north atlantic gyre and microplastics
DESCRIPTION
North Atlantic Gyre and Microplastics. By: Katie Todoroff. Circulation. Sub-tropical Convergence Zone. Concentration of Plastics. Sewage, tourism, fishing, waste from ships and boats 9,064 tons of plastic debris Gyre has surface area of 3,625,753 km^2 25,000 pieces of plastic/km^2 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
North Atlantic Gyre and
Microplastics
By: Katie Todoroff
Circulation
Sub-tropical Convergence Zone
Concentration of Plastics Sewage, tourism, fishing,
waste from ships and boats
9,064 tons of plastic debris
Gyre has surface area of 3,625,753 km^2
25,000 pieces of plastic/km^2
Highest concentrations observed in the Sargasso Sea
• Garbage Patches located beneath High Pressure Systems
• Weak winds
Estimation and Modeling
Use trajectories of drifting buoys to estimate the rate and location of aggregation
Consistent with observations of garbage and defragmented plastic
Neuston nets used to collect samplesBottom Trawling Nets also used on the seafloor
Entanglement and Ingestion
Microplastics
Undergo photo-oxidative degradation Happens faster on land and ocean surface, extremely slow process
at abyssal depths due to lack of UV-rays and colder temperatures Most are not visible to the naked-eye Once surface is degraded, further broken down by stresses in the
ocean such as turbulence
Microplastics
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)- occur universally in the oceans via runoff
POPs are hydrophobic, dissolved in the microplastics and concentrated there
Become bioavailable to organisms
Implications to the Marine Food Web
Can deliver toxins across trophic levelsAll types of plankton susceptible- foundation of
the marine food webNo significant studies yet that quantify the
outcomes 1-L plastic water bottle will photo-degrade into
enough small pieces to pout once piece on every mile of beach in the world