Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct:171:112738.
doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112738. Epub 2021 Jul 31.

Marine macrophytes retain microplastics

E E Esiukova  1 , O I Lobchuk  2 , A A Volodina  2 , I P Chubarenko  2
Affiliations

Marine macrophytes retain microplastics

E E Esiukova et al. Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs, 0.2-5 mm) contamination of water outside/inside thickets of macrophytes in the Baltic Sea was studied. The amount of MPs particles in water samples taken within thickets is on average 1.7 times higher than in water samples taken in the areas outside thickets. Fibres are the predominant type of MPs (92.5%). For algae growing on boulders, the abundance of MPs is 1245 ± 1020 items/m2. Per kilogram of dry algae mass the MPs abundance is 376 ± 404 items/kgDW for all shapes of MPs particles. This value is one order of magnitude higher than in sands of the swash zone in the given area. It is shown that filamentous algae retain more fibres than cartilaginous ones: 1.9-8.5 versus 1-1.1 items/l on average. Obviously, areas covered by sea grasses are much more contaminated than water and sediments in the given region.

Keywords: Macroalgae; Macrophytes; Microplastics; The Baltic Sea; Thickets; Water samples.

PubMed Disclaimer

LinkOut - more resources