Marine Debris on New Zealand Beaches - Baseline Data to Evaluate Regional Variances

Gool, Ella van; Campbell, Marnie L.; Wallace, Peter; Hewitt, Chad L.

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2021.700415

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(79 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is high compared to a Bulgarian beach that harbored 2 g m -2 and was located near the third biggest town in Bulgaria (Panayotova et al, 2020). On New Zealand beaches, an overall mean weight of 9.17 ± 2.91 g m -2 of marine debris was recorded, which could be low due to local stewardship and clean-ups by tourists (van Gool et al, 2021) similar to visited beaches on Svalbard. The pollution levels were assessed on two remote South Pacific islands.…”

Section: Arctic Beach Debris Surveys 421 Debris Massmentioning

confidence: 94%

Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists

Meyer

Lutz²,

Bergmann³

2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plastic debris is ubiquitous in all ecosystems and has even reached locations that humans will hardly reach such as the deep ocean floor and the atmosphere. Research has highlighted that plastic debris is now pervasive even in remote Arctic regions. While modeling projections indicated local sources and long-distance transport as causes, empirical data about its origin and sources are scarce. Data collected by citizen scientists can increase the scale of observations, especially in such remote regions. Here, we report abundance and composition data of marine debris collected by citizen scientists on 14 remote Arctic beaches on the Spitsbergen archipelago. In addition, citizen scientists collected three large, industrial sized canvas bags (hereafter: big packs), filled with beached debris, of which composition, sources and origin were determined. A total debris mass of 1,620 kg was collected on about 38,000 m2 (total mean = 41.83 g m-2, SEM = ± 31.62). In terms of abundance, 23,000 pieces of debris were collected on 25,500 m2 (total mean = 0.37 items of debris m-2, SEM = ± 0.17). Although most items were plastic in both abundance and mass, fisheries waste, such as nets, rope, and large containers, dominated in mass (87%), and general plastics, such as packaging and plastic articles, dominated in abundance (80%). Fisheries-related debris points to local sea-based sources from vessels operating in the Arctic and nearby. General plastics could point to both land- and ship based sources, as household items are also used on ships and debris can be transported to the north via the oceans current. Overall, 1% of the items (206 out of 14,707 pieces) collected in two big packs (2017 and 2021), bore imprints or labels allowing an analysis of their origin. If the categories ‘global’ and ‘English language’ were excluded, most of identifiable items originated from Arctic states (65%), especially from Russia (32%) and Norway (16%). But almost a third of the items (30%) was of European provenance, especially from Germany (8%). Five percent originated from more distant sources (e.g. USA, China, Korea, Brazil). Global measures such as an efficient and legally binding plastic treaty with improved upstream measures and waste management are urgently needed, to lower the amount of plastic entering our environments and in turn lifting the pressure on the Arctic region and its sensitive biota.

show abstract

Section: Arctic Beach Debris Surveys 421 Debris Massmentioning

confidence: 94%

Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists

Meyer

Lutz²,

Bergmann³

2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, plastic debris can also be found on beaches in the Arctic [7]. Globally, approximately 80% of anthropogenic marine plastic debris is derived from land-based sources [3,8]. Plastic pollution can be divided into two broad categories: macroplastic pollution and microplastic pollution [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Distribution, Composition, and Inventory of Plastic Debris on the Yugang Park Beach in Zhanjiang Bay, South China Sea

Zhang

Wei

Zhang

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plastic debris contamination in marine environments is a global problem that poses a considerable threat to the sustainability and health of coastal ecosystems. Marine beaches, as the key zones where terrestrial plastic debris reach coastal waters, are faced with the increasing pressures of human activities. In this study, we explored the distribution, composition, and inventory of plastic debris over seasonal and tidal zones at the Yugang Park Beach (YPB) in Zhanjiang Bay, South China Sea, to provide a baseline for plastic debris on a marine beach. The results showed mean abundance of plastic debris in summer (6.00 ± 2.10 items/m2) was significantly greater than that in winter (3.75 ± 2.12 items/m2). In addition, the composition of plastic debris ranged in size mainly from 1 to 5 mm and 0.5 to 2.5 cm in winter and summer, respectively. In terms of composition, white plastic debris was the most common (81.1%), and foam was the most abundant (64.4%). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the abundance of plastic debris and sand grain size fraction (p < 0.05), implying the abundances of microplastic debris were more easily impacted by sand grain size (>2 mm). In total inventory, there were about 1.18 × 105 and 2.95 × 105 items of plastic debris on the YPB in winter and summer, respectively. The tidal variation and human activities are responsible for the plastic debris accumulation. This study provided a method to quantify the inventory of plastic debris on a beach and could be helpful to consider regional tidal variations and critical source areas for effective plastic debris clean-up.

show abstract

Distribution of Marine Plastic Debris in the Intertidal Zone on the South Bank of Xiamen Bay

Ma,

Zhou

2024

Environmental Science and Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Marine Debris on New Zealand Beaches - Baseline Data to Evaluate Regional Variances

Cited by 9 publications

References 65 publications

Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists

Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists

Seasonal Distribution, Composition, and Inventory of Plastic Debris on the Yugang Park Beach in Zhanjiang Bay, South China Sea

Distribution of Marine Plastic Debris in the Intertidal Zone on the South Bank of Xiamen Bay

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About