Beijing, April 22 (Xinhua) -- A large amount of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, with 4.8 million to 12.7 million tons of plastic dumped into the ocean in 2010 alone, according to an estimate in a paper in the journal Science. Recently, Tobias Kukuka, a physical oceanographer at the University of Delaware in the United States, published a paper in the Journal of Physical Oceanography saying that according to their latest research, the amount of plastic in the ocean may be more than previously thought.

Plastic in the ocean tends to become brittle and smaller over time, and is often eaten by birds, fish and other Marine animals. Small pieces of plastic have been found in the deep ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. "Some of these things can be toxic, and there are indications that they are harmful to the environment, but scientists don't really understand the scope of the problem yet," Kukuka said. One current technique for determining the amount of plastic in the ocean is to drag a net a few miles out to sea, count the amount of plastic debris in the net, calculate the density, and finally calculate the amount of plastic in the area, but this method is not accurate.

Kukuka's research shows that while plastic is buoyant, ocean turbulence can carry it and other pollutants into the deep ocean, so there can be big discrepancies between surface measurements and the real amount. Like milk in your coffee, mixing two liquids together and stirring them with a spoon to create turbulence, the wind and waves act as spoons, mixing water from the surface into the deep ocean. Kukuca, in collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at the University of Washington, used computer models to study the effects of wave effects and the effects of heating and cooling the surface of the sea on plastic in the ocean, according to a report by the Physicists Organization Network on the 21st. They found that the turbulence created by waves and ocean currents plays a key role in whether plastic stays at the surface or enters the deep ocean; Changes in sea temperature due to changes in season, latitude and day and night also play an important role. For example, summer sunlight warms the sea surface and reduces the density of the water, so plastics tend to stay at the surface, while cooling the sea increases the density of the water and the plastics sink into the water.

They compared the model results with some actual observations, added turbulence models and mixing processes, corrected the current measurement, and calculated that the new result was significantly higher than the original estimate. Kukuka says the model can also be used to measure oil and other pollution, and even the distribution of nutrients, phytoplankton and Marine flotsam in the water.

Some scientists have proposed using sea surface trawl nets to remove the plastic. But Kukuka points out that this is not appropriate in waters with strong turbulence, and while plastic sheets are buoyant, removing them is not that simple.

To the inhabitants of Earth, the ocean is mysterious and powerful. Before entering large-scale industrial production, human beings were still in awe of the ocean. With the expansion of knowledge, technological progress, and especially the expansion of desire, human beings have grabbed resources and polluted the ocean regardless of it! Calculating the amount of plastic in the ocean using artificial methods such as fishing for plastic in nets is no choice. Even if turbulence models are added to make the calculation more realistic, they still cannot accurately measure the weight of the ocean. Scientists know this, but they still cast and pull that heavy net again and again, only to get conclusive evidence of human pollution of the ocean. For such scientists, we are awed.

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