Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean
Plastics and microplastics increasingly gain importance due to their perils and wide distribution in the marine environment. Microfibers account for the largest percentage of anthropogenic-induced microparticles, which inter alia, consist of plastic, and are found in deep-sea sediments. However, the...
Published in: | Science of The Total Environment |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Elsevier
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239045/ |
id |
ftqueensland:oai:eprints.qut.edu.au:239045 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftqueensland:oai:eprints.qut.edu.au:239045 2024-05-19T07:44:51+00:00 Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean Reineccius, Janika Appelt, Jana-Sophie Hinrichs, Theda Kaiser, David Stern, Judith Prien, Ralf D. Waniek, Joanna J. 2020-10-10 https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239045/ unknown Elsevier doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140354 Reineccius, Janika, Appelt, Jana-Sophie, Hinrichs, Theda, Kaiser, David, Stern, Judith, Prien, Ralf D., & Waniek, Joanna J. (2020) Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Science of the Total Environment, 738, Article number: 140354. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239045/ 2020 The Authors This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au Science of the Total Environment Contribution to Journal 2020 ftqueensland https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140354 2024-04-30T23:59:52Z Plastics and microplastics increasingly gain importance due to their perils and wide distribution in the marine environment. Microfibers account for the largest percentage of anthropogenic-induced microparticles, which inter alia, consist of plastic, and are found in deep-sea sediments. However, the sinking of fibers from the surface through the water column to the seafloor is still poorly understood. The present study investigates microfibers extracted from sediment trap samples, which were deployed in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (NASG). The average result of eleven analyzed samples showed 913 microfibers per gram of collected particle flux material, with a predominant fiber length shorter than 1 mm (75.6%) and a distribution maximum between 0.2 and 0.4 mm. Further, the average number of microfibers found in this study was used to derive microfiber fluxes for the NASG based on the deployment time of the sediment trap. Extrapolating the computed flux of 94 microfibers m−2 day−1 to the entire NASG area would correspond to a total microfiber mass flux of 9800 t a−1 or 73 × 1013 microfibers a−1 of sinking microfibers through the water column. These findings offer an extended application of sediment traps to monitor microfiber fluxes, which reveals the opportunity to investigate the mechanism driving sinking of microfibers and microplastics into the deep open ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Queensland University of Technology: QUT ePrints Science of The Total Environment 738 140354 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Queensland University of Technology: QUT ePrints |
op_collection_id |
ftqueensland |
language |
unknown |
description |
Plastics and microplastics increasingly gain importance due to their perils and wide distribution in the marine environment. Microfibers account for the largest percentage of anthropogenic-induced microparticles, which inter alia, consist of plastic, and are found in deep-sea sediments. However, the sinking of fibers from the surface through the water column to the seafloor is still poorly understood. The present study investigates microfibers extracted from sediment trap samples, which were deployed in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (NASG). The average result of eleven analyzed samples showed 913 microfibers per gram of collected particle flux material, with a predominant fiber length shorter than 1 mm (75.6%) and a distribution maximum between 0.2 and 0.4 mm. Further, the average number of microfibers found in this study was used to derive microfiber fluxes for the NASG based on the deployment time of the sediment trap. Extrapolating the computed flux of 94 microfibers m−2 day−1 to the entire NASG area would correspond to a total microfiber mass flux of 9800 t a−1 or 73 × 1013 microfibers a−1 of sinking microfibers through the water column. These findings offer an extended application of sediment traps to monitor microfiber fluxes, which reveals the opportunity to investigate the mechanism driving sinking of microfibers and microplastics into the deep open ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Reineccius, Janika Appelt, Jana-Sophie Hinrichs, Theda Kaiser, David Stern, Judith Prien, Ralf D. Waniek, Joanna J. |
spellingShingle |
Reineccius, Janika Appelt, Jana-Sophie Hinrichs, Theda Kaiser, David Stern, Judith Prien, Ralf D. Waniek, Joanna J. Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean |
author_facet |
Reineccius, Janika Appelt, Jana-Sophie Hinrichs, Theda Kaiser, David Stern, Judith Prien, Ralf D. Waniek, Joanna J. |
author_sort |
Reineccius, Janika |
title |
Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical north atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239045/ |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Science of the Total Environment |
op_relation |
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140354 Reineccius, Janika, Appelt, Jana-Sophie, Hinrichs, Theda, Kaiser, David, Stern, Judith, Prien, Ralf D., & Waniek, Joanna J. (2020) Abundance and characteristics of microfibers detected in sediment trap material from the deep subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Science of the Total Environment, 738, Article number: 140354. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239045/ |
op_rights |
2020 The Authors This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140354 |
container_title |
Science of The Total Environment |
container_volume |
738 |
container_start_page |
140354 |
_version_ |
1799484741172330496 |