ASR Ltd., Marine Consulting and Research, Raglan 3225, New Zealand.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2013 Jan 15;66(1-2):53-8. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.11.013. Epub 2012 Dec 6.
A global ocean circulation model is coupled to a particle-tracking model to simulate the transport of floating debris washed into the North Pacific Ocean by the Tohoku tsunami. A release scenario for the tsunami debris is based on coastal population and measured tsunami runup. Archived 2011/2012 hindcast current data is used to model the transport of debris since the tsunami, while data from 2008 to 2012 is used to investigate the distribution of debris on timescales up to 4years. The vast amount of debris pushed into ocean likely represents thousands of years worth of 'normal' litter flux from Japan's urbanized coastline. This is important since a significant fraction of the debris will be comprised of plastics, some of which will degrade into tiny particles and be consumed by marine organisms, thereby allowing adsorbed organic pollutants to enter our food supply in quantities much higher than present.
将一个全球海洋环流模型与一个粒子追踪模型耦合，以模拟被东北海啸冲入北太平洋的漂浮碎片的运输过程。海啸碎片的释放情景基于沿海人口和测量到的海啸涌浪。使用存档的 2011/2012 年回溯海流数据来模拟海啸后的碎片运输，而 2008 年至 2012 年的数据则用于研究碎片在长达 4 年时间内的分布情况。被冲入海洋的大量碎片可能代表了日本城市化海岸线数千年的“正常”垃圾通量。这一点很重要，因为这些碎片中很大一部分是塑料，其中一些会降解成微小颗粒并被海洋生物消耗，从而使吸附的有机污染物以比目前高得多的数量进入我们的食物供应。
