Large reservoir of microplastics found in deep sea
Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, June 9 (reporter Zhang Mengran) According to the British natural scientific research "Scientific Report" recently published an environmental science latest report, a team of American scientists in the deep sea area of Monterey Bay, California, found that there may be a large Marine plastic particles library, which may be one of the largest plastic particles library, but so far has not been fully paid attention to.
Since the 1950s, human demand has doubled the production of plastics exponentially, and today, human activities and garbage emissions have made a large number of plastics into the ocean, which will eventually decompose into particles.
A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego used a remotely operated vehicle and a special sampler to collect and examine the distribution of plastic particles in the deep waters of Monterey Bay, and found a large reservoir of microplastics. They collected 26,239 liters of seawater between 5 and 1,000 meters deep, as well as pelagic red crabs and giant juvenile sea squirts -- two animals that directly feed on particles the size of microplastics.
The results showed that polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is contained in single-use plastic bottles and packaging, was the most common plastic in the water column samples at various depths, as well as in the gastrointestinal tract of pelagic red crabs and in the discarded clay mesh sieve of juvenile sea squirts. The netting screens, also known as living sacs, are discarded and sunk to the bottom of the ocean after each feeding session.
The findings suggest that microplastics have been transported from shallow water to the bottom of the sea, and that the sacs of the juvenile sea squirts act as carriers that "take care" of their transport. Concentrations of microplastics and the most types of plastic are highest at the bottom of the deep ocean in sunlit areas.
The findings suggest that microplastic pollution is spreading deeper and wider into deep-sea waters, sediments and animal communities than previously thought. The team says large-scale conservation and mitigation measures are needed to assess the scale of the problem at both spatial and ecological levels.