Influence of Barotropic Tidal Currents on Transport and Accumulation of Floating Microplastics in the Global Open Ocean.

ABSTRACT: Floating plastic debris is an increasing source of pollution in the world's oceans. Numerical simulations using models of ocean currents give insight into the transport and distribution of microplastics in the oceans, but most simulations do not account for the oscillating flow caused by global barotropic tides. Here, we investigate the influence of barotropic tidal currents on the transport and accumulation of floating microplastics, by numerically simulating the advection of virtual plastic particles released all over the world's oceans and tracking these for 13 years. We use geostrophic and surface Ekman currents from GlobCurrent and the currents caused by the four main tidal constituents (M 2 , S 2 , K 1 , and O 1 ) from the FES model. We analyze the differences between the simulations

SUBMITTER: Sterl MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7375081 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature