Microplastics in the Northwestern Pacific: Abundance, distribution, and characteristics

作者：Zhong Pan, Huige Guo, Hongzhe Chen, Sumin Wang, Xiuwu Sun, Qingping Zou, Yuanbiao Zhang, Hui Lin, Shangzhan Cai, Jiang Huang · 发表于：The Science of The Total Environment · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.09.244 · 被引用次数：438 · 研究领域：Microplastics and Plastic Pollution、Recycling and Waste Management Techniques、biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties

Prevalence of microplastics (MPs) throughout the world's oceans has raised growing concerns due to its detrimental effects on the environment and living organisms. Most recent studies of MPs, however, have focused on the estuaries and coastal regions. There is a lack of study of MPs pollution in the open ocean. In the present study, we conducted field observations to investigate the abundance, spatial distribution, and characteristics (composite, size, color, shape and surface morphology) of MPs at the surface of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. Samples of MPs were collected at 18 field stations in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean using a surface manta trawl with a mesh size of ~330 μm and width of 1 m from August 25 to September 26, 2017. The MPs were characterized using light microscopy, Micro-Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our field survey results indicate the ubiquity of MPs at all stations with an abundance from 6.4 × 102 items km−2 to 4.2 × 104 items km−2 and an average abundance of 1.0 × 104 items km−2. The Micro-Raman spectroscopic analysis of the MPs samples collected during our field survey indicates that the dominant MPs is polyethylene (57.8%), followed by polypropylene (36.0%) and nylon (3.4%). The individual chemical compositions of MPs from the stations within the latitude range 123–146°E are comparable with each other, with PE being the dominating composition. Similar chemical fingerprints were observed at these field stations, sugges...