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
Citation identifier
doi:10.25959/5e41cce244c87

Title
Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
Date (Publication)
2019-02-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
ISO 26324:2012

Citation identifier
https://doi.org/10.25959/5e41cce244c87

Principal investigator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Lavers, Jennifer L
IMAS - Hobart
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
ORCID ID >

Principal investigator

The Natural History Museum - Bond, Alexander L.
Akeman Street
Tring
Hertfordshire
HP23 6AP
United Kingdom
ORCID ID >

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

The Natural History Museum - Bond, Alexander L.
Akeman Street
Tring
Hertfordshire
HP23 6AP
United Kingdom
ORCID ID >

Principal investigator

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - Lavers, Jennifer L
IMAS - Hobart
Private Bag 129
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
ORCID ID >

Topic category
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2015-05-29 2015-08-15
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
Keywords (Theme)
  • Marine debris
  • Plastic pollution
  • Remote island
NASA/GCMD Keywords, Version 8.5
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC): Fields of Research

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The data described in this record are the intellectual property of the University of Tasmania through the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

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. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS). doi:10.25959/5e41cce244c87
Other constraints
Please contact Principal Investigators (Jennifer Lavers or Alexander Bond, see Point of Contact) before using dataset.
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Supplemental Information
https://www.pnas.org/content/114/23/6052.abstract (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1619818114)

Content Information

Content type
Physical measurement

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • Microsoft Excel

OnLine resource
DATA ACCESS - beach debris data [direct download]

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
882416e6-c59e-4ba9-a8fc-d26bf3399e6f

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Point of contact

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS) - IMAS Data Manager

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)
2020-08-14T11:53:23

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3:2018
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Marine debris Plastic pollution Remote island
NASA/GCMD Keywords, Version 8.5
EARTH SCIENCE | BIOSPHERE | ECOSYSTEMS | ANTHROPOGENIC/HUMAN INFLUENCED ECOSYSTEMS EARTH SCIENCE | BIOSPHERE | ECOSYSTEMS | MARINE ECOSYSTEMS EARTH SCIENCE | BIOSPHERE | ECOSYSTEMS | MARINE ECOSYSTEMS | COASTAL | BEACHES EARTH SCIENCE | BIOSPHERE | ECOSYSTEMS | MARINE ECOSYSTEMS | PELAGIC | OCEANIC ZONE EARTH SCIENCE | BIOSPHERE | ECOSYSTEMS | TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS | ISLANDS

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