Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 249, Issue -, Pages 74-81Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.02.099
Keywords
Secondary microplastic; Baltic Sea; Bioturbation; Limecola balthica; Marenzelleria spp
Categories
Funding
- Walter and Andree de Nottbeck Foundation
- Academy of Finland (MIF) [296169]
- Academy of Finland (AKA) [296169, 296169] Funding Source: Academy of Finland (AKA)
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Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous in the marine environment. High concentrations of MPs are found from seafloor sediments, which have been proposed to act as their final sinks. Because bioturbation is an important process affecting the burial of MPs, a mesocosm experiment was established to study whether sediment infauna may also promote MP return to the sediment surface. Thin layers of frozen sediment containing an environmentally realistic concentration (<1300 MPs per kg of dry sediment) of MP fragments in two size classes (>500 mu m and 100-300 mu m) were added to depths of 2 cm and 5 cm in the experimental cylinders filled with sediment. The displacement of these MPs, made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), by a community of common benthic invertebrates in the northern Baltic Sea (clam Limecola balthica, polychaete Marenzelleria spp., gammarid Monoporeia affinis) was studied in a 10-week experiment. After the experiment, the MPs were extracted from each sediment layer and the animals were examined for MP ingestion. The results indicated that the transportation of MPs to the sediment surface by bioturbation was negligible. Thus, in the Baltic Sea, the seafloor may act as a sink for once sedimented MPs, reducing simultaneously the MP exposure of the macrofauna feeding on the sediment surface. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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