Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 368, Issue 6496, Pages 1257-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz5819
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Funding
- Utah Agricultural Experiment Station
- Agricultural Experimental Station [UTA01421, UTA01384]
- NSF [1926559]
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1926559] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Eleven billion metric tons of plastic are projected to accumulate in the environment by 2025. Because plastics are persistent, they fragment into pieces that are susceptible to wind entrainment. Using high- resolution spatial and temporal data, we tested whether plastics deposited in wet versus dry conditions have distinct atmospheric life histories. Further, we report on the rates and sources of deposition to remote U.S. conservation areas. We show that urban centers and resuspension from soils or water are principal sources for wet-deposited plastics. By contrast, plastics deposited under dry conditions were smaller in size, and the rates of deposition were related to indices that suggest longer-range or global transport. Deposition rates averaged 132 plastics per square meter per day, which amounts to > 1000 metric tons of plastic deposition to western U.S. protected lands annually.
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