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The Impact of Microplastics in the North Atlantic Gyre: Circulation, Concentrations, and Implications

Explore the circulation patterns, plastic concentration areas, and environmental implications of microplastics in the North Atlantic Gyre. Discover the challenges posed by microplastics on marine ecosystems and the food web, with a focus on degradation processes and the role of Persistent Organic Pollutants.

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The Impact of Microplastics in the North Atlantic Gyre: Circulation, Concentrations, and Implications

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  1. North Atlantic Gyre and Microplastics By: Katie Todoroff

  2. Circulation • Sub-tropical Convergence Zone

  3. Concentration of Plastics • Sewage, tourism, fishing, waste from ships and boats • 9,064 tons of plastic debris • Gyre has surface area of 3,625,753 km^2 • 25,000 pieces of plastic/km^2 • Highest concentrations observed in the Sargasso Sea

  4. Garbage Patches located beneath High Pressure Systems • Weak winds

  5. Estimation and Modeling • Use trajectories of drifting buoys to estimate the rate and location of aggregation • Consistent with observations of garbage and defragmented plastic • Neuston nets used to collect samples • Bottom Trawling Nets also used on the seafloor

  6. Entanglement and Ingestion

  7. Microplastics • Undergo photo-oxidative degradation • Happens faster on land and ocean surface, extremely slow process at abyssal depths due to lack of UV-rays and colder temperatures • Most are not visible to the naked-eye • Once surface is degraded, further broken down by stresses in the ocean such as turbulence

  8. Microplastics • Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)- occur universally in the oceans via runoff • POPs are hydrophobic, dissolved in the microplastics and concentrated there • Become bioavailable to organisms

  9. Implications to the Marine Food Web • Can deliver toxins across trophic levels • All types of plankton susceptible- foundation of the marine food web • No significant studies yet that quantify the outcomes • 1-L plastic water bottle will photo-degrade into enough small pieces to pout once piece on every mile of beach in the world

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