Role of ocean tidal asymmetry and estuarine geometry in the fate of plastic debris from ocean sources within tidal estuaries

Núñez, Paula Gabriela; Castanedo, Sonia; Medina, Raúl

doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2021.107470

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Despite the largest values found in the downstream regions, it is not at all certain to say how much of these are emitted into the ocean. In rivers around the world, high concentrations of plastics are found around the estuary (Acha et al., 2003; Núñez et al., 2021; Ryan & Perold, 2021; Tramoy et al., 2020). At the same time, observational evidence of floating plastics actually flowing into the ocean remain limited.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrology as a Driver of Floating River Plastic Transport

et al. 2022

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Plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems is a growing threat to ecosystem health and human livelihood. Recent studies show that the majority of environmental plastics accumulate within river systems for years, decades and potentially even longer. Long‐term and system‐scale observations are key to improve the understanding of transport and retention dynamics, to identify sources and sinks, and to assess potential risks. The goal of this study was to quantify and explain the variation in floating plastic transport in the Rhine‐Meuse delta, using a novel 1‐year observational data set. We found a strong positive correlations between floating plastic transport and discharge. During peak discharge events, plastic transport was found up to six times higher than under normal conditions. Plastic transport varied up to a factor four along the Rhine and Meuse rivers, which is hypothesized to be related to the complex river network, locations of urban areas, and tidal dynamics. Altogether, our findings demonstrate the important role of hydrology as driving force of plastic transport dynamics. Our study emphasizes the need for exploring other factors that may explain the spatiotemporal variation in floating plastic transport. The world's most polluted rivers are connected to the ocean through complex deltas. Providing reliable observations and data‐driven insights in the transport and dynamics are key to optimize plastic pollution prevention and reduction strategies. With our paper we aim to contribute to both advancing the fundamental understanding of plastic transport dynamics, and the establishment of long‐term and harmonized data collection at the river basin scale.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrology as a Driver of Floating River Plastic Transport

et al. 2022

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“…Despite the largest values found in the downstream regions, it is not at all certain to say how much of these are emitted into the ocean. In rivers around the world, high concentrations of plastics are found around the estuary (Acha et al, 2003;Núñez et al, 2021;Ryan & Perold, 2021;Tramoy et al, 2020). At the same time, observational evidence of floating plastics actually flowing into the ocean remain limited.…”

Section: Synthesis and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrology as driver of floating river plastic transport

Emmerik

Lange

Frings

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Plastic debris and other anthropogenic litter has negative impacts on ecosystem health and human livelihood (van Emmerik & Schwarz, 2020). Despite several global initiatives to tackle this emerging environmental challenge, plastic production and leakage into the environment is expected to further grow in the coming decades (Borrelle et al., 2020). Rivers have been assumed to be the main conveyors of land-based plastic waste into the ocean (Meijer et al., 2021;Schmidt et al., 2017). However, recent work has suggested that plastic pollution can be retained within river systems for years to decades, and potentially even longer . Plastics accumulate on riverbanks, in vegetation, around hydraulic structures, and within estuaries, where they are exposed to environmental weathering leading to degradation and fragmentation (Delorme et al., 2021). The secondary micro-and nanoplastics that arise from this may lead to additional environmental risks, and may eventually be exported into the ocean (Koelmans et al., 2022). Understanding transport and retention dynamics

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“…For example, the transport of fine sediment responds to the changes of current velocity with a time lag [3]. The probabilities of plastic debris presence are higher for positive asymmetric tides than for symmetric or negative asymmetric tides [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Mechanism behind the Variation of the Tidal Current Asymmetry in Response to Reclamations in Lingding Bay, China

Huang

Zhang

et al. 2022

JMSE

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Tidal current asymmetry, an important factor for waterborne substance transport, is strongly affected by the changing shoreline. Lingding Bay (LDB), located in the center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, has suffered great shoreline changes since the 1970s. A well-validated numerical model is built to investigate how the changing shoreline impacts tidal current asymmetry, which is quantified by the skewness parameter. Two types of tidal current asymmetries, the flow velocity asymmetry (FVA) and the flow duration asymmetry (FDA), are considered here. Despite their different dominant combinations, the two asymmetries display a similar tendency from the mouth to the head of the LDB. When the shoreline changes due to successive land reclamation are taken into consideration, the FVA and the FDA alter correspondingly. The results suggest that the shoreline change shifts the FVA in Deep Bay (a side embayment of LDB) from ebb dominance to flood dominance, because of the changes of its dominant constituent combinations (K1/O1/M2 and the residual current). As the shoreline propagates seaward, the increasing contributions of M2/M4 and M2/S2/MS4 enlarge the water area of positive FDA (i.e., shorter duration of low water slack) in LDB. Analyses of tidal current asymmetries in Lingding Bay show that tidal current asymmetry has been enhanced by sustained land reclamation and will further impact sediment transport in the bay.

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Role of ocean tidal asymmetry and estuarine geometry in the fate of plastic debris from ocean sources within tidal estuaries

Cited by 11 publications

References 65 publications

Hydrology as a Driver of Floating River Plastic Transport

Hydrology as a Driver of Floating River Plastic Transport

Hydrology as driver of floating river plastic transport

On the Mechanism behind the Variation of the Tidal Current Asymmetry in Response to Reclamations in Lingding Bay, China

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