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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Planetary Coupling Geometry: Five Computational Tasks for Earth-Scale Geometric Coupling Analysis
ClearPlanetary Coupling Geometry: Five Computational Tasks for Earth-Scale Geometric Coupling Analysis
Researchers applied a Geometric Coupling Theory framework to five planetary-scale computational tasks including an orbital microplastic collection fleet, estimating that 100 platforms would achieve only 1% ocean surface microplastic removal over 244 years, underscoring the scale mismatch between current technological capacity and the scope of plastic pollution.
How much are we responsible for removing ocean plastic pollution ?
Researchers developed an integrated system dynamics and input-output model to simulate global marine plastic waste trends through 2050, quantifying the economic effort required from producers and consumers to achieve plastic removal targets across shoreline, coastal, and offshore ocean domains.
How much are we responsible for removing ocean plastic pollution ?
Researchers developed an integrated system dynamics and macroeconomic input-output model to simulate global marine plastic waste trends through 2050, tracking floating macroplastics and microplastics across shoreline, coastal, and offshore ocean domains. They used the model to assess the effort and economic costs required to achieve various plastic waste removal targets, analyzing how cost-sharing rules distribute impacts across producers and consumers.
Marine plastic pollution: A systematic review of management strategies through a macroscope approach
Researchers applied a systems-level framework to review 176 studies on marine plastic pollution management, finding that waste collection infrastructure and freshwater pathways are critically understudied and that no existing strategy — from beach cleanup to biomaterials — is scalable enough to meaningfully reverse the plastic crisis.
Modelling the cleanup of the North Pacific Garbage Patch based on 3 years of operational experience
Researchers modeled a 10-year ocean plastic cleanup effort in the North Pacific Garbage Patch using data from 72 actual collection operations that removed over 372 metric tons between 2021 and 2024, projecting that an optimized fleet of U-shaped net systems could eliminate more than 80% of surface plastics larger than 1.5 cm at a cost of approximately €1.8 billion.
Detecting the most effective cleanup locations using network theory to reduce marine plastic debris: a case study in the Galapagos Marine Reserve
Network theory was applied to identify which beaches in the Galapagos Marine Reserve are the most effective targets for plastic debris cleanup based on connectivity and accumulation patterns. The study found that removing plastic from a small number of key sites could significantly reduce overall debris in the reserve. This approach helps direct limited cleanup resources where they have the greatest impact.
How much innovation is needed to protect the ocean from plastic contamination?
Researchers used a system dynamics model to simulate ocean plastic cleanup scenarios, finding that reducing ocean plastic debris 25% below 2010 levels by 2030 would require removing 135 million tons at a cost of up to €708 billion — far exceeding any single cleanup project — and that technological solutions alone cannot solve the problem without complementary policy interventions.
How do humans recognize and face challenges of microplastic pollution in marine environments? A bibliometric analysis
Researchers performed a bibliometric analysis of 1,898 publications on marine microplastics, mapping research growth, collaboration networks, and thematic trends over time, and predicting that future research will increasingly focus on biological effects, human health impacts, and policy-relevant risk characterization.
A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system.
Researchers developed a global mass budget and box model tracking plastic cycling across terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric reservoirs from 1950 to 2015, incorporating historical production data, fragmentation, and transport dynamics for macroplastics, large microplastics, and small microplastics. The model estimated that the deep ocean (82 Tg) and shelf sediments (116 Tg) represent major plastic reservoirs, and that even maximum feasible reduction scenarios would result in approximately 4-fold increases in atmospheric and aquatic microplastic exposure by 2050 due to legacy plastics already in circulation.
Estimating the impact of new high seas activities on the environment: the effects of ocean-surface macroplastic removal on sea surface ecosystems
Researchers assessed the ecological impact of ocean surface plastic removal operations like The Ocean Cleanup, finding that collecting macroplastic also captures surface marine life as bycatch, highlighting the need to account for ecosystem uncertainty when evaluating novel high seas activities.
A global mass budget for positively buoyant macroplastic debris in the ocean
A mass budget analysis challenged the conventional explanation that the majority of ocean macroplastic mass is converted to microplastics and sinks, instead arguing that coastal circulation dynamics may account for the discrepancy between plastic emission estimates and surface accumulation. The study suggests that decades-old objects still found at sea indicate longer surface residence times than current models assume.
A global inventory of small floating plastic debris
Researchers compiled a global inventory of small floating plastic debris from ocean surface sampling expeditions, estimating the total abundance and mass of floating microplastics and identifying the major oceanic accumulation zones.
A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system
Researchers built a global computer model tracking how 8,300 million metric tons of plastic produced since 1950 cycles through land, ocean, and atmosphere as it fragments into microplastics over time. Their modeling shows that even eliminating all new plastic releases from 2025 onward would still leave small microplastics cycling through the environment for millennia, because of the enormous stockpile of plastic waste already accumulated on land.
Significant benefits from international cooperation over marine plastic pollution
Researchers modelled the benefits of international cooperation in addressing marine plastic pollution, finding that the interconnected nature of ocean systems means that unilateral national actions produce substantially smaller reductions in plastic accumulation than coordinated multinational agreements. The study quantified how sharing costs and strategies across nations could significantly improve outcomes for marine ecosystem protection and human well-being.
The fate of missing ocean plastics: Are they just a marine environmental problem?
Researchers estimated a global ocean plastic mass budget to address the paradox of missing ocean plastics, finding that processes like fragmentation, sedimentation, and beaching account for much of the imbalance between plastic inputs and observed floating debris.
Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution
Researchers modeled five different intervention scenarios for reducing global plastic pollution between 2016 and 2040 and found that even implementing all feasible solutions would only cut pollution rates by 40% compared to 2016 levels. Under a business-as-usual scenario, 710 million metric tons of plastic waste would still accumulate in ecosystems even with immediate action. The study makes clear that coordinated global efforts across consumption reduction, recycling, waste collection, and innovation are urgently needed.
Constraining zooplankton exposure to microplastic at the global scale: results from a new coupled physical-biogeochemical model (NEMO/PISCES-PLASTIC)
Researchers used a global coupled physical-biogeochemical ocean model (NEMO/PISCES-PLASTIC) to estimate zooplankton exposure to microplastics across all oceanic regions and depth layers, simulating realistic nutrient and plankton cycling alongside a 3D microplastic transport module. The model enabled global-scale quantification of microplastic concentrations in zooplankton habitat zones, addressing the difficulty of direct in situ measurement and the largely unknown population-level impacts of microplastic ingestion on marine food webs.
A Novel Multi-Robot Task Allocation Model in Marine Plastics Cleaning Based on Replicator Dynamics
This paper proposes an algorithm for coordinating multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to clean up marine plastic pollution more efficiently. Better robotic systems for ocean plastic collection could help address the vast amounts of plastic debris accumulating in marine environments.
Role of Indian Ocean Dynamics on Accumulation of Buoyant Debris
Researchers used ocean circulation modeling to investigate the role of Indian Ocean dynamics in accumulating buoyant marine plastic debris, examining how Ekman convergence and regional current patterns shape the distribution of floating debris in the Indian Ocean subtropical gyre.
Modelling the Uptake and Exchange of Microplastics in Marine Ecosystems using a Novel, Integrated System of High-Resolution Numerical Models
Researchers developed an integrated high-resolution numerical model to simulate how microplastics are taken up and exchanged among organisms in marine ecosystems. The model couples physical ocean circulation with biological uptake, egestion, and transfer through the food web. Such models help predict how microplastics from different sources distribute throughout marine food chains and ultimately reach fish and other seafood consumed by humans.
Microbial carrying capacity and carbon biomass of plastic marine debris
Researchers estimated the microbial carrying capacity and carbon biomass of floating marine plastic debris, finding that the collective surface area of ocean plastic supports a substantial microbial community whose carbon biomass, while modest relative to total ocean microbial carbon, represents a novel and persistent ecological niche with potential biogeochemical significance.
The Role of the Unsteady Surface Wave‐Driven Ekman–Stokes Flow in the Accumulation of Floating Marine Litter
Researchers modeled the role of wave-driven Ekman-Stokes flow in the accumulation of floating marine debris, finding that this near-surface current mechanism significantly influences where plastic litter concentrates at sea, with implications for predicting and targeting ocean cleanup efforts.
On some physical and dynamical properties of microplastic particles in marine environment
This study examined the physical and dynamical properties of microplastic particles in marine environments, using modeling to predict how particle shape, density, and size govern transport, dispersion, and accumulation patterns.
Modeling marine surface microplastic transport to assess optimal removal locations
Researchers used satellite-tracked buoy data and surface trawl observations to model marine microplastic transport from 2015 to 2025, finding that plastic collectors positioned off the coast of China and in the Indonesian Archipelago could remove 31% of modeled microplastic mass — nearly twice as effective as placement in the North Pacific garbage patch.