Simplifying Microplastic via Continuous Probability Distributions for Size, Shape, and Density
By M. Kooi, A. Koelmans. Environmental Science and Technology Letters, 2019
503 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Because of their diverse sizes, shapes, and densities, environmental microplastics are often perceived as complex. Many studies struggle with this complexity and either address only a part of this diversity or present data using discrete classifications for sizes, shapes, and densities. We argue that such classifications will never be fully satisfactory, as any definition using classes does not capture the essentially continuous nature of environmental microplastic. Therefore, we propose to simplify microplastics by fully defining them through a three-dimensional (3D) probability distribution, with size, shape, and density as dimensions. In addition to introducing the concept, we parametrize these probability distributions, using empirical data. This parametrization results in an approximate yet realistic representation of “true” environmental microplastic. This approach to simplifying microplastic could be applicable to exposure measurements, effect studies, and fate modeling. Furthermore, it allows for ...
Subfields: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/77d9ec65f71d37e9cc981f1c1b6d815bc20d0757
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- E. van Sebille
- M. Thiel
- W. Courtene-Jones
- Richard C. Thompson
- Sabine Pahl
- Julien Boucher
- Karen Raubenheimer
- Melanie Bergmann
In Pollution
- E. van Sebille
- Melanie Bergmann
- M. Thiel
- K. L. Law
- W. Courtene-Jones
- Richard C. Thompson
- Sabine Pahl
- Julien Boucher
Citations in the corpus
- The physical oceanography of the transport of floating marine debris (2020, methodology): “As environmental plastic debris consists of mixtures of numerous particles and items, their sizes, densities and shapes can be represented by continuous distributions (Kooi and Koelmans 2019).”
- Twenty years of microplastic pollution research—what have we learned? (2024, background): “Although our understanding of the transport of microplastics can be informed by studies of natural particulates, the sheer diversity of microplastic shapes, sizes, and densities introduces distinctive differences compared with natural particulates and makes extrapolation challenging ( 55 ).”