Extreme westward surface drift in the North Sea: Public reports of stranded drifters and Lagrangian tracking

Stanev, Emil V.; Badewien, Thomas H.; Freund, Holger; Grayek, Sebastian; Hahner, Florian; Meyerjürgens, Jens; Ricker, Marcel; Schöneich-Argent, Rosanna Isabel; Wolff, Jörg‐Olaf

doi:10.1016/j.csr.2019.03.003

Cited by 42 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The consistency in FML accumulation between the region along the southern coast and Figure 3B suggests a clear linkage to the Stokes drift pattern. These results support other recent estimations revealing the important impact of Stokes drift on the movement of surface drifters in the North Sea (Stanev et al, 2019a) and the fate of FML in the South Indian Ocean (Dobler et al, 2019). In a study on the global accumulation of floating microplastics, Onink et al (2019) showed that Stokes drift tends to enhance microplastic transport to the Arctic Ocean.…”

Section: Accumulation Patterns Caused By Currents and Stokes Driftsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Tracking was continued for the whole year of 2017. It is well known that FML velocities depend not only on how drifters respond to surface waves and ocean currents but also on the direct surface drag (Daniel et al, 2002;Breivik and Allen, 2008;Röhrs et al, 2012;Stanev et al, 2019a). The relative contributions of each of these three factors are different depending on the specific drifter (e.g., percentage of its volume above the sea surface).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the experiments described in the previous section aim at obtaining an overall geophysical consistency based primarily on the oceanographic conditions, atmospheric and river forcing. Regarding the validation of the Lagrangian model, in the present study, we use the same model used by Stanev et al (2019a), who validated its performance against GPS-surface drifters (Meyerjurgens et al, 2019) and wooden drifters in the North Sea. The performance of the model as demonstrated by Stanev et al (2019a) was very encouraging, in particular when simulating the stranding positions (see Figure 7 in the cited work).…”

Section: Validity Of Numerical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the validation of the Lagrangian model, in the present study, we use the same model used by Stanev et al (2019a), who validated its performance against GPS-surface drifters (Meyerjurgens et al, 2019) and wooden drifters in the North Sea. The performance of the model as demonstrated by Stanev et al (2019a) was very encouraging, in particular when simulating the stranding positions (see Figure 7 in the cited work). Therefore, we apply here the same model to the Black Sea (a basin which has similar dimensions as the North Sea), and use similar physical drivers (Copernicus data) as in our earlier study.…”

Section: Validity Of Numerical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Fate of Marine Litter in Semi-Enclosed Seas: A Case Study of the Black Sea

Stanev

Ricker

2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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The accumulation patterns of floating marine litter (FML) in the Black Sea and the stranding locations on coasts are studied by performing dedicated Lagrangian simulations using freely available ocean current and Stokes drift data from operational models. The low FML concentrations in the eastern and northern areas and the high concentrations along the western and southern coasts are due to the dominant northerlies and resulting Ekman and Stokes drift. No pronounced FML accumulation zones resembling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are observed at time scales from months to a year. The ratio of circulation intensity (measured by the sea level slope) to the rate of the temporal variability of sea level determines whether FML will compact. This ratio is low in the Black Sea, which is prohibitive for FML accumulation. It is demonstrated that the strong temporal variability of the velocity field (ageostrophic motion) acts as a mixing mechanism that opposes another ageostrophic constituent of the velocity field (spatial variability in sea level slope, or frontogenesis), the latter promoting the accumulation of particles. The conclusion is that not all ageostrophic ocean processes lead to clustering. The short characteristic stranding time of ∼20 days in this small and almost enclosed basin explains the large variability in the total amount of FML and the low FML concentration in the open ocean. The predominant stranding areas are determined by the cyclonic general circulation. The simulated distribution of stranded objects is supported by available coastal and near-coastal observations. It is shown that the areas that were the most at risk extend from the Kerch Strait to the western coast.

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Section: Accumulation Patterns Caused By Currents and Stokes Driftsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Validity Of Numerical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Validity Of Numerical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Fate of Marine Litter in Semi-Enclosed Seas: A Case Study of the Black Sea

Stanev

Ricker

2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…A recent observational study shows a strong near-surface current shear in the upper metre of the water column that implies that larger plastics are primarily transported by these wind-and wave-induced motions (Laxague et al 2018). Some of the most recent drifter designs have adjustable drag area ratios to simulate different floating objects with different characteristics, and can continue transmissions while being beached and recaptured , Stanev et al 2019. Other novel drifters are extremely low-tech (e.g.…”

Section: How Plastic Particles Sink From the Ocean Surfacementioning

confidence: 99%

The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris

Sebille

Aliani

Law

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

612

267

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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

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General Aspects

2021

Plastics Process Analysis, Instrumentation, and Control

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Extreme westward surface drift in the North Sea: Public reports of stranded drifters and Lagrangian tracking

Cited by 42 publications

References 25 publications

The Fate of Marine Litter in Semi-Enclosed Seas: A Case Study of the Black Sea

The Fate of Marine Litter in Semi-Enclosed Seas: A Case Study of the Black Sea

The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris

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