The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris

Erik van Sebille (1) , Stefano Aliani (2) , Kara L. Law (3) , Nikolai Maximenko (4) , José M. Alsina (5) , Andrei Bagaev (6, 7) , Melanie Bergmann (8) , Bertrand Chapron (9) , Irina Chubarenko (6) , Andrés Cózar (10) , Philippe Delandmeter (1) , Matthias Egger (11) , Baylor Fox-Kemper (12) , Shungudzemwoyo P Garaba (11, 13) , Lonneke Goddijn-Murphy (14) , Britta D. Hardesty (15) , Matthew J . Hoffman (16) , Atsuhiko Isobe (17) , Cleo E. Jongedijk (18) , Mikael L. A. Kaandorp (1) , Liliya Khatmullina (6) , Albert A. Koelmans (19) , Tobias Kukulka (20) , Charlotte Laufkötter (21) , Laurent Lebreton (11) , Delphine Lobelle (1, 22, 23) , Christophe Maes (9, 24) , Victor Martinez-Vicente (25) , Miguel A. Morales Maqueda (26) , Marie Poulain (27, 28, 29) , Ernesto Rodríguez (30) , Peter G. Ryan (31) , Alan L. Shanks (32) , Won Joon Shim (33) , Giuseppe Suaria (2) , Martin Thiel (34, 35, 36) , Ton S. van den Bremer (37) , David Wichmann (1)

1 IMAU - Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research [Utrecht]
2 ISMAR - Istituto di Science Marine
3 Sea Education Association
4 IPRC - International Pacific Research Center
5 UPC - Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya = Université polytechnique de Catalogne [Barcelona]
6 SIO - P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology
7 MHI - Marine Hydrophysical Institute
8 AWI - Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
9 LOPS - Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale
10 UCA - Universidad de Cádiz = University of Cádiz
11 The Ocean Cleanup (NETHERLANDS)
12 Brown University
13 OFFIS - Carl Von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg = Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
14 UHI - University of the Highlands and Islands
15 CSIRO Energy Technology - Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Energy Technology
16 RIT - Rochester Institute of Technology
17 Kyushu University
18 Imperial College London
19 WUR - Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen]
20 University of Delaware [Newark]
21 UNIBE - Universität Bern / University of Bern
22 University of Southampton
23 National Physical Laboratory OLW - National Physical Laboratory
24 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
25 Plymouth Marine Laboratory
26 Newcastle University [Newcastle]
27 IMRCP - Interactions moléculaires et réactivité chimique et photochimique
28 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse
29 IMRCP - SMODD - IMRCP - Systèmes Moléculaires Organisés et Développement Durable
30 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
31 Service Informatique et développements
32 University of Oregon [Eugene]
33 KIOST - Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology
34 Universidad Católica del Norte [Antofagasta]
35 Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands - ESMOI (CHILE)
36 CEAZA - Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Aridas
37 University of Oxford

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.

Mots clés: Marine debris; Physical oceanography; Ocean circulation; Remote sensing; Fluid dynamics

Domaines: Océanographie

Erik van Sebille, Stefano Aliani, Kara L. Law, Nikolai Maximenko, José M. Alsina, et al.. The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris. Environmental Research Letters, 2020, 15 (2), pp.1-32. ⟨10.1088/1748-9326/ab6d7d⟩. ⟨hal-02640336⟩