{"id":32317,"date":"2013-12-22T20:14:20","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T19:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oneearth-oneocean.com\/2013\/12\/22\/the-concentration-of-marine-plastics-in-waters-around-australia\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T22:44:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T21:44:14","slug":"the-concentration-of-marine-plastics-in-waters-around-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oneearth-oneocean.com\/en\/research-en\/2013\/the-concentration-of-marine-plastics-in-waters-around-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"The concentration of marine plastics in waters around  Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<pre><a href=\"http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0080466\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0080466<\/a>\n\nReisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, et al. (2013) \nMarine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, \nConcentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. \ndoi:10.1371\/journal.pone.0080466\n\nAbstract\nPlastics represent the vast majority of human-made debris present in the \noceans. However, their characteristics, accumulation zones, and \ntransport pathways remain poorly assessed. We characterised and \nestimated the concentration of marine plastics in waters around \nAustralia using surface net tows, and inferred their potential pathways \nusing particle-tracking models and real drifter trajectories. The 839 \nmarine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments \n(\u201cmicroplastics\u201d, median length = 2.8 mm, mean length = 4.9 mm) \nresulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and \npolypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items). Mean sea surface \nplastic concentration was 4256.4 pieces km\u22122, and after incorporating \nthe effect of vertical wind mixing, this value increased to 8966.3 \npieces km\u22122. These plastics appear to be associated with a wide range of \nocean currents that connect the sampled sites to their international and \ndomestic sources, including populated areas of Australia's east coast. \nThis study shows that plastic contamination levels in surface waters of \nAustralia are similar to those in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Maine, \nbut considerably lower than those found in the subtropical gyres and \nMediterranean Sea. Microplastics such as the ones described here have \nthe potential to affect organisms ranging from megafauna to small fish \nand zooplankton.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0080466 Reisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, et al. (2013) Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. doi:10.1371\/journal.pone.0080466 Abstract Plastics represent the vast majority of human-made debris present in the oceans. However, their characteristics, accumulation zones, and transport pathways remain poorly assessed. We characterised and estimated the concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia using surface net tows, and inferred their potential pathways using particle-tracking models and real drifter trajectories. The 839 marine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments (\u201cmicroplastics\u201d, median length = 2.8 mm, mean length = 4.9 mm) resulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and polypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items). Mean sea surface plastic concentration was 4256.4 pieces km\u22122, and after incorporating the effect of vertical wind mixing, this value increased to 8966.3 pieces km\u22122. These plastics appear to be associated with a wide range of ocean currents that connect the sampled sites to their international and domestic sources, including populated areas of Australia&#8217;s east coast. This study shows that plastic contamination levels in surface waters of Australia are similar to those in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Maine, but considerably lower than those found in the subtropical gyres and Mediterranean Sea. Microplastics such as the ones described here have the potential to affect organisms ranging from megafauna to small fish and zooplankton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3649,3588,3423],"tags":[1585,1445,2290],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia - One Earth - One Ocean e. V.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oneearth-oneocean.com\/en\/research-en\/2013\/the-concentration-of-marine-plastics-in-waters-around-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia - One Earth - One Ocean e. V.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0080466 Reisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, et al. (2013) Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. doi:10.1371\/journal.pone.0080466 Abstract Plastics represent the vast majority of human-made debris present in the oceans. However, their characteristics, accumulation zones, and transport pathways remain poorly assessed. We characterised and estimated the concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia using surface net tows, and inferred their potential pathways using particle-tracking models and real drifter trajectories. The 839 marine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments (\u201cmicroplastics\u201d, median length = 2.8 mm, mean length = 4.9 mm) resulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and polypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items). Mean sea surface plastic concentration was 4256.4 pieces km\u22122, and after incorporating the effect of vertical wind mixing, this value increased to 8966.3 pieces km\u22122. These plastics appear to be associated with a wide range of ocean currents that connect the sampled sites to their international and domestic sources, including populated areas of Australia&#039;s east coast. This study shows that plastic contamination levels in surface waters of Australia are similar to those in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Maine, but considerably lower than those found in the subtropical gyres and Mediterranean Sea. Microplastics such as the ones described here have the potential to affect organisms ranging from megafauna to small fish and zooplankton.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/oneearth-oneocean.com\/en\/research-en\/2013\/the-concentration-of-marine-plastics-in-waters-around-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One Earth - One Ocean e. 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We characterised and estimated the concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia using surface net tows, and inferred their potential pathways using particle-tracking models and real drifter trajectories. The 839 marine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments (\u201cmicroplastics\u201d, median length = 2.8 mm, mean length = 4.9 mm) resulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and polypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items). Mean sea surface plastic concentration was 4256.4 pieces km\u22122, and after incorporating the effect of vertical wind mixing, this value increased to 8966.3 pieces km\u22122. These plastics appear to be associated with a wide range of ocean currents that connect the sampled sites to their international and domestic sources, including populated areas of Australia's east coast. 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