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Developing Realistic Models for Assessing Marine Plastic Pollution in Semi-Enclosed Seas
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Researchers developed realistic modeling approaches for assessing marine plastic pollution in semi-enclosed seas, accounting for plastic transport from land-based sources via rivers and inland pathways to better predict accumulation patterns.
Having steadily increased with global production in the past 50 years, the presence and accumulation of plastic debris is now recognized as a major environmental problem, with consequences directly affecting not only marine ecosystems, but also society and human well-being. After human activities release plastic litter, it is either directly discharged into the ocean or it is transported to the sea via inland pathways (e.g., rivers, lakes, wastewater treatment plants). Once in the ocean, plastics are further transported and transformed by processes such as ocean currents, winds and waves, water dispersion, fragmentation, biofouling, sinking, sedimentation, and beaching (Figure 1).
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Trajectory, fate, and magnitude of continental microplastic loads to the inner shelf: A case study of the world's largest coastal shallow lagoon
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Researchers modeled the continental-scale transport and eventual fate of microplastics, estimating how particles move from terrestrial sources through river systems to coastal and open ocean environments. The analysis highlights oceans as the ultimate sink for a large fraction of land-derived microplastics.
Destination of floating plastic debris released from ten major rivers around the Korean Peninsula
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Researchers used a Lagrangian particle tracking model to simulate the transport and coastal accumulation of plastic debris released from ten major Chinese and Korean rivers around the Korean Peninsula, finding that debris generally strands near the originating river mouth and that model predictions were consistent with observational data.
The quest for the missing plastics: Large uncertainties in river plastic export into the sea
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Researchers reviewed modeling approaches for estimating river plastic transport to the ocean, identifying large discrepancies between modeled export quantities and observed ocean plastic concentrations. The study highlights major uncertainties in current models stemming from limited observational data and calls for improved monitoring to resolve the 'missing plastics' problem.
Modeling the Pathways and Accumulation Patterns of Micro- and Macro-Plastics in the Mediterranean
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A basin-scale hydrodynamic model tracked plastic debris pathways in the Mediterranean Sea, showing that coastal currents concentrate plastics in the northwestern basin and that both riverine inputs and sea-based sources contribute substantially to the distribution hotspots observed at the surface.
The MARINA-Plastic model: Global river export of macro- and microplastics from over 10,000 sub-basins to coastal seas
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Researchers developed the MARINA-Plastic model to estimate macro- and microplastic export from over 10,000 river sub-basins worldwide to coastal seas, finding that a small number of rivers in Asia and Africa account for the majority of global plastic inputs to the ocean. The spatially explicit model helps identify where plastic pollution reduction efforts will have the greatest impact.
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