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

Abstract

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.

Solid waste composition and COVID-19-induced changes in an inland water ecosystem in Turkey

“…Several studies on the distribution, abundance, sources, and fate of solid waste in the Black Sea basin have been carried out (Topçu et al 2013 ; Terzi and Seyhan 2017 ; Simeonova et al 2017 ; Stanev and Ricker 2019 ; Simeonova and Chuturkova 2019 ; Oztekin et al 2020 ; Raykov et al 2020 ; Terzi et al 2020 ; Miladinova et al 2020 ; Erüz et al 2022 ). However, these studies concentrated on coastal and benthic areas of the Black Sea, leaving a knowledge gap on solid wastes in inland water ecosystems.…”

Investigation of benthic marine litter in the Yumurtalık Fishing Port

“…In recent years, various studies have been carried out on the pollution and marine litter accumulation on the coasts, sea floor and sea surface in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and many observational data have been obtained. While marine litter was mainly classified as artificial polymer materials, plastics, rubber, textiles, metal, paper/cardboard/cardboard, glass/ceramic, fishing materials, wood, natural products, hybrid and miscellaneous (Miladinova et al, 2020;Moncheva et al, 2016;Simeonova et al, 2020;Stanev and Ricker, 2019;UNEP/MAP, 2015), plastic constituted the majority of marine litter in most of these studies.…”

The Role of the Unsteady Surface Wave‐Driven Ekman–Stokes Flow in the Accumulation of Floating Marine Litter

“…Presently, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the transportation and distribution of this floating marine litter (van Sebille et al., 2020). Very few reliable and comparable data‐sets exist on floating marine litter concentrations in the open ocean (Stanev & Ricker, 2019), and such studies are themselves very costly and prone to biases (Hardesty et al., 2017). As a result, numerical modeling has been used to advance our understanding of marine litter transport and accumulation patterns (e.g., Onink et al.…”