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Tracking Marine Microplastic Monitoring Through the NOAA NCEI Global Marine Microplastic Concentrations ESRI ArcGIS Online Experience Builder Web Application
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Researchers describe a global database hosted by NOAA that compiles marine microplastic monitoring data from around the world, making it easier to track pollution trends and identify data gaps. Centralizing this data is important because understanding how microplastic concentrations are changing over time and space is essential for protecting marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
Microplastic (less than 5 mm) pollution is a growing problem affecting coastal communities, marine ecosystems, aquatic life, and human health. Aquatic biota such as plankton, fishes, and shrimp ingest microplastics that interfere with organ functions, reduce growth, and eventually kill these organisms. Microplastics can also bioaccumulate in humans through the consumption of seafood, possibly leading to oxidative stress and cell damage. The increasing concern about microplastic pollution has led to a rapid growth in research in this area in recent years, generating a large volume of data. Despite the growing awareness, there is still a lack of large-scale, long-term, comprehensive data to enable a complete understanding of the sources, distribution, and impacts of this man-made environmental hazard. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) database collates and archives microplastic data from large ocean surveys, citizen-science led initiatives, and published literature sources across the globe. To offer open access to this marine microplastics data globally, NOAA NCEI has developed an easily discoverable ESRI ArcGIS Online Experience Builder web map and data portal. The objective of this web application is to provide a user friendly, consistent, and reliable gateway to serve the datasets in the repository where data on microplastic concentrations are aggregated and archived. This work contributes to NCEI's efforts towards data integration, harmonization, and interoperability among national and international collaborators for monitoring global marine microplastics. In concert with national and international efforts, NCEI aims to adapt to user needs as contributors to this rapidly evolving science come to a consensus on reporting metrics and sampling methods. Through this data visualization and access portal application, researchers and interested groups are able to access and analyze data that will enable new insights in holistic understanding of the global microplastic problem.
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Building a comprehensive archive and open access data portal for monitoring marine microplastics - the NOAA NCEI Global Marine Microplastics Database and Web Map
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Researchers developed a comprehensive archive and open-access web portal for marine microplastic monitoring data through the NOAA NCEI Global Marine Microplastics Database, creating a centralized resource to support research on microplastic impacts on coastal communities and marine ecosystems.
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NOAA has created a global open-access database for marine microplastic data, providing standardized and searchable records from researchers worldwide through an interactive map and data portal. The database addresses a major gap in microplastic research by making fragmented data from many studies comparable and accessible. This kind of coordinated monitoring is essential for understanding the full scale of microplastic pollution in the oceans and its potential effects on human health through seafood and coastal environments.
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This is an additional entry for NOAA's global marine microplastics concentration database, providing standardized quality-controlled records of microplastic concentrations in marine environments from 1972 onward. The dataset includes surface tows, water column samples, and sediment data from a wide geographic range. Researchers use this resource to track trends in ocean plastic pollution over time.
Global Marine Microplastic Concentrations
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