The distribution of microplastics in the surface layer of the Atlantic Ocean from the subtropics to the equator according to visual analysis

Spatiotemporal variations of surface water microplastics near Kyushu, Japan: A quali-quantitative analysis

“…D represented the filtration efficiency that was calculated by towing the same distance with and without the net in a water tunnel at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (Michida et al, 2019). Although areal units (e.g., items per km 2 ) are frequently reported in similar research, when comparing wider areas such as the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean (Collignon et al, 2012; Eriksen et al, 2013; Silvestrova and Stepanova, 2021), we adopted a volumetric approach (number of items per cubic meter of seawater) as the standardised measurement of debris for each sampling station; however we can still compare areas A (m 2 ) by converting the recorded values according to Eqn (2): Furthermore, considering that the number of small plastic particles decreases exponentially with depth, it has been recommended that the concentration of MPs should be integrated vertically (Kukulka et al, 2012; Reisser et al, 2015). Theoretical concentration per square meter (items ·m -2 ) of MP particles on the surface can also be calculated by accounting for wind speed and significant wave height during survey (Supplementary Fig.…”

“…D represented the filtration efficiency that was calculated by towing the same distance with and without the net in a water tunnel at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (Michida et al, 2019). Although areal units (e.g., items per km 2 ) are frequently reported in similar research, when comparing wider areas such as the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean (Collignon et al, 2012;Eriksen et al, 2013;Silvestrova and Stepanova, 2021), we adopted a volumetric approach (number of items per cubic meter of seawater) as the standardised measurement of debris for each sampling station; however we can still compare areas A (m 2 ) by converting the recorded values according to Eqn (2):…”

Microplastics in water systems: A review of their impacts on the environment and their potential hazards

“…Microplastics in seawater were among the first to be identified during the literature search and they yielded the most search results. The occurrence of microplastics in the ocean, which is representative regionally, is as follows: The Atlantic [ 18 ], Midwest Pacific [ 19 ], Mediterranean; Italy [ 20 ], Tunisia [ 21 ], Baltic Sea [ 22 , 23 ], Arabian Sea; Gulf of Oman [ 24 ], Indian ocean; Indonesia Bali [ 25 ], South China Sea [ 26 , 27 ], Korea Coasts [ 28 ], Arctic Ocean; Nordic Sea [ 29 ], Antarctic Ocean [ [30] , [31] , [32] ] ( Fig. 2 , Table 1 ).…”

Interplay of plastic pollution with algae and plants: hidden danger or a blessing?

“…In water systems, plastic is distributed along the water column, but some of the plastic tends to settle and accumulate in the sediments including polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), nylon, cellulose acetate, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (Prata et al, 2019;Ahmed et al, 2021). The number of plastic particles per m 3 in marine water masses ranges from 0.051 in the Mediterranean Sea (Schmidt et al, 2021) to 5.5 particles per m 3 at Cape Verde, Atlantic Ocean (Silvestrova and Stepanova, 2021). It is estimated that in the top water layer of the Atlantic Ocean (200 m depth), 21.1 million tonnes of plastic particles mostly comprised of micro-and nanoplastics (Kataoka et al, 2019).…”