The total amount of microplastics deposited on the ocean floor has tripled in the last two decades. This was reported by the press service of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
The seabed is considered the final destination for all plastics that end up in the water. Despite this, scientists aren’t entirely clear on the rate at which such bottom sediments accumulate, especially for debris of varying sizes, from large particles such as bottles and bags to microscopic ones.
Spanish scientists decided to analyze microplastic deposits and find out the deposition rate of particles up to 11 microns. To do this, they extracted cores from the bottom of the Spanish Ebro River delta using the Sarmiento de Gamboa research vessel. The river was chosen for analysis because most of the plastic enters the sea from here.
It turns out that the analyzed sediments have remained unchanged on the seafloor since they were formed decades ago. “This has allowed us to see how, since the 1980s, but particularly in the last two decades, polyester deposition from synthetic fibers in fabrics has increased as well as polyethylene and polypropylene particles from packaging, bottles and food films,” he explains. Michael Grelod, one of the authors of the study –. The share of these three types of particles reaches 1.5 mg per kilogram of sludge collected, the most common being polypropylene, followed by polyethylene and polyester.” The breakdown of plastic occurs only on beaches, on the surface or in the water column, it remains almost unchanged at depths, even lying for half a century.
In addition, the rate of deposition of microplastic particles coincided with the rate of increase in the production and consumption of plastic products. The amount of plastic particles deposited on the seafloor has tripled since 2000.
Source: Gazeta
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