The DOI matches its Crossref record; 431 of the 431 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris
Open accessAbstract
Marine plastic debris floating on the ocean surface is a major environmental problem. However, its distribution in the ocean is poorly mapped, and most of the plastic waste estimated to have entered the ocean from land is unaccounted for. Better understanding of how plastic debris is transported from coastal and marine sources is crucial to quantify and close the global inventory of marine plastics, which in turn represents critical information for mitigation or policy strategies. At the same time, plastic is a unique tracer that provides an opportunity to learn more about the physics and dynamics of our ocean across multiple scales, from the Ekman convergence in basin-scale gyres to individual waves in the surfzone. In this review, we comprehensively discuss what is known about the different processes that govern the transport of floating marine plastic debris in both the open ocean and the coastal zones, based on the published literature and referring to insights from neighbouring fields such as oil spill dispersion, marine safety recovery, plankton connectivity, and others. We discuss how measurements of marine plastics (both in situ and in the laboratory), remote sensing, and numerical simulations can elucidate these processes and their interactions across spatio-temporal scales.
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“Measurements and model simulations revealed an uneven distribution of PMD, which complicates assessing global PMD inventories: highest PMD concentrations were found in the subtropical gyres (which have been termed 'trash vortexes' or 'garbage patches'), while PMD concentrations are much lower in the in the tropical and Arctic open ocean.51,53,54,[62][63][64]”
From The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview (2021) · cites this paper as [64]
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The global threat from plastic pollution
MacLeod, M., Arp, H. P. H., Tekman, M. B., & Jahnke, A. (2021) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abg5433 · Cited by 2,951
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Metadata
- Authors
- van Sebille, E., Aliani, S., Law, K. L., Maximenko, N., Alsina, J. M., Bagaev, A., Bergmann, M., Chapron, B., Chubarenko, I., Cózar, A., Delandmeter, P., Egger, M., Fox-Kemper, B., Garaba, S. P., Goddijn-Murphy, L., Hardesty, B. D., Hoffman, M. J., Isobe, A., Jongedijk, C. E., Kaandorp, M. L. A., Khatmullina, L., Koelmans, A. A., Kukulka, T., Laufkötter, C., Lebreton, L., Lobelle, D., Maes, C., Martinez-Vicente, V., Morales Maqueda, M. A., Poulain-Zarcos, M., Rodríguez, E., Ryan, P. G., Shanks, A. L., Shim, W. J., Suaria, G., Thiel, M., van den Bremer, T. S., & Wichmann, D.
- Affiliations
- Istituto di Scienze Marine del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IT)
- Sea Education Association (US)
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE)
- Laboratory for Ocean Physics and Satellite Remote Sensing (FR)
- Universidad de Cádiz (ES)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- The Ocean Cleanup (NL)
- Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (DE)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Rochester Institute of Technology (US)
- Kyushu University (JP)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- University of Delaware (US)
- University of Bern (CH)
- National Physical Laboratory (GB)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- University of Oregon (US)
- Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KR)
- ORCID
- van Sebille, Erik
- Aliani, Stefano
- Law, Kara Lavender
- Maximenko, Nikolai
- Alsina, José M
- Bagaev, Andrei
- Bergmann, Melanie
- Chapron, Bertrand
- Chubarenko, Irina
- Cózar, Andrés
- Delandmeter, Philippe
- Egger, Matthias
- Fox-Kemper, Baylor
- Garaba, Shungudzemwoyo P
- Goddijn-Murphy, Lonneke
- Hardesty, Britta Denise
- Hoffman, Matthew J
- Isobe, Atsuhiko
- Jongedijk, Cleo E
- Kaandorp, Mikael L A
- Khatmullina, Liliya
- Koelmans, Albert A
- Kukulka, Tobias
- Laufkötter, Charlotte
- Lebreton, Laurent
- Lobelle, Delphine
- Maes, Christophe
- Martinez-Vicente, Victor
- Morales Maqueda, Miguel Angel
- Poulain-Zarcos, Marie
- Rodríguez, Ernesto
- Ryan, Peter G
- Shanks, Alan L
- Shim, Won Joon
- Suaria, Giuseppe
- Thiel, Martin
- van den Bremer, Ton S
- Wichmann, David
- Venue
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2020-02-01
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 023003
- ISSN
- 1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3002696674
- Cited by
- 982
- References
- 431
- Citations by year
- 2026: 139 · 2025: 153 · 2024: 166 · 2023: 167 · 2022: 150 · 2021: 153 · 2020: 53
- FWCI
- 32.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Archive Toulouse Archive Ouverte (University of Toulouse) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Marine Biological Association (acceptedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Institutional Archive of Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar-und Meeresforschung (Alfred-Wegener-Institut) (submittedVersion)
- RODIN (Universidad de Cádiz) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UPCommons institutional repository (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
- Funders
- Royal Academy of Engineering Research
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (417276871)
- H2020 Environment (CTM2016-77106-R)
- Russian Science Foundation (18-55-45024)
- Oak Family Foundation
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Oceans and Atmosphere)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC17K0559)
- The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative
- INP-INSA-ISAE (PLASTICOUNT)
- Ministry of the Environment, Japan (Environmental Research and Technology Development)
- Natural Environment Research Council (CAMPUS)
- Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE-1352422)
- Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea (Environmental Risk Assessment of Microplastics in)
- European Space Agency (4000120879/17/NL/PS)
- H2020 European Research Council (715386)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Keywords
- marine plastic debris, ocean surface dynamics, gyres, surf zone, oil spill dispersion, numerical ocean modeling
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