Frontal processes as drivers of floating marine debris in coastal areas.

The influence of floating marine debris (FMD) on coastal and marine communities and ecosystems is undeniable, and attention is increasingly focused on ecologically and biologically important coastal areas. To protect marine life and valuable resources from FMD pollution, identifying FMD accumulation zones is recognized as a priority. One of the coastal ocean processes found governing the distribution of FMD is water convergence (frontal zones). These fronts are driven by various oceanographical factors. To date, the transport and accumulation of FMD in relation to fronts in coastal areas is poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we reviewed various types of ocean fronts as well as FMD accumulation along frontal zones in coastal areas defined as the region between the coastline and the shelf break. Frontogenesis (physical processes related to frontal formation) were reviewed alongside studies on FMD accumulation in frontal zones to identify physical factors that drive the pathways and accumulation in these areas. This review will contribute to our understanding of accumulation hotspots of FMD within ocean fronts and identify gaps for further research on developing a proxy for FMD hotspot identification in ecologically important coastal areas.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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