RT Journal Article
T1 Validation of a Lagrangian model for large-scale macroplastic tracer transport using mussel-peg in NW Spain (Ría de Arousa)
A1 Cloux González, Sara
A1 Allen Perkins, Silvia
A1 Pablo, Hilda de
A1 Garaboa Paz, Ángel Daniel
A1 Montero Vilar, Pedro
A1 Pérez Muñuzuri, Vicente
K1 Macroplastics
K1 Mussel-pegs
K1 NW Spain
K1 Lagrangian-tracking
K1 Monitoring
K1 Ría de Arousa
AB Marine debris is a growing problem in recent years due to population growth around the world. The incorrect management of plastic waste causes these bodies reach the seas and oceans, becoming a worldwide problem. Once they reach the seas and oceans, they begin a long period of degradation, moving from a macro state (plastics whose diameter is greater than 0.5 cm) to a micro state (diameter less than 0.5 cm). The microplastics spread throughout the oceans, entering the food chain of marine species and, subsequently, of humans. Therefore, it is important to stop the problem while it remains at the macroscale. In this work, a validation of a recently developed Lagrangian computational model to track the movement of macro plastics in seas and oceans is presented. This validation is performed on a regional scale, in the Ría de Arousa, one of the most important estuaries for mussel cultivation in northwestern Spain. During mussel cultivation in rafts, a type of floating plastic stick are released, the mussel-pegs. The potential of this study is that we can compare the accumulation results of the model with the accumulation data collected on the Galician beaches. In a general framework, the influence of wind on the spatial distribution of the accumulations given by the model was observed. For the monitoring data, similar results were found for the accumulation trends over the entire total period. For the monthly representation, some discrepancies were observed. These differences can be attributed to particular synoptic situations, poor reproduction of the coastline or to the very orientation of the study area with respect to the intertidal dynamics
PB Elsevier
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27620
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27620
LA eng
NO Science of The Total Environment 822 (2022) 153338
NO We gratefully acknowledge financial support by CleanAtlantic Interreg Project (EAPA 46/2016) and Xunta de Galicia under Research Grant No. 2021-PG036-1
DS Minerva
RD 22 abr 2026