Can a Sediment Core Reveal the Plastic Age? Microplastic Preservation in a Coastal Sedimentary Record
The seafloor is the major sink for microplastic (MP) pollutants. However, there is a lack of robust data on the historical evolution of MP pollution in the sediment compartment, particularly the sequestration and burial rate of small MPs. By combining a palaeoceanographic approach and state-of-the-a...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositório: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:269552 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/269552 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c04264 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Microplastics Sediments Weathering Carbonyl index Accumulation |
| Resumo: | The seafloor is the major sink for microplastic (MP) pollutants. However, there is a lack of robust data on the historical evolution of MP pollution in the sediment compartment, particularly the sequestration and burial rate of small MPs. By combining a palaeoceanographic approach and state-of-the-art analytical methods for MP identification down to 11 μm in size, we present the first high-resolution reconstruction of MP pollution from an undisturbed sediment core collected in the NW Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, we investigate the fate of MPs once buried in the sediments by evaluating the changes in the size distribution of the MPs and the weathering status of the polyolefins, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Our results indicate that the MP mass sequestered in the sediment compartment mimics the global plastic production from 1965 to 2016. We observed an increase in the weathering status of the polyolefins as the size decreased. However, the variability in the size and weathering status of the MPs throughout the sedimentary record indicated that these pollutants, once incorporated into sediments, remain preserved with no further degradation under conditions lacking remobilization. Microplastics sequestered into undisturbed marine sediments remain preserved with no signal of further degradation over time. |
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