Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea

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dc.contributor.authorEriksen, Marcusen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorLebreton, Laurent C Men_ZA
dc.contributor.authorCarson, Henry Sen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorThiel, Martinen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorMoore, Charles Jen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBorerro, Jose Cen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorGalgani, Francoisen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorRyan, Peter Gen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorReisser, Juliaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-20T16:06:04Z
dc.date.available2015-12-20T16:06:04Z
dc.date.issued2014en_ZA
dc.description.abstractPlastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the marine environment, yet estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics have lacked data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere and remote regions. Here we report an estimate of the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans from 24 expeditions (2007-2013) across all five sub-tropical gyres, costal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea conducting surface net tows (N = 680) and visual survey transects of large plastic debris (N = 891). Using an oceanographic model of floating debris dispersal calibrated by our data, and correcting for wind-driven vertical mixing, we estimate a minimum of 5.25 trillion particles weighing 268,940 tons. When comparing between four size classes, two microplastic <4.75 mm and meso- and macroplastic >4.75 mm, a tremendous loss of microplastics is observed from the sea surface compared to expected rates of fragmentation, suggesting there are mechanisms at play that remove <4.75 mm plastic particles from the ocean surface.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationEriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C. M., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., ... Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. <i>PLoS One</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15924en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationEriksen, Marcus, Laurent C M Lebreton, Henry S Carson, Martin Thiel, Charles J Moore, Jose C Borerro, Francois Galgani, Peter G Ryan, and Julia Reisser "Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea." <i>PLoS One</i> (2014) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15924en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationEriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., ... & Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. PloS one, 9(12), e111913. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111913en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Eriksen, Marcus AU - Lebreton, Laurent C M AU - Carson, Henry S AU - Thiel, Martin AU - Moore, Charles J AU - Borerro, Jose C AU - Galgani, Francois AU - Ryan, Peter G AU - Reisser, Julia AB - Plastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the marine environment, yet estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics have lacked data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere and remote regions. Here we report an estimate of the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans from 24 expeditions (2007-2013) across all five sub-tropical gyres, costal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea conducting surface net tows (N = 680) and visual survey transects of large plastic debris (N = 891). Using an oceanographic model of floating debris dispersal calibrated by our data, and correcting for wind-driven vertical mixing, we estimate a minimum of 5.25 trillion particles weighing 268,940 tons. When comparing between four size classes, two microplastic <4.75 mm and meso- and macroplastic >4.75 mm, a tremendous loss of microplastics is observed from the sea surface compared to expected rates of fragmentation, suggesting there are mechanisms at play that remove <4.75 mm plastic particles from the ocean surface. DA - 2014 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0111913 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - PLoS One LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2014 T1 - Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea TI - Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15924 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/15924
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationEriksen M, Lebreton LCM, Carson HS, Thiel M, Moore CJ, Borerro JC, et al. Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. PLoS One. 2014; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15924.en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentPercy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.rights.holder© 2014 Eriksen et alen_ZA
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0en_ZA
dc.sourcePLoS Oneen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosoneen_ZA
dc.subject.otherOceansen_ZA
dc.subject.otherDensityen_ZA
dc.subject.otherPollutionen_ZA
dc.subject.otherParticle sizeen_ZA
dc.subject.otherSouthern Hemisphereen_ZA
dc.subject.otherIndian Oceanen_ZA
dc.subject.otherMarine fishen_ZA
dc.subject.otherMediterranean Seaen_ZA
dc.titlePlastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at seaen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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