Micro Plastic Pollution in the Marine Environment

Abstract:

Marine debris, more often than not consisting of plastic, is a global problem, negatively impacting wildlife, tourism and shipping. On the other hand, despite the durability of plastic, and the exponential increase in its production, monitoring data show limited evidence of concomitant increasing concentrations in marine habitats. In attendance appears to be a considerable proportion of the manufactured plastic that is unaccounted for in surveys tracking the fate of environmental plastics. Even the discovery of widespread accumulation of microscopic fragments (micro plastics) in oceanic gyres and shallow water sediments is unable to explain the missing fraction. Here, we show that deep-sea sediments are a likely sink for micro plastics. Micro plastic, in the form of fibers, was up to four orders of magnitude more abundant (per unit volume) in deep-sea sediments from the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean than in contaminated sea-surface waters. This paper shows evidence for a large and hitherto unknown repository of micro plastics.