Plastic In The Arctic Ocean Making A New Garbage Patch, Thanks To Ocean Currents

[Judi Lynn]

BY HIMANSHU GOENKA @HIMGOJOURNO ON 04/19/17 AT 11:56 PM


The large floating mass of plastic in the northern Pacific Ocean is well-known, and even has a name for itself — the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While the phenomenon of plastic accumulation in the oceans has been observed for years in subtropical ocean gyres, researchers have found evidence of similar accumulation happening in the Arctic Ocean for the first time.

Polar latitudes were generally considered unlikely candidates as accumulation zones for marine plastic, because the human populations in those regions is very low, and hence can produce only a limited amount of pollution that will make its way to the ocean. However, research has shown the garbage reaches the area due to ocean currents, specifically a global one called Thermohaline Circulation.

Published Wednesday under the title “The Arctic Ocean as a dead end for floating plastics in the North Atlantic branch of the Thermohaline Circulation,” the open-access paper in the journal Science Advances was authored by a large international team of researchers. They found the northern Atlantic Ocean to be the main source from where currents brought the floating debris to the Greenland and Barents seas. They also hypothesized that a large amount of the plastic sinks to the seafloor beneath those waters.

“Maximum concentrations of floating plastic measured in this sector of the Arctic Ocean were considerably lower than those in the subtropical accumulation zones, but the median values were similar, especially in units of number of items,” the study said, adding that large items (bigger than 12.6 millimeter) were relatively few, between 2 and 5 percent.

More:
http://www.ibtimes.com/plastic-arctic-ocean-making-new-garbage-patch-thanks-ocean-currents-2527807