Differentiating littering, urban runoff and marine transport as sources of marine debris in coastal and estuarine environments

• DOI: 10.1038/srep44479
• Publication Date: 2017-03-10T10:29:17Z
• Authors: Kathryn Willis; Britta Denise Har...; Lorne Kriwoken; Chris Wilcox
• Keywords: Marine debris; Urban runoff

Abstract Marine debris is a burgeoning global issue with economic, ecological and aesthetic impacts. While there are many studies now addressing this topic, the influence of urbanisation factors such as local population density, stormwater drains roads on distribution coastal litter remains poorly understood. To address knowledge gap, we carried out standardized surveys at 224 transect 67 sites in two estuaries along open coast Tasmania, Australia. We explored relative support for three hypotheses regarding sources debris; direct deposition by beachgoers, transport from surrounding areas via storm water runoff, onshore marine system. found strong all mechanisms, however, reservoir was most important mechanism. Overall, models together explained 45.8 percent variation our observations. Our results also suggest that released into environment deposited locally, which may be answer to where missing plastic ocean. Furthermore, interventions likely effective reducing land-based inputs