Closing the Mediterranean Marine Floating Plastic Mass Budget: Inverse Modeling of Sources and Sinks.

ABSTRACT: Estimates of plastic inputs into the ocean are orders of magnitude larger than what is found in the surface waters. This can be due to discrepancies in the sources of plastic released into the ocean but can also be explained by the fact that it is not well-known what the most dominant sinks of marine plastics are and on what time scales these operate. To get a better understanding on possible sources and sinks, an inverse modeling methodology is presented here for a Lagrangian ocean model, estimating floating plastic quantities in the Mediterranean Sea. Field measurements of plastic concentrations in the Mediterranean are used to inform parametrizations defining various sources of marine plastics and removal of plastic particles because of beaching and sinking. The parameters of the model

SUBMITTER: Kaandorp MLA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7547878 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature