Microplastic pollution in the surface waters of the Laurentian Great Lakes

MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN

卷:77

Article

Eriksen, Marcus¹  Mason, Sherri²  Wilson, Stiv¹  Box, Carolyn¹  Zellers, Ann³  Edwards, William⁴  Farley, Hannah²  Amato, Stephen¹ 

[1] 5 Gyres Inst, Los Angeles, CA 90016 USA

[2] SUNY Coll Fredonia, Fredonia, NY 14063 USA

[3] Algalita Marine Res Fdn, Long Beach, CA 90803 USA

[4] Niagara Univ, Lewiston, NY 14109 USA

关键词: Plastic pollution;    Marine debris;    Great Lakes;    Microplastic;    Microbeads;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.10.007

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Neuston samples were collected at 21 stations during an similar to 700 nautical mile (similar to 1300 km) expedition in July 2012 in the Laurentian Great Lakes of the United States using a 333 gm mesh manta trawl and analyzed for plastic debris. Although the average abundance was approximately 43,000 microplastic particles/km(2), station 20, downstream from two major cities, contained over 466,000 particles/km(2), greater than all other stations combined. SEM analysis determined nearly 20% of particles less than I mm, which were initially identified as microplastic by visual observation, were aluminum silicate from coal ash. Many microplastic particles were multi-colored spheres, which were compared to, and are suspected to be, microbeads from consumer products containing microplastic particles of similar size, shape, texture and composition. The presence of microplastics and coal ash in these surface samples, which were most abundant where lake currents converge, are likely from nearby urban effluent and coal burning power plants. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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