Beach litter abundance

Sediment grabs; optical microscopes

This dataset consists of microplastic abundance and characteristics data collected from global marine turtle nesting beaches. Sand samples were collected from 209 sites spanning six oceans and 39 countries between August 2018 and January 2020 by a global network of marine turtle scientists. Microplastics (1-5mm) were extracted through stacked sieves, visually identified, and a sub-sample verified via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Microplastic particles were counted and weighed, which in combination with the dry sand sample weight and volume, allowed multiple units of measure to be calculated: Plastic weight per kg of dry sediment (g kg-1), plastic particle number per kg of dry sediment (particle kg-1), and plastic particle number per m-3 of dry sediment (particle m-3). Plastic particles were also categorised into five types: industrial plastic pellets, foams, fragments, sheetlike user plastics and threadlike user plastics. The methodology and consequent dataset generated are intended to provide an international baseline of quantified global beach microplastic abundance, allowing collaborators the ability to extend the dataset and further increase global understanding of microplastic distribution. The data collected were compiled by Zara Botterell and Brendan Godley from the University of Exeter and funded under Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant 'Risks and Solutions: Marine Plastics in Southeast Asia - RaSP-SEA' (reference NE/V009354/1), and UK Global Challenges Resource Fund (GCRF) (reference NE/V005448/1).

British Oceanographic Data Centre
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