IMAS Metadata Catalogue
Henderson Island beach debris data 2015
Data on the type, provenance, quantity (density), and rate of accumulation of beach-washed plastic debris were recorded on Henderson Island, a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific during 29 May – 15 August 2015. Henderson Island is rarely visited by humans, thus debris on the islands' beaches may act as a proxy for the adjacent South Pacific Ocean. The island was found to contain the highest density of debris anywhere in the world, up to 671.6 items/m2 (mean ± SD: 239.4 ± 347.3 items/m2 on the surface of the beaches. Approximately 68% of debris (up to 4,496.9 pieces/m2) was buried <10 cm in the beach sediment. Up to 26.8 new items/m are thought to accumulate daily.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2020-01-06
Identifier
- Title
- Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
- Citation identifier
- ISO 26324:2012
- Codespace
- doi.org
- Description
- Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Principal investigator
Principal investigator
- Credit
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
- Credit
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Credit
- Darwin Initiative
- Credit
- Farallon Islands Foundation
- Credit
- British Birds
- Credit
- Government of the Pitcairn Islands
- Status
- Completed
Principal investigator
Principal investigator
- Topic category
-
- Oceans
Extent
))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2015-05-29 2015-08-15
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- Keywords (Theme)
-
- Marine debris
- Plastic pollution
- Remote island
- Global Change Master Directory Earth Science Keywords, Version 8.5
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
Resource constraints
- Linkage
-
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png
License Graphic
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Website
-
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License Text
- Other constraints
- Cite data as: Lavers, J., Bond, A. (2015). Henderson Island beach debris data [Dataset]. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. https://doi.org/10.25959/5e41cce244c87
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Supplemental Information
- Lavers, J.L. & Bond, A.L. (2017). Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world’s most remote and pristine islands, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114 (23) 6052-6055. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- .xlsx
- OnLine resource
- DATA ACCESS - beach debris data
- OnLine resource
-
Associated publication
Lavers, J.L. & Bond, A.L. (2017). Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world’s most remote and pristine islands, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114 (23) 6052-6055.
Resource lineage
- Statement
- Methods are detailed in Lavers & Bond (2017): https://www.pnas.org/content/114/23/6052.abstract In brief, micro- (2–5 mm) and macrodebris (≥5 mm) items, including plastic, glass, wood, and metal items, were sampled along the North (2.1 km long) and East (1.9 km long) Beaches of Henderson Island from 2015 May 29–August 15. We sampled surface beach debris along five 30-m transects and 10 20-m transects in the beach-back. Buried debris (0–10 cm) was sieved from all sediment excavated in 10 0.4 × 0.4 m quadrats. Plastic accumulation was sampled along a 10 × 0.2 m transect centered on the high tide line on North Beach for six consecutive days. To extrapolate the total amount of debris on Henderson Island, we multiplied the mean surface densities and mean buried densities by total beach area and added the debris from a highly polluted area separately (SI Materials and Methods). All debris items (≥2 mm on beaches and ≥5 mm in the beach-back) encountered on sample transects or quadrats were counted, weighed, and sorted by type and color.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- urn:uuid/882416e6-c59e-4ba9-a8fc-d26bf3399e6f
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/882416e6-c59e-4ba9-a8fc-d26bf3399e6f
Point of truth URL of this metadata record
- Date info (Creation)
- 2020-08-14T11:53:23
- Date info (Revision)
- 2026-10-25T13:47:34
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-3:2018
Overviews
Spatial extent
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