Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2020 May;154:111081. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111081. Epub 2020 Mar 27.
Microplastic (MP) pollution is an emerging problem in the marine environment and the assessment of the presence and abundance of microplastics in wild organisms is essential for risk assessment. The occurrence of microplastics in four species of barnacles at 30 sites in Hong Kong waters was investigated. The median number of microplastics ranged between 0 and 8.63 particles g wet weight, or 0 and 1.9 particles individual, with fibers being the most abundant type of microplastics. The chemical composition of 152 pieces out of 606 potential microplastics was analyzed using micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (μ-FTIR). Fifty-two of them were synthetic polymers, 95 natural cotton fibers and five unknowns. Eight types of polymer were identified with cellophane being the most abundant (58%). Correlation analysis was conducted between the abundance of MPs in sediments obtained in our previous study and that in individual barnacle species in this study, and a positive correlation was established for the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite, highlighting the potential of using this species as a bioindicator of microplastics.
微塑料（MP）污染是海洋环境中的一个新兴问题，评估野生物种中微塑料的存在和丰度对于风险评估至关重要。本研究调查了香港水域 30 个地点的 4 种藤壶中微塑料的出现情况。微塑料的中位数数量范围为 0 至 8.63 个颗粒湿重，或 0 至 1.9 个个体，其中纤维是最丰富的微塑料类型。使用微傅里叶变换红外光谱（μ-FTIR）分析了 606 个潜在微塑料中的 152 个碎片的化学成分。其中 52 个是合成聚合物，95 个是天然棉纤维，5 个未知。鉴定出 8 种聚合物，其中玻璃纸最为丰富（58%）。对本研究中从个体藤壶物种中获得的微塑料丰度与我们之前研究中沉积物中获得的微塑料丰度进行了相关性分析，发现藤壶 Amphibalanus amphitrite 呈正相关，这突出了该物种作为微塑料生物指示剂的潜力。
