed from the ocean onto the North American coastline, while heavy, low-windage debris collected in the mid-basin convergence zone.…”

Section: Transport Due To Direct Wind Force (Windage)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris

Sebille

Aliani

Law

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

608

267

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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. Environ. Res. Lett. 15 (2020) 023003 E van Sebille et al Environ. Res. Lett. 15 (2020) 023003 E van Sebille et al References Acha E M, Mianzan H W, Iribarne O, Gagliardini D A, Lasta C and Daleo P 2003 The role of the Rı́o de la Plata bottom salinity front in accumulating debris Mar. Pollut. Bull. 46 197-202 Acha E M, Piola A, Iribarne O and Mianzan H 2015 Ecological Processes at Marine Fronts: Oases in the Ocean (Berlin: Springer) Aliani S and Molcard A 2003 Hitch-hiking on floating marine debris: macrobenthic species in the Western Mediterranean Sea Hydrobiologia 503 59-67 Allen J 1985 Principles of Physical Sedimentology (Berlin: Springer) Alpers W 1985 Theory of radar imaging of internal waves Nature 314 245-7 Alsina J M and Cáceres I 2011 Sediment suspension events in the inner surf and swash zone. Measurements in large-scale and high-energy wave conditions Coast. Eng. 58

show abstract

Calibration of a marine floating litter transport model

Cited by 17 publications

References 28 publications

Surface water circulation develops seasonally changing patterns of floating litter accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. A modelling approach

Surface water circulation develops seasonally changing patterns of floating litter accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. A modelling approach

Litter Windrows in the South-East Coast of the Bay of Biscay: An Ocean Process Enabling Effective Active Fishing for Litter

The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About