Skip to main content

IMIS

A new integrated search interface will become available in the next phase of marineinfo.org.
For the time being, please use IMIS to search available data

 

[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

The global biological microplastic particle sink
Kvale, K.; Prowe, A.E.F.; Chien, C.-T.; Landolfi, A.; Oschlies, A. (2020). The global biological microplastic particle sink. NPG Scientific Reports 10(1): 12 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72898-4
In: Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group). Nature Publishing Group: London. ISSN 2045-2322; e-ISSN 2045-2322, more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Authors 

Authors  Top 
  • Kvale, K.
  • Prowe, A.E.F.
  • Chien, C.-T.
  • Landolfi, A.
  • Oschlies, A.

Abstract
    Every year, about four percent of the plastic waste generated worldwide ends up in the ocean. What happens to the plastic there is poorly understood, though a growing body of evidence suggests it is rapidly spreading throughout the global ocean. The mechanisms of this spread are straightforward for buoyant larger plastics that can be accurately modelled using Lagrangian particle models. But the fate of the smallest size fractions (the microplastics) are less straightforward, in part because they can aggregate in sinking marine snow and faecal pellets. This biologically-mediated pathway is suspected to be a primary surface microplastic removal mechanism, but exactly how it might work in the real ocean is unknown. We search the parameter space of a new microplastic model embedded in an earth system model to show that biological uptake can significantly shape global microplastic inventory and distributions and even account for the budgetary “missing” fraction of surface microplastic, despite being an inefficient removal mechanism. While a lack of observational data hampers our ability to choose a set of “best” model parameters, our effort represents a first tool for quantitatively assessing hypotheses for microplastic interaction with ocean biology at the global scale.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors