Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain
[EN] Nowadays it is widely known that pollution by microplastics (MP) at the open ocean covers immense areas. Buoyant plastics tend to accumulate in areas of convergence at the sea surface such as subtropical gyres, while non-buoyant plastics accumulate at the seafloor. However, previous studies hav...
Published in: | Science of The Total Environment |
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ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/304434 2024-06-23T07:55:21+00:00 Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain Vega-Moreno, Daura Abaroa-Pérez, Bárbara Rein-Loring, Paula Domínguez Presas-Navarro, Carmen Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio Machín, Francisco Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información CSIC - Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) Presas-Navarro, Carmen Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio 2021-09-20 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/304434 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147802 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011034 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007757 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85106563078 en eng Elsevier The Science of the total environment Publisher's version https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147802 Sí Science of the Total Environment 788 : 147802 (2021) 0048-9697 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/304434 doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147802 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011034 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007757 34034192 2-s2.0-85106563078 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85106563078 open Depth samples Marine microplastics Oceanic dynamic Passive drifters Physical variables Water column artículo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 2021 ftcsic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.14780210.13039/50110001103410.13039/501100007757 2024-05-29T00:02:12Z [EN] Nowadays it is widely known that pollution by microplastics (MP) at the open ocean covers immense areas. Buoyant plastics tend to accumulate in areas of convergence at the sea surface such as subtropical gyres, while non-buoyant plastics accumulate at the seafloor. However, previous studies have revealed that the total amount of plastic in the different oceans is not well correlated with the concentrations measured at the sea surface and the sea floor, evidencing a significant amount of missing plastic in the oceans. This deviation could be related to an underestimation of the role played by small fragments of plastic and fibers in the oceans. Furthermore, microplastic fragments with a density lower than the density of seawater have been gathered hundreds of meters below the sea surface in the Pacific Ocean due to their size and shape. The main objective of this study is to carry out, for the first time, an equivalent analysis along the water column for the Atlantic Ocean. In that sense, a total number of 51 samples were collected during four different oceanographic cruises between February and December 2019, from the sea surface down to 1150 m depth at the open ocean waters of the Canary Islands region (Spain). For each sample, 72 l of seawater were filtered on board with a mesh size of 100 μm, where the presence of microplastics has been clearly observed. Our results reveal the presence of microplastics at least up to 1150 m depth, at the Northeastern Atlantic Subtropical Gyre with noticeable seasonal differences. The spatial distribution of these small fragments and fibers at the water column is mainly related to the oceanic dynamics and mesoscale convective flows, overcoming the MP motion induced by their own buoyancy. Moreover, these microplastics have being transported by the ocean dynamics as passive drifters. This work is funded by DeepPLAS project (Microplastics evaluation at deep water at Canary region and their chemical pollutants associated, ProID2020010030) from Canarian Agency for Research, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Pacific Science of The Total Environment 788 147802 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) |
op_collection_id |
ftcsic |
language |
English |
topic |
Depth samples Marine microplastics Oceanic dynamic Passive drifters Physical variables Water column |
spellingShingle |
Depth samples Marine microplastics Oceanic dynamic Passive drifters Physical variables Water column Vega-Moreno, Daura Abaroa-Pérez, Bárbara Rein-Loring, Paula Domínguez Presas-Navarro, Carmen Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio Machín, Francisco Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain |
topic_facet |
Depth samples Marine microplastics Oceanic dynamic Passive drifters Physical variables Water column |
description |
[EN] Nowadays it is widely known that pollution by microplastics (MP) at the open ocean covers immense areas. Buoyant plastics tend to accumulate in areas of convergence at the sea surface such as subtropical gyres, while non-buoyant plastics accumulate at the seafloor. However, previous studies have revealed that the total amount of plastic in the different oceans is not well correlated with the concentrations measured at the sea surface and the sea floor, evidencing a significant amount of missing plastic in the oceans. This deviation could be related to an underestimation of the role played by small fragments of plastic and fibers in the oceans. Furthermore, microplastic fragments with a density lower than the density of seawater have been gathered hundreds of meters below the sea surface in the Pacific Ocean due to their size and shape. The main objective of this study is to carry out, for the first time, an equivalent analysis along the water column for the Atlantic Ocean. In that sense, a total number of 51 samples were collected during four different oceanographic cruises between February and December 2019, from the sea surface down to 1150 m depth at the open ocean waters of the Canary Islands region (Spain). For each sample, 72 l of seawater were filtered on board with a mesh size of 100 μm, where the presence of microplastics has been clearly observed. Our results reveal the presence of microplastics at least up to 1150 m depth, at the Northeastern Atlantic Subtropical Gyre with noticeable seasonal differences. The spatial distribution of these small fragments and fibers at the water column is mainly related to the oceanic dynamics and mesoscale convective flows, overcoming the MP motion induced by their own buoyancy. Moreover, these microplastics have being transported by the ocean dynamics as passive drifters. This work is funded by DeepPLAS project (Microplastics evaluation at deep water at Canary region and their chemical pollutants associated, ProID2020010030) from Canarian Agency for Research, ... |
author2 |
Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información CSIC - Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) Presas-Navarro, Carmen Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vega-Moreno, Daura Abaroa-Pérez, Bárbara Rein-Loring, Paula Domínguez Presas-Navarro, Carmen Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio Machín, Francisco |
author_facet |
Vega-Moreno, Daura Abaroa-Pérez, Bárbara Rein-Loring, Paula Domínguez Presas-Navarro, Carmen Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio Machín, Francisco |
author_sort |
Vega-Moreno, Daura |
title |
Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain |
title_short |
Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain |
title_full |
Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain |
title_fullStr |
Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain |
title_full_unstemmed |
Distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the Eastern North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Canary Islands, Spain |
title_sort |
distribution and transport of microplastics in the upper 1150 m of the water column at the eastern north atlantic subtropical gyre, canary islands, spain |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/304434 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147802 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011034 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007757 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85106563078 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
The Science of the total environment Publisher's version https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147802 Sí Science of the Total Environment 788 : 147802 (2021) 0048-9697 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/304434 doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147802 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011034 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007757 34034192 2-s2.0-85106563078 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85106563078 |
op_rights |
open |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.14780210.13039/50110001103410.13039/501100007757 |
container_title |
Science of The Total Environment |
container_volume |
788 |
container_start_page |
147802 |
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1802647909560221696 |