IMAS Metadata Catalogue
Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia
This data describes the characterisation and estimated concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia from surface net tows. The marine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments (‘‘microplastics’’) resulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and polypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items).
This data accompanies the following publication:
Reisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, et al. (2013) Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080466
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2018-05-30
Principal investigator
School of Environmental Systems Engineering, The University of Western Australia (UWA) - Reisser, Julia
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley
Western Australia
6009
Australia
Collaborator
Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), The University of Western Australia (UWA) - Shaw, Jeremy
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley
Western Australia
6009
Australia
Collaborator
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) - Wilcox, Chris
GPO Box 1538
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
Collaborator
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) - Hardesty, Britta Denise
GPO Box 1538
Hobart
Tasmania
7001
Australia
Collaborator
Institute of Oceanography (IO), Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) - Proietti, Maira
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Instituto de Oceanografia
Av. Itália, km 8, Bairro Carreiros
Rio Grande
Rio Grande do Sul
96203-900
Brazil
Collaborator
UWA Oceans Institute (OI), The University of Western Australia (UWA) - Thums, Michele
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Perth
Western Australia
6009
Australia
Collaborator
UWA Oceans Institute (OI), The University of Western Australia (UWA) - Pattiaratchi, Charitha
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Perth
Western Australia
6009
Australia
- Credit
- The University of Western Australia (UWA)
- Credit
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIRO)
- Credit
- Australian Marine National Facility
- Credit
- Austral Fisheries
- Credit
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)
- Credit
- Shell Social Investment Program (BDH and CW)
- Status
- Completed
Principal investigator
School of Environmental Systems Engineering, The University of Western Australia (UWA) - Reisser, Julia
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley
Western Australia
6009
Australia
- Topic category
-
- Oceans
Extent
N
S
E
W
))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2013-09-02 2013-09-08
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2011-06-10 2012-08-25
Vertical element
- Minimum value
- 13
- Maximum value
- 4870
- Identifier
- EPSG::5715
- Name
- MSL depth
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- Keywords (Theme)
-
- microplastics
- marine debris
- pollution
- NASA/GCMD Keywords, Version 8.5
- AODN Discovery Parameter Vocabulary
- Keywords (Theme)
-
- Sea surface plastic concentration
Resource constraints
- Other constraints
- This dataset is hosted by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania, on behalf of UWA and CSIRO.
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
- The data described in this record represents the aggregation of two datasets with shared authorship and methodology. Users of this data should cite both datasets as follows:Reisser, Julia; Shaw, Jeremy; Wilcox, Chris; Hardesty, Britta; Proietti, Maira; Thums, Michele; Pattiaratchi, Charitha (2014): Data from 'Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways'. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.865018.v3Reisser, Julia; Hajbane, Sara; Rogers, Steve; Shaw, Jeremy; Charitha Pattiaratchi (2013): Plastic Debris in the North-west Marine Region, Australia. figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.818765.v4
- Other constraints
- ***Please also cite the accompanying publication when using this data***Reisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, Thums M, et al. (2013) Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080466
- Other constraints
- The data described in this record are the intellectual property of the University of Western Australia (UWA) and CSIRO.
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Supplemental Information
- Reisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, Thums M, et al. (2013) Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080466
Content Information
- Content type
- Physical measurement
Identifier
- Identifier
- http://vocab.aodn.org.au/def/unitsofmeasure/entity/481
- Name
- Practical Salinity Unit
Identifier
- Identifier
- http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UPAA
- Name
- Degrees Celsius
Identifier
- Identifier
- http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/USTU
- Name
- Nephelometric Turbidity Units
Identifier
- Name
-
Sea surface plastic concentration
- Name
-
Cs
- Name
- pieces per square km
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
-
CSV (.csv)
-
CSV (.csv)
- OnLine resource
-
DATA ACCESS collection 1 [Australia-wide] - via figshare
- OnLine resource
-
DATA ACCESS collection 2 [additional data for north-west Marine Region] - via figshare
- OnLine resource
-
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA ACCESS - information related to the types of marine plastics collected during the study [direct download]
- OnLine resource
-
imas:Marine_Plastics
MAP - location of net tows
- OnLine resource
-
imas:Marine_Plastics
This OGC WFS service returns the data in subsettable CSV format.
Resource lineage
- Statement
- MARINE PLASTICS POLLUTION IN WATERS AROUND AUSTRALIA During seven transit voyages, three consecutive 15-minute net tows were undertaken at 57 locations while the ship was travelling at a speed of 2 – 4 knots. These net tows sampled the air-sea interface, using a Neuston net or a Manta net. After each net tow, the collected material was transferred to a container filled with seawater and examined for floating plastic pieces for at least an hour by a trained observer (J.R.). Each plastic piece was counted, measured (length), photographed and classified into type (hard, soft, line, expanded polystyrene, pellet), and color. A random sample of 200 plastic pieces was selected for polymer composition analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. Sea surface plastic concentrations (Cs, pieces/km²) was estimated by dividing the number of plastic pieces found in the cod-end of each net tow by its towed area, which was estimated by multiplying net mouth width by tow length (determined from GPS data). Mean Cs was then estimated for each of the 57 net stations by averaging the Cs of its three net tows. NORTH-WEST MARINE REGION (additional data) Sea surface plastic concentrations (pieces per km^2) were calculated from samples taken at nine locations (net stations) aboard RV Solander (Trip 5866 - September, 2013). Methods as above.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
f97fdd80-3432-45b6-994f-91cc5a83d793
- 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/f97fdd80-3432-45b6-994f-91cc5a83d793
Point of truth URL of this metadata record
- Date info (Creation)
- 2020-08-18T23:06:34
- Date info (Revision)
- 2020-08-18T23:06:34
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-3:2018
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available