State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200241, China.
State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200241, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2021 Jul 15;414:125477. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125477. Epub 2021 Feb 22.
The presence of microplastics (MPs) in the atmosphere is a global concern because of its environmental and health impacts; however, the monsoonal transport of atmospheric MPs has not yet been investigated. To fully understand the effect of the monsoon on atmospheric MP transport, we conducted a study along the southeast coast of China during the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). We found that the EASM transports atmospheric MPs back onto the continent at a flux of up to 212.977-213.433 kg/EASM/year. The backward trajectory and wind field results indicate that the EASM provides an effective MP transport pathway from Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia to southeastern China. This suggests that only some of the airborne MPs over the ocean enter the marine ecosystem. The average abundance of atmospheric MPs over the sampling area was 0.39 items/100 m (0.39 ± 0.43 items/100 m) during the EASM season, with high variability among the sampling sites. This study improves our understanding of the impact of the EASM on atmospheric MP transport, which can help quantify the contributions of atmospheric MPs to marine or terrestrial ecosystems.
大气中微塑料（MPs）的存在是一个全球性的关注点，因为其对环境和健康有影响；然而，大气 MPs 的季风传输尚未被研究过。为了全面了解季风对大气 MP 传输的影响，我们在中国东南沿海进行了一项研究，该研究是在东亚夏季风（EASM）期间进行的。我们发现，EASM 将大气 MPs 以高达 212.977-213.433 千克/东亚夏季风/年的通量输送回大陆。后向轨迹和风向场结果表明，EASM 为来自越南、菲律宾和马来西亚的 MPs 向中国东南部的传输提供了一条有效途径。这表明，只有部分海洋上空的空气传播 MPs 进入海洋生态系统。在 EASM 季节，采样区域大气 MPs 的平均丰度为 0.39 个/100 m（0.39±0.43 个/100 m），采样点之间的变化很大。本研究提高了我们对 EASM 对大气 MP 传输影响的认识，这有助于量化大气 MPs 对海洋或陆地生态系统的贡献。
