How small is the big problem? Small microplastics <300 μm abundant in marine surface waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Carbery, Maddison; Herb, Frithjof; Reynes, Julien; Pham, Christopher K; Fong, Wye-Khay; Lehner, Roman (2022). How small is the big problem? Small microplastics <300 μm abundant in marine surface waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Marine pollution bulletin, 184, p. 114179. Elsevier 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114179

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Particle size plays an important role in determining the behaviour, fate and effects of microplastics (MPs), yet little is known about MPs <300 μm in aquatic environments. Therefore, we performed the first assessment of MPs in marine surface waters around the Whitsunday Islands region of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia, to test for the presence of small MPs (50-300 μm) in-situ. Using a modified manta net, we demonstrate that MPs were present in all marine surface water samples, with a mean sea surface concentration of 0.23 ± 0.03 particles m-3. Microplastics were mainly blue, clear and black fibres and fragments, consisting of polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene and polypropylene plastic polymers. Tourism and marine recreation were considered the major contributing sources of MPs to surface waters around the Whitsunday Islands. Between 10 and 124 times the number of MPs exist in the 50 μm-300 μm size class, compared with the 1 mm-5 mm size range. This finding indicates that the global abundance of small MPs in marine surface waters is grossly underestimated and warrants further investigation. Research into the occurrence, characteristics and environmental fate of MPs <300 μm is needed to improve our understanding of the cumulative threats facing valuable ecosystems due to this smaller, potentially more hazardous size class.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geological Sciences

UniBE Contributor:

Reynes, Julien Thibault François

Subjects:

500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology

ISSN:

0025-326X

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

10 Oct 2022 08:23

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114179

PubMed ID:

36206615

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Great Barrier Reef marine park Marine surface waters Microdebris Microplastics Size distribution Tourism

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/173586

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/173586

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