standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.| relation to other work | claim_relations | how this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies |
| claim type | claim_type | the shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null |
| concept edge | concept_edges | an asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it |
| concept | concepts | an idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it |
| content tag | content_tags | a finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper |
| contribution | contribution | what the paper claims to add |
| control | controls | an experiment run to eliminate a rival explanation |
| limitation | limitations | what the paper says its evidence cannot support |
| mechanism | mechanisms | how the reported effect is said to come about |
| method | method | how the paper produced its evidence |
| object of study | object_of_study | what the paper is about — the thing it investigates |
| phenomenon | phenomenon | the effect or regularity under study |
| research question | research_question | the question the paper sets itself |
| sense | senses | a distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it |
| transfer | transfers | a method or concept carried in from another field |
Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; 2 of 2 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.
| facet | tag | field | conf. | whose words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| object_of_study | where the manufactured plastic that surveys cannot account for has gone, and whether deep-sea sediment holds it Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | object_of_study | the paper's words | |
| research_question | how abundant and how widespread microplastic contamination is across a range of deep-sea depths and locations Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | research_question | the paper's words | |
| contribution | microplastic fibres in all 12 sediment cores and all four coral samples from three oceans, at up to four orders of magnitude greater abundance per unit volume than heavily contaminated surface water - and the demonstration that the one previous deep-sea survey found little because it did not count fibres Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | contribution | the paper's words | |
| claim_type | existence Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_type | the paper's words | |
| phenomenon | accumulation of plastic microfibres on the deep-sea floor - a repository large enough to bear on the missing-plastic budget, and unsampled until now Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | phenomenon | the paper's words | |
| method | field-study Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: field-study | method | the paper's words | |
| mechanisms | a positively buoyant plastic floats when it enters the sea, and fouling by organisms and adherence of particles change its density over weeks to months until it sinks - so the compartment a plastic is found in is a function of how long it has been there Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | mechanisms[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| mechanisms | surface tension and currents hold most plastic at the surface; colonisation, adherence to phytoplankton and aggregation into marine snow bind fibres into larger, faster-settling particles, which is how a fibre reaches 3500 m Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: aggregation as a delivery route | mechanisms[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| mechanisms | dense shelf water cascading, coastal storms, offshore convection and saline subduction all move large volumes of particle-loaded water downslope, carrying a full spectrum of grain sizes together with litter and contaminants, and submarine canyons concentrate the flow Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | mechanisms[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| mechanisms | the fibres are the most numerous particle type in shallow habitats, so a protocol that does not enumerate fibres returns a low number from sediment that contains many - the difference between the two deep-sea reports is a decision about what to write down, and the authors demonstrated it on split samples rather than arguing it Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | mechanisms[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | no statistical comparison of abundance or composition between samples is possible - the authors name the lack of replicates, the small sample size and the methodological differences, and decline to make one Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | the four-orders-of-magnitude comparison with surface water is qualitative, because surface waters and sediments are sampled by different methods Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | whether fibres dominate sediment and fragments dominate the surface is a real distribution or an artefact of sampling method cannot be determined at present Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | the precise origin of individual microplastic debris cannot currently be established, although the polymer types point to diverse domestic and industrial sources Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | the coral samples were never quantitative - fibres were not extracted exhaustively and only presence or absence was recorded Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | rayon, which the authors state is not a plastic, is included in the counts and supplies 56.9% of the fibres reported Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[5] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | the 4 billion fibres per square kilometre figure is an extrapolation, offered on the most conservative estimates Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[6] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | few studies examine the biological effects of microplastics at all, so what this abundance implies for harm is not established here Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[7] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| transfers | particle-transport mechanisms carried from physical oceanography - cascading, convection, saline subduction, canyon funnelling and Taylor columns - to explain how a textile fibre reaches the abyssal floor Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | transfers[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| transfers | marine snow, a biological-oceanography construct for aggregated organic debris, used as the vehicle that makes a buoyant synthetic fibre settle Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | transfers[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | every preservation and processing fluid filtered through a 32 um sieve before use, and the fresh and salt water supplies sampled for an hour daily and screened for fibres Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: the laboratory's own water as the source of the fibres - a fibre that arrived in the rinse would be indistinguishable from one that arrived from the seafloor · outcome: held | controls[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | the spectra of the actual waterproofs and laboratory gloves used during collection and processing added to the FT-IR reference library, so that a fibre shed from them would be identified as such rather than as an unknown polymer Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: the investigators' own equipment as the source of the identified polymers - without the spectra in the library a glove fibre matches nothing and is simply an unmatched particle · outcome: held | controls[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | all residue sediment checked for the larger plastic particles the previous deep-sea study described, not only for the fibres this study was looking for Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: this protocol having simply traded one blind spot for another - the check asks whether the particles the other method counts were present and missed · outcome: held | controls[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | two extraction methods used by two independent teams, with the specific gravities of the separating substances reported against each other - 1.2 for NaCl, 1.16 for Ludox Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: either laboratory's separation chemistry as the source of the result, to the extent that a float separation is characterised by its density · outcome: partial | controls[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | their own deep-sea samples split and run through both this protocol and the protocol of the one previous deep-sea study, rather than comparing published numbers Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: a real difference between sites as the explanation of the disagreement with the previous report - the same sediment cannot differ from itself · outcome: held | controls[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | damp filter paper exposed to the laboratory air whenever samples were open, as a check on airborne contamination during processing Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: airborne microplastic fibres settling into the samples during processing - the whole finding is fibres in deep-sea sediment, and the laboratory air is the rival source · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held | controls[5] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | natural fibre clothing only, with 100% cotton coats and headwear and latex gloves, for all laboratory processing and for the JC76T cruise Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: synthetic fibres shed from the handlers' own clothing, which would be indistinguishable from the microplastic being counted · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held | controls[6] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | FT-IR acceptance thresholds on the spectral quality index - 0.7 and above accepted, 0.6 to 0.7 inspected individually, below 0.6 rejected Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: false polymer identifications from poor-quality FT-IR spectra, with the middle band inspected by hand rather than accepted or dropped wholesale · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held | controls[7] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| concepts | microplastics Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: microplastics | concepts[0] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | microfibres Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: microfibres | concepts[1] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | Rayon Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: Rayon | concepts[2] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | polyester Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: polyester | concepts[3] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | missing fraction Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: missing fraction | concepts[4] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | deep-sea sediments Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: deep-sea sediments | concepts[5] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | marine snow Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: marine snow | concepts[6] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | dense shelf water cascading Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: dense shelf water cascading | concepts[7] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | quality index Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: quality index | concepts[8] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | specific gravities Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: specific gravities | concepts[9] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | octocorals Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: octocorals | concepts[10] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| senses | deep-sea microplastic abundance - UNDER THE PREVIOUS PROTOCOL: very low, from a method that did not enumerate fibres at all Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | deep-sea microplastic abundance - UNDER THIS PROTOCOL, ON THE SAME SPLIT SAMPLES: substantially greater, with the other method shown to underestimate Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | the reported count - AS A COUNT OF FIBRES: 13.4 pieces per 50 ml, 1.4 to 40 across the cores, every one of them fibrous in shape Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | the reported count - AS A COUNT OF PLASTIC: a minority of it, since rayon is 56.9% of the fibres and the authors state that rayon is not a plastic Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | the comparison with surface water - AS THE ABSTRACT PUTS IT: up to four orders of magnitude more abundant per unit volume than contaminated sea-surface waters Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | the comparison with surface water - AS THE DISCUSSION QUALIFIES IT: qualitative, because different methods sample the two compartments Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[5] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| claim_relations | critiques → routine environmental monitoring of plastic debris, which has produced little evidence of the expected increase and leaves temporal trends unresolved in most datasets because microplastics were not included Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_relations[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| claim_relations | qualifies → the one previous report of microplastics in the deep sea, whose very low abundance is attributed here to a protocol that did not enumerate fibres - tested on split samples, not asserted Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_relations[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| claim_relations | extends → Van Cauwenberghe et al., with which this paper is offered jointly as the first evidence of global sinks for microplastic debris - the same study it corrects on method Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_relations[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| claim_relations | qualifies → its own headline comparison - the four-orders-of-magnitude figure is qualitative, and no statistical comparison between samples is attempted Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_relations[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| claim_relations | critiques → the field's methodological inconsistency, which the authors say must be fixed before robust temporal and spatial comparisons are possible at all Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_relations[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| concept_edges | Rayon —contrasted-with→ polyester Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. differs in: how much of the reported abundance each supplies, and whether it is a plastic · the relation itself is separately evidenced · strength of the relation: 0.95 · differs in (stated by the tagger, no quotation): how much of the reported abundance each supplies, and whether it is a plastic · the relation stated: rayon supplies more than twice the count polyester does, and only one of the two is a plastic | concept_edges[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| concept_edges | microfibres —contrasted-with→ deep-sea sediments Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. differs in: whether the compartment or the sampling method produces the size distribution · the relation itself is separately evidenced · strength of the relation: 0.9 · differs in (stated by the tagger, no quotation): whether the compartment or the sampling method produces the size distribution · the relation stated: sediment studies find mostly fibres while sea-surface studies find mostly larger fragments, and which is real cannot yet be decided
Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its span and kept, but the span contrasts sediment with sea-surface studies; the endpoints are loose. also in: microfibres · deep-sea sediments | concept_edges[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | FT-IR confirmed microplastic fibres in all 12 sediment samples and all coral samples. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | rayon, which the authors state is not a plastic, supplies 56.9% of the fibres counted as microplastics Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | On split samples, the other study's method underestimated microplastic concentration relative to this study's fibre-recording approach. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | deep-sea sediment carries about four orders of magnitude more microplastic per unit volume than heavily contaminated surface water, on a comparison the authors call qualitative Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | no statistical comparison between samples is attempted, for lack of replicates and consistency of method Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | whether sediment holds fibres and the surface holds fragments is a real distribution or a sampling artefact cannot be determined Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[5] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | a man-made non-plastic polymer, included in this paper's microplastic counts by a stated decision because it is semi-synthetic and widely reported in the marine environment Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: Rayon | content_tags.definitions[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | the FT-IR spectral match score used to accept or reject an identification - accepted at 0.7 and above, inspected by hand between 0.6 and 0.7, rejected below 0.6 Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: quality index | content_tags.definitions[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | rayon's share of the total number of fibres seen - the majority of the reported count, and not a plastic Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.quantities[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | polyester's share OF THE REMAINING fibres, i.e. of the non-rayon fraction, not of the total Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.quantities[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | the range of plastic microfibre abundance across the sediment cores, in pieces per 50 ml Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.quantities[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | fibres per square kilometre of Indian Ocean seamount sediment, extrapolated on the most conservative estimates Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.quantities[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | the specific gravity of the Ludox-TM 40 separation, against 1.2 for the NaCl one - the number the two teams' comparability rests on Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.quantities[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | mean Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: mean | content_tags.statistics[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | microplastic abundance Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: microplastic abundance | content_tags.variables[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | quality index Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: quality index | content_tags.variables[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
Tags that could not be placed in the text:
What was deliberately not tagged, and why, is recorded per paper by the tagger. Where a paper has no such record, this page says so rather than implying that nothing was declined.