Microplastics In The Great Lakes Are Becoming Benthic
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
[Editor's Note: The term benthic refers to anything associated with or occurring on the bottom of a body of water. The animals and plants that live on or in the bottom are known as the benthos. In ocean waters, nearshore and estuary areas are most frequently mapped.]
From the Great Pacific garbage patch to inland rivers, plastics are among the most widespread contaminants on Earth. Microplastics -- particles of plastic smaller than five millimeters -- are especially pervasive. As they build up in Earth's waters, microplastics are also becoming a permanent part of the planet's sedimentary layers.
Microplastics analyzed from nearshore and offshore benthic sediment samples in lakes, benthic sediment samples in rivers, and water samples in lakes and rivers.
Microplastic pellets from the Great Lakes study. The pellet study involved sampling of 66 beaches on each Great Lake over a two-week period in October 2018, with a total of 12,974 pellets on 660 square meters of beach.
Now, using the Great Lakes as a laboratory, sedimentary petrologist Patricia Corcoran and her students at the University of Western Ontario are studying the behavior of microplastics as a geologic phenomenon.
What are the main sources of microplastics to Great Lakes sediment? What factors influence their distribution, and where do they concentrate? To explore these questions, and shed light on implications such as which animals may be at risk from microplastics, Corcoran's team has analyzed offshore and nearshore sediment samples from Lakes Huron, Ontario, Erie, and St. Clair, and their tributaries.
Abundances were as high as 4270 microplastics particles per kilogram of dry weight sediment in lake sediment, and up to 2444 microplastic particles per kilogram in river sediment.
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