Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 Distribution and Fate of Plastic Waste in the Ocean
5 Distribution and Fate of Plastic Waste in the Ocean
Pages 89-114
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2016) , the water column (Choy et al.
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Furthermore, understanding the distribution and fate of plastic waste is critical to informing mitigation strategies (described further in Chapter 7) such as cleanup and recovery options, understanding of global ocean plastic waste sources to achieve prevention, economic policies and other rulemaking, and citizen and consumer interest and engagement.
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environments, though the question is much investigated. For example, a recent scholarly review of the transport and associated distribution of floating ocean plastic waste cites 400 reference sources or studies (van Sebille et al.
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MMT = million metric tons, MSW = municipal solid waste.
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DISTRIBUTION AND FATE OF PLASTIC WASTE IN THE OCEAN 93 # Countries Population Coastal Included Primary Data in Inland Population (global Source for Plastic Microplastics Informal Export Entire Watersheds (50 km estimates Waste (MSW) Input Sector of Waste Population (via rivers)
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. In the absence of standardized field sampling protocols, each investigator appropriately determines the reporting unit(s)
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Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, described in Chapter 6) , was a federal beach monitoring program designed by the U.S.
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from the NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, ICC data, and additional survey data collected for the project. In this analysis several states were identified as national "hotspots" for marine debris (see Figure 5.2)
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in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of ocean plastic accumulation in waters between Califor nia and Hawaii, is estimated to be ghost gears and nets (Kuczenski et al. 2022, Lebreton et al.
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. Several major estuaries and inland freshwater waterways in the United States have been surveyed for plastic debris, especially microplastics in the water column or buried in sediments (studies and their results detailed in Appendix D)
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. Ocean Water Column Floating Plastics Some of the earliest reports of plastic debris in the ocean described small particles floating at the sea surface in estuarine (Kartar, Milne, and Sainsbury 1973)
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. Since the 1970s, the majority of studies of the abundance and distribution of plastic marine debris have sampled the sea surface using plankton nets of varying types (van Sebille et al.
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Suspended Plastics in the Water Column Microplastics and occasional larger items, such as plastic bags, have also been detected in the water column between the sea surface and the seafloor. Vertical mixing of the water column driven by wind energy can distribute
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in the East China Sea. Of all debris items, plastics accounted for 89% in Hidaka Bay, 69% off Joban, and 34% in the East China Sea.
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The nexus of marine life and the distribution and fate of aquatic plastic waste has been illustrated through two primary mechanisms: ingestion/egestion of and entanglement in plastic waste by living organisms (Gall and Thompson 2015, Gregory 2009, Kühn, Bravo Rebolledo, and van Franeker 2015, Kühn and van Franeker 2020, Laist 1997, Shomura and Yoshida 1985)
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The distribution and fate of ocean plastic waste thus both affects and is affected by the marine lifescape in ways not fully understood. Ingestion of Plastics The ingestion of plastic waste by aquatic life has been documented for hundreds of species (e.g., Figure 5.4, Kühn, Bravo Rebolledo, and van Franeker 2015, Kühn and van Franeker 2020)
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. In certain seabirds, and perhaps other marine wildlife, plastic ingestion has been hypothesized to be facilitated by an olfactory signal -- emanating from a complex biofilm that develops on aquatic plastic particles -- that attracts birds to floating plastics (Savoca et al.
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An example is the transport of ingested plastic vertically in the water column through the diurnal vertical migration of zooplankton and fish, termed the "plastic pump." This plastic pump is also postulated as a mechanism by which plastics are delivered from shallower waters to the deep ocean including through fecal pellets (Choy and Drazen 2013, Cole et al. 2016, Katija et al.
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Entanglement in Plastics The prevalence and distribution of ocean plastic waste is reflected in the ever-increasing number of species with plastic entanglement records -- 354 species by 2019, including birds, marine mammals, turtles, sea snakes, fish, and invertebrates (Kühn and van Franeker 2020, Kühn, Bravo Rebolledo, and van Franeker 2015; see also Figure 5.5)
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Individual North Atlantic right whales entangled in fishing gear are known to have carried the entangling debris on average at least 10 months and it is speculated that as the animals starve, lose body fat, and become denser, they sink at death, both concealing this marine debris-mediated mortality and distributing plastic debris to depth (Moore et al.
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2006) , the movement of ocean plastic waste by entangled organisms may also transport and distribute any living organisms present on the plastic waste, such as potentially invasive species (Kiessling, Gutow, and Thiel 2015, Miralles et al.
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Microbes may affect the distribution and fate of ocean plastic waste through colonization. Functioning as a microhabitat sometimes termed the "plastisphere," microbial colonization of aquatic plastic litter begins within hours and develops an amalgamated, crowded, complex three-dimensional structure of prokaryotes, archaea, protists, and detritus (Amaral-Zettler, Zettler, and Mincer 2020, Andrady 2011, Wright et al.
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Recent work on ocean microbes has focused on characterizing the microbial communities found on ocean plastics compared to those on natural substrates and in free-living communities in seawater, and on understanding the interactions between colonizing marine microbes and specific polymers. As described in an earlier section, some of the first studies on marine microbes reported different microbial communities on plastics than on natural substrates or in seawater (e.g., Zettler, Mincer, and Amaral-Zettler 2013)
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the available evidence to support each step across, from the year 2018. Steps underneath the white dashed line indicate processes that have not yet been validated in the marine environment.
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The scale of plastic waste flows to the environment and the ocean has been estimated based on plastic waste generation rates and leakage outside of waste management systems, in the United States and globally. However, challenges remain in refining these global estimates and in identifying accumulation hotspots because of limited environmental data that are not readily comparable due to a lack of standardized methods, combined with large variability in ocean plastic concentrations in time and space.
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ROLE IN GLOBAL OCEAN PLASTIC WASTE 2. The fate of plastics in marine biota, including residence time, diges tive degradation, and excretion rates.
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