Southeastern Australian waters are the primary focus of this dataset, which inventories peer-reviewed studies and citizen science data on microplastics. It summarizes basic study information including location, environmental compartment (water, sediment, biota), biota type, and publication DOI. The dataset was compiled by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated on 2026-04-28.
Use Cases
- Mapping the geographic distribution of microplastics research based on study locations.
- Analyzing research focus across different environmental compartments (water, sediment, biota).
- Identifying gaps in biotic studies based on the recorded types of organisms sampled.
- Linking summarized findings to original publications using the provided DOIs.
Strengths
- Includes studies from both peer-reviewed literature and ongoing citizen science programs like AUSMAP.
- Summarizes key study attributes including location, environmental compartment, and publication identifier.
Limitations
- Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- The review for regions outside southeastern Australia (QLD, NT, SA, WA, Tas) is explicitly noted as non-comprehensive.
Provenance
- Source
- Australian Ocean Data Network
- Collection Method
- Compiled from a review of peer-reviewed publications and ongoing citizen science programs.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-04-28 22:53:20.716766; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Primarily South Eastern Australia (South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales), with some studies from other Australian regions.