litterbase.org An Online Portal for Marine Litter and Microplastics and Impacts on Marine Life

Plastic pollution of the oceans is a global problem, which currently receives increasing attention by policy makers, public authorities, media and the general public. Although this field of has recently seen a marked increase in research efforts, there is a level of uncertainty, misinformation and worry in the general public indicating that scientific knowledge is currently insufficiently channelled back to society. To bridge this gap, we devised an online portal, LITTERBASE (litterbase.org), which provides continuously updated information on the global distribution and composition of litter pollution and its impacts on biota to stakeholders based on data from peer-reviewed publications. To date, data from 1,725 studies (status April 2018) have been extracted, fed manually into a database and translated into understandable global maps and infographs to open scientific knowledge to the public. Bibliometric data of all publications were entered, as were metadata pertaining to litter type (e.g. plastic, glass, metal, fishing gear), size (i.e. nano, micro, macro), litter quantity unit (e.g. items km-2, items km-1, items m3), aquatic system (e.g. marine, freshwater, estuary), biome (e.g. beach, sea surface, water column, benthic) and total litter quantity. Litter quantities were standardised to the most frequently used units to achieve comparability. Data on biological interactions with litter were also extracted: location of field records, number of species affected, percentage of individuals affected, type of interaction incurred (e.g. entanglement, ingestion, coverage, rafting), effects on biota (e.g. injury, mortality, growth, behaviour), litter type, size, aquatic system and biome. Accordingly, 1,472 taxa (status April 2018) have been found affected by marine litter. Here, we will discuss the use of LITTERBASE with a focus on microplastic distribution, particularly in terms of unveiling our blind spots.