Are we underestimating microplastic abundance in the marine environment? A comparison of microplastic capture with nets of different mesh-size.

Autor: Lindeque PK; Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK. Electronic address: pkw@pml.ac.uk., Cole M; Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK., Coppock RL; Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK., Lewis CN; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK., Miller RZ; Rozalia Project, PO Box 3075, Burlington, VT, 05408, USA., Watts AJR; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK., Wilson-McNeal A; Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK., Wright SL; MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Analytical, Environmental and Forensic Sciences, King's College London, London, SE1 9NH, UK., Galloway TS; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) [Environ Pollut] 2020 Oct; Vol. 265 (Pt A), pp. 114721. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 May 03.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114721
Abstrakt: Microplastic debris is ubiquitous and yet sampling, classifying and enumerating this prolific pollutant in marine waters has proven challenging. Typically, waterborne microplastic sampling is undertaken using nets with a 333 μm mesh, which cannot account for smaller debris. In this study, we provide an estimate of the extent to which microplastic concentrations are underestimated with traditional sampling. Our efforts focus on coastal waters, where microplastics are predicted to have the greatest influence on marine life, on both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean. Microplastic debris was collected via surface trawls using 100, 333 and 500 μm nets. Our findings show that sampling using nets with a 100 μm mesh resulted in the collection of 2.5-fold and 10-fold greater microplastic concentrations compared with using 333 and 500 μm meshes respectively (P < 0.01). Based on the relationship between microplastic concentrations identified and extrapolation of our data using a power law, we estimate that microplastic concentrations could exceed 3700 microplastics m -3 if a net with a 1 μm mesh size is used. We further identified that use of finer nets resulted in the collection of significantly thinner and shorter microplastic fibres (P < 0.05). These results elucidate that estimates of marine microplastic concentrations could currently be underestimated.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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