Are we underestimating microplastic abundance in the marine environment? A comparison of microplastic capture with nets of different mesh-size
| Autor: | Rachael Z. Miller, Rachel L. Coppock, Alice Wilson-McNeal, Tamara S. Galloway, Penelope K. Lindeque, Stephanie L. Wright, Matthew Cole, Ceri Lewis, Andrew J. R. Watts |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Pollution
Ocean Microplastics 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis media_common.quotation_subject Marine life 010501 environmental sciences Plastic Toxicology 01 natural sciences Abundance (ecology) Sampling Atlantic Ocean 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common Pollutant Sampling (statistics) General Medicine Debris Net Oceanography Environmental science Plastics Environmental Sciences Water Pollutants Chemical Environmental Monitoring |
| Zdroj: | Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987). 265 |
| ISSN: | 1873-6424 |
| Popis: | 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 |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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