Marine plastic pollution is a global crisis, with 9 to 14 million metric tons of plastic entering the ocean every year. Tiny fragments called microplastics—ranging from 1 micron to 5 millimeters ...

Researchers synthesized depth-profile data from 1,885 stations collected between 2014 and 2024 to map ... ‘Scratching’ more than the ocean’s surface to map ... Gyres act like massive, slow ...

Thanks to ocean pollution, the gyres have become floating, soupy, masses of microplastics, which results from the physical breakdown that begins as soon as plastic first escapes into the sea.

The study, done by a team of global researchers led by Marcus Eriksen of the 5 Gyres Institute, looked at 40 years of data from 11,600 points in the ocean. They also sailed the world to see it for ...

Even without trash islands, gyres are typically nutrient poor (ie not a lot of snacks), yet help sustain some of the ocean’s top predator fish. The reason may lie in some of the gyre’s eddies.

MIT researchers have found that eddies at the edges of subtropical ocean gyres deliver nutrients that sustain the phytoplankton within the gyres. The findings answer a longstanding question about ...

World map with major marine currents. (Image credit: Rainer Lesniewski via Shutterstock) Winds, powered by solar energy, direct surface currents, like those in gyres.

'Scratching' more than the ocean's surface to map global microplastic movement. ScienceDaily . Retrieved June 11, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2025 / 04 / 250430141835.htm ...

Thanks to ocean pollution, the gyres have become floating, soupy, masses of microplastics, which results from the physical breakdown that begins as soon as plastic first escapes into the sea.