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Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Ordering of trajectories reveals hierarchical finite-time coherent sets in Lagrangian particle data: detecting Agulhas rings in the South Atlantic Ocean
ClearClustering of buoyant tracer in quasi-geostrophic coherent structures
Using Lagrangian particle tracking in a turbulent quasi-geostrophic ocean model, researchers found that buoyant floating tracers cluster inside coherent vortex structures due to ageostrophic circulation effects, with implications for understanding how surface plastic debris concentrates in ocean eddies.
A theory for attractors of microplastic particles in the resonant structures of a 3D eddy
Researchers developed a theoretical framework predicting the formation of attractors — closed-loop trajectories — for microplastic particles within the resonant structures of three-dimensional ocean eddies. The theory establishes criteria for when such attractors exist and provides a mechanism explaining observed accumulation of small rigid particles in recirculating oceanic flows.
Uncovering microplastic surface transport pathways in the North Sea using Lagrangian coherent structures
This thesis used Lagrangian coherent structures — mathematical features of ocean flow — to identify the dominant pathways for microplastic transport across the surface of the North Sea. Understanding how ocean currents concentrate and move microplastics helps predict where marine life faces the highest exposure risk.
On Clustering of Floating Tracers in Random Velocity Fields
This mathematical modeling study explores how floating particles — including microplastics — cluster into dense patches on the ocean surface under turbulent currents, finding that realistic time-correlated ocean flows produce clusters far faster than simpler models predict. Understanding this clustering behavior is important for accurately assessing where microplastic pollution concentrates in the ocean and how organisms encounter it at ecologically meaningful densities.
Anticyclonic eddies increase accumulation of microplastic in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre
Researchers found that anticyclonic eddies significantly increase the accumulation of microplastics in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, using in situ measurements combined with satellite observations and modelling to reveal eddy-driven convergence as a key mechanism controlling microplastic distribution.
Extraction of persistent lagrangian coherent structures for the pollutant transport prediction in the Bay of Bengal
Researchers mapped long-term ocean circulation patterns in the Bay of Bengal using 24 years of current and wind data to identify persistent flow structures (called Lagrangian Coherent Structures) that control where pollutants travel. These maps were validated against real oil spill satellite imagery and could be used to predict where future oil spills — or floating plastic debris — would accumulate.
Aggregation and transport of microplastics by a cold-core ring in the southern recirculation of the Kuroshio Extension: the role of mesoscale eddies on plastic debris distribution
Researchers conducted shipboard surveys of floating microplastics within a cyclonic mesoscale eddy in the Kuroshio Extension. The study found that cold-core rings can aggregate and transport microplastics, suggesting that mesoscale ocean eddies may play a significant role in redistributing plastic debris across large ocean areas.
Impact of ocean dynamics on microplastics distribution in two oceanic eddies
Researchers sampled microplastic distributions within an anticyclonic and a cyclonic oceanic eddy downstream of the Canary Islands during 2021 and 2022 campaigns, finding that eddy circulation patterns concentrate microplastics differently depending on eddy rotation direction and that eddies act as dynamic accumulation zones.
Lagrangian Evolution of the Trapping Capacity of Mesoscale Eddies in the Canary Eddy Corridor: A Numerical Modeling Approach
Researchers used OceanParcels Lagrangian modelling combined with the GLORYS12V1 reanalysis product to investigate how mesoscale eddies in the Canary Eddy Corridor trap and transport materials, finding that trapping capacity varies with eddy lifecycle phase and vertical structure, with implications for microplastic accumulation in the eastern North Atlantic.
Influence of Mesoscale Eddies on the Three-Dimensional Distribution of Microplastics in the Western North Pacific
Scientists found that swirling ocean currents called eddies control where tiny plastic particles collect in the Pacific Ocean, with some areas concentrating plastics as deep as 600 meters underwater. This discovery helps us better understand how microplastics spread through the ocean and could improve predictions of where these pollutants end up in seafood and marine ecosystems. Understanding plastic distribution patterns is important because microplastics can work their way up the food chain and potentially affect human health through the fish we eat.
Pathways of marine debris derived from trajectories of Lagrangian drifters
Researchers applied a probabilistic model to global satellite-tracked ocean drifter trajectories to map marine debris pathways, identifying five subtropical convergence zones maintained by Ekman currents where floating debris — including microplastics — preferentially accumulates, confirming predictions with direct ocean surface measurements.
Lagrangian characterization of surface transport from the Equatorial Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea using climatological Lagrangian Coherent Structures and Self-Organizing Maps
Scientists used climate data and computational modeling to map ocean current pathways that carry floating material from the Equatorial Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea. Understanding these transport routes is essential for predicting where marine plastic debris — including microplastics — accumulates in the ocean.
Wave-averaged motion of small particles in surface gravity waves: Effect of particle shape on orientation, drift, and dispersion
This study uses mathematical modeling to show that the shape of a small particle — such as a microplastic fragment — determines how it orients itself, drifts, and spreads when carried by ocean surface waves. This matters for predicting where microplastics accumulate in the ocean, since non-spherical fibers and fragments move very differently from spheres under the same wave conditions.
Material and debris transport patterns in Moreton Bay, Australia: The influence of Lagrangian coherent structures
Researchers applied Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) — mathematical tools that map invisible transport barriers in fluid flow — to predict the fate of floating marine debris in Moreton Bay, Australia, showing that wind and islands significantly redirect debris pathways and that LCS can guide practical marine litter management.
Submesoscale eddies and their potential for buoyant microplastic accumulation
This study investigates how small ocean eddies called submesoscale eddies can trap and concentrate buoyant microplastics below the water surface, not just at the top. Using both physical oceanographic measurements and laboratory experiments, researchers found that these rotating water masses create subsurface attractors that pull floating particles downward. This matters because it helps explain why microplastics are found throughout the water column rather than only at the surface, complicating efforts to clean up or track ocean plastic pollution.
Pathways and Hot Spots of Floating and Submerged Microplastics in Atlantic Iberian Marine Waters: A Modelling Approach
Researchers combined a global ocean reanalysis model with a Lagrangian particle-tracking model to simulate the transport pathways and accumulation zones of both floating and submerged microplastics originating from southwestern Iberian coastal waters. The modelling approach identified key hotspots and transport corridors for microplastic pollution in Atlantic Iberian marine waters.
A Theory for Attractors of Microplastic Particles in the Resonant Structures of a 3D Eddy
Researchers developed a theoretical framework predicting the existence and location of attractors for microplastic particles in three-dimensional ocean eddy flows, demonstrating how resonant structures created by non-symmetric disturbances generate additional trapping orbits for slightly buoyant particles using Maxey-Riley equation simulations.
A Theory for Attractors of Microplastic Particles in the Resonant Structures of a 3D Eddy
Researchers developed a theoretical framework predicting the existence and location of attractors for microplastic particles in three-dimensional ocean eddy flows, demonstrating how resonant structures created by non-symmetric disturbances generate additional trapping orbits for slightly buoyant particles using Maxey-Riley equation simulations.
Assessing the microplastic retention and distribution in the water column in mesoscale eddies south of the Canary Islands
Researchers conducted the first in situ observations of microplastic concentrations and vertical distribution within mesoscale ocean eddies south of the Canary Islands, investigating how these rotating current structures retain and redistribute microplastics through the water column.
Measuring the Rotation of Polluting Plastic Particles
Researchers developed a method for measuring the rotational behavior of plastic particles in marine environments, providing new observational tools for understanding how particle orientation and rotation affect the fate and transport of ocean-polluting plastic debris.
Assessing the microplastic retention and distribution in the water column in mesoscale eddies south of the Canary Islands
Researchers conducted the first in situ observations of microplastic concentrations within mesoscale eddies south of the Canary Islands, finding that these oceanographic structures influence the vertical distribution and retention of microplastics in the water column. The study provides new evidence that mesoscale eddies act as accumulation zones, affecting how microplastics are transported and redistributed in the open ocean.
Aggregation of slightly buoyant microplastics in 3D vortex flows
Researchers studied the aggregation of slightly buoyant microplastics in three-dimensional vortex flows using the Maxey-Riley framework for small rigid spheres in fluid, finding that buoyant particles preferentially accumulate in vortex cores. The results explain subsurface microplastic aggregation patterns observed in ocean environments with rotational flow structures.
A Simplified Experimental Method to Estimate the Transport of Non-Buoyant Plastic Particles Due to Waves by 2D Image Processing
Not a microplastics paper in the strict sense — this study develops and validates an image-processing method to track the movement of non-buoyant plastic debris particles under wave action in a laboratory wave tank, advancing the physical modeling tools used to predict where plastic pollution accumulates in coastal environments.
Global mapping for the occurrence of all-sized microplastics in seafloor sediments
Researchers developed code for extracting ocean surface current and near-bed thermohaline current data to analyze the hydrodynamic driving forces behind global microplastic distribution patterns in seafloor sediments.