Abstract
A total of 8218 pelagic microplastic samples from the world’s oceans were synthesized to create a dataset composed of raw, calibrated, processed, and gridded data which are made available to the public. The raw microplastic abundance data were obtained by different research projects using surface net tows or continuous seawater intake. Fibrous microplastics were removed from the calibrated dataset. Microplastic abundance which fluctuates due to vertical mixing under different oceanic conditions was standardized. An optimum interpolation method was used to create the gridded data; in total, there were 24.4 trillion pieces (8.2 × 104 ~ 57.8 × 104 tons) of microplastics in the world’s upper oceans.
Highlights
Microplastics are being reported globally, but it is challenging to compare the data collected when different methods and reporting criteria are followed (e.g., [1])
Laboratory-based studies on damage to aquatic organisms exposed to microplastics might be inaccurate if microplastic concentration estimates are much larger than the reality [4]
Eriksen et al [7] created a publicly available dataset of microplastic abundance based on data obtained from 680 surface net tows conducted by different researchers during 2007–2013
Summary
Microplastics are being reported globally, but it is challenging to compare the data collected when different methods and reporting criteria are followed (e.g., [1]). A few studies have synthesized microplastic abundance data for the world’s oceans to generate datasets.
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