For office use onlyT1________________ T2________________ T3________________ T4________________Team Control Number7018Problem ChosencFor office use onlyF1________________F2________________F3________________F4________________ SummaryThe article is aimed to research the potential impact of the marine garbage debris on marine ecosystem and human beings，and how we can deal with the substantial problems caused by the aggregation of marine wastes.In task one，we give a definition of the potential long-term and short-term impact of marine plastic garbage. Regard the toxin concentration effect caused by marine garbage as long-term impact and to track and monitor it. We etablish the composite indicator model on density of plastic toxin，and the content of toxin absorbed by plastic fragment in the ocean to express the impact of marine garbage on ecosystem. Take Japan sea as example to examine our model.In ask two, we designe an algorithm, using the density value of marine plastic of each year in discrete measure point given by reference，and we plot plastic density of the whole area in varies locations. Based on the changes in marine plastic density in different years， we determine generally that the center of the plastic vortex is East—West140°W—150°W, South—North30°N—40°N. According to our algorithm, we can monitor a sea area reasonably only by regular observation of part of the specified measuring pointIn task three，we classify the plastic into three types，which is surface layer plastic，deep layer plastic and interlayer between the two. Then we analysis the the degradation mechanism of plastic in each layer. Finally，we get the reason why those plastic fragments come to a similar size.In task four， we classify the source of the marine plastic into three types，the land accounting for 80%，fishing gears accounting for 10%，boating accounting for 10%，and estimate the optimization model according to the duel-target principle of emissions reduction and management. Finally, we arrive at a more reasonable optimization strategy.In task five，we first analyze the mechanism of the formation of the Pacific ocean trash vortex， and thus conclude that the marine garbage swirl will also emerge in south Pacific，south Atlantic and the India ocean. According to the Concentration of diffusion theory, we establish the differential prediction model of the future marine garbage density，and predict the density of the garbage in south Atlantic ocean. Then we get the stable density in eight measuring point .In task six, we get the results by the data of the annual national consumption ofpolypropylene plastic packaging and the data fitting method, and predict the environmental benefit generated by the prohibition of polypropylene take-away food packaging in the next decade. By means of this model and our prediction，each nation will reduce releasing 1.31 million tons of plastic garbage in next decade.Finally, we submit a report to expediction leader，summarize our work and make some feasible suggestions to the policy- makers.Task 1:Definition:●Potential short-term effects of the plastic: the hazardeffects will be shown in the short term.●Potential long-term effects of the plastic: thepotential effects, of which hazards are great, willappear after a long time.The short- and long-term effects of the plastic on the ocean environment:In our definition, the short-term and long-term effects of the plastic on the ocean environment are as follows.Short-term effects:1）The plastic is eaten by marine animals or birds.2） Animals are wrapped by plastics, such as fishing nets, which hurt or even kill them.3）Deaden the way of the passing vessels.Long-term effects:1）Enrichment of toxins through the food chain: the waste plastic in the ocean has no natural degradation in theshort-term, which will first be broken down into tinyfragments through the role of light, waves,micro-organisms, while the molecular structure has notchanged. These "plastic sands", easy to be eaten byplankton, fish and other, are Seemingly very similar tomarine life’s food,causing the enrichment and delivery of toxins.2）Accelerate the greenhouse effect: after a long-term accumulation and pollution of plastics, the waterbecame turbid, which will seriously affect the marineplants (such as phytoplankton and algae) inphotosynthesis. A large number of plankton’s deathswould also lower the ability of the ocean to absorbcarbon dioxide, intensifying the greenhouse effect tosome extent.To monitor the impact of plastic rubbish on the marine ecosystem:According to the relevant literature, we know that plastic resin pellets accumulate toxic chemicals , such as PCBs、DDE , and nonylphenols , and may serve as a transport medium and soure of toxins to marine organisms that ingest them[]2. As it is difficult for the plastic garbage in the ocean to complete degradation in the short term, the plastic resin pellets in the water will increase over time and thus absorb more toxins, resulting in the enrichment of toxins and causing serious impact on the marine ecosystem.Therefore, we track the monitoring of the concentration of PCBs, DDE, and nonylphenols containing in the plastic resin pellets in the sea water, as an indicator to compare the extent of pollution in different regions of the sea, thus reflecting the impact of plastic rubbish on ecosystem.To establish pollution index evaluation model: For purposes of comparison, we unify the concentration indexes of PCBs, DDE, and nonylphenols in a comprehensive index.Preparations:1）Data Standardization2）Determination of the index weightBecause Japan has done researches on the contents of PCBs,DDE, and nonylphenols in the plastic resin pellets, we illustrate the survey conducted in Japanese waters by the University of Tokyo between 1997 and 1998.To standardize the concentration indexes of PCBs, DDE,and nonylphenols. We assume Kasai Sesside Park, KeihinCanal, Kugenuma Beach, Shioda Beach in the survey arethe first, second, third, fourth region; PCBs, DDE, andnonylphenols are the first, second, third indicators.Then to establish the standardized model:j j jij ij V V V V V min max min --= （1,2,3,4;1,2,3i j ==）wherej V max is the maximum of the measurement of j indicator in the four regions.j V min is the minimum of the measurement of j indicatorstandardized value of j indicator in i region.According to the literature [2], Japanese observationaldata is shown in Table 1.Table 1. PCBs, DDE, and, nonylphenols Contents in Marine PolypropyleneTable 1 Using the established standardized model to standardize, we have Table 2.In Table 2，the three indicators of Shioda Beach area are all 0, because the contents of PCBs, DDE, and nonylphenols in Polypropylene Plastic Resin Pellets in this area are the least, while 0 only relatively represents the smallest. Similarly, 1 indicates that in some area the value of a indicator is the largest.To determine the index weight of PCBs, DDE, and nonylphenolsWe use Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine the weight of the three indicators in the general pollution indicator. AHP is an effective method which transforms semi-qualitative and semi-quantitative problems into quantitative calculation. It uses ideas of analysis and synthesis in decision-making, ideally suited for multi-index comprehensive evaluation.Hierarchy are shown in figure 1.Fig.1 Hierarchy of index factorsThen we determine the weight of each concentrationindicator in the generall pollution indicator, and the process are described as follows:To analyze the role of each concentration indicator, we haveestablished a matrix P to study the relative proportion.⎥⎥⎥⎦⎤⎢⎢⎢⎣⎡=111323123211312P P P P P P P Where mn P represents the relative importance of theconcentration indicators m B and n B . Usually we use 1，2，…，9 and their reciprocals to represent different importance. The greater the number is, the more important it is. Similarly, the relative importance of m B and n B is mn P /1（3,2,1,=n m ）.Suppose the maximum eigenvalue of P is m ax λ, then theconsistency index is1max --=n nCI λThe average consistency index is RI , then the consistencyratio isRICI CR = For the matrix P of 3≥n , if 1.0<CR the consistency isthougt to be better, of which eigenvector can be used as the weight vector.We get the comparison matrix accoding to the harmful levelsof PCBs, DDE, and nonylphenols and the requirments ofEPA on the maximum concentration of the three toxins inseawater as follows:⎥⎥⎥⎦⎤⎢⎢⎢⎣⎡=165416131431P We get the maximum eigenvalue of P by MATLAB calculation0012.3max =λand the corresponding eigenvector of it is()2393.02975.09243.0，，=W1.0042.012.1047.0<===RI CI CR Therefore,we determine the degree of inconsistency formatrix P within the permissible range. With the eigenvectors of p as weights vector, we get thefinal weight vector by normalization ()1638.02036.06326.0'，，=W . Defining the overall target of pollution for the No i oceanis i Q , among other things the standardized value of threeindicators for the No i ocean is ()321,,i i i i V V V V = and the weightvector is 'W ,Then we form the model for the overall target of marine pollution assessment, （3,2,1=i ）By the model above, we obtained the Value of the totalpollution index for four regions in Japanese ocean in Table 3T B W Q '=In Table3, the value of the total pollution index is the hightest that means the concentration of toxins in Polypropylene Plastic Resin Pellets is the hightest, whereas the value of the total pollution index in Shioda Beach is the lowest(we point up 0 is only a relative value that’s not in the name of free of plastics pollution)Getting through the assessment method above, we can monitor the concentration of PCBs, DDE and nonylphenols in the plastic debris for the sake of reflecting the influence to ocean ecosystem.The highter the the concentration of toxins,the bigger influence of the marine organism which lead to the inrichment of food chain is more and more dramatic.Above all, the variation of toxins’ concentration simultaneously reflects the distribution and time-varying of marine litter. We can predict the future development of marine litter by regularly monitoring the content of these substances, to provide data for the sea expedition of the detection of marine litter and reference for government departments to make the policies for ocean governance.Task 2:In the North Pacific, the clockwise flow formed a never-ending maelstrom which rotates the plastic garbage. Over the years, the subtropical eddy current in North Pacific gathered together the garbage from the coast or the fleet, entrapped them in the whirlpool, and brought them to the center under the action of the centripetal force, forming an area of 3.43 million square kilometers (more than one-third of Europe) .As time goes by, the garbage in the whirlpool has the trend of increasing year by year in terms of breadth, density, and distribution. In order to clearly describe the variability of the increases over time and space, according to “Count Densities of Plastic Debris from Ocean Surface Samples North Pacific Gyre 1999—2008”, we analyze the data, exclude them with a great dispersion, and retain them with concentrated distribution, while the longitude values of the garbage locations in sampled regions of years serve as the x-coordinate value of a three-dimensional coordinates, latitude values as the y-coordinate value, the Plastic Count per cubic Meter of water of the position as the z-coordinate value. Further, we establish an irregular grid in the yx plane according to obtained data, and draw a grid line through all the data points. Using the inverse distance squared method with a factor, which can not only estimate the Plastic Count per cubic Meter of water of any position, but also calculate the trends of the Plastic Counts per cubic Meter of water between two original data points, we can obtain the unknown grid points approximately. When the data of all the irregular grid points are known (or approximately known, or obtained from the original data), we can draw the three-dimensional image with the Matlab software, which can fully reflect the variability of the increases in the garbage density over time and space.Preparations:First, to determine the coordinates of each year’s sampled garbage.The distribution range of garbage is about the East - West 120W-170W, South - North 18N-41N shown in the “Count Densities of Plastic Debris from Ocean Surface Samples North Pacific Gyre 1999--2008”, we divide a square in the picture into 100 grids in Figure (1) as follows:According to the position of the grid where the measuring point’s center is, we can identify the latitude and longitude for each point, which respectively serve as the x- and y- coordinate value of the three-dimensional coordinates.To determine the Plastic Count per cubic Meter of water. As the “Plastic Count per cubic Meter of water” provided by “Count Densities of P lastic Debris from Ocean Surface Samples North Pacific Gyre 1999--2008”are 5 density interval, to identify the exact values of the garbage density of one year’s different measuring points, we assume that the density is a random variable which obeys uniform distribution in each interval.Uniform distribution can be described as below:()⎪⎩⎪⎨⎧-=01a b x f ()others b a x ,∈We use the uniform function in Matlab to generatecontinuous uniformly distributed random numbers in each interval, which approximately serve as the exact values of the garbage density andz-coordinate values of the three-dimensional coordinates of the year’s measuring points.Assumptions(1)The data we get is accurate and reasonable.(2)Plastic Count per cubic Meter of waterIn the oceanarea isa continuous change.(3)Density of the plastic in the gyre is a variable by region.Density of the plastic in the gyre and its surrounding area is interdependent , However, this dependence decreases with increasing distance . For our discussion issue, Each data point influences the point of each unknown around and the point of each unknown around is influenced by a given data point. The nearer a given data point from the unknown point, the larger the role.Establishing the modelFor the method described by the previous,we serve the distributions of garbage density in the “Count Pensities of Plastic Debris from Ocean Surface Samples North Pacific Gyre 1999--2008”as coordinates ()z y,, As Table 1:x,Through analysis and comparison, We excluded a number of data which has very large dispersion and retained the data that is under the more concentrated the distribution which, can be seen on Table 2.In this way, this is conducive for us to get more accurate density distribution map.Then we have a segmentation that is according to the arrangement of the composition of X direction and Y direction from small to large by using x co-ordinate value and y co-ordinate value of known data points n, in order to form a non-equidistant Segmentation which has n nodes. For the Segmentation we get above,we only know the density of the plastic known n nodes, therefore, we must find other density of the plastic garbage of n nodes.We only do the sampling survey of garbage density of the north pacificvortex,so only understand logically each known data point has a certain extent effect on the unknown node and the close-known points of density of the plastic garbage has high-impact than distant known point.In this respect,we use the weighted average format, that means using the adverse which with distance squared to express more important effects in close known points. There're two known points Q1 and Q2 in a line ,that is to say we have already known the plastic litter density in Q1 and Q2, then speculate the plastic litter density's affects between Q1、Q2 and the point G which in the connection of Q1 and Q2. It can be shown by a weighted average algorithm22212221111121GQ GQ GQ Z GQ Z Z Q Q G +*+*=in this formula GQ expresses the distance between the pointG and Q.We know that only use a weighted average close to the unknown point can not reflect the trend of the known points, we assume that any two given point of plastic garbage between the changes in the density of plastic impact the plastic garbage density of the unknown point and reflecting the density of plastic garbage changes in linear trend. So in the weighted average formula what is in order to presume an unknown point of plastic garbage density, we introduce the trend items. And because the greater impact at close range point, and thus the density of plastic wastes trends close points stronger. For the one-dimensional case, the calculation formula G Z in the previous example modify in the following format:2212122212212122211111112121Q Q GQ GQ GQ Q Q GQ Z GQ Z GQ Z Z Q Q Q Q G ++++*+*+*=Among them, 21Q Q known as the separation distance of the known point, 21Q Q Z is the density of plastic garbage which is the plastic waste density of 1Q and 2Q for the linear trend of point G . For the two-dimensional area, point G is not on the line 21Q Q , so we make a vertical from the point G and cross the line connect the point 1Q and 2Q , and get point P , the impact of point P to 1Q and 2Q just like one-dimensional, and the one-dimensional closer of G to P , the distant of G to P become farther, the smaller of the impact, so the weighting factor should also reflect the GP in inversely proportional to a certain way, then we adopt following format:221212222122121222211111112121Q Q GQ GP GQ GQ Q Q GQ GP Z GQ Z GQ Z Z P Q Q Q Q G ++++++*+*+*=Taken together, we speculated following roles:(1) Each known point data are influence the density of plastic garbage of each unknown point in the inversely proportional to the square of the distance;(2) the change of density of plastic garbage between any two known points data, for each unknown point are affected, and the influence to each particular point of their plastic garbage diffuse the straight line along the two known particular point; (3) the change of the density of plastic garbage between any two known data points impact a specific unknown points of the density of plastic litter depends on the three distances: a. the vertical distance to a straight line which is a specific point link to a known point;b. the distance between the latest known point to a specific unknown point;c. the separation distance between two known data points.If we mark 1Q ，2Q ，…，N Q as the location of known data points,G as an unknown node, ijG P is the intersection of the connection of i Q ，j Q and the vertical line from G to i Q ，j Q()G Q Q Z j i ,,is the density trend of i Q ，j Q in the of plasticgarbage points and prescribe ()G Q Q Z j i ,,is the testing point i Q ’ s density of plastic garbage ,so there are calculation formula:()()∑∑∑∑==-==++++*=Ni N ij ji i ijGji i ijG N i Nj j i G Q Q GQ GPQ Q GQ GP G Q Q Z Z 11222222111,,Here we plug each year’s observational data in schedule 1 into our model, and draw the three-dimensional images of the spatial distribution of the marine garbage ’s density with Matlab in Figure (2) as follows:199920002002200520062007－2008(1)It’s observed and analyzed that, from 1999 to 2008, the density of plastic garbage is increasing year by year and significantly in the region of East – West 140W-150W, south - north 30N-40N. Therefore, we can make sure that this region is probably the center of the marine litter whirlpool. Gathering process should be such that the dispersed garbage floating in the ocean move with the ocean currents and gradually close to the whirlpool region. At the beginning, the area close to the vortex will have obviously increasable about plastic litter density, because of this centripetal they keeping move to the center of the vortex ,then with the time accumulates ,the garbage density in the center of the vortex become much bigger and bigger , at last it becomes the Pacific rubbish island we have seen today.It can be seen that through our algorithm, as long as the reference to be able to detect the density in an area which has a number of discrete measuring points,Through tracking these density changes ,we Will be able to value out all the waters of the density measurement through our models to determine,This will reduce the workload of the marine expedition team monitoring marine pollution significantly, and also saving costs .Task 3:The degradation mechanism of marine plasticsWe know that light, mechanical force, heat, oxygen, water, microbes, chemicals, etc. can result in the degradation of plastics . In mechanism ,Factors result in the degradation can be summarized as optical ，biological，and chemical。
