Publication Date:
2022-10-25
Description:
A new report commissioned by WWF provides the most comprehensive
account to date of the extent to which plastic pollution is affecting the global
ocean, the impacts it’s having on marine species and ecosystems, and how
these trends are likely to develop in future. The report by researchers from the
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
(AWI) reveals a serious and rapidly worsening situation that demands
immediate and concerted international action:
● Today almost every species group in the ocean has encountered
plastic pollution, with scientists observing negative effects in
almost 90% of assessed species.
● Not only has plastic pollution entered the marine food web,
it is significantly affecting the productivity of some of the
world’s most important marine ecosystems like coral reefs and
mangroves.
● Several key global regions – including the Mediterranean, the
East China and Yellow Seas and Arctic sea ice – have already
exceeded plastic pollution thresholds beyond which significant
ecological risks can occur, and several more regions are
expected to follow suit in the coming years.
● If all plastic pollution inputs stopped today, marine
microplastic levels would still more than double by 2050 – and
some scenarios project a 50-fold increase by 2100.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Other
,
notRev
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
application/pdf
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