Date-prints on stranded macroplastics: Inferring the timing and extent of overwash deposition on the Skallingen peninsula, Denmark.
The presented study shows that the delivery of marine macrodebris to a high-energy coastal environment has been abundant enough over the last three decades as to allow a spatial reconstruction of morphological change based on production-date prints. A dataset of >110 spatially discrete samples has been collected in an area affected by overwashing on the Skallingen peninsula, SW Denmark. A conceptual model for the chronological interpretation of the date prints is proposed and cross-compared with a dense time-series of satellite images and orthophotos. It appears that the litter-derived ages are capable of reproducing information on both the timing and the extent of overwash occurrence. Despite the usefulness of the method as a tool for rapidly assessing the approximate age of recent coastal deposits, the study shows the alarming degree and long-standing of marine-litter pollution on the eastern board of the southern North Sea.
Alfred-Wegener-Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Station Sylt, Hafenstraße 43, 25992 List/Sylt, Germany. Electronic address: lasse.sander@awi.de.
Lasse
L
Sander
D003718:Denmark; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D009659:North Sea; D010969:Plastics
D010969:Plastics
Chronology; Coastal deposits; Marine macrolitter; North Sea; Plastic pollution; Storm-surge events