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Researchers have discovered the highest concentration of microplastics on the sea floor. According to a new study in the journal Science, scientists recently found 1.9 million pieces in an area of approximately 11 square feet in the Mediterranean Sea.
More than 10 million tons of plastic waste They enter the oceans every year, but the visible floating plastic that has led to the movements of anti-straw and anti-plastic bags represents less than 1% of total ocean plastic.
The other 99% are believed to live in the deep ocean, and the new study helps explain how it ends there. The researchers were able to track deep water currents and show how they act as “conveyor belts” to transport microplastics through the seabed.
To carry out the study, a team of scientists collected sediment samples from the bottom of the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Italy before extracting and analyzing the plastic it contains. After studying deep ocean currents and sea mapping, the team was able to demonstrate how currents distribute microplastics along the sea floor.
The researchers said that “microplastic hot spots” occur when seabed currents concentrate plastics in large accumulations of sediment. They are essentially the counterparts of the deep sea of ”garbage patches“that accumulate on the ocean surface and end up on the beaches.
These “garbage patches” have been extensively investigated, but researchers were surprised at what they found when they traveled to the depths of the sea.
“Almost everyone has heard of the infamous floating plastic ocean ‘trash patches’, but we were shocked by the high concentrations of microplastics we found on the sea floor,” said lead author Dr. Ian Kane of the University of Manchester. Press release.
University of Manchester
The microplastics found by the researchers were mainly made up of small clothing fibers, which can easily enter the oceans if not properly filtered in wastewater treatment plants.
Along with microplastics, these streams also trap water and oxygenated nutrients, which means that important ecosystems on the seabed are absorbing plastic – possibly ingesting and passing them through the food chain.
Scientists hope their findings will help predict the location of other microplastic hot spots and lead to further research on their impacts on marine life in oceans around the world.
“Our study has shown how detailed studies of seafloor currents can help us connect microplastic transport routes into the deep sea and find ‘lost’ microplastics,” said co-author Dr. Mike Clare of the National Center. Oceanography. “The results highlight the need for policy interventions to limit the future flow of plastics in natural environments and minimize impacts on ocean ecosystems.”
The researchers said the amount of plastic is so high that it has essentially become part of the composition of the ocean floor, a potentially devastating threat to biodiversity.
“It is unfortunate, but plastic has become a new type of sediment particle, which is distributed along the sea floor along with sand, mud and nutrients,” said Dr. Florian Pohl of Durham University. “Therefore, sediment transport processes such as seafloor currents will concentrate plastic particles at certain locations on the seafloor, as our research demonstrates.”
