0 of 4 Questions completed
Questions:
You have already completed the quiz before. Hence you can not start it again.
Quiz is loading…
You must sign in or sign up to start the quiz.
You must first complete the following:
Time has elapsed
You have reached 0 of 0 point(s), (0)
Earned Point(s): 0 of 0, (0)
0 Essay(s) Pending (Possible Point(s): 0)
Below is the first paragraph from the Discussion section of a published research paper (Eriksen M et al PLOS One 2014), split into individual sentences.
After each sentence below, fill in the blank space to show which information type is found in that sentence (d1, d2, d3, d4, d5 or d6). Here’s a quick reminder about these information types.
d1. Reference to main purpose, hypothesis, activity or findings of the study
d2. Restatement of main findings and whether they support original hypothesis/others
d3. Explanations for the findings
d4. Limitations of the study
d5. Implications of the study
d6. Recommendations for future research and/or practical applications
This is the first study that compares all sizes of floating plastic in the world’s oceans from the largest items to small microplastics.
Plastics of all sizes were found in all ocean regions, converging in accumulation zones in the subtropical gyres, including southern hemisphere gyres where coastal population density is much lower than in the northern hemisphere.
While this shows that plastic pollution has spread throughout all the world’s oceans, the comparison of size classes and weight relationships suggests that during fragmentation plastics are lost from the sea surface.
Simple comparisons across size classes allowed us to suggest possible pathways for oceanic plastics, and below we discuss these pathways and mechanisms involved.
The first paragraph of the Discussion section of published research papers often gives a summary of the main findings of the study, as well as implications of the study.
Now that you’ve dissected the first paragraph of the Discussion section of a paper (Eriksen M et al PLOS One 2014), let’s move on to the second paragraph of that same Discussion. Here it is below, split into individual sentences.
After each sentence below, fill in the blank space to show which information type is found in that sentence (d1, d2, d3, d4, d5 or d6). If there’s more than one information type in a sentence, write the smaller number in the blank space on the left side, and the larger number in the blank space on the right side. Again, below is a quick recap of the six different information types.
d1. Reference to main purpose, hypothesis, activity or findings of the study
d2. Restatement of main findings and whether they support original hypothesis/others
d3. Explanations for the findings
d4. Limitations of the study
d5. Implications of the study
d6. Recommendations for future research and/or practical applications
Plastic pollution is moved throughout the world’s oceans by the prevailing winds and surface currents.
This had been shown for the northern hemisphere where long-term surface transport (years) leads to the accumulation of plastic litter in the center of the ocean basins.
Our results confirm similar patterns for all southern hemisphere oceans.
Surprisingly, the total amounts of plastics determined for the southern hemisphere oceans are within the same range as for the northern hemisphere oceans (Table 1), which is unexpected given that inputs are substantially higher in the northern than in the southern hemisphere.
This could mean that plastic pollution is moved more easily between oceanic gyres and between hemispheres than previously assumed, leading to redistribution of plastic items through transport via oceanic currents.
Furthermore, there might also be important sources of plastic pollution in the southern hemisphere that had not been accounted for, such as currents from the Bay of Bengal that cross the equator south of Indonesia.
The information types found in the Discussion section of research papers (d1, d2, d3, d4, d5 and d6) are not necessarily presented in numerical order. Moreover, sometimes you need to read the next sentence or two before you can determine what type of information a particular sentence contains.
Below is the penultimate paragraph of the Discussion section from the same published research paper we drew upon in the previous two questions (Eriksen M et al PLOS One 2014).
The paragraph has been split into individual sentences. Put a number in each of the blank spaces after each sentence, to denote what type of information is contained in that sentence (d1, d2, d3, d4, d5 or d6). If there’s more than one information type in a sentence, write the smaller number in the blank space immediately after the sentence, and the larger number in the blank space on the right hand side. Remember the six different information types, below.
d1. Reference to main purpose, hypothesis, activity or findings of the study
d2. Restatement of main findings and whether they support original hypothesis/others
d3. Explanations for the findings
d4. Limitations of the study
d5. Implications of the study
d6. Recommendations for future research and/or practical applications
However, we stress that our estimates are highly conservative, and may be considered minimum estimates.
Our estimates of macroplastic are based on a limited inventory of ocean observations, and would be vastly improved with standardization of methods and more observations.
They also do not account for the potentially massive amount of plastic present on shorelines, on the seabed, suspended in the water column, and within organisms.
In fact, the larger weight of macroplastic relative to meso- and microplastic, and the global estimate of floating plastic weight relative to the weight of plastic produced annually, indicates that the sea surface is likely not the ultimate sink for plastic pollution.
Though significant proportions of meso- and macroplastics may be stranding on coastlines (where some of it could be recovered), removal of microplastics, colonized by biota or mixed with organic debris, becomes economically and ecologically prohibitive, if not completely impractical to recover.
This leaves sequestration in sediment the likely resting place for plastic pollution after a myriad of biological impacts along the way, thus reinforcing the need for pre-consumer and post-consumer waste stream solutions to reverse this growing environmental problem.
The sentences in this paragraph contain information of type d4 (limitations), d5 (implications) or d6 (recommendations).
Since we’re on a roll with this, let’s now look at the final paragraph of this paper on plastic pollution in the sea (Eriksen M et al PLOS One 2014).
Below is each sentence in that final paragraph. Fill in the blank space after each sentence to denote which type of information (d1, d2, d3, d4, d5 or d6) is contained in that sentence. Just to recap the information types, please see below.
d1. Reference to main purpose, hypothesis, activity or findings of the study
d2. Restatement of main findings and whether they support original hypothesis/others
d3. Explanations for the findings
d4. Limitations of the study
d5. Implications of the study
d6. Recommendations for future research and/or practical applications
By generating extensive new data, especially from the Southern Hemisphere, and modeling the plastic load in the world’s oceans in separate size classes, we show that there is tremendous loss of microplastics from the sea surface.
The question “Where is all the Plastic?” remains unanswered, highlighting the need to investigate the many processes that play a role in the dynamics of macro-, meso- and microplastics in the world’s oceans.
Just because this is the last paragraph of the Discussion, doesn’t mean it has to contain only information pertaining to d5 (implications) or d6 (recommendations).
Name:
Type:
View