GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre of Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany.
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre of Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Sep 20;736:139493. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139493. Epub 2020 May 20.
Microplastics are ubiquitous to most marine environments worldwide, and their management has become one of the major challenges facing stakeholders. Here we monitored monthly, between March 2018 and March 2019, the abundance of microplastics (0.3-18.2 mm) at the sea surface within the Kiel Fjord, southwest Baltic Sea. Microplastics were sampled at eight locations, inside and outside the fjord, near potential source of microplastics, such as the outlets of storm drains or the Kiel-Bülk wastewater treatment plant, the Schwentine River mouth and the entrance of the Kiel Canal. Weather (wind, precipitations) and seawater (salinity, temperature) parameters were compared to the spatiotemporal distribution of the microplastics. We found an overall stable, and low (0.04 particles/m), microplastic load within the Kiel Fjord compared to other urban areas worldwide with comparable population densities. No relationship was found between the microplastic abundance and the environmental factors, but the few samples that yielded unusually high amount of microplastics were all preceded by rainfall and snow/ice melt. During such events, vast amounts of water, potentially contaminated with microplastics, were released into the fjord via the storm drainage system. The microplastic abundances at the wastewater plant outflow were among the lowest of our survey, likely thanks to an efficient filtering system. The results of this study highlight the importance to repeat microplastic samplings over time and space to determine with confidence baseline microplastic abundance and to detect unusual acute contamination, especially during snow and ice melting. Overall, the microplastic abundance within the Kiel Fjord was low, probably thanks to efficient waste management on land. However, improvements are still needed to filter millimetre-sized particles within the storm drainage system, which is likely a major source of microplastics into the marine environment.
微塑料在全球大多数海洋环境中普遍存在，其管理已成为利益相关者面临的主要挑战之一。在这里，我们在 2018 年 3 月至 2019 年 3 月期间每月监测了西南波罗的海基尔峡湾内海面微塑料（0.3-18.2 毫米）的丰度。在峡湾内外、可能有微塑料来源的地方（如雨水排水口或基尔-比尔克污水处理厂、施文廷河口和基尔运河入口），在八个地点采集了微塑料样本。比较了天气（风和降水）和海水（盐度、温度）参数与微塑料的时空分布。与其他人口密度相当的世界城市地区相比，我们发现基尔峡湾内的微塑料负荷总体上稳定且较低（0.04 个/颗粒）。微塑料丰度与环境因素之间没有关系，但少数几个微塑料含量异常高的样本都发生在降雨和雪/冰融化之前。在这些事件中，大量可能受到微塑料污染的水通过雨水排水系统被排入峡湾。污水处理厂出水口的微塑料丰度是我们调查中最低的，这可能要归功于有效的过滤系统。本研究结果强调了重复进行时空微塑料采样的重要性，以有信心确定基线微塑料丰度并检测异常急性污染，特别是在雪和冰融化期间。总的来说，基尔峡湾内的微塑料丰度较低，这可能要归功于陆地上有效的废物管理。然而，仍需要改进雨水排水系统中的毫米级颗粒过滤，这可能是微塑料进入海洋环境的主要来源。
