Modelling the global impact of carbon leaching from marine plastic debris on oceanic and atmospheric tracers

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dc.contributor.authorGurgacz-Safianowicz, Natalia
dc.contributor.supervisorWeaver, Andrew J.
dc.contributor.supervisorEby, Michael
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-17T17:26:24Z
dc.date.copyright2023en_US
dc.date.issued2023-05-17
dc.degree.departmentSchool of Earth and Ocean Sciences
dc.degree.levelMaster of Science M.Sc.en_US
dc.description.abstractSince the beginning of its large-scale production in the early twentieth century, plastic remains a critical material used throughout several industries. Despite serving many benefits, plastics are resistant to degradation and instead, accumulate in the ocean and affect marine ecosystems. The leaching of toxic compounds from plastics has been widely researched, but only recently have studies begun to explore dissolved organic carbon as a leachate from marine plastic debris, as well as its effects on microbial communities. Furthermore, research has only recently begun to explore the potential effects of plastic-derived carbon leaching on the global carbon cycle and hence Earth’s climate system. Here we quantify an upper bound estimate for this effect using the UVic Earth System Climate Model with the addition of global and regional carbon fluxes, based on current and projected marine plastic values. The results of these modelling integrations indicate that the addition of the plastic-derived DIC flux results in only very minor changes to the Earth’s climate, emphasizing the need to focus research on plastic production and incineration-associated emissions, which are a greater threat to the climate.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/15117
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectplasticen_US
dc.subjectcarbonen_US
dc.subjectplastic-carbonen_US
dc.subjectmarine plastic pollutionen_US
dc.subjectclimate modellingen_US
dc.subjectUVic ESCMen_US
dc.subjectplastic debrisen_US
dc.subjectplastic pollutionen_US
dc.subjectclimate changeen_US
dc.subjectglobal carbon cycleen_US
dc.subjectatmospheric CO2en_US
dc.subjectplastic emissionsen_US
dc.subjectplastic leachingen_US
dc.titleModelling the global impact of carbon leaching from marine plastic debris on oceanic and atmospheric tracersen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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