Estuarine and Coastal Monitoring and Assessment Service, Environment Agency, Kingfisher House, Goldhay Way, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough PE2 5ZR, United Kingdom.
Natural England, Suite D, Unex House, Bourges Boulevard, Peterborough PE1 1NG, United Kingdom.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2020 Feb;151:110788. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110788. Epub 2019 Dec 18.
Plastic litter is an increasingly significant problem in the marine environment. Our study looks at a cost-effective method to quantify larger fractions of microplastics in marine sediments as an opportunistic addition to standard benthic infauna sampling. A subsample of microplastics (>1 mm) were enumerated and categorised from sediment samples collected as part of standard benthic habitat monitoring in twenty-two Marine Protected Areas across English inshore waters. Microplastic particles were found in 61.2% of the samples collected, with mean density per study site ranging from 0.2 in Dover to Deal MCZ to 42.7 in The Mersey Estuary Special Protection Area microplastic particles per 0.1 m. High densities of plastic were found at remote sites, as well as those closer to urban or industrialised areas. Spatial protection measures such as MPAs are not themselves a suitable tool to tackle marine plastic pollution which should be addressed upstream at source.
塑料垃圾是海洋环境中一个日益严重的问题。我们的研究着眼于一种经济有效的方法，以便在标准底栖无脊椎动物采样的基础上，对海洋沉积物中的较大部分微塑料进行定量分析。从在英格兰近岸水域的 22 个海洋保护区收集的底栖生境监测标准样本中抽取一部分微塑料（>1 毫米）进行计数和分类。在所采集的样本中，有 61.2%发现了微塑料颗粒，每个研究点的平均密度范围从多佛尔和迪尔海洋保护区的 0.2 到默西河河口特别保护区的 42.7 个/0.1 米。在偏远地区以及靠近城市或工业化地区的地方，发现了高密度的塑料。空间保护措施（如 MPAs）本身并不是解决海洋塑料污染的合适工具，应该在源头的上游加以解决。
