Key Laboratory of Analytical Technology Development and Offshore Eco-Environment Conservation, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China.
Key Laboratory of Analytical Technology Development and Offshore Eco-Environment Conservation, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China; College of Safety and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jul 15;934:173072. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173072. Epub 2024 May 9.
The pollution of deep-sea microplastics has received increasing attention. As a special ecosystem in the deep sea, the cold seep area is of great significance for studying the distribution of microplastics in the deep sea. In this work, the distribution and characteristics of microplastics in seawater, sediments, and shellfish in the Haima cold seep area and the correlation between the characteristics of microplastics in different media and the type of media were studied. Microplastics were found in all three media. The abundance of microplastics in different samples from the Haima cold seep area ranged 1.8-3.8 items/L for the seawater, 11.47-96.8 items/kg (d.w.) for the surface sediments, and 0-5 items/individual (0-0.714 items/g) for the shellfish. The amount of microplastics ingested by shellfish varied among different species. The microplastics in these three media were mainly fibrous, dark-colored, small-sized rayon, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene (PE). In the correlation analysis of microplastic characteristics among the three media, it was found that the characteristics of microplastics in different media in the same area were closely related, and each pair of variables showed a significant positive correlation (P ≤ 0.05). The distinctive geographical conditions would accelerate the interchange of microplastics among various media. Principal component analysis showed that habitat contribute to microplastic feature differences in shellfish. Differences in correlation were observed between the characteristics of shellfish microplastics in different regions and the characteristics of microplastics in surrounding seawater and sediments.
深海微塑料污染受到了越来越多的关注。冷泉区作为深海中的一种特殊生态系统，对于研究深海中微塑料的分布具有重要意义。本工作研究了海马冷泉区海水中、沉积物中和贝类中微塑料的分布特征及其与介质类型的相关性。在这三种介质中均发现了微塑料。海马冷泉区不同样品中的微塑料丰度分别为：海水中 1.8-3.8 项/L，表层沉积物中 11.47-96.8 项/kg（干重），贝类中 0-5 个/个体（0-0.714 个/g）。不同贝类物种摄入的微塑料量存在差异。这三种介质中的微塑料主要为纤维状、深色、小尺寸的人造丝、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）和聚乙烯（PE）。在三种介质中微塑料特征的相关性分析中，发现同一区域不同介质中的微塑料特征密切相关，每对变量均呈显著正相关（P ≤ 0.05）。独特的地理位置会加速各种介质之间微塑料的交换。主成分分析表明，栖息地导致贝类中微塑料特征存在差异。不同地区贝类微塑料的特征与周围海水和沉积物中的微塑料特征之间存在差异。
