Relative Abundance of Floating Plastic Debris and Neuston in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean

Even though there are increasing research based on ocean plastic pollution over the past decade, there seems to be little that we known about our current knowledge of how floating plastic debris is accumulating in subtropical oceanic gyres and how they may harm the surface associated pelagic community that is most known as neuston. By removing the floating plastic debris from the surface, we can minimize different effects of the pollution that can occur in a neuston. The results show that the dominant species of neuston such as pteropods, isopods, heteropods, and crabs show low atmospheric attributes which can be associated with the fitness benefit such as increased surface area. The research found strategies that can help remove the floating plastic from the ocean and reducing the negative effects of the neuston population. 


                                  Neuston floating on ocean surface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuston





Egger, M., Quiros, L., Leone, G., Ferrari, F., Boerger, C. M., & Tishler, M. (2021). Relative abundance of floating plastic debris and Neuston in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.626026 



Comments

  1. Amanda GuerraOctober 30, 2022 at 8:58 PM

    Very interesting read! It is sad to think about the negative impact that plastic pollution in the ocean has. Plastic and trash should not have been in the ocean in the first place, but it's amazing that researchers have been finding ways to reduce the plastic pollution to help species.

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