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Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Material Transport in the Ocean Mixed Layer: Recent Developments Enabled by Large Eddy Simulations
ClearMixing and transport of materials in the Ocean Surface Boundary Layer
This doctoral thesis investigated turbulence and mixing processes in the ocean surface boundary layer and how they affect the transport of materials including microplastics, oil, and nutrients. The research develops mathematical models to better understand how plastic particles disperse near the ocean surface, which is important for predicting the fate of marine plastic pollution.
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.
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.
Horizontal 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.
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: 1. Influence of equilibrium wind‐waves on vertical distributions
Using large eddy simulations, this paper modeled how wind-driven waves affect the vertical distribution of buoyant particles near the ocean surface, providing the physical framework for the companion paper on microplastic debris distribution. The models explain why floating microplastics are often mixed down below the surface, reducing the concentrations observed in surface sampling.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Langmuir Turbulence Controls on Observed Diurnal Warm Layer Depths
This is an oceanography study using large eddy simulations to model how Langmuir turbulence affects the depth of the ocean's diurnal warm layer; it is not a microplastics research paper.
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.
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.
Influence of waves on the three-dimensional distribution of plastic in the ocean
Researchers modeled the trajectories of microplastic particles released continuously from coastal sources across realistic ocean simulations to understand how wave dynamics and ocean circulation distribute plastic pollution globally. The model showed that wave-driven mixing significantly influences vertical plastic distribution, not just horizontal surface drift. Including wave effects improves predictions of where ocean microplastics accumulate.
On the Vertical Structure of Mesoscale Eddies in the Kuroshio‐Oyashio Extension
Not relevant to microplastics — this study analyzes the vertical structure of ocean eddies in the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension and their role in heat and material transport in the ocean.
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.
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.
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.
Resolved Large Eddy Simulations of a Settling or Rising Spherical Microplastic Particle
This computational study used large eddy simulation to model how spherical microplastic particles settle or rise through water at different speeds, accurately predicting drag coefficients and wake patterns across a wide range of flow conditions. The model provides better physical understanding of how microplastic particles move in aquatic environments, which is important for predicting where they accumulate and how they are transported through rivers, lakes, and oceans.
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.
Sinking microplastics in the water column: simulations in the Mediterranean Sea
Researchers simulated the vertical dispersion and distribution of negatively buoyant microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea using a realistic circulation model, evaluating how inertia, Coriolis force, turbulence, and variable seawater density affect sinking trajectories and accumulation zones.
Advancements in numerical simulation of microplastics transport in open waters: Model enhancements and sensitivity analyses of boundary conditions and settling velocities
Researchers updated a three-dimensional particle tracking model for simulating microplastic transport in marine and riverine environments, adding free-slip boundary conditions, settling and resuspension mechanics, and turbulent diffusion, then validated the model against field data from the Ottawa River and Saguenay Fjord.
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.