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Ocean Biological Deserts
Published in Ajai, Rimjhim Bhatnagar, Desertification and Land Degradation, 2022
Because of the dire need for corrective action, many national to global attempts have been made in this direction. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is such an initiative. It provides an international legal framework for controlling plastic contamination. On regional levels too, such initiatives have been taken, e.g. the Regional Seas Programme of UNEP proposed relevant activities for 13 regional seas (major being the Mediterranean, Baltic, Black, Caspian and the Red Sea). At the national level, US Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act and Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act are key bodies working in the mitigation of plastic pollution.
Aquatic ecosystem
Published in Mohammad Albaji, Introduction to Water Engineering, Hydrology, and Irrigation, 2022
Another method to classify the pollution is considering their type. There are two main types of pollution: chemicals and trash. Chemical or nutrient pollution occurs when human actions, particularly using fertilizer in agriculture, produce the chemicals runoff that flows into the ocean through waterways. High concentration of chemicals such as nitrogen and phosphorus, increases the growth of algal blooms in the coastal ocean, which can be toxic to wildlife and humans, hurt tourism industries, and local fishing. Marine trash contains all manufactured products that 80% of which come from lands sources. Some factors such as Littering, storm winds, and poor waste management promote the accumulation of debris. Most common marine debris are different types of plastic such as shopping bags, beverage bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, fishing gear, and cigarette filters. Many studies have been conducted to estimate the amount of plastic in the oceans. For instance, a scientific study estimated the mass of plastic in the oceans was nearly 150 million tons in 2016 and predicted that this amount would increase to 250 million tons by 2025. The main problem with plastics is their biodegradable way that is not like many other substances. Plastics will photodegrade on exposure to the sun but only under dry conditions, and water prevents this process (Figure 8.5).
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Published in Leo M. L. Nollet, Khwaja Salahuddin Siddiqi, Analysis of Nanoplastics and Microplastics in Food, 2020
A. P. Bangun, H. Wahyuningsih, A. Muhtadi
Marine debris is a persistent solid, manufactured or processed by humans, directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned in the marine environment. Type of marine waste including plastic, cloth, foam, Styrofoam, glass, ceramics, metal, paper, rubber and wood [3,4]. The size category is used to classify marine debris, i.e., megadebris (>100 mm), macrodebris (>20–100 mm), mesodebris (>5–20 mm), and microdebris (0.3–5 mm) [1,3,4].
Phosphorus pollution control using waste-based adsorbents: Material synthesis, modification, and sustainability
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2022
Hongxu Zhou, Andrew J. Margenot, Yunkai Li, Buchun Si, Tengfei Wang, Yanyan Zhang, Shiyang Li, Rabin Bhattarai
Marine debris consisting of items that have been made and used by people are deliberately or accidentally discarded into the sea or rivers or on beaches. Different kinds of shells (e.g., oyster shell and gastropod shell) are marine debris discard by the aquaculture sectors with emerging potential for use as P adsorbents (Table 5). The world production of oyster shells is estimated to nearly 3.90 million metric tons, which leads to a real environmental issue (Bonnard et al., 2020). Martins et al. (2017) demonstrated that oyster shell waste is a highly efficient adsorbent for P removal in seawater, particularly after calcination at 900 °C for 3 hr. Oyster-shell calcination boosted P removal (95%) from saltwater after 15 min. In a similar approach, Paradelo et al. (2016) found that the calcined shell had a higher P retention capacity than a non-calcined shell due to the conversion of aragonite to calcite and calcium carbonate to calcium oxide during calcination. Romar-Gasalla et al. (2016) also found that the mussel shell ash showed the highest P retention capacity, reaching >95%. To achieve very low concentrations of P, Yin et al. (2020) prepared a metal-modified mussel shell by polyaluminium chloride, Fe(OH)3, and La2O3. Long-term efficient removal of P (<0.1 mg L−1) was achieved during a 3-month removal experiment of P-contaminated water. Sun coral was also used as an adsorbent for P removal in synthetic and real wastewater (Vianna et al., 2016).
SWOT and PCI based grading of coastal zone: A model emulation from Tamil Nadu Coast, India
Published in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2020
Sasi Mary Priya Rajan, Radhakrishnan Vengadasalam
The second important factor variable is solid waste disposal. Having allured by the coastal environment, tourists from domestic and foreign soil throng beaches and along with them alarmingly come solid waste and other pollutants. It is true that the tourism is a major industry to bring in economy and life support employment and profits to many. Despite the fact, solid waste turns to be a major issue, added to it is the improper solid waste management causing more environmental impacts (Dileep 2007). As reported by Lopez (2016), in an average, 35,865 kg/day of coastal debris was being collected along Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry coastal region. The higher number of plastic debris is found in Marina beach located in Chennai district comparing to the other beaches in India (Reddy et al. 2006; Jayasiri et al. 2013; Singh and Sharma 2016). Not only marine debris causes esthetic blight (Ruby et al. 2013) but also it threatens wildlife through entanglement, ghost fishing and ingestion (Islam and Tanaka 2004). Appropriately, State government has enacted the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 with the objective of enabling municipalities to dispose municipal solid waste in a scientific manner (Mondaq 2017).
A visualization tool for citizen-science marine debris big data
Published in Water International, 2021
Graeme F. Clark, Jordan Gacutan, Robert Lawther, Emma L. Johnston, Heidi Tait, Tomasz Bednarz
The accumulation of anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) within the environment is a global problem and is recognized as a key challenge to sustainable development. The historical increase in plastic production and subsequent escape into the environment is predicted to increase well into the future (Jambeck et al., 2015). Marine debris, such as plastics, pose impacts to the environment, fauna and potentially human health (Keswani et al., 2016; Lavers et al., 2018).