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Cited by 575

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Constraining the atmospheric limb of the plastic cycle

Open access
Brahney, Janice, Mahowald, Natalie, Prank, Marje, Cornwell, Gavin, Klimont, Zbigniew, Matsui, Hitoshi, Prather, Kimberly Ann·2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Significance: Microplastic particles and fibers generated from the breakdown of mismanaged waste are now so prevalent that they cycle through the earth in a manner akin to global biogeochemical cycles. In modeling the atmospheric limb of the plastic cycle, we show that most atmospheric plastics are derived from the legacy production of plastics from waste that has continued to build up in the environment. Roads dominated the sources of microplastics to the western United States, followed by marine, agriculture, and dust emissions generated downwind of population centers. At the current rate of increase of plastic production (∼4% per year), understanding the sources and consequences of microplastics in the atmosphere should be a priority.

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Metadata

Authors
Brahney, J., Mahowald, N., Prank, M., Cornwell, G., Klimont, Z., Matsui, H., & Prather, K. A.
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2021-04-12
Volume
118
Issue
16
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W3154116283
Cited by
575
References
10
FWCI
19.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Constraining the atmospheric limb of the plastic cycle. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1073/pnas.2020719118
The paper
Brahney, J., Mahowald, N., Prank, M., Cornwell, G., Klimont, Z., Matsui, H., & Prather, K. A. (2021). Constraining the atmospheric limb of the plastic cycle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020719118

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.