The missing ocean plastic sink: Gone with the rivers
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Plastic floating at the ocean surface, estimated at tens to hundreds of thousands of metric tons, represents only a small fraction of the estimated several million metric tons annually discharged by rivers. Such an imbalance promoted the search for a missing plastic sink that could explain the rapid removal of river-sourced plastics from the ocean surface. On the basis of an in-depth statistical reanalysis of updated data on microplastics-a size fraction for which both ocean and river sampling rely on equal techniques-we demonstrate that current river flux assessments are overestimated by two to three orders of magnitude. Accordingly, the average residence time of microplastics at the ocean surface rises from a few days to several years, strongly reducing the theoretical need for a missing sink.
Source: Science
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Perpignan, Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditerranéens, Universitat de Barcelona, Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire d'Océanographie Microbienne, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire d’Études en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3174858190