Microplastic hotspots mapped across the Southern Ocean reveal areas of potential ecological impact.

Marine microplastic is pervasive, polluting the remotest ecosystems including the Southern Ocean. Since this region is already undergoing climatic changes, the additional stress of microplastic pollution on the ecosystem should not be considered in isolation. We identify potential hotspot areas of ecological impact from a spatial overlap analysis of multiple data sets to understand where marine biota are likely to interact with local microplastic emissions (from ship traffic and human populations associated with scientific research and tourism).

Population density and temperature correlate with long-term trends in somatic growth rates and maturation schedules of herring and sprat.

We examine long-term trends in the average growth rates and maturation schedules of herring and sprat populations using survey data collected from the North Sea and west of Scotland since the 1960s and 1980s respectively. Otolith age data and maturity data are used to calculate time series of mean lengths at age, von Bertalanffy growth parameters, and probabilistic maturation reaction norms. As the growth and maturation of fish is known to be influenced by temperature and stock abundances, we account for these variables using Generalised Additive Models.