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PNAS

Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world’s most remote and pristine islands

Overview of attention for article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, May 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Citations

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362 Dimensions

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mendeley
616 Mendeley
Title
Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world’s most remote and pristine islands
Published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, May 2017
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1619818114
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jennifer L. Lavers, Alexander L. Bond

Abstract

In just over half a century plastic products have revolutionized human society and have infiltrated terrestrial and marine environments in every corner of the globe. The hazard plastic debris poses to biodiversity is well established, but mitigation and planning are often hampered by a lack of quantitative data on accumulation patterns. Here we document the amount of debris and rate of accumulation on Henderson Island, a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific. The density of debris was the highest reported anywhere in the world, up to 671.6 items/m(2) (mean ± SD: 239.4 ± 347.3 items/m(2)) on the surface of the beaches. Approximately 68% of debris (up to 4,496.9 pieces/m(2)) on the beach was buried <10 cm in the sediment. An estimated 37.7 million debris items weighing a total of 17.6 tons are currently present on Henderson, with up to 26.8 new items/m accumulating daily. Rarely visited by humans, Henderson Island and other remote islands may be sinks for some of the world's increasing volume of waste.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 385 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 616 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Brazil 2 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Netherlands 1 <1%
Australia 1 <1%
Italy 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
Israel 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Denmark 1 <1%
Other 1 <1%
Unknown 605 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 101 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 90 15%
Student > Master 90 15%
Student > Bachelor 71 12%
Other 32 5%
Other 84 14%
Unknown 148 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Environmental Science 150 24%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 119 19%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 42 7%
Engineering 33 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 17 3%
Other 78 13%
Unknown 177 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2485. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 October 2023.
All research outputs
#3,126
of 25,513,063 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#94
of 103,264 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#29
of 325,084 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#1
of 927 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,513,063 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 103,264 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 39.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 325,084 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 927 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.