On World Ocean Day, Esri organized an interactive livestream on Mapping Microplastics to Advance Ocean Health. During the livestream, Esri and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) discussed ocean health and shed light on the prominent threat of ocean microplastics.
NOAA defined that any plastic particle which is less than 5mm in length is called microplastic, which results in due to breaking down of plastics. The major sources are ordinary consumer products used for packaging and shipping, synthetic textiles, city dust, paint chips, marine coatings, road markings, and personal care products.
According to a study, recently published in the journal PLoS ONE, an estimated 170 trillion plastic particles about 2 million metric tons are currently floating in the oceans across the world. If no urgent actions are taken, it will be triple by 2040.
Esri Chief Scientist, Dr. Dawn Wright started the session by talking about the growing issue of microplastics. These particles are very tiny but creating a huge problem for the oceans and for our planet. Plastics are dumped into the streams, and from there they are deposited into the lakes, lakes to rivers and rivers to oceans, and then break down into microplastics. “These are human-made hazards that are impacting the ocean’s health and the food we eat globally,” she said.
Mapping of Microplastics
The microplastics under the ocean surface are hard to track. There has not been a good way to track how these tiny particles are moving and what is their concentration level on a particular location.
Scientists are working to improve the ocean’s health, by pinpointing the locations from where microplastics are coming and where they are going so that they can understand their impact better and take necessary actions to solve the issues associated with them.
NOAA- National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) at Stennis Space Centre, Research Oceanographer Dr. Jennifer Webster said, “Microplastics problems are more visible on environmental health.”
Use of Remote Sensing Technology
Mapping of microplastics from space under the ocean surface through remote sensing satellites is still under the research and development stage. Although, in 2021, the University of Michigan used data from NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) to map the concentration of microplastics over the ocean from space, but that data was not sufficient.
“Remote sensing technology would be very helpful to measure microplastics from space. The technology will help to know from where the plastics are coming and where these are. The microplastics that have been measured by GIS are the ones that are floating on the surface. Unfortunately, scientists have not yet found out how microplastics can be measured under the ocean, however, they are working on how to measure microplastic under the surface too,” said Dr. Jennifer.
NOAA Affiliate and Associate Research Professor at Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University, Dr. Ebenezer “Eben” Nyadjro said, “We need to find out the hotspots of microplastics after knowing where these are, half of the problems will be solved.”
“The development of remote sensing technology will be a big game changer. With the technology, measuring and tracking microplastics from space would be easy over a repeated time. It will help to track whether we are making progress or not. Microplastics are everywhere. Scientists are working on near-infrared spectra of remote sensing to track microplastics with satellites,” Dr. Ebenezer added.
