title: Trends in marine debris along the U.S. Pacific Coast and Hawai'i 1998-2007.
abstract: We assessed amounts, composition, and trends of marine debris for the U.S. Pacific Coast and Hawai'i using National Marine Debris Monitoring Program data. Hawai'i had the highest debris loads; the North Pacific Coast region had the lowest debris loads. The Southern California Bight region had the highest land-based debris loads. Debris loads decreased over time for all source categories in all regions except for land-based and general-source loads in the North Pacific Coast region, which were unchanged. General-source debris comprised 30-40% of the items in all regions. Larger local populations were associated with higher land-based debris loads across regions; the effect declined at higher population levels. Upwelling affected deposition of ocean-based and general-source debris loads but not land-based loads along the Pacific Coast. LNSO decreased debris loads for both land-based and ocean-based debris but not general-source debris in Hawai'i, a more complex climate-ocean effect than had previously been found.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey, Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, 218 Russell Labs, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA. caribic@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Christine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Ribic
authors.forename: Seba B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sheavly
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Rugg
authors.forename: Eric S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Erdmann
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006254:Hawaii; D009922:Oregon; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D014481:United States; D014861:Washington; D014872:Water Movements; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D014873:Water Pollutants