Genchi Luca, Martin Cecilia, Laptenok Sergey P, Baalkhuyur Fadiyah, Duarte Carlos M, Liberale Carlo
Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
Red Sea Research Center and Computational Bioscience Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia; Red Sea Global, SEZ Department of Environmental Sustainability, AlRaidah Digital City, Riyadh 12382 - 6726, Saudi Arabia.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Sep 20;892:164671. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164671. Epub 2023 Jun 7.
The abundance of anthropogenic debris dispersed in the environment is exponentially growing, raising concerns about marine life and human exposure to microplastics. Microfibers are the most abundant microplastic type in the environment. However, recent research suggests that most microfibers dispersed in the environment are not made of synthetic polymers. In this work, we systematically tested this assumption by determining the man-made or natural origin of microfibers found in different environments, including surface waters, sediments at depths >5000 m and highly sensitive habitats like mangroves and seagrass, and treated water using stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. Our findings show that ¾ of analyzed microfibers are of natural origin. One plastic fiber is estimated per every 50 L in surface seawater, every 5 L in desalinated drinking water, every 3 g in deep sea sediments and every 27 g in coastal sediments. Synthetic fibers were significantly larger in surface seawaters compared to organic fibers due to higher resistance to solar radiation. These results emphasize the necessity of using spectroscopical methods to assess the origin of environmental microfibers to accurately estimate the abundance of synthetic materials in the environment.
环境中分散的人为碎片数量呈指数级增长，这引发了人们对海洋生物以及人类接触微塑料的担忧。微纤维是环境中最常见的微塑料类型。然而，最近的研究表明，分散在环境中的大多数微纤维并非由合成聚合物制成。在这项工作中，我们通过使用受激拉曼散射（SRS）显微镜确定在不同环境中发现的微纤维的人为或天然来源，系统地验证了这一假设，这些环境包括地表水、深度大于5000米的沉积物以及红树林和海草等高度敏感的栖息地，还有处理后的水。我们的研究结果表明，四分之三的分析微纤维是天然来源。估计在表层海水中每50升有一根塑料纤维，在淡化饮用水中每5升有一根，在深海沉积物中每3克有一根，在沿海沉积物中每27克有一根。与有机纤维相比，合成纤维在表层海水中明显更大，这是因为它们对太阳辐射的抵抗力更强。这些结果强调了使用光谱方法评估环境微纤维来源以准确估计环境中合成材料数量的必要性。
