EGU2020-5977
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5977
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Backtracing of marine litter and microplastic from OSPAR beaches in the North Atlantic

Johannes Röhrs1, Knut-Frode Dagestad1, Cecilie Mauritzen1, Kjersti Opstad Strand1, Bjørn Einar Grøsvik2, and Leticia Antunes Nogueira3
Johannes Röhrs et al.
  • 1Norwegian Meteorological Institute, FoU Hav og Is, Oslo, Norway (johannes.rohrs@met.no)
  • 2Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway
  • 3Nordland Research Institute, Bodø, Norway

Marine litter has been systematically registered at selected beaching sites within a framework of the OSPAR commission. We select a number of sites in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea to investigate where marine litter at these site could come from. Using results from hydrodynamic ocean models, wave models and atmospheric forecasts we backtrace litter from the beaching sites to possible origins within a limited time frame at the order of years. While the identified sources are hypothetical at first, we compare the types of registered plastic litter with reasonable sources in the regions identified as possible origins from the model. Thereby we distinguish between fishery related litter, industrial litter and litter from personal consumption, as the composition between these types differ between the OSPAR sites. Our modeling experiments are designed in co-production with  stakeholders for planning strategies to address and reduce marine litter.

How to cite: Röhrs, J., Dagestad, K.-F., Mauritzen, C., Opstad Strand, K., Grøsvik, B. E., and Antunes Nogueira, L.: Backtracing of marine litter and microplastic from OSPAR beaches in the North Atlantic, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5977, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5977, 2020

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