Ocean Currents Can Disperse And Concentrate Pollution Flashcards
What is the accumulation of debris in the North Pacific gyre known as?
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
What is a gyre?
Circular currents formed by wind patterns and rotation of the planet
What is the centre of a gyre like?
Usually calm and once debris is carried there it stays
What sort of debris is in the garbage patch? (4)
Bottles
Nets
Yoghurt Pots
Cotton Bud Shafts
Where is most of the debris in the garbage patch?
Most at the surface but some is suspended several meters below
Why is the patch invisible to satellite imagery?
The garbage is so small and has low density
How many pieces of plastic total are there in the patch?
1.8 trillion
What is the 2050 prediction?
Weight of plastic in the oceans > weight of fish in the oceans
What % of marine debris is plastic?
80%
Most plastic is multi-use. True or false?
False
How much plastic pollution occurs globally every year?
14 million tons
What decade are plastics from, which are being found in the stomachs of sea birds like albatross? And what does this say about plastics?
1940s
They are long lived
How many animals die annually from entanglement?
100,000
What is the effect of plastics on birds hormones?
Cannot reproduce
How does plastic pollution impact turtles?
They have to crawl through plastic to nest, impacts temperature of the eggs, impacts success rates of breeding
