Allen D, Allen S, Le Roux G, Simonneau A, Galop D, Phoenix V R
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G11XJ, Scotland.
Laboratoire écologie fonctionnelle et environnement, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse 31062, France.
Environ Sci Technol Lett. 2021 Nov 9;8(11):954-960. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00697. Epub 2021 Oct 25.
Ombrotrophic peatland-fed solely from atmospheric deposition of nutrients and precipitation-provide unique archives of atmospheric pollution and have been used to illustrate trends and changes in atmospheric trace element composition from the recent decadal to the Holocene period. With the acknowledgment of atmosphere plastic pollution, analysis of ombrotrophic peat presents an opportunity to characterize the historical atmospheric microplastic pollution prevalence. Ombrotrophic peatland is often located in comparatively pristine mountainous and boreal areas, acting as sentinels of environmental change. In this paired site study, a ombrotrophic peat record is used for the first time to identify the trend of atmospheric microplastic pollution. This high altitude, remote location ombrotrophic peat archive pilot study identifies microplastic presence in the atmospheric pollution record, increasing from <5(±1) particles/m/day in the 1960s to 178(±72) particles/m/day in 2015-2020 in a trend similar to the European plastic production and waste management. Compared to this catchment's lake sediment archive, the ombrotrophic peat core appears to be effective in collecting and representing atmospheric microplastic deposition in this remote catchment, collecting microplastic particles that are predominantly ≤20 μm. This study suggests that peat records may be a useful tool in assessing the past quantities and trends of atmospheric microplastic.
雨养泥炭地仅依靠大气养分沉降和降水补给，它提供了大气污染的独特记录，并已被用于阐释从最近几十年到全新世时期大气微量元素组成的趋势和变化。随着大气塑料污染问题受到关注，对雨养泥炭的分析为描述历史大气微塑料污染流行情况提供了契机。雨养泥炭地通常位于相对原始的山区和北方地区，充当着环境变化的哨兵。在这项配对地点研究中，首次利用雨养泥炭记录来确定大气微塑料污染的趋势。这项高海拔、偏远地区的雨养泥炭档案试点研究在大气污染记录中识别出微塑料的存在，其数量从20世纪60年代的<5（±1）颗/立方米/天增加到2015 - 2020年的178（±72）颗/立方米/天，趋势与欧洲塑料生产和废物管理情况相似。与该集水区的湖泊沉积物档案相比，雨养泥炭芯似乎能有效收集和呈现这个偏远集水区的大气微塑料沉积情况，收集到的微塑料颗粒主要≤20微米。这项研究表明，泥炭记录可能是评估过去大气微塑料数量和趋势的有用工具。
