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The effect of wind mixing on the vertical distribution of buoyant plastic debris
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Researchers modeled and measured how wind mixing affects the vertical distribution of buoyant plastic debris in the ocean, finding that turbulent mixing drives plastics below the surface and explains why surface sampling underestimates total plastic concentrations.
Micro‐plastic marine debris is widely distributed in vast regions of the subtropical gyres and has emerged as a major open ocean pollutant. The fate and transport of plastic marine debris is governed by poorly understood geophysical processes, such as ocean mixing within the surface boundary layer. Based on profile observations and a one‐dimensional column model, we demonstrate that plastic debris is vertically distributed within the upper water column due to wind‐driven mixing. These results suggest that total oceanic plastics concentrations are significantly underestimated by traditional surface measurements, requiring a reinterpretation of existing plastic marine debris data sets. A geophysical approach must be taken in order to properly quantify and manage this form of marine pollution.
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Using sampling at multiple depths from 0 to 5 meters in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, researchers measured how turbulent mixing redistributes buoyant microplastics below the ocean surface. The results show that surface net sampling alone significantly underestimates total microplastic concentrations, particularly in windy conditions.
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Field measurements of buoyant plastic particles at multiple depths in the ocean showed that concentrations decrease sharply below a few meters, with turbulence mixing plastics downward. The data validate model predictions and confirm that surface net trawls substantially undercount total plastic in the water column.
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This study modeled the competing forces of particle buoyancy and turbulent mixing that control the vertical distribution of microplastics in the ocean surface layer, finding that particle rise velocity is the key variable that segregates plastic types and determines how they distribute relative to surface and subsurface measurements.
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This study developed simplified mathematical models for how wind-driven turbulence mixes buoyant particles — including microplastics — in the ocean surface layer. Better parameterizations of near-surface mixing are important for predicting where floating microplastics concentrate and how they eventually sink.
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Using ocean computer models calibrated against real-world observations, this study showed how wave mixing and other physical processes push buoyant microplastics below the ocean surface, explaining why less plastic is detected at the surface than expected. These models are critical for estimating where microplastic pollution is truly accumulating in the ocean.
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