Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 65, Issue 1-3, Pages 51-62Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.04.016
Keywords
Surface currents; Aggregation of marine debris; Convergence of Ekman currents; Lagrangian drifters
Funding
- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation [2008-0066-006]
- NASA through the Ocean Surface Topography Science Team [NNX08AR49G]
- Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
- NASA [NNX07AG53G]
- NOAA at International Pacific Research Center [NA17RJ1230]
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Global set of trajectories of satellite-tracked Lagrangian drifters is used to study the dynamics of marine debris. A probabilistic model is developed to eliminate the bias in spatial distribution of drifter data due to heterogeneous deployments. Model experiments, simulating long-term evolution of initially homogeneous drifter array, reveal five main sites of drifter aggregation, located in the subtropics and maintained by converging Ekman currents. The paper characterizes the geography and structure of the collection regions and discusses factors that determine their dynamics. A new scale R-c = (4k/vertical bar D vertical bar)(1/2) is introduced to characterize tracer distribution under competing effects of horizontal divergence D and diffusion k. Existence and locations of all five accumulation zones have been recently confirmed by direct measurements of microplastic at the sea surface. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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