HI41A:
The Emerging Science of Marine Debris: From Assessment to Knowledge that Informs Solutions I


Session ID#: 9539

Session Description:
Anthropogenic marine debris has been found in coastal and ocean ecosystems across the globe. It is a major threat to marine species and habitats. Marine debris ranges from microplastics to derelict fishing gear, abandoned vessels and tsunami debris, and is associated with a variety of ecological impacts including ingestion, entanglement, invasive species transport, and habitat impairment. Assessment of the quantity, composition, and spatial extent of marine debris is a necessary first step to understand the drivers of debris accumulation and its impacts on wildlife and habitats. Recent research into plastic debris has expanded beyond assessment to include systematic studies asking questions ranging from the global scale of plastic inputs and fate in the environment to biological responses to plastic exposure in a variety of marine organisms. Current research aims to answer such questions not only to advance basic science, but also to inform members of the public, industry, NGOs and policymakers who are working to find solutions. Ultimately, monitoring projects are essential to evaluate the success of marine debris mitigation efforts, prevention programs and pubic policies. We invite presentation of results that further our understanding of all aspects of marine debris, including information to advance solutions to this problem.
Primary Chair:  Kara L Lavender Law, Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA, United States
Chairs:  Jenna Jambeck, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States, Hillary Kathleen Burgess, University of Washington, Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team, Seattle, WA, United States and Amy V Uhrin, NOAA, Office of Response and Restoration, Marine Debris Division, Silver Spring, MD, United States
Moderators:  Kara L Lavender Law, Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Hillary Kathleen Burgess, University of Washington, Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team, Seattle, WA, United States, Amy V Uhrin, NOAA, Office of Response and Restoration, Marine Debris Division, Silver Spring, MD, United States and Jenna Jambeck, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Kara L Lavender Law, Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA, United States
Index Terms:

4251 Marine pollution [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
6349 General or miscellaneous [POLICY SCIENCES]
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • EC - Estuarine and Coastal
  • ME - Marine Ecosystems
  • P - Policy

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

HI41A-01
Understanding Microplastic Distribution: A Global Citizen Monitoring Effort (90455)
Abigail Barrows, Adventure Scientists, Microplastic Project, Bozeman, MT, United States
HI41A-02
Consider a source: Microplastic in rivers is abundant, mobile, and selects for unique bacterial assemblages (92690)
Timothy James Hoellein, John J Kelly, Amanda McCormick and Maxwell London, Loyola University Chicago, Department of Biology, Chicago, IL, United States
HI41A-03
The Plastisphere "Microbiome" (91286)
Linda A Amaral-Zettler1,2, Christopher L Dupont3, Erik R Zettler4, Beth Slikas1, Drishti Kaul3 and Tracy J Mincer5, (1)Marine Biological Laboratory, Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)Brown University, Providence, RI, United States, (3)J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA, United States, (4)Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (5)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
HI41A-04
Variability in the Composition of Floating Microplastics by Region and in Time (91489)
Jessica Leigh Donohue1, Katherine Pavlekovsky1, Theophilos Collins1, Anthony L Andrady2, Giora K Proskurowski3 and Kara L Lavender Law1, (1)Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)North Carolina State University, Chemical Engineering, Raleigh, NC, United States, (3)University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
HI41A-05
Modelling the global distribution and risk of small floating plastic debris (88198)
Erik van Sebille1, Chris Wilcox2, Laurent Lebreton3, Nikolai A Maximenko4, Peter Sherman5, Britta Denise Hardesty2, Jan A van Franeker6, Marcus Eriksen7, David Siegel8, Francois Galgani9 and Kara L Lavender Law10, (1)Imperial College London, Grantham Institute, London, SW7, United Kingdom, (2)CSIRO, Oceans and Atmosphere Business Unit, Hobart, Australia, (3)The Ocean Cleanup, Raglan, New Zealand, (4)University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, (5)Imperial College London, Grantham Institute, London, United Kingdom, (6)Wageningen-UR, IMARES, Den Burg, Netherlands, (7)Five Gyres Institute, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (8)University of California Santa Barbara, Earth Research Institute and Department of Geography, Santa Barbara, CA, United States, (9)IFREMER, Bastia, France, (10)Sea Education Association, Woods Hole, MA, United States
HI41A-06
Anthropogenic impacts on deep submarine canyons of the western Mediterranean Sea (88619)
Anna Sanchez-Vidal1, Xavi Tubau1, Marta Llorca2, Lucy Woodall3, Miquel Canals4, Marinella Farré2, Damià Barceló2 and Richard Thompson5, (1)Universitat de Barcelona, GRC Geociències Marines, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Barcelona, Spain, (2)Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua (IDAEA-CSIC), Departament de Química Ambiental, Barcelona, Spain, (3)The Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, London, United Kingdom, (4)Universitat de Barcelona, Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, Barcelona, Spain, (5)Plymouth University, School of Marine Science and Engineering, Plymouth, United Kingdom
HI41A-08
Using the Data From Accidents and Natural Disasters to Improve Marine Debris Modeling (90725)
Nikolai A Maximenko, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, Jan Hafner, IPRC/SOEST U. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, United States, Amoreena MacFadyen, NOAA, Office of Response & Restoration, Seattle, WA, United States, Masafumi Kamachi, Meteorological Research Institute, Ibaraki, Japan and Cathryn Clarke Murray, PICES North Pacific Marine Science Organization, Sidney, BC, United States
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