Manila River Mouths Act as Temporary Sinks for Macroplastic Pollution

Emmerik, Tim van; Klaveren, Justin van; Meijer, Lourens J. J.; Krooshof, Joost W.; Palmos, Dixie Ann A.; Tanchuling, Maria Antonia

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.545812

Cited by 37 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The scarce observational evidence available suggests that plastic transport and accumulation is impacted by these dynamics at different timescales. Within tidal cycles, plastic flux close to the river mouth has been found to be about the same during both ebb and flood tide, suggesting that the actual net transport from rivers into the sea is very limited (van Emmerik et al, 2020c). As long as the net discharge is low, the plastics accumulating in the estuary have a growing likelihood of beaching on the riverbanks (van Emmerik et al, 2020a), getting entrapped in riparian vegetation (Martin et al, 2020), deposited in the sediment (Acha et al, 2003), or to degrade and fragment into smaller particles (Lebreton et al, 2019).…”

Section: Retained In Estuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rivers as Plastic Reservoirs

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land-based plastic waste, carried to the sea through rivers, is considered a main source of marine plastic pollution. However, most plastics that leak into the environment never make it into the ocean. Only a small fraction of plastics that are found in the terrestrial and aquatic compartments of river systems are emitted, and the vast majority can be retained for years, decades, and potentially centuries. In this perspective paper we introduce the concept of river systems as plastic reservoirs. Under normal conditions, hydrometeorological variables (such as wind, runoff and river discharge) mobilize, transport and deposit plastics within different river compartments (e.g., riverbanks, floodplains, lakes, estuaries). The emptying of these plastic reservoirs primarily occurs under extreme hydrological conditions (e.g., storms, floods). In this paper we specifically focus on the retention mechanisms within different river compartments, and their effect on the fate of the plastics that are accumulated on various timescales. We aim to introduce the concept of rivers as (long-term) sinks for plastic pollution, and provide suggestions for future research directions.

show abstract

Section: Retained In Estuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rivers as Plastic Reservoirs

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Sarawak stranding is of particular interest because the presence of Irrawaddy dolphins in this location is less well documented, this highlights a key knowledge gap in the species' distribution which needs to be addressed to establish a better system for assessing and mitigating bycatch. River mouths are known to accumulate plastics, particularly during periods of low freshwater discharge (van Emmerik et al 2020), making Irrawaddy dolphins particularly vulnerable at certain periods of the year. Whilst this study has aided understanding of the Irrawaddy dolphin's spatial distribution, there has been no range-wide survey and further assessments of population dynamics are required for effective long-term management.…”

Section: Epipelagic and Mesopelagic Foragers And Entanglementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of social media to cetacean research in Southeast Asia: illuminating populations vulnerable to litter

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Litter in the marine environment, in particular plastic, is a significant threat to marine megafauna. Cetaceans are known to ingest or become entangled in marine debris, likely impacting individuals and populations. Southeast Asia is a biodiversity hotspot and harbours a diverse cetacean assemblage. However, there are key knowledge gaps relating to the impact of litter in this region due the lack of experts to survey its vast coastlines. This study aims to address such gaps by using social media, gathering data from Facebook posts relating to cetacean strandings and litter across Southeast Asia between 2009 and 2019. Results show that at least 15 cetacean species have been negatively affected by litter, with ingestion most commonly affecting deep-diving species. Epipelagic and mesopelagic foragers were most vulnerable to entanglement. Davao in the Philippines was identified as a litter-related stranding hotspot. The Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) and pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) are particularly vulnerable to litter. The combination of social media and peer reviewed literature can help build a more complete picture of the spatial distribution of marine litter and the scale of the impact it has on cetacean populations. In this study we provide details of a valuable online tool for helping to understand the impact of marine litter on cetaceans and other charismatic species that are a focus of community engagement.

show abstract

“…In addition to ground-truth data collection, the MARIDA dataset also included published satellite-derived data on Marine Debris detection [10,13], and observations from rivers that have been reported in the literature as major polluters [2,[41][42][43][44][45]. Table 1 demonstrates the source of the reported data (i.e., ground-truth and indicated by literature), as well as the…”

Section: Data Collection and Annotationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marine Debris, such as plastics, is a major global issue with important environmental, economic, human health and aesthetic aspects. Plastics remain in the ocean for a long time, and have been found in various areas worldwide [1][2][3], affecting marine life at different trophic levels [4]. To tackle the Marine Debris issue, several solutions for detecting [5,6], cleaning [7] and preventing [8] have been developed and validated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MARIDA: A benchmark for Marine Debris detection from Sentinel-2 remote sensing data

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Currently, a significant amount of research is focused on detecting Marine Debris and assessing its spectral behaviour via remote sensing, ultimately aiming at new operational monitoring solutions. Here, we introduce a Marine Debris Archive (MARIDA), as a benchmark dataset for developing and evaluating Machine Learning (ML) algorithms capable of detecting Marine Debris. MARIDA is the first dataset based on the multispectral Sentinel-2 (S2) satellite data, which distinguishes Marine Debris from various marine features that co-exist, including Sargassum macroalgae, Ships, Natural Organic Material, Waves, Wakes, Foam, dissimilar water types (i.e., Clear, Turbid Water, Sediment-Laden Water, Shallow Water), and Clouds. We provide annotations (georeferenced polygons/ pixels) from verified plastic debris events in several geographical regions globally, during different seasons, years and sea state conditions. A detailed spectral and statistical analysis of the MARIDA dataset is presented along with well-established ML baselines for weakly supervised semantic segmentation and multi-label classification tasks. MARIDA is an open-access dataset which enables the research community to explore the spectral behaviour of certain floating materials, sea state features and water types, to develop and evaluate Marine Debris detection solutions based on artificial intelligence and deep learning architectures, as well as satellite pre-processing pipelines.

show abstract

Manila River Mouths Act as Temporary Sinks for Macroplastic Pollution

Cited by 37 publications

References 30 publications

Rivers as Plastic Reservoirs

Rivers as Plastic Reservoirs

Contribution of social media to cetacean research in Southeast Asia: illuminating populations vulnerable to litter

MARIDA: A benchmark for Marine Debris detection from Sentinel-2 remote sensing data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About