University of Tasmania
Browse
126952 - Differentiating littering, urban runoff and marine transport as sources of marine debris in coastal and estuarine environments.pdf (583.28 kB)

Differentiating littering, urban runoff and marine transport as sources of marine debris in coastal and estuarine environments

Download (583.28 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 19:15 authored by Kathryn WillisKathryn Willis, Hardesty, BD, Kriwoken, L, Wilcox, C
Marine debris is a burgeoning global issue with economic, ecological and aesthetic impacts. While there are many studies now addressing this topic, the influence of urbanisation factors such as local population density, stormwater drains and roads on the distribution of coastal litter remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we carried out standardized surveys at 224 transect surveys at 67 sites in two estuaries and along the open coast in Tasmania, Australia. We explored the relative support for three hypotheses regarding the sources of the debris; direct deposition by beachgoers, transport from surrounding areas via storm water drains and coastal runoff, and onshore transport from the marine system. We found strong support for all three mechanisms, however, onshore transport from the marine reservoir was the most important mechanism. Overall, the three models together explained 45.8 percent of the variation in our observations. Our results also suggest that most debris released into the marine environment is deposited locally, which may be the answer to where all the missing plastic is in the ocean. Furthermore, local interventions are likely to be most effective in reducing land-based inputs into the ocean.

History

Publication title

Scientific Reports

Volume

7

Article number

44479

Number

44479

Pagination

1-9

ISSN

2045-2322

Department/School

School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

© 2017 The Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC