期刊
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
卷 12, 期 1, 页码 -出版社
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-17742-7
关键词
-
资金
- European Research Council [772923]
- The Ocean Cleanup
- European Research Council (ERC) [772923] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
This study provides water column profiles of plastic concentration and ratios of plastic to plankton in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, indicating the potential harm of plastic pollution to marine organisms.
At present, the distribution of plastic debris in the ocean water column remains largely unknown. Such information, however, is required to assess the exposure of marine organisms to plastic pollution as well as to calculate the ocean plastic mass balance. Here, we provide water column profiles (0-300 m water depth) of plastic (0.05-5 cm in size) concentration and key planktonic species from the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. The amount of plastic decreases rapidly in the upper few meters, from similar to 1 item/m(3) (similar to 1000 mu g/m(3)) at the sea surface to values of similar to 0.001-0.01 items/m(3) (similar to 0.1-10 mu g/m(3)) at 300 m depth. Ratios of plastic to plankton varied between similar to 10(-5) and 1 plastic particles per individual with highest ratios typically found in the surface waters. We further observed that pelagic ratios were generally higher in the water column below the subtropical gyre compared to those in more coastal ecosystems. Lastly, we show plastic to (non-gelatinous) plankton ratios could be as high as similar to 10(2)-10(7) plastic particles per individual when considering reported concentrations of small microplastics < 100 mu m. Plastic pollution in our oceans may therefore soon exceed estimated safe concentrations for many pelagic species.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据