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Research papers on Ocean plastic pollution

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  1. Reducing environmental plastic pollution by designing polymer materials for managed end-of-life

    K. L. Law, R. Narayan · 2021 · Nature Reviews Materials · 376 citations

    Plastics are a ubiquitous class of synthetic polymer materials used in virtually all commercial and industrial sectors. The majority of global plastics consists of polymers with carbon–carbon backbones, whose environmental persistence and low cost have resulted in a massive reservoir of plastic waste that resides in landfills and the environment. Although plastic debris contaminating the ocean has been documented for decades, details about plastic debris composition, distribution, impact and ultimate fate in the environment remain elusive. In this Review, we present an overview of environmental plastic contamination and discuss the origin (feedstock) and degradation behaviour of plastics to

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  2. The fundamental links between climate change and marine plastic pollution.

    Helen V. Ford, Nia H. Jones, A. Davies, et al. · 2021 · The Science of the total environment · 270 citations

    Plastic pollution and climate change have commonly been treated as two separate issues and sometimes are even seen as competing. Here we present an alternative view that these two issues are fundamentally linked. Primarily, we explore how plastic contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the beginning to the end of its life cycle. Secondly, we show that more extreme weather and floods associated with climate change, will exacerbate the spread of plastic in the natural environment. Finally, both issues occur throughout the marine environment, and we show that ecosystems and species can be particularly vulnerable to both, such as coral reefs that face disease spread through plastic po

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  6. Marine Litter Windrows: A Strategic Target to Understand and Manage the Ocean Plastic Pollution

    A. Cózar, S. Aliani, O. C. Basurko, et al. · 2021 · 61 citations

    Windrow is a long-established term for the aggregations of seafoam, seaweeds, plankton and natural debris that appear on the ocean surface. Here, we define a “litter windrow” as any aggregation of floating litter at the submesoscale domain (<10 km horizontally), regardless of the force inducing the surface convergence, be it wind or other forces such as tides or density-driven currents. The marine litter windrows observed to date usually form stripes from tens up to thousands of meters long, with litter densities often exceeding 10 small items (<2 cm) per m2 or 1 large item (>2 cm) per 10 m2. Litter windrows are generally overlooked in research due to their dispersion, small size and ephemer

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  9. Plastic Pollution and Small Juvenile Marine Turtles: A Potential Evolutionary Trap

    E. Duncan, A. Broderick, Kay Critchell, et al. · 2021 · 49 citations

    The ingestion of plastic by marine turtles is now reported for all species. Small juvenile turtles (including post-hatchling and oceanic juveniles) are thought to be most at risk, due to feeding preferences and overlap with areas of high plastic abundance. Their remote and dispersed life stage, however, results in limited access and assessments. Here, stranded and bycaught specimens from Queensland Australia, Pacific Ocean (PO; n = 65; 1993–2019) and Western Australia, Indian Ocean (IO; n = 56; 2015–2019) provide a unique opportunity to assess the extent of plastic (> 1mm) ingestion in five species [green (Chelonia mydas), loggerhead (Caretta caretta), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), oli

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  10. Plastic pollution of four understudied marine ecosystems: a review of mangroves, seagrass meadows, the Arctic Ocean and the deep seafloor

    B. Walther, M. Bergmann · 2022 · Emerging Topics in Life Sciences · 41 citations

    Plastic pollution is now a worldwide phenomenon affecting all marine ecosystems, but some ecosystems and regions remain understudied. Here, we review the presence and impacts of macroplastics and microplastics for four such ecosystems: mangroves, seagrass meadows, the Arctic Ocean and the deep seafloor. Plastic production has grown steadily, and thus the impact on species and ecosystems has increased, too. The accumulated evidence also indicates that plastic pollution is an additional and increasing stressor to these already ecosystems and many of the species living in them. However, laboratory or field studies, which provide strong correlational or experimental evidence of ecological harm d

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  12. Unleashing the Potential of IoT in Tackling Ocean Pollution: A Data-Driven Approach for Marine Ecosystem Conservation

    Dr. S. Srinivasan, Dr. T. Saravanan, Devarapalli Vimala, et al. · 2023 · 2023 Second International Conference On Smart Technologies For Smart Nation (SmartTechCon) · 30 citations

    This study investigates the potentially revolutionary role that the Internet of Things (IoT) may play in combating the urgent ocean pollution problem and promoting the growth of ecologically sound marine ecosystems. An approach that is data-driven has become essential in light of the fact that pollution poses a risk to the delicate balance of marine life and puts the future of the seas in jeopardy. The user can get real-time data on water quality, pollutant levels, and plastic trash dispersion if the user installs sensors and devices that the IoT enables. This will allow us to gain a greater knowledge of the patterns and causes of pollution. Using the plethora of information at people’s disp

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  14. Legacy oceanic plastic pollution must be addressed to mitigate possible long-term ecological impacts

    Camille Richon, Karin Kvale, L. Lebreton, et al. · 2023 · Microplastics and Nanoplastics · 25 citations

    Scientific research over the past decade has demonstrated that plastic in our oceans has detrimental consequences for marine life at all trophic levels. As countries negotiate an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, the focus is on eliminating plastic emissions to the environment. Here, we argue that, while this endeavour is urgently needed to limit the negative impacts of plastic on ocean ecosystems, the reduction of the plastic flow to the environment should not be the sole purpose of the negotiations. Legacy oceanic plastic pollution is also a major concern that needs to be addressed in the coming Treaty. Plastic is ubiquitous and persistent in the environment, a

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  16. Implications of plastic pollution on global marine carbon cycling and climate.

    K. Kvale · 2022 · Emerging topics in life sciences · 20 citations

    Plastic pollution can both chemically and physically impede marine biota. But it can also provide novel substrates for colonization, and its leachate might stimulate phytoplankton growth. Plastic contains carbon, which is released into the environment upon breakdown. All of these mechanisms have been proposed to contribute global impacts on open ocean carbon cycling and climate from ubiquitous plastic pollution. Laboratory studies produce compelling data showing both stimulation and inhibition of primary producers and disruption of predatory lifecycles at individual scale, but global carbon cycle impacts remain mostly unquantified. Preliminary modelling estimates ecosystem alterations and di

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  17. Marine plastic pollution: A systematic review of management strategies through a macroscope approach.

    T. Fonseca, F. Agostinho, J. Pavão, et al. · 2024 · Marine pollution bulletin · 15 citations

    Alternatives to address the ocean plastic crisis have been a hot topic in scientific literature, although a systemic approach to assess their effectiveness and identify bottlenecks is still lacking. To contribute to discussions on this topic, this study aims to conduct a literature review on current scientific information regarding management strategies for marine plastic pollution. The PRISMA method was used to select the most relevant articles from the Scopus® database, resulting in a sample of 176 articles after applying exclusion criteria for full-text evaluation. Unlike other literature review studies, Odum's Macroscope is used here to develop a model that provides a systemic view of th

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  19. Impact of plastic pollution on atmospheric carbon dioxide

    Natalia S. Gurgacz, Karin Kvale, M. Eby, et al. · 2023 · FACETS · 12 citations

    Since the beginning of its large-scale production in the early 20th century, plastics have remained an important material in widespread use throughout modern society. Nevertheless, despite possessing many benefits, plastics are resistant to degradation and instead accumulate in the ocean and terrestrial sediments, thereby potentially affecting marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Plastics release CO2 throughout their entire lifecycle; during the extraction of materials used in their production, through plastic–carbon leaching in the marine and terrestrial environment, and during their different end-of-life scenarios, which include recycling, landfill, and incineration. Here, we use the Univers

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  20. Combating Ocean Debris: Marine Plastic Pollution and Waste Regulation in Indonesia

    S. Widagdo, Syahriza Alkohir Anggoro · 2022 · The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law · 9 citations

    Marine plastic pollution (MPP) is one of the major global environmental threats in the Anthropocene era that requires a coordinated legal response from local to international levels. This article explores how the Indonesian legal and institutional framework deals with MPP. Despite the diversity of existing instruments, Indonesia has not adopted all the necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control MPP from land and marine sources. Although progress at the national level to date has been relatively slow, some local authorities have recently taken the initiative to establish single-use plastics regulations, which offer promising prospects for MPP treatment in the future. Indonesia can onl

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  22. The blue nexus unveiled: Interlinking marine pollution, circular economy, and the blue economy in ocean sustainability.

    Mallika Roy, D. Akbar · 2025 · Marine pollution bulletin · 5 citations

    The circular economy has emerged as a transformative framework in environmental research, promoting resource efficiency, waste reduction, and sustainable production-consumption cycles-crucial for addressing marine pollution challenges. The growing urgency of marine environmental degradation and the global shift toward a sustainable blue economy have driven interdisciplinary research linking ocean health and economic development. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 3261 Scopus-indexed publications (1990-2025), focusing on the thematic convergence of marine pollution and blue economy discourses. Using keyword co-occurrence mapping, the analysis identifies major research clusters rel

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  23. A novel deep learning model for predicting marine pollution for sustainable ocean management

    Edeh Michael Onyema, Surjeet Dalal, Musaed A. Alhussein, et al. · 2024 · PeerJ Computer Science · 5 citations

    Climate change has become a major source of concern to the global community. The steady pollution of the environment including our waters is gradually increasing the effects of climate change. The disposal of plastics in the seas alters aquatic life. Marine plastic pollution poses a grave danger to the marine environment and the long-term health of the ocean. Though technology is also seen as one of the contributors to climate change many aspects of it are being applied to combat climate-related disasters and to raise awareness about the need to protect the planet. This study investigated the amount of pollution in marine and undersea leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to identi

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  24. Effect of Plastic Ocean Pollution on Marine Life and Human Health in Brazil

    Lucas Augusto · 2024 · International Journal of Environmental Sciences · 3 citations

    Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine effect of plastic ocean pollution on marine life and human health in Brazil. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The study found that pervasive presence of plastic debris in Brazil's coastal waters threatens marine ecosystems, leading to entanglement, ingestion, and suffocat

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