University of Tasmania
Browse

Microplastic distribution at different sediment depths in an urban estuary

Download (1.17 MB)
Version 2 2024-11-21, 01:05
Version 1 2023-05-19, 15:55
journal contribution
posted on 2024-11-21, 01:05 authored by Kathryn Willis, Ruth EriksenRuth Eriksen, C Wilcox, BD Hardesty
As plastic production increases, so to do the threats from plastic pollution. Microplastics (defined as plastics <5 mm) are a subset of marine debris about which we know less than we do of larger debris items, though they are potentially ubiquitous in the marine environment. To quantify the distribution and change in microplastic densities through time, we sampled sediment cores from an estuary in Tasmania, Australia. We hypothesized that the type, distribution and abundance of microplastics observed would be associated with increasing plastic production, coastal population growth, and proximity to urban water outflows and local hydrodynamics. Sediments ranging from the year 1744 to 2004 were sub-sampled from each core. We observed microplastics in every sample, with greater plastic frequencies found in the upper (more recent) sediments. This time trend of microplastic accumulation matched that of global plastic production and coastal population growth. We observed that fibers were the most abundant type of microplastic in our samples. These fibers were present in sediments that settled prior to the presence of plastics in the environment. We propose a simple statistical model to estimate the level of contamination in our samples. We suggest that the current trend in the literature suggesting very high loads of fibers, particularly in remote locations such as the deep seafloor, may be largely due to contamination.

History

Publication title

Frontiers in Marine Sciences

Volume

4

Issue

DEC

Article number

419

Number

419

Pagination

1-8

ISSN

2296-7745

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, IMAS Directorate, Office of the School of Social Sciences

Publisher

Frontiers Research Foundation

Publication status

  • Published

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Copyright 2017 The Authors Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Socio-economic Objectives

280111 Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences

UN Sustainable Development Goals

14 Life Below Water

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC