Microplastics in the coastal ocean: the interplay between particle properties and flows
Microplastics are a growing problem in the oceans. Understanding where microplastics are carried by ocean flows is crucial to learning their fate and impacts. The transport of microplastics is complicated by their physical properties (e.g., shape, size, and density), which can change over time as microplastics biofoul (i.e., facilitate the growth of organisms adhering to their surfaces). In this talk, I will discuss two projects which explore the interplay between microplastic properties and transport by coastal flows. First, I will share experiments on the dispersion of microplastics of different shapes and sizes in a wave-current flow. Then, I will discuss numerical simulations on the interplay between biofouling and the regional scale coastal transport of microplastics. Despite their different physical scales, both of these projects highlight the complex interplay between particle properties and their transport by environmental flows.