Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean
Understanding residence times of plastic in the ocean is a major knowledge gap in plastic pollution studies. Observations report a large mismatch between plastic load estimates from worldwide production and disposal and actual plastics floating at the sea surface. Surveys of the water column, from t...
Published in: | Environmental Science & Technology |
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Language: | English |
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ACS (American Chemical Society)
2022
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Online Access: | https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/1/Galgani_Engel_2022_ACS.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/2/es2c04712_si_001.pdf https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 |
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ftoceanrep:oai:oceanrep.geomar.de:57191 2024-02-11T10:06:14+01:00 Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean Galgani, Luisa Goßmann, Isabel Scholz-Böttcher, Barbara Jiang, Xiangtao Liu, Zhanfei Scheidemann, Lindsay Schlundt, Cathleen Engel, Anja 2022-11-15 text https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/1/Galgani_Engel_2022_ACS.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/2/es2c04712_si_001.pdf https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 en eng ACS (American Chemical Society) https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/1/Galgani_Engel_2022_ACS.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/2/es2c04712_si_001.pdf Galgani, L., Goßmann, I., Scholz-Böttcher, B., Jiang, X., Liu, Z., Scheidemann, L., Schlundt, C. and Engel, A. (2022) Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean. Open Access Environmental Science & Technology, 56 . pp. 15638-15649. DOI 10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 <https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712>. doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 cc_by_nc_nd_4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Article PeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2022 ftoceanrep https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 2024-01-15T00:26:12Z Understanding residence times of plastic in the ocean is a major knowledge gap in plastic pollution studies. Observations report a large mismatch between plastic load estimates from worldwide production and disposal and actual plastics floating at the sea surface. Surveys of the water column, from the surface to the deep sea, are rare. Most recent work, therefore, addressed the “missing plastic” question using modeling or laboratory approaches proposing biofouling and degradation as the main removal processes in the ocean. Through organic matrices, plastic can affect the biogeochemical and microbial cycling of carbon and nutrients. For the first time, we provide in situ measured vertical fluxes of microplastics deploying drifting sediment traps in the North Atlantic Gyre from 50 m down to 600 m depth, showing that through biogenic polymers plastic can be embedded into rapidly sinking particles also known as marine snow. We furthermore show that the carbon contained in plastic can represent up to 3.8% of the total downward flux of particulate organic carbon. Our results shed light on important pathways regulating the transport of microplastics in marine systems and on potential interactions with the marine carbon cycle, suggesting microplastic removal through the “biological plastic pump”. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) Environmental Science & Technology 56 22 15638 15649 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) |
op_collection_id |
ftoceanrep |
language |
English |
description |
Understanding residence times of plastic in the ocean is a major knowledge gap in plastic pollution studies. Observations report a large mismatch between plastic load estimates from worldwide production and disposal and actual plastics floating at the sea surface. Surveys of the water column, from the surface to the deep sea, are rare. Most recent work, therefore, addressed the “missing plastic” question using modeling or laboratory approaches proposing biofouling and degradation as the main removal processes in the ocean. Through organic matrices, plastic can affect the biogeochemical and microbial cycling of carbon and nutrients. For the first time, we provide in situ measured vertical fluxes of microplastics deploying drifting sediment traps in the North Atlantic Gyre from 50 m down to 600 m depth, showing that through biogenic polymers plastic can be embedded into rapidly sinking particles also known as marine snow. We furthermore show that the carbon contained in plastic can represent up to 3.8% of the total downward flux of particulate organic carbon. Our results shed light on important pathways regulating the transport of microplastics in marine systems and on potential interactions with the marine carbon cycle, suggesting microplastic removal through the “biological plastic pump”. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Galgani, Luisa Goßmann, Isabel Scholz-Böttcher, Barbara Jiang, Xiangtao Liu, Zhanfei Scheidemann, Lindsay Schlundt, Cathleen Engel, Anja |
spellingShingle |
Galgani, Luisa Goßmann, Isabel Scholz-Böttcher, Barbara Jiang, Xiangtao Liu, Zhanfei Scheidemann, Lindsay Schlundt, Cathleen Engel, Anja Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean |
author_facet |
Galgani, Luisa Goßmann, Isabel Scholz-Böttcher, Barbara Jiang, Xiangtao Liu, Zhanfei Scheidemann, Lindsay Schlundt, Cathleen Engel, Anja |
author_sort |
Galgani, Luisa |
title |
Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
hitchhiking into the deep: how microplastic particles are exported through the biological carbon pump in the north atlantic ocean |
publisher |
ACS (American Chemical Society) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/1/Galgani_Engel_2022_ACS.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/2/es2c04712_si_001.pdf https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/1/Galgani_Engel_2022_ACS.pdf https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/57191/2/es2c04712_si_001.pdf Galgani, L., Goßmann, I., Scholz-Böttcher, B., Jiang, X., Liu, Z., Scheidemann, L., Schlundt, C. and Engel, A. (2022) Hitchhiking into the Deep: How Microplastic Particles are Exported through the Biological Carbon Pump in the North Atlantic Ocean. Open Access Environmental Science & Technology, 56 . pp. 15638-15649. DOI 10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 <https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712>. doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc_nd_4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04712 |
container_title |
Environmental Science & Technology |
container_volume |
56 |
container_issue |
22 |
container_start_page |
15638 |
op_container_end_page |
15649 |
_version_ |
1790603821395738624 |