Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST/NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2014 Feb 15;79(1-2):220-4. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.12.010. Epub 2013 Dec 18.
A distance-based technique was used to assess the distribution and abundance of floating marine debris (>1cm) in the southeast Atlantic Ocean between Cape Town and Tristan da Cunha, crossing the southern edge of the South Atlantic 'garbage patch' predicted by surface drift models. Most litter was made of plastic (97%). Detection distances were influenced by the size and buoyancy of litter items. Litter density decreased from coastal waters off Cape Town (>100 items km(-2)) to oceanic waters (<10 items km(-2)), and was consistently higher (6.2 ± 1.3 items km(-2)) from 3 to 8°E than in adjacent oceanic waters (2.7 ± 0.3 items km(-2)) or in the central South Atlantic around Tristan (1.0 ± 0.4 items km(-2)). The area with high litter density had few seaweeds, suggesting that most litter had been drifting for a long time. The results indicate that floating debris is accumulating in the South Atlantic gyre as far south as 34-35°S.
采用基于距离的技术评估了开普敦和特里斯坦达库尼亚之间东南大西洋（位于预测的南大西洋“垃圾带”的南部边缘）漂浮海洋废弃物（>1cm）的分布和丰度。大部分垃圾由塑料制成（97%）。发现距离受垃圾物品的大小和浮力的影响。垃圾密度从开普敦沿海（>100 个项目 km(-2)) 到海洋水域（<10 个项目 km(-2))，从 3 到 8°E 一直高于相邻的海洋水域（2.7 ± 0.3 个项目 km(-2)) 或在特里斯坦附近的南大西洋中部（1.0 ± 0.4 个项目 km(-2))。高垃圾密度区的海藻很少，这表明大部分垃圾已经漂流了很长时间。结果表明，漂浮的碎片正在南大西洋环流中积累，最南可达 34-35°S。
