Irina Chubarenko

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology

Contamination of the water column, bottom sediments and beaches with small plastic particles (microplastics, MPs, < 5 mm) is currently being actively investigated, but data on ice and snow contamination are still very limited. The paper presents the results of the analysis of the number of MPs particles (0.3–5 mm) in ice cores, snow samples and und...

The paper provides information about the XXIX Coastal Conference, held in Kaliningrad in April 2022. The thematic directions of reports, round tables are reflected, statistical data are given on the number of speeches (232), on participating organizations (38) and cities (13). Additional events held within the framework of the conference (sessions,...

The Cold Intermediate Layer (CIL) is a distinctive feature of the Baltic Sea thermohaline structure: it is evident annually from March to December between the upper freshened layer and the deep layer with saline waters of oceanic origin. Water parameters are vertically inhomogeneous within the CIL, reflecting a complicated process of its formation...

Sea ice is heavily contaminated with microplastics particles (MPs, <5 mm). First-year sea ice cores (38-41 cm thick) were taken in the beginning of spring in a narrow populated bay of the Sea of Japan. Two ice cores were examined (layer-by-layer, excluding surface) for MPs content: one using μ-FTIR for 25-300 μm (SMPs), and another one - with visua...

Contamination of sea bottom sediments by microplastics is widely confirmed, but the reasons for its patchiness remain poorly understood. Laboratory experiments are reported where combined sets of various plastic particles, different by shape, size, density, and flexibility, were transported by the step-wise increasing open-channel flow over the bot...

An abundance of microplastics particles (0.2–5 mm, MPs) in bottom sediments is analyzed based on 53 samples (3 to 215 m deep) obtained in 8 cruises of research vessels across the Baltic Sea Proper in March–October 2015–2016. MPs content varied between stations from 103 up to 10,179 items kg⁻¹ d.w., with the bulk mean of 863 ± 1371 items kg⁻¹ d.w.,...

In the Baltic Sea, salinity and its large variability, both horizontal and vertical, are key physical factors in determining the overall stratification conditions. In addition to that, salinity and its changes also have large effects on various ecosystem processes. Several factors determine the observed two-layer vertical structure of salinity. Due...

Investigations of natural factors leading to large wash-outs of marine debris to the shores of seas and oceans have become urgently needed due to the presence in its composition in the last decades of a significant amount of anthropogenic litter, potentially dangerous to living organisms and humans. This paper provides an analysis of meteorological...

Microplastic particles (MPs, <5 mm) are found in marine ice in larger quantities than in seawater, however, the distribution pattern within the ice cores is not consistent. To get insights into the most general physical processes behind interactions of ice and plastic particles in cool natural environments, information from academic and applied res...

The distribution of small (0.5–2 mm, S-MPs) and large (2–5 mm, L-MPs) microplastics and mesoplastic particles in 51 samples of surface beach sands at 7 locations along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea was investigated. MPs particles (3267 in total) were found at all the sites and in all the beach zones. The bulk mean MPs (0.5–5 mm) contaminatio...

Microplastics (MPs, 0.2-5 mm) contamination of water outside/inside thickets of macrophytes in the Baltic Sea was studied. The amount of MPs particles in water samples taken within thickets is on average 1.7 times higher than in water samples taken in the areas outside thickets. Fibres are the predominant type of MPs (92.5%). For algae growing on b...

The paper considers the seasonal dynamics of the content of microplastic particles with a size from 0.5 to 5 mm in the sands of the surf zone of the Vistula Spit (the Baltic Sea). Microplastic particles are classified by size and color. The results are compared with the data for the Curonian Spit. It is concluded that the level of contamination wit...

Observations show that after stormy events, anthropogenic litter is washed ashore for short periods of time, providing the opportunity to collect and remove it from the environment. However, water dynamics in sea coastal zones during and after storms are very complicated, and the transport properties of litter items are very diverse; thus, predicti...

Twelve seas with an integral coastline length of about 38,000 km wash upon the Russian coasts. They belong to the basins of the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Pacific Oceans and stretch over temperate, subpolar, and polar climate zones. This review of 32 studies published between 2015 and August 2020 analyses the available peer-reviewed scientific p...

Synthetic fibers with diameters of several tens of micrometers are the most abundant type of microplastics in the marine environment, yet the most unknown regarding dynamics in the water column. Experiments proposed here are a proof-of-concept of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of fibers’ motion in still water and in the presence of th...

In the Baltic Sea, salinity and its large variability, both horizontal and vertical, are key physical factors in determining the overall stratification conditions. In addition to that, salinity and its changes also have large effects on various ecosystem processes. Several factors determine the observed two-layer vertical structure of salinity. Due...

The problem of contamination of the shore of the Sambian Peninsula with marine anthropogenic litter is pressing and requires detailed study since it has a detrimental effect on the touristic and recreational activity of the region. Observations show that the most volumetric marine litter wash-outs to the beach take place after certain storms and ar...

Recent field investigations show very high MPs content in marine ice, but the distributions of particles in ice cores in different basins are complicated and different. We performed some theoretical analysis and a series of laboratory tests in order to summarize just the most general principles behind interactions of plastics with ice. First, we a...

The chapter combines an overview of several studies of marine litter distribution on beaches and in sediments for two Russian parts of the Baltic Sea: the Gulf of Finland and the South-East Baltic for a period of 2016–2020. Various methods for sand sampling on beaches have been applied, including the OSPAR method, NOAA methodology, and IOW beach li...

В работе обобщена информация о закономерностях переноса и накопления микропластика в поверхностных водах суши в сравнении их с континентальными морями. Анализируются сведения, опубликованные в зарубежной и отечественной литературе. Представлен сравнительный анализ оригинальных материалов, полученный авторами в процессе исследований в Балтийском мор...

Small plastic particles (microplastics, < 5 mm) are found in the World Ocean everywhere, from the surface to the bottom, from the ice of the Arctic to the waters of the Antarctic. Their properties differ from the properties of natural particles and at the same time change noticeably with time in the environment, so the description of the transfer o...

Thermohaline intrusions are a typical feature of the Baltic Sea water body. We report observations of vivid colder/saltier intrusion activity in intermediate layers and upper pycnocline of the Gdansk Bay (the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea) in early spring (March–April, 2013). Extremely low water temperature (down to 1.4–2 °C) and specific wa...

Most marine litter monitoring methods used on beaches focus on macro-litter (>25 mm) only and show shortcomings regarding smaller litter classes (<25 mm), especially at Baltic Sea beaches. Therefore, we used a sand rake method developed for large micro-(2-5 mm), and meso-(5-25 mm) litter to quantify the overall pollution status of Baltic Sea beache...

Interactions with various suspended soils and natural colloids are important but poorly understood aspects of microplastic (MP) behavior in aquatic environments. The result of these interactions is the formation of aggregates, where MP are incorporated together with live and dead organics, so-called marine snows. The vertical transport of organic s...

Холодный промежуточный слой – отличительная гидрологи- ческая особенность Балтийского моря. Выделение ХПС воз- можно в конце марта – начале мая, когда сезонный термоклин уже сформировался. Этот период интересен тем, что свойства вод ХПС еще не подвержены изменениям как гидрологических, так и метеорологических процессов. Проанализированы шесть прибр...

In search of an effective method to evaluate plastic contamination, macrolitter (>25 mm), mesolitter (5-25 mm), large microlitter (2-5 mm), large and small microplastics (2-5 mm and 0.5-2 mm) abundances in surface beach sands were simultaneously determined by two methods in four beach zones at six locations along the 100-km-long marine coast of the...

This research is a part of a complex study devoted to the process of the Cold Intermediate Layer formation in the Baltic Sea. We analyzed long-term mean SST maps for early spring period of 2003-2019 to find the occurrence of the coldest Baltic waters and detected the following features: • the coldest surface waters (0-2.5 °С) are observed in Februa...

The contamination by macrolitter (>25 mm), mesolitter (5-25 mm), large microlitter (2-5 mm), large and small microplastics (L-MPs (2-5 mm) and S-MPs (0.5-2 mm), accordingly) in the surface beach sand at 6 locations along the 100-km-long marine coast of the Curonian Spit UNESCO National Park and the neighboring city beaches is quantified. In total,...

Marine plastic debris floating on the ocean surface is a major environmental problem. However, its distribution in the ocean is poorly mapped, and most of the plastic waste estimated to have entered the ocean from land is unaccounted for. Better understanding of how plastic debris is transported from coastal and marine sources is crucial to quantif...

Mechanical fragmentation of four commonly used plastics, from 2-cm squares or cubes to microplastics (MPs, <5 mm), is experimentally investigated using a rotating laboratory mixer mimicking the sea swash zone with natural beach sediments (large and small pebbles, granules, sand). Macro-samples were prepared from brittle not-buoyant PS (disposable p...

The contamination by microplastics particles (MPs, 0.2-5 mm) in bottom sediments of the Baltic Sea is quantified. In total, 53 sediment samples were obtained in 8 cruises of research vessels in July-October 2015 and March-December 2016. The depths from 3 to 215 m in the Gotland, Gdansk, and Bornholm Basins are covered. Primary data is provided, alo...

Marine microplastic particles (MPs, <5 mm) exhibit wide ranges of densities, sizes, and shapes, so that the entire MPs "ensemble" at every time instant can be characterized by continuous distributions of these parameters. Accordingly, this community of particles demonstrates distributions of dynamical properties, such as sinking or rising velocity,...

Massive beaching of marine debris after stormy episodes are monitored and examined in order to attend the composition of the debris patches and to evaluate the fraction and the amount of anthropogenic litter in them. In frames of the ERA.Net RUS Plus S&T project 429 "Litter rim of the Baltic Sea coast", litter beaching was monitored during fall-win...

We examine a hypothesis of the formation of the Cold Intermediate Layer in the Baltic Proper presented in Chubarenko, Stepanova, 2018. Joint analysis of field observations in the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea (the Gdansk Bay) and remote sensing data on sea surface temperature is performed. We provide arguments that the intrusion waters obser...

Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on the shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways and distributions in the ocean are very sparse and inaccurate. Total amounts of plastics and other man-made...

Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on the shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways and distributions in the ocean are very sparse and inaccurate. Total amounts of plastics and other man-made...

Maximenko et al. Integrated Marine Debris Observing System Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to the health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways, and distributions in the ocean are very sparse an...

We report field observations of such cold/saline intrusion activity above the shelf, in intermediate layers, and within the upper pycnocline of the Gdansk Bay (south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea) in early spring (March and April 2013) and demonstrate that they are most probably caused by the large-scale exchange processes within the sea water body...

Application of the unified methodology to monitoring of micro-, meso-, and macro-litter along the Russian, Estonian, and German marine beaches of the Baltic Sea is the main goal of a new project co-funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Estonian Research Council, and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in frames...

Marine beaches worldwide are nowadays exposed to significant contamination by plastics. On the Baltic beaches, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene are most abundant. We investigate the generation of microplastics particles (MPs, characteristic size from 0.5 to 5 mm) from larger plastic items in the sea swash zone using a laboratory rotatin...

External oceanographic conditions rather than anthropogenic influence are shown to cause the 3-dimensional distribution of anthropogenic microparticles (MP, 0.5–5 mm) within the body of sandy beaches of a non-tidal sea with strong wind/wave climate and seasonal sea level variations (the Baltic Sea). A patchy structure is confirmed in all three dime...

A hypothesis for the formation of the core (the coldest water) of the Cold Intermediate Layer (CIL) of the Baltic Proper is proposed. It is based on a joint analysis of previously published research on shallow spring thermocline development and pycnocline formation and on a recent field monitoring of the transition from winter- to summertime vertic...

Physical and dynamic properties of marine microplastic (MP) particles are summarized, with relevance to their behavior in the coastal zone. The density range, size classes, and typical particle shapes are presented, and their variation with time due to weathering, biofouling, and mechanical degradation in the swash zone is considered. The dependenc...

Pollution of the coastal zone of the sea by plastic debris is an important environmental problem. Especially dangerous are small particles (microplastic), as birds and fish mistake it for food. The article deals with the process of destruction of foamed polystyrene - one of the most frequently encountered pollutants - in the surf zone of the sea. E...

The aim of the work is to reveal the features of the distribution of microplastic particles within the sandy beaches of the Baltic Sea and to establish a possible correlation between the presence of plastic particles and that of natural inclusions (amber, paraffin, coal, etc.) in the sand samples. For this study, beaches with significantly differen...

Abstract Distribution of microplastics particles (MPs) in the water column is investigated on the base of 95 water samples collected from various depths in the Baltic Sea Proper in 2015–2016. Fibres are the prevalent type of MPs: 7% of the samples contained small films; about 40% had (presumably) paint flakes, while 63% contained coloured fibres in...

An overview of modern approaches to the problem of parametrisation of sources of marine waters microplastics pollution from the coastline is conducted. The estimates of Europe’s plastic production along with mismanaged plastic waste percentage that might be the source of microplastics particles input to marine environment are presented. A semi-empi...

The problem of microplastic pollution is of increasing concern. Behaviour of microplastic particles (0.5 mm < L < 5mm in the largest dimension) in marine environment is difficult to predict, and no field observations are available up to now. Baltic amber (succinite), with its density of about 1.05-1.09 g/cm3, fits the range of densities of slightly...

The transition from winter vertical mixing to the formation of the spring thermocline in the southeastern Baltic Sea is studied based on data from the hydrophysical measurements program (11 expeditions) in the Russian part of Gdansk Bay in March-June 2010, 2011, and 2013. CTD measurements were taken along the standard 18-km transect across the isob...

Microlitter (0.5-5. mm) concentrations in water column (depth range from 0 to 217.5. m) of the main Baltic Proper basins are reported. In total, 95 water samples collected in 6 research cruises in 2015-2016 in the Bornholm, Gdansk, and Gotland basins were analysed. Water from 10- and 30-litre Niskin bathometers was filtered through the 174. μm filt...

The goal of this study is to establish the quantitative and qualitative composition of microplastic in the sediment column of the beach - from the surface of the beach down to the sea level (beaches of the Baltic Sea)

Fifty four samples of bottom sediments were collected in the coastal zone and the deep-sea area of the Baltic Sea Proper at the stations from 3 m to 215 m depth during expeditions of 2015-2016. Among the samples, different types of mud, slightly gravelly muddy sand, sandy mud, and sands are present. In order to extract microplastic particles (1-5 m...

Microplastics is a burning issue in the marine pollution science. Its sources, ways of propagation and final destiny pose a lot of questions to the modern oceanographers. Hence, a numerical model is an optimal tool for reconstruction of microplastics pathways and fate. Within the MARBLE project (lamp.ocean.ru), a model of Lagrangian particles trans...

Presence of thin synthetic fibres (microfibres, tens of micrometres in diameter) in the surface waters and sediments is documented in different studies; however, the data on their exact abundances in the marine environment are commonly not presented owing to the shortcomings of the sampling procedure and general absence of well-established methodol...

Baltic amber, adored for its beauty already in Homer's Odyssey (ca. 800 B.C.E), has its material density close to that of wide-spread plastics like polyamide, polystyrene, or acrylic. Migrations of amber stones in the sea and their massive washing ashore have been monitored by Baltic citizens for ages. Based on the collected information, we present...

The results of comparative analysis of sea surface temperature variations along horizontal sections in the coastal zone are given. The data used had been taken by MODIS spectroradiometers (Aqua, Terra) in the Southeastern Baltic, in periods of coastal upwelling—in the periods of autumn differential cooling over coastal continental slopes (facilitat...

Ecologically important issues of transport and sedimentation of marine microplastics on the beaches of the southeastern Baltic Sea (Kaliningrad region, Russia), related to the increasing pollution of Baltic Sea waters by small plastics particles, are considered. Te data from observation and analysis of the presence on the beach of various types of...

The problem of microplastic pollution is of increasing concern. Behaviour of microplastic particles (0.5 mm < L < 5mm in the largest dimension) in marine environment is difficult to predict, and no field observations are available up to now. Baltic amber (succinite), with its density of about 1.05-1.09 g/cm3, fits the range of densities of slightly...

An overview of modern approaches to the problem of parametrisation of sources of marine waters microplastics pollution from the coastline is conducted. The estimates of Europe’s plastic production along with mismanaged plastic waste percentage that might be the source of microplastics particles input to marine environment are presented. A semi-empi...

Simplified physical models and geometrical considerations reveal general physical and dynamical properties of microplastic particles (0.5–5 mm) of different density, shape and size in marine environment. Windage of extremely light foamed particles, surface area and fouling rate of slightly positively buoyant microplastic spheres, films and fibres a...

Nowadays, anthropogenic pressure from the coastal areas comes up in many aspects of marine environment changes, decreasing the aesthetics of the underwater world, threatening the sustainability of marine ecosystems and influencing the quality of human life. Microplastics are pervasive throughout the marine environment, are ingested by many marine o...

1) Atlantic Branch of P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kaliningrad, RUSSIA, (2) P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, RUSSIA An assessment of the settling velocity of different classes of microplastic particles (< 5 mm) is crucial for the prediction of their transport and fate...

Coastal upwellings are important phenomena in water dynamics of lakes, seas and the ocean. Upwellings are associated with well pronounced decrease of surface water temperature (SST) towards the shore. We examine MODIS (Aqua/Terra) SST-pictures of the southeastern Baltic Sea during 2000–2014 years with the aim to extract those characteristic feature...

Paper presents an analysis of in situ CTD data collected during surveys conducted by IO RAN research vessels over the shelf of the Gdansk bay of the Baltic sea in spring of 2008-2013. The results revealed the evolution of vertical thermochaline structure during the period when water temperature in the upper layer passes over the temperature of maxi...

The cold intermediate layer (CIL) was distinguished in the series of vertical CTD profiles obtained in 2004-2008 in the Gdansk basin of the Baltic Sea. The CIL is determined as the layer between the maximum absolute values of the vertical gradient of the water temperature during its decrease in the seasonal thermocline and the growth in the ranges...

The cold intermediate layer (CIL) was distinguished in the series of vertical CTD profiles obtained in 2004-2008 in the Gdansk basin of the Baltic Sea. The CIL is determined as the layer between the maximum absolute values of the vertical gradient of the water temperature during its decrease in the seasonal thermocline and the growth in the ranges...

(This article is in Russian) Sea surface temperature profiles above underwater coastal slopes in South-Eastern Baltic during periods of intense autumn cooling are investigated on the base of data of spectroradiometers MODIS/Aqua obtained in October-November 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2009. Typical shape of the profiles, demonstrating the presence of dif...

We aim to find on MODIS (Aqua, Terra) SST-pictures of the South-Eastern Baltic those characteristic features, which allow to distinguish the differential coastal cooling from the coastal upwelling events, even though their manifestations look much alike. The basis is data of MODIS (Aqua, Terra) spectroradiometers for 2000-2013. We analyze horizonta...

We aim to find on MODIS (Aqua, Terra) SST-pictures of the South-Eastern Baltic those characteristic features, which allow to distinguish the differential coastal cooling from the coastal upwelling events, even though their manifestations look much alike. The basis is data of MODIS (Aqua, Terra) spectroradiometers for 2000-2013. We analyze horizonta...

Sediment transport arises in alluvial lake-river systems in two different forms: (i) as bed load, comprising the moving detritus of the river bed and of the shallow, often only near-shore regions, and (ii) the suspended sediment load of the finer fractions. In river hydraulics the latter are often neglected; so, the bed load transport is treated wi...

Sediment transport from mountainous rivers into a quiescent ambient with simultaneous formation of deltas is reviewed. The focus is restricted to flow in vertical cross-sections with no changes perpendicular to the plane of the flow. The bed load transport in the river is derived for quasi-steady situations using sediment mass balance and the Mohr-...