Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Ferry Reach, St.George's GE 01, St.George's, Bermuda.
School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jun 21;8(1):9428. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-27612-w.
Microplastics are an increasingly important contaminant in the marine environment. Depending on their composition and degree of biofouling, many common microplastics are less dense than seawater and so tend to float at or near the ocean surface. As such, they may exhibit high concentrations in the sea surface microlayer (SML - the upper 1-1000 μm of the ocean) relative to deeper water. This paper examines the accumulation of microplastics, in particular microfibres, in the SML in two contrasting estuarine systems - the Hamble estuary and the Beaulieu estuary, southern U.K., via a novel and rapid SML-selective sampling method using a dipped glass plate. Microplastic concentrations (for identified fibres, of 0.05 to 4.5 mm length) were highest in the SML-selective samples (with a mean concentration of 43 ± 36 fibres/L), compared to <5 fibres/L for surface and sub-surface bulk water samples. Data collected show the usefulness of the dipped glass plate method as a rapid and inexpensive tool for sampling SML-associated microplastics in estuaries, and indicate that microplastics preferentially accumulate at the SML in estuarine conditions (providing a potential transfer mechanism for incorporation into upper intertidal sinks). Fibres are present (and readily sampled) in both developed and more pristine estuarine systems.
微塑料是海洋环境中一种日益重要的污染物。根据其组成和生物附着程度的不同，许多常见的微塑料密度比海水低，因此往往漂浮在海洋表面或附近。因此，与深海相比，它们在海洋表面微层（SML-海洋上层 1-1000μm）中的浓度可能较高。本文通过一种新颖而快速的 SML 选择性采样方法（使用浸入式玻璃平板），研究了两种不同的河口系统（英国南部的汉布尔河口和比尤利河口）中微塑料（特别是微纤维）在 SML 中的积累情况。与表面和次表面大体积水样中的<5 纤维/L 相比，SML 选择性样品中的微塑料浓度（识别出的纤维长度为 0.05 至 4.5 毫米）最高（平均浓度为 43±36 纤维/L）。收集到的数据表明，浸入式玻璃平板法是一种快速且廉价的河口 SML 相关微塑料采样工具，并且表明微塑料在河口条件下优先在 SML 中积累（为纳入上潮间带汇提供了潜在的转移机制）。纤维存在于发达和较原始的河口系统中（并且易于采样）。
