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Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Mixing and transport of materials in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer
ClearHorizontal Dispersion of Buoyant Materials in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer
This theoretical and computational study examined how buoyant materials like plastic fragments are dispersed horizontally in the ocean surface layer by turbulent mixing processes. The modeling results help explain how surface microplastics spread and whether they reach zones of biological concentration.
Empirical Lagrangian parametrization for wind-driven mixing of buoyant particles at the ocean surface
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.
Lagrangian Investigation of Wave-Driven Turbulence in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer
This study used Lagrangian particle tracking within large-eddy simulations to analyze wave-driven turbulence in the ocean surface boundary layer. Ocean surface turbulence directly controls how microplastics are mixed, accumulated, and transported in the uppermost layer of the ocean.
Microplastics segregation by rise velocity at the ocean surface
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.
The effect of wind mixing on the vertical distribution of buoyant plastic debris
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.
Material Transport in the Ocean Mixed Layer: Recent Developments Enabled by Large Eddy Simulations
This review examines how large eddy simulation (LES) has advanced understanding of material transport in the ocean mixed layer, covering applications to gas exchange, nutrients, oil droplets, and microplastics under turbulent conditions. The authors synthesise a decade of LES-enabled advances in resolving the three-dimensional turbulent processes that control vertical and horizontal distribution of materials including plastic debris.
Dispersion of buoyant Lagrangian particles in the wave-driven ocean surface boundary layer
This computational study used large eddy simulations to model how buoyant particles — including plastics, oil, and biological material — disperse within the ocean surface boundary layer under different wave and turbulence conditions. The results showed that Langmuir turbulence (driven by wave-current interactions) is especially effective at submerging buoyant particles and influencing their horizontal spread, while highly buoyant particles can become trapped at the surface under certain conditions. The findings are directly relevant to modeling how microplastics distribute across the ocean surface and how long they remain accessible to marine organisms that feed near the surface.
Passive buoyant tracers in the ocean surface boundary layer: 2. Observations and simulations of microplastic marine debris
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.
Effect of Planetary Rotation on Oceanic Surface Boundary Layer Turbulence
This large-eddy simulation study examined how Earth's rotation affects turbulence in the upper ocean, finding that the horizontal component of rotation influences mixing patterns in ways that vary by latitude. Ocean surface turbulence directly governs how plastic particles are mixed vertically and distributed horizontally near the surface.
Microplastics Transport in Turbulent Flow: Investigating the Effects of Physical Characteristics and Flow Dynamics
This PhD dissertation investigated how the physical properties of microplastics — density, size, and shape — affect their transport and mixing in turbulent aquatic flows using numerical simulations and experiments. Lower-density, smaller, and non-spherical particles deviate most from fluid streamlines, explaining why these types are found far from their sources.
Observations of Near‐Surface Current Shear Help Describe Oceanic Oil and Plastic Transport
Researchers used near-surface current shear measurements to better describe how oil and plastic debris disperse and accumulate at the ocean surface, improving model predictions for the distribution of floating contaminants.
Modeling of vertical microplastic transport by rising bubbles
This study modeled the vertical transport of microplastic particles by rising bubbles in the ocean, finding that bubble-mediated transport significantly enhances surface concentration of microplastics and helps explain why surface measurements often show higher particle densities than bulk water predictions suggest.
Fluid dynamics challenges in predicting plastic pollution transport in the ocean: A perspective
This perspective reviewed fluid dynamics challenges in predicting microplastic transport in oceans, highlighting unsolved problems in modeling inertial particles in waves and turbulence, particle transformation, and the influence of submesoscale ocean processes.
Particle dispersion and clustering in surface ocean turbulence with ageostrophic dynamics
This paper is not directly about microplastics; it uses numerical ocean simulations to model how small-scale turbulence and ageostrophic dynamics affect the clustering and dispersion of floating particles at the ocean surface, with relevance to understanding how marine debris concentrates in convergence zones.
Microparticle dynamics in upper-ocean turbulence: Dataset for analysis, modeling & prediction
Researchers developed and released a comprehensive open-access dataset from nine direct numerical simulations of particle-laden turbulence designed to represent microplastic and biogenic debris dynamics in the upper-ocean layer, incorporating physicochemical effects of biofilm stickiness. The dataset is intended to facilitate modeling and prediction of microplastic distribution and aggregation patterns in marine turbulence, supporting development of mitigation strategies for ocean plastic pollution.
Evidence for the Influence of Surface Heat Fluxes on Turbulent Mixing of Microplastic Marine Debris
This oceanographic study found that microplastic concentrations at the ocean surface increase during daytime heating and decrease at night when temperature-driven turbulence pulls floating plastics deeper. The findings help explain why surface measurements of ocean plastic may underestimate total plastic loads in the water column.
Large eddy simulations of the accumulation of buoyant material in oceanic wind-driven and convective turbulence
Researchers used large eddy simulations to show that buoyant materials like microplastics accumulate at specific ocean surface zones driven by convergent currents under both wind-driven and convective turbulence, improving understanding of how plastics concentrate at the sea surface.
Near-Surface Dispersion and Current Observations Using Dye, Drifters, and HF Radar in Coastal Waters
Not relevant to microplastics — this is a physical oceanography study using dye tracers and drifters to investigate near-surface contaminant dispersion mechanisms in coastal waters, focused on Ekman currents and Stokes drift for improving predictive transport models.
Numerical analysis of boundary conditions in a Lagrangian particle model for vertical mixing, transport and surfacing of buoyant particles in the water column
This technical modeling paper examines how to accurately simulate the behavior of buoyant particles (like microplastics) rising to the ocean surface in computer models. Improving these simulations helps predict where floating microplastics will accumulate in the ocean.
The Fluid Mechanics of Ocean Microplastics
This review examined the fluid mechanics governing microplastic transport in marine environments, covering buoyancy, Stokes drift, turbulence, and biofouling effects across scales from surface films to deep-sea accumulation zones. The authors identified key knowledge gaps in predicting vertical transport and small-scale aggregation processes.
Experimental evidence of plastic particles transfer at the water-air interface through bubble bursting
Experimental evidence showed that bubble bursting at the sea surface can transfer plastic particles from bulk water to sea spray aerosols, providing a mechanism for microplastics to be transported from ocean surface waters into the atmosphere.
Empirical Lagrangian parametrization for wind-driven mixing of buoyant particles at the ocean surface
Researchers developed 1D Lagrangian parametrizations of wind-driven turbulent mixing in the ocean surface layer for use in 3D particle-tracking models, finding that Markov-0 stochastic transport models perform well and that Langmuir-circulation turbulence must be included to match field measurements of microplastic concentration profiles.
Plastic Accumulation in the Sea Surface Microlayer: An Experiment-Based Perspective for Future Studies
This experimental study examined how plastic particles accumulate in the sea surface microlayer — the thin film at the ocean-air interface that supports unique microbial communities. Microplastics were found to concentrate in this layer, potentially disrupting gas exchange and the biology of surface-dwelling organisms.
Modeling the trajectories of floating and non-floating microplastic particles in the water column
Researchers modeled the trajectories of both floating and non-floating microplastic particles in freshwater and marine water columns, accounting for turbulence-induced mixing, buoyancy differences, and flow characteristics that determine vertical and horizontal distribution. The study highlights that while low-density polymers like polyethylene and polypropylene are expected to concentrate at the surface, turbulent mixing drives significant depth distribution across aquatic environments.