Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Aalborg University discovered the quantity of microplastics transferred on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea has tripled in the previous 20 years. Its the very first high-resolution restoration of microplastic contamination from sediments taken from the northwestern Mediterranean Sea.
While almost all the worlds oceans are infected with microplastics, the Mediterranean Sea has actually become a hotspot for microplastic contamination. The sea is surrounded by three continents with thick populations that serve as a trap for plastic particles and now, a research study has actually warned that the issue is getting even worse, with more plastic than formerly thought building up in the seabed.
” The results show that, because 2000, the quantity of plastic particles deposited on the seafloor has actually tripled and that, far from reducing, the accumulation has actually not stopped growing imitating the production and global usage of these materials,” Laura Simon-Sánchez, study author and scientist at Barcelona University, said in a declaration.
Scientist Laura Simon-Sánchez throughout among the sample collection projects. Image credit: The researchers.
Microplastics in the Mediterranean
The scientists collected a sediment core from the Mediterranean Sea and then used sophisticated imaging technology to study the microplastics. This allowed them to fill an essential space around the accumulation of the little particles in the marine sediment, and better understand how they are altered, or not, after becoming ingrained in the product.
They found that the microplastics remain preserved in the seabed after reaching it– something the researchers connect to an absence of disintegration, oxygen, or light. “Once transferred, deterioration is minimal, so plastics from the 1960s stay on the seabed, leaving the signature of human contamination there,” research study author Patricia Ziveri said in a declaration.
Image credit: Shvika Sharma, Vikas Sharma and Subhankar Chatteje.
The sediment core was collected in November 2019, on board the vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa, in an expedition that went from Barcelona to Tarragona in Spain. The researchers picked the western Mediterranean Sea as a research study area as rivers in there are recognized as hotspots for a number of contaminants, from microplastics to chemicals.
A research study in 2020 found about 229,000 lots of plastic leak every year into the Mediterranean Sea, comparable to over 500 shipping containers each day. This is expected to double by 2040. Egypt, Italy, and Turkey were discovered to be the countries with the highest plastic leakage generally due to mishandled waste and large seaside populations.
The scientists were able to produce a timeline of plastic pollution in the seabed and found the quantity of microplastics has actually tripled given that 2000, with the nature of plastics developing mirroring international production and usage of plastics. This has allowed them to see the growing build-up of particles from product packaging, bottles, and food movies.
The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.