The pollution of the seas by anthropogenic debris represents a significant environmental and socioeconomic concern. It is of paramount importance to accurately monitor the amount of marine litter in the oceans. However, there is considerable variation in the reported values of marine litter concentrations in certain areas. This uncertainty can be attributed to the inadequacy of the sampling strategies employed. This study analyzes the spatial and temporal requirements for the marine litter sampling in order to obtain accurate estimates of the actual marine litter concentration with the Mediterranean Sea serving as a case study. We conducted a series observing system simulation experiments based on the outputs of a high-resolution modeling system. Our results demonstrate that the strategies employed in the majority of observational campaigns are inadequate for obtaining acceptable uncertainty ranges. The average concentration uncertainty, both spatial and temporal, was quantified in relation to the parameters of the sampling strategies.

中文翻译：

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地中海海洋凋落物浓度表征的观测要求


人为垃圾对海洋的污染是一个重大的环境和社会经济问题。准确监测海洋中的海洋垃圾数量至关重要。然而，在某些地区，海洋垃圾浓度的报告值存在相当大的差异。这种不确定性可归因于所采用的抽样策略的不足。本研究分析了海洋垃圾采样的空间和时间要求，以便以地中海为案例研究获得实际海洋垃圾浓度的准确估计。我们根据高分辨率建模系统的输出进行了一系列观测系统仿真实验。我们的结果表明，大多数观察活动中采用的策略不足以获得可接受的不确定性范围。平均浓度不确定性，包括空间和时间，都与采样策略的参数相关进行量化。