Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre

被引：931

作者：

Law, Kara Lavender ^{[1
]}

Moret-Ferguson, Skye ^{[1
,2
]}

Maximenko, Nikolai A. ^{[3
]}

Proskurowski, Giora ^{[1
,2
]}

Peacock, Emily E. ^{[2
]}

Hafner, Jan ^{[3
]}

Reddy, Christopher M. ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Sea Educ Assoc, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA

[2] Woods Hole Oceanog Inst, Dept Marine Chem & Geochem, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA

[3] Univ Hawaii, Sch Ocean & Earth Sci & Technol, Int Pacific Res Ctr, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA

来源：

SCIENCE | 2010年 / 329卷 / 5996期

基金：

美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

MARINE-ENVIRONMENT; PACIFIC-OCEAN; DEBRIS; TRANSPORT; SURFACE; SEA; TAR; INVASIONS; CHEMICALS; WATERS;

D O I：

10.1126/science.1192321

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Plastic marine pollution is a major environmental concern, yet a quantitative description of the scope of this problem in the open ocean is lacking. Here, we present a time series of plastic content at the surface of the western North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1986 to 2008. More than 60% of 6136 surface plankton net tows collected buoyant plastic pieces, typically millimeters in size. The highest concentration of plastic debris was observed in subtropical latitudes and associated with the observed large-scale convergence in surface currents predicted by Ekman dynamics. Despite a rapid increase in plastic production and disposal during this time period, no trend in plastic concentration was observed in the region of highest accumulation.

引用

页码：1185 / 1188

页数：4

共 31 条

[11] VIRGIN PLASTIC GRANULES ON SOME BEACHES OF EASTERN CANADA AND BERMUDA [J].